My mothers' words in the first months of 2020.

The Virus and the Great Fear

The pandemic that has been predicted for a long time finally arrived. No one knows for sure if this is good or bad.
Actually nothing is known for sure.
What you can see and monitor though are the different ways how people try to deal with the situation. I say “try” because in reality we have no idea how to deal with it.

For me everything started with a neighbor who told me that Covid-19 is just fake news of some entities who are trying to influence the economic situation in the world. The decease itself does not even exist. A couple of weeks later the situation had dramatically changed though. The virus had established itself in Europe and acted like a decease, that caused people to die.

Of course everything is relative. Every year thousands of people die of influenza. But the flu is a known entity. At least this is what we believe, because it returns on a regular basis. There is even a vaccination for it. It is usually not of great help because not even doctors and scientists have the gift of prophecy. The vaccination unfortunately often is nothing more but a pitiful attempt to guess what kind of viruses have to be expected in the next season. But viruses are quite unpredictable. Sometimes they mutate out of the blue, sometimes they jump from animals to humans (as we have seen already with the Avian and the Swine flu). Sometimes they are pretty vicious and cause severe health problems.

Epidemic or pandemic deceases like the Covid-19 Virus also occur periodically, but they are unidentified germs as the virus has modified and adopted new characteristics. Even scientists need some time to research and are confronted with questions and uncertainties before they gain some knowledge about the new germ.

How long does it live on different surfaces?
What temperatures does it need to survive, at which temperature does it die?
How does it spread?
How long until the first symptoms arise?
How do you know, if it is truly the decease?
What can you do so you do not get infected?

To all these questions there are many more answers, and they can be quite different.
Here we end up with the core problem:
Because neither scientists nor anyone else knows exactly how this germ behaves, fear and anxiety are spreading. We can hear and read all kinds of opinions, and everyone who has heard and/or read something thinks that he or she knows for sure what to do and how to react.
This leads to even more uncertainties and opens the doors for panicking and the most wondrous conspiracy theories.

1. The virus was released – intentionally or unintentionally – from a Chinese laboratory.
This is one of the most common horror stories, that can be found on the internet. I am convinced that it is really a horror story and lacks any foundation. It is proven sufficiently that viruses can mutate and jump from animals to humans. As the Covid-19 started in the area of a Chinese animal market, it is quite clear what happened.

2. The economy is going to completely break down, followed by a breakdown of the entire world order.

Well, the world is going to change, as it always has changed. Sometimes this is a quite fast process, sometimes it goes very slow and almost unnoticed. There were always breaks in history, incisive events like revolutions, wars and natural disasters, which lead to a fast and abrupt shift. Then there were times of consolidation, where change could not be easily perceived. In these times humans might have thought that life could go on as usual forever…

No, nothing stays the same forever.

Life means development and life does not care how to achieve change.
Never ever will we live in a world that is eventless and immutable.

Standing still means death. Life means change.

We will have to cope with the changes in the world, if we find them positive or not. If the world order goes out of joint, we will have to deal with it and to adjust to it. We are quite inventive. We will be able to create a new future that makes life possible. Or maybe not.

In fact it is absolutely futile to rack our brains about occurrences, that might or might not happen in the future. It seems to be more important right now to deal with the present and focus on current problems.

3. God is angry because there are too many unrighteous people. If we only pray enough he will be happy and help.

There are always some fundamentalists around that look for fault in others and an angry god. They believe that exuberant prayers and burning candles will appease his vindictiveness and soothe him down.

„God“ is a personalized energy, in which people believe or not. No one is better or worse if he or she believes in god or a godlike source or not. If it helps to lead a more positive and peaceful life believing in god is a wonderful thing.
But if we hang up the responsibility for our lives like a worn coat on god’s clothes rack, we have chosen wrong.

We, the people living on earth, are the ones who have been handed over the responsibility for this planet. From whom ever.
In the last decades, even in the last centuries we have totally neglected to take care of the place that gives us home, shelter and nourishment. We thought that our planet is only for a few chosen ones. We thought the earth would endure exploitation and negligence, so these few are able to live in wealth and abundance. The big majority of the population anyway was left behind…

Instead of trying to appease god or find fault in others, the “unrighteous”, we should better sweep outside our own doors. It does not change anything or anyone to point fingers at others. They will not change because I tell them so. The only person I am able to change is me. I have to look upon my own self because only I am able to change. As soon as I recognize what I can do better I can immediately change my behavior, my words, my thoughts. As a consequence my life will change as well as the lives of the people around me and finally the change will affect the whole planet. There is the key to create a new world…

4. The government starts to control us in order to take over the power and diminish democratic rights. They lock us up in our homes pretending it is for our own good but in reality we are monitored and patronized.

I admit that a state of quarantine seems to be rather frightening. Banning free movement in public is alarming. We feel locked up and deprived of our natural right of freedom. However, this statement provokes fears in which we should not engage.
As we all know, there is a very fine line between control and precaution. Just remember the story about the animals that are used to live in a zoo behind iron bars. They are unfree but save and well taken care off. One day the bars disappear and they are all left to their own businesses. Well, of course, the rabbits feel threatened by the foxes and gazelles are tracked down by lions. But that’s the truth: either you are save or free! Go ahead and take your choice!

At the moment there is not the time for a choice. We are supposed to follow the rules that authorities create to inhibit the decease. If these rules will prove to be successful the future will tell. Today we do not know enough about the virus to determine the absolute perfect remedy. So again, we have to cope.
Keep your eyes and ears open to the needs of your fellow human, communicate over the media which now helps us tremendously to stay in touch, talk about your concerns. As long as we work together on this we have nothing to fear…

5. If you only take these herbs and do the special things I advise you to do you will be safe!

There are people who believe that some kind of rituals or special remedies will prevent us from falling ill.
I doubt it.

Of course it helps to eat and drink healthy and especially unprocessed food and to increase our physical resistance with teas, herbs and a lot of movement. Of course it will be beneficial if our bodies are strong and healthy. We always should take good care of our body and treat it with attentiveness.
Of course it helps to be convinced of our power from within, of our believe that we have the strength to counter the decease. And it helps to have a positive outlook on life and the world.
If rituals help to achieve those goals it is fully ok. It is not essentially necessary though.

Covid-19 is not really a scary decease. It basically is an influenza as we know it from many influenza epidemies that we encountered before. The only difference is, that Covid-19 is unknown so far. Some people die. Many of them were seriously ill before and might have died a little earlier because they were infected by the virus. Most infected get healthy again though. Even without medication, because there is none (yet).

So what is the problem?

It is again and again the problem that humans have been facing since the beginning of time:

FEAR

Fear causes sickness, eats up the soul, causes us to do and believe things that we would call absurd in the absence of fear.
Fear makes us trust in people and opinions that are not able to help. But we reach for every straw we can get ahold of, without switching on our common sense and without listening to our gut feeling.

Sometimes it might be well justified to be afraid. In the event a wild animal is pursuing me intending to abuse me as a meal, if my house is on fire or some scary stranger with a weapon is entering my home, it will be quite beneficial to quickly think of a good strategy. The situation will most likely not be resolved with headless fear. The best might be to be able to run really fast or to figure out a good idea really fast. Fear causes an unbelievable release of adrenaline in the human body
which enables us to react rapidly and efficiently in extreme situations of danger. That’s why fear exists.

Fears that, like old friends, accompany us through years or even decades, are certainly poor advisers. They make us insecure and receptive for fraudulent whispers. They switch off our healthy assessments.

The most existential fear is certainly the fear of death. It is stirred quite violently by the threat of being infected with an unknown decease.

But let’s be honest: even trying hard to repress the thought of our own death – it is a fact. We all will die eventually. Earlier or later. Most likely only a few of us are going to die from Covid-19…

In the 1980ies there was a popular book with the title “Illness as an Opportunity”. As far as I know it was the first time ever an author looked upon the concept of illness from a different – a positive - point of view.
Illness can cause rethinking, new beginnings, a new and more differentiated view upon life. Illness can help to gain new strength, confidence, self-esteem and a cleansed access to really essential life matters.
People who fought a decease successfully are often quietly happy and grateful. They are kind in dealing with their fellow humans and treat them with compassion. Often they show a new sincerity towards others. They happily turn to nature and admire beauty openly. They are pleased by little joys…

We should accept this new and unknown situation of the pandemic as an opportunity. We should try to develop into positive, kind and compassionate human beings. We should learn to be honest and sincere with ourselves and others, we should turn our attention to nature and take care of the recovery of our planet. We should be pleased by the little joys life provides us with day by day…

We will not all stay healthy. But if we really want we will all be healed.

/Angelika Scott
/March 2020