Fear comes at us from politics, war, work, relationships, strangers, movies, and television. It keeps us from behaving intelligently, since the mind's first reaction to fear is to ignore danger, hoping it will go away. When fear takes over, it drives us to extremes of manic happiness or fits of rage; it pushes us to destroy relationships instead of letting relationships help us defeat it. When fear wins the battle, viciousness sets in, and we have miserable lives in a miserable world. Most important, fear keeps us from the one thing that could stop its taking over: becoming present.

Robert Sardello, an exceptionally powerful writer who Larry Dossey deems one of the few modern thinkers who genuinely senses how to deal with the barrenness of modern life, argues that the soul's greatest enemy is fear. It is only when we can look honestly at every fear-from insecurity at work to existential angst-that we may fulfill its potential for kindness, love, and compassion.

This book is at once an inspiring manual for dealing with fear and a call to arms to change our situation and thereby change the world. It is a rich combination of theory, anecdote, exercises for strengthening the soul, and the wisdom of a great student of the soul.