UNTANGLING THE WEB: SPIDER PHOBIA

Phobias develop from one-time experiences of fear, shock, surprise or danger.  Our minds create a mechanism to make sure we never get ourselves into a situation that will allow that perceived danger to happen to us again.

Lisa had a reaction to spiders and spider webs that was overly fearful and out of control.  It interfered with her lifestyle in that she couldn’t be in a room where there was a possibility of a spider being present.  If one was in her home, somebody else had to come and either kill it or remove it before she could relax.

Using The Sargent Phobia Release Process, we were able to help Lisa discover how her mind was currently representing “spiders”.  In one of the hemispheres of her brain (or “mind’s eye”), she envisioned a big, huge spider - about five feet in diameter - and it was looking at her.  This triggered a strong fright / flight response, even though the conscious mind could argue that the spider was not real.

When she shifted to the other mind’s eye, the spider was much smaller and further away - on the back wall of the room - and Lisa was okay; she knew she could get out and away from the spider.

The next important (crucial) part of the process was to discover what was hidden underneath the presenting phobic response, that is, the real purpose of the message the phobia is trying to project.

A memory from childhood emerged for Lisa where she and her brother would rush out of the house each day to get to school and they would run into spider webs on the path every morning.  Each day the pattern would repeat itself as, distracted by the thoughts of a new day, the two children would again run headlong into the webs.  Not surprisingly, Lisa’s brother shared her spider phobia.

When we asked Lisa’s unconscious mind to let her know what the purpose of being afraid of spiders was, the message came through that she needed to pay attention to her environment and stay grounded in current reality, even if her brother was still afraid.

GETTING PROACTIVE - UPDATING THE DATABASE

We then asked Lisa what some new signals might be to remind her to stay grounded and pay attention to her environment that are now more useful and effective than being afraid of spiders.  Her response was to stay grounded and in her body, to own her power and not give up her seniority to anyone (or anything).

FOLLOW UP

A week later we saw Lisa.  She reported that she felt much more aware of her everyday movements in a healthy way and that, when she had opened the medicine chest that morning, there had been a spider spinning a web between the Echinacea and the vitamins.  Her only response was, “Oh, they must need healing,” and she was able to just let the spider be.  No physical symptoms of her prior phobic response were present. 

By participating in this process, Lisa received the double benefit of being relieved of her phobia of spiders and developing new tools and resources to keep her present in current reality and aware of her environment - something she was not even aware was connected to her phobia.

This process took about 25 minutes as a demonstration in front of a room of her colleagues.

STOP LETTING PHOBIAS RUN YOUR LIFE!
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