| We have every kind of fear: fear of death, fear of being ill, fear of old age, fear of the things we have known that can never be fulfilled again – fear of so many things – of public opinion, of not being a success, of being somebody or of being nobody. There is every form of fear, and being afraid, we seek various escapes, outwardly as well as inwardly. Religion has become an extraordinary escape, for most of us, from fear. To understand fear, one must understand the whole process of thinking, all the machinery of thought. We are dealing with facts, and to be able to look at a fact, to listen to the whole content of a fact, to see the structure of fear, and to listen, will, I am quite certain, instantly free the mind of fear. From Public Talk 2, London, 7 June 1962 Read more | 