I found a striking insight on fear in Drunvalo’s book The Flower of Life, vol 2.
“If emotions and feelings are not in balance within the initiate, this imbalance will stop us from evolving. Egyptian initiations a perfect example of the importance that the Egyptians placed on overcoming fear, one of the negative emotions.
Fear was and still is the primary force that stops a person from growing into the light.
As we move into the higher worlds of light, we manifest our thoughts and feelings directly. This fact of nature becomes a tremendous problem, since we will almost always manifest our fears first. And in manifesting our fears in a new world, a new dimension of existence, we destroy ourselves and are forced to leave the higher worlds. Therefore, what all the ancient races have discovered, and what we are rediscovering now in modern times, is that in order to survive in the higher worlds, we must first overcome our fears here on Earth.” (slightly abridged, taken from around p. 262)
This is a simple yet striking insight. If we get propelled into a level of existence, a level of the spiritual world, that is higher than we are used to, the first emotion is fear. Swedenborg doesn’t mention fear in this context, but otherwise seems to fully agree, see as an example Arcana Coelestia 4226:
“Spirits recently arrived in the next life have sometimes complained about not being allowed into heaven. For they had no other concept of heaven than of being allowed in ‘by grace’. They have been told in reply sometimes that heaven is not denied to anyone and if they so desire they will be let in. Some of them have indeed been let into the heavenly communities situated nearest the entrance; but after having entered those spirits realized that their breathing had stopped, and that they were seized with a hell-like pain and torment. All of this was due to the contrary and antagonistic nature of their life. So they reeled back from there.” (AC 4226)
And that means, of course: fear is useful. It is not something to be avoided at all costs. Fear can be an initiation.
