DON’T PANIC! By: Rev. Donald Lollard

Commerce, however, is probably the worst thing about any holiday; it is said we cannot serve both the divine and mammon.  And part of the cost of commerce is the ungodly amounts of that addictive stimulant we gobble down and feed to our children.  Not only does it have personal health consequences, but sugar is produced by slave labor, and the cultivation of the plants that give us this sweetness is systematically destroying some of the last best diverse habitats in Creation. 

But what I really want to address here is Halloween and the mind.  Because Halloween is for having a good time getting scared out of your wits.

For small children, the sight of people in strange costumes, or fake spider webs all over, can be enough to freak them out.  I hope parents don’t go overboard and traumatize their children; rather, it’s helpful to help a child learn about fun‑scared as opposed to f@#$in’ terrified.  That would be the key, it seems:  fun scared is scared that we survive, with an adrenaline rush.  We learn to overcome the fear, face it, and come out OK on the other side.  That’s what sells the tickets to scary movies and haunted houses (Dr. Strangelove, scariest movie I ever saw). The trick is to learn what signals set off your nervous system, putting you in fight‑or‑flight mode, and then to learn to overcome that.  Remain calm, uncover your eyes, move along to the next room in the haunted house, and keep watching the movie for the next time the spook pops out.  That way a self that has been embedded in the emotional body (fear and desire) can rise above that.  You realize that you are not your fear, although that fear is part of you.  Then you are more independent, more autonomous, and more mature.  Being scared to death is part of being born again!  (I encourage those who have been born again to become born again again and again and again–it’s quite refreshing.)

You’ll notice many people are more android robot than human being.  Many are programmed in such a way that simple words, sounds, or images provoke strong emotional reactions.  Yes, mammals are highly trainable, even us bipedal primates.  It amazes me how adults react to certain stimuli sometimes.  Refusing to stand and pledge allegiance to the flag of a supposedly free country can earn one many dirty looks.  Using certain words that happen to have four letters can also provoke anger and disapproval.  It’s because people attribute such magical powers to words and other symbols that young people who wish to provoke us use those very forbidden words.  Note to rebellious users of incessant curses: it still gets old. 

Not only are there scary things out there that we can learn not to be provoked by–there are scary things “in here” in the mind, the personality, the self.  Illicit desires, unspoken fears.  The haunted house is the psyche:  we all have spooks in our basements, attics, closets.  The frightened individual, alone in a place full of strange spaces and little light, is the smaller ego of one limited perspective, disturbed to too great a degree by the slightest noise or suggestion of movement perceived by the nervous system or generated by the house.  The house is actually the greater self, the haunting spooks are sub entities of the greater self, perceived by the limited ego as external to it, mysterious and threatening, but then in the light of day the shadows all are seen to be harmless, as the house as a whole can be known in the new illumination.

P.S.:  Eid Mubarak!  Much respect to those who pray and fast.  May peace and blessings be with you.