The Five Basic Fears

When I went to graduate school, I learned that a baby was born with only two fears:  the fear of loud noises and the fear of falling. By the time I got out of school it had changed to one fear.  Scientists discovered that falling was no longer considered a fear.  I always felt that some visual-spatial situations should be considered, but overall a baby comes into the world with only one fear:  the fear of loud noises.  In the animal world, a new born animal has a chance to escape a predator when mother is not around by hearing a strange loud noise.

By the time a baby reaches adulthood, the baby will have learned almost 5,000 fears.  The vast majority of fears are not real; however, many are, e.g., if you touch a hot stove, put your hand around a bee, put your finger in a light socket.  These are all examples of one trial learning.  You don't want to do them again.  What is important is that all of the fears, except loud noises,  are learned.  Which means that if they are learned they can be unlearned.  (That will be another blog dealing with panic attacks and agoraphobia.)     

Although an adult will learn on average about 5,000 specific fears, there are really only five basic fears in life.  They are all losses.  They are also not in any order as each individual will have different fears.  Here they are:  Loss of life, loss of health, loss of wealth, loss of love, and loss of moral values.

Loss of life would mean a person worries that they will die.  Loss of health means that a person worries about having a heart attack, cancer, etc.  Loss of wealth pertains to losing money.  Loss of love means that someone will withdraw their love or affection.  Loss of moral values means a person will allow themselves to be corrupt, e.g., an attorney who gets involved in insider trading; a young man gets involved with illegal drugs; etc.  

Whenever you find yourself worrying about something, you will discover that it is one of these five basic fears.  In a future blog we'll examine fear in great detail.  For now,  know this.  If you can overcome your fears, the Bible says you can do anything.   I believe the number one enemy in life is fear.  Today it is called stress but it is still fear.  The opposite of fear is faith.  Again, in a future blog (I'm still trying to unpack after moving for the past week) we'll focus on the number one thing in life that takes our happiness away: fear.