The “Deconstructing Anxiety” model I’ve developed starts with the premise that there is a single “core fear” at the source of all our struggles in life. It is this core fear that also blocks our access to fulfillment. We can discover our core fear quickly and reliably with an exercise called “Digging for Gold”, a process of deconstruction which repeatedly asks 3 questions of any problem we encounter: 1) Why is that upsetting to me?, 2) What am I afraid will happen next? and 3) What am I afraid I will miss or lose? These questions serve as catalysts to reveal the fundamental thought—the core fear–that projects our entire perception of the world…a 3-dimensional multi-sensory hologram which we take as “real”. People often report that this insight alone can be life-changing. It’s like pulling back the curtain on the man in The Wizard of Oz; we discover that that which we’ve been running from our entire lives is just so much smoke and mirrors. With this, we appreciate the truth of what Michele de Montaigne said: “My life was filled with terrible misfortunes…most of which never happened!”.

The program continues with various exercises for dismantling the core fear, including “The Alchemist”, “The Warrior’s Stance” and “The Witness”. These are powerful strategies for releasing the resistance that keeps our anxiety alive, and releasing the “resistance to resistance” as well—a final defense that must be resolved. In the end, dismantling such defenses exposes our core fear as a “lie”, setting us free to pursue its opposite. The final exercise in the program, called “Vision Questing”, transforms the five basic core fears we all share (fear of abandonment, loss of identity, loss of meaning, loss of purpose and the fear of death) into the five ingredients for fulfillment (the discovery of love, an authentic identity, deep meaning, high purpose and even a peaceful acceptance of death).

I have a long list of testimonials I could share if helpful, including from Stanley Krippner, who wrote the preface to the book and called it “Outstanding and ingenious…this is worth the world’s attention!”, Ken Wilbur who described it as “Truly profound”, Raymond Moody who said “This is an important resource that must get out to people”, Ron Siegel, Sharon Salzburg, Norm Shealy and others.

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