Erasing War and Fear

a new article by José Stevens, PhD

There is always a war somewhere on this planet and often there are many wars, sometimes between two counties in opposition and sometimes involving packs of nations working together. I remember when I was in college, I took a history course called Western Civilization and we had to read a thick book called A History of Western Civilization. I read the book from cover to cover and to my horror it was basically a history of hundreds of wars from beginning to end. And that was just Western Civilization. What about all the other parts of the world? Although I did not study other hemispheres, I am sure the story would have been the same. Now, I am also sure that many other things happened in those thousands of years on this planet but the authors seemed to think that wars were the most impactful events that took place. I am sure there were parties and marriages and celebrations of all kinds. Perhaps there were treaties and nations cooperated with each other and traded to both sides’ advantage. No, none of these things made it into the book. It was war, war, war. I can only imagine if the lives lost in all those wars were all added up it would have amounted to billions of people and even more wounded, disabled, maimed, and psychologically destroyed. So, what is the attraction that would fill an entire textbook up with hundreds of variations on the theme of death and destruction?

Well, there is no doubt that even within such darkness as war, plenty of creativity is involved. Over time new war machines have been developed, enough to fill many great armory museums. First, there are all the handheld weapons; slingshots, spears, bows and arrows, handguns, rifles, machine guns, and so on. Then there are the grand explosives like bombs and missiles, cannon balls, and grenades, and great war machines like catapults, boiling cauldrons, mortars, tanks, fighter planes, sailing ships bristling with cannons, destroyers, personnel carriers, aircraft carriers and cavalries and such. The list goes on and on and with evolution and advancement include unthinkable weapons of mass destruction like hydrogen and nuclear bombs that can destroy the whole earth in a flash. Exciting, no? Well, not really. In films and video games it can be made to seem exciting complete with rousing music and heroic deeds. But at the end of the day, it is just a lot of noise, terror, destruction, loss, dismemberment, and death and it smells awful to boot. It also costs a huge amount of money that falls upon the peasants and tax paying public to pay, and generations pay for years to come.

What is the motive? There can be many motives; greed for more land and resources, arrogance, status that comes with dominance, vengefulness, and the appearance of strength and power, fear of being attacked first and desire to get the first licks in. What is the common denominator here? In fact, it is all about fear. Greed is the fear that there is never enough to go around so I need my neighbors’ land and resources too. Arrogance is the fear of being looked down on, judged as weak, and having to prove oneself as strong and enviable. All bullies are afraid of being seen as weak. Not getting revenge for some act of aggression can also be seen as weak from a fear perspective. This is the idea that one must always get the last slug in, the last insult hurled, have the final say in the matter. If not, the other side may be emboldened to strike again. No matter what, the motive for going to war is always fear, yet coming from fear always begets more fear because fear is self-generating. Instead of feeling safer the attacker always ends up more afraid, more defensive, more paranoid. So, fear promotes war and separation of the most extreme kind. Fear is the enemy of love, the enemy of gratitude, the enemy of compassion, generosity, and kindness. Fear, then, is the ultimate weakness, the ultimate admission that one is a wimp.

The mere mention of the word war lowers the vibrational field. So, when war is being mentioned on every radio, television station, podcast, every news broadcast and so on, the common shared reality is being lowered almost like a flag being lowered to half-mast or the volume of beautiful music being lowered to barely audible. Everything is being dumbed down without people realizing what is happening. Consciousness is being dimmed, awareness is being made myopic, the light is being dimmed to a low glow but not enough to see clearly. The vibration of the word war, having a powerful symbolic meaning historically speaking, recreates the reality of “Here we go again. More stupidity, more false promises, more disastrous consequences that will last for a long time and hurt everyone.” These are very common thoughts and feelings based on the disappointment of millions as they realize yet again that the glamour and excitement of war has not panned out.

The fantasy that this war will finally get rid of the Muslims, the Americans, the Jews, or fill in the blank_____ is just that - a pure fantasy. Did the crusades rid us of Muslims or of Christians? Of course not. It just doesn’t work that way. How many crusades were there? Is this current war not just another try at that old game? By the time the last crusade ended there had been massive blood baths and today there are more Christians, more Muslims and more Jews than ever.

Humanity has reached a tipping point. We are no longer satisfied to go through the same thing yet again. Of course, there are still those with fewer lifetimes under their belts who are not yet tired of the old game. They are still true believers that war is a rightful step in setting things right according to their fantasy of ‘winning’ as a nation and benefitting from the whole dominating endeavor. However, these people are rapidly becoming the minority relative to the human race as a whole. War as an idea and a reality is coming to an end because the consequences have become untenable and because it is a process that is too boring to repeat. Any action or decision made in fear will only produce more of the same. The lie that it is anything other than that will no longer hold. Perhaps the world needs a final reminder of this and something has to happen to shake people to their core. That is where we are. Where we are ultimately going is good but this is hard to see when so much is at stake.

Any idea with the word war in it is bound to fail; the war on drugs, wars on crime, wars on disease, wars on culture such as a war on diversity or a war on wokeness or a war on Jews, Blacks, homelessness, inequality and so on. Wars don’t accomplish anything but destruction. Wars are about resistance and resistance always feeds whatever is being resisted. But wait, shouldn’t we resist what we don’t want? In a manner of speaking, yes but resistance is not an effective solution. Creative action toward an alternative is the way. Curiosity about what might be effective alternatives to war is very productive. Prayer and behaving in non-violent ways are good. Seeing Spirit in everything is excellent, especially seeing those who are promoting war as having Spirit within them no matter how buried, is more effective than you might imagine. It will not make them see the light but it can remind them subconsciously of an alternate path at some level.

And despite all that has been said here, there is no place without Spirit. Every event, phenomena and experience has Spirit in it somehow, some way. Everything is an opportunity, an invitation to experience unconditional love, pure being and consciousness. In the middle of battle a soldier helps a wounded enemy soldier to reach shelter and survive. A refugee from the hell of battle splints a bird’s broken wing. A soldier walks untouched, carrying an infant he has found, moving slowly through the bombs falling, praying and singing a lullaby. A civilian shares a drink of water with a wounded enemy soldier. Life never wastes an opportunity for light to shine through, whatever the circumstances. While these opportunities don’t justify war, they do take advantage of it to make a course correction. The vibration can be raised anytime, anyplace. Light will appear in miraculous ways because the light was never lost, never absent. It was just dimmed for a time, giving the illusion that the light had gone out for good.

Join José in Northern New Mexico for the Inner Shaman Retreat, June 10-14, 2026.

https://thepowerpath.com/