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by Robert Sardello
ISBN: 1573228338
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Pub. Date: January 2001
 Freeing
the Soul From Fear (Riverhead, 1999), Robert Sardello's third
book, shines a relentless light on fear, but it is mainly
about love. Sardello, whose perspective grows from a 20-year
practice as a depth psychologist, maintains that the real
power of fear lives in our wish to avoid it. He carefully
explores the fragmenting effects of fear and describes how
we might meet fear with its only antidote-- love
There is a gentle quality about the book.
The author takes a fresh look at love, introduces a fear-based
behavior called "doubling," and weaves in the ideas
of Austrian philosopher Rudolph Steiner. Steiner (1861-1925).
Best-kept secret in the state: Sardello is the foremost interpreter
of soul in the works of Steiner-and he has just moved his
School of Spiritual Psychology to Greensboro, whre he offers
classes.
Sardello's premise
is that soul is not an entity but a capacity, and freeing
it involves "participating in fear, not naively, but
with the greatest intensity of consciousness and attention
we are able to muster." The process he describes begins
with cultivating the imagination and creating a more sensory
awareness of the world. Sardello asks us to become aware of
the energetic field between us and others, and proposes that
by awakening the senses to what occurs in the field, we can
invite soul back into our living being and find the courage
to face our fears.
"Doubling," a concept first found
in 17th century literature, is presented here as
a numbing of consciousness and a deterioration of conscience
that manifests in people who live with a constant sense of
fear. Sardello says doubling illustrates how fear ultimately
distorts the will, leads us to hate and to perform violent
and atrocious acts.
The previous book, Love and the Soul,
asks, How can I love you in a way that frees you? Questions
raised in this third book range from interesting (How do we
love the unpleasant aspects of another person?), to difficult
(What does consciousness consist of?), to those that are nearly
impossible (Why are we here?).
If there is a problem with Freeing the
Soul, it is that it asks so much of us. For instance,
to abandon the idea that we should find new ways to speak
to soul, and instead to make ourselves available for soul
to speak to us.Then again, perhaps we are only asked to live
out of our inherent spiritual nature. As the poet Antonio
Machado wrote, "After living and dreaming comes what
matters most: waking up."
Reviewed by Sheridan Hill. Sheridan Hill
is a freelance writer in Winston-Salem. Her work is available
online at www.sheridanhill.com.
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