Panic is a sudden desertion of us, and a going over to the enemy of our imagination.
- Christian Nestell Bovee
For many of us, security is an elusive unicorn prancing in the distance, daring us to catch it. We get the occasional glimpse of it. In the arms of a lover, for example, or as a sudden burst of self-confidence. Yet as we come within a whisker of it, reality rears its head, bringing with it existential angst and shattering the notion that we are anything but ‘ok.’
We all know what security feels like; even the most traumatised person. It requires the mere simple act of ‘checking out’ and drifting into another state of mind. If one dissociates enough into fantasy, then anxiety, uncertainty and the spectre of death can all be left behind. Opioids and recreational drugs can also have this effect. So does hubris, with overinflated pride giving a person a feeling of invulnerability. Experiences like these are not security, per se, but a psychological form of sticking one’s head in the sand. However, while they may not be the real thing, they do echo it. In understanding security, alternate states of consciousness can act like videos or photographs that point toward the genuine article.
What dissociation, fantasy and drug-induced states all share is a loss of time and form. Here the ego loosens its grip, and we enter a womb-like place. Where you have to be, when you have to be there, what responsibilities you have, or when tomorrow arrives become inconsequential. Yet unlike illusory states of consciousness, true security does not entail disengaging from reality. Instead, it transcends time and form through a connection with a power greater than itself. That is, true security does not rely on a lack of friction, but an acceptance of it, and a capacity to transcend it by awakeni...
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