The Conquest of Anxiety

By Eugene Halliday, David Mahlowe and Hephzibah Yohannan

We all suffer, to some extent, from fear and anxiety. Here Eugene Halliday offers a way to overcome this negative state of mind, which, whether consciously or unconsciously, hinders our interaction with the world and our fellow human beings. He shows the underlying logic of our problem and gives practical exercises - a step by step process - whi

• Language: English
• Publisher: Melchisedec Press
• Release date: Feb 8, 2022
• ISBN: 9781872240527

Eugene Halliday

Eugene Halliday, artist and writer, was founder of two educational charities. A prolific writer and charismatic teacher, his published works include Reflexive Self-Consciousness, The Tacit Conspiracy, and Contributions from a Potential Corpse. His psychotherapeutic work enabled the recovery of many troubled minds and souls, yet he almost never gave advice, teaching people, rather, how to advise themselves. His work was founded in Love, which he defined as 'working for the development of the highest potentialities of being'. Those who were taught by him regard him in affectionate reverence as a man of great wisdom, humour and compassion.

Book preview

The Collected Works of Eugene Halliday

Volume 7

The Conquest of Anxiety

Melchisedec Press

Second edition (revised) published in the UK by Melchisedec Press in 2022

Edited by David Mahlowe (1992) and Hephzibah Yohannan (2022)

The rights of Eugene Halliday (1911–1987) to be identified as author of this work have been asserted in accordance with Copyright Designs and Patents Act.

The moral right of the author is asserted.

© Hephzibah Yohannan 2015

Cover illustration by Eugene Halliday

Cover design © Hephzibah Yohannan

All rights reserved.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser. Nor shall any part of this publication be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

Permission can be obtained through Melchisedec Press

ISBN 978-1-872240-09-1 (1992 hardback)

ISBN 978-1-872240-52-7 (2022 ebook)

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

The Melchisedec Press was founded by David Mahlowe to publish the works of Eugene Halliday

melchisedecpress.net

[e-mail]

Dedication

Dedicated to the memory of David Mahlowe with grateful thanks for his loving and unstinting labour in the furtherance of the work of Eugene Halliday

Editor’s Note

David Mahlowe, Halliday’s Literary Executor, founded The Melchisedec Press to publish Halliday’s work. Beginning as a series of articles which Halliday wrote for his friend the Rev. Michael Graham, The Conquest of Anxiety was first published in the Parish Magazine of St Michael and All Angels in Manchester, UK, between 1977–1978. As such, it is a work of Christian psychology, and is an examination of an approach to the problem of fear and anxiety from the viewpoint of ideas implicit in the teachings of Jesus Christ. It was published in book form by David Mahlowe in 1992, and in German translation by Christian Handschug in 2017, both by Melchisedec Press.

This ebook edition gives the text of Mahlowe’s 1992 edition. A small number of minor typographical errors have been corrected. Single quotation marks have been chosen for this edition rather than double, for consistency of style across the new series of books published by Melchisedec Press since 2015.

Numbers placed centrally in square brackets within the text, indicate the page numbers of the hardback edition, e.g. [page 1]. They are placed as close as possible to the end of each page, without breaking paragraphs (for ease of reading). This has been done so that students of Halliday’s work who are discussing, or citing the work, may be able to refer to the pages of the hardback. In addition, each paragraph has been given a number in square brackets, to further facilitate this process.

Hephzibah Yohannan 2022

Foreword

Fear and anxiety are likely to affect every one of us at some point in our lives, hindering our ability to live fully and to interact well with others. In this book Eugene Halliday deals with the fact that these states are present, to some extent, in the minds of all people of this world. Here he offers a way to overcome these negative states of mind, which, whether consciously or unconsciously, hinder our interaction with the world and our fellow human beings. He shows the underlying logic of our problem and gives practical exercises – a step by step process – which is clearly explained to the reader. This is most welcome in today’s fraught emotional, social and political climate.

Halliday’s ‘Collected Works’, of which this is Volume 7, is a series of fifteen books. They contain a complex of ideas set in relation to each other in such a way that a consistent and logical flow leads the reader from the beginning right through to the end of the series. This complex, based on one main leading idea to which all other ideas relate harmoniously, forms a consistent whole, as one body made of many parts. Halliday’s books are unusual in that they deal not only with more than one idea per book, or per chapter, but even with one or more ideas per sentence.

In The Conquest of Anxiety Halliday begins by defining the terms which he uses in the book, thus preventing the confusion of undefined terms which is found so often in general discourse. This is most helpful for those seeking to attain a consistent state of mind, able to reflect the things of this world and of the next in their true form, where all are related to each other. For the reader who loves truth and consistency this book is a very helpful companion on the way to a truly happy life.

Hephzibah Yohannan (Editor)

Christian Handschug, Translator of this book into German, as Die Eroberung der Angst (2017)

Chapter One

[1] We are going to examine a way of approach to the problem of fear and anxiety from the viewpoint of ideas implicit in the teachings of Jesus Christ.

[2] Some thinkers distinguish between these two mental states by defining fear as a condition in which a living being anticipates a possibility of some rationally definable harm or damage to itself, or to something in which it has an interest. For example, a mother driving her child to school may become involved in a situation in which an accident may occur, and in this situation might experience fear for her own safety, but also for the safety of her child, for whom she is naturally concerned. In contrast with a rationally defined fear, a state of anxiety is then defined as one in which a living being anticipates harm or damage but without being able to define rationally the nature of this possibility.

[3] Other thinkers distinguish two kinds of anxiety, a specific anxiety in which one anticipates some known definable damage, and a general anxiety in which a feeling of apprehension or anticipation of harm is not accompanied by any clear idea of the source or nature of the harm.

[page 1]

[4] It is useful to distinguish between two kinds of anticipation of harm, one the nature of which is clearly definable, the other whose nature is not. An example of the clearly definable kind of harm can be seen when one perhaps drops a heavy object upon one’s foot. An example of the indefinable is when a person is moving in the dark in an unfamiliar territory in which no idea of the particular kind of harm one might suffer is present.

[5] Some psychologists believe that if an anxiety remains undefined in its form, then it is very difficult or even impossible to eliminate it. But if the cause of the anxiety can be located and defined, it is converted into what is called an objective fear, that is, a fear of some known defined object or event or situation. The location and definition of the anxiety cause is then viewed as part of the process of psychotherapy, of whatever kind this may be.

[6] If we observe carefully the behaviour of living beings, animal or human, we are soon led to believe that anxiety of some kind is always in some degree present. Everywhere we see animals and human beings ready to take avoiding action when presented with any possibility of damage, harm, or impedance. This readiness demonstrates the presence at some level of the anticipation of possible harm, that is, of anxiety.

[page 2]

[7] If we were to view the human being as merely an animal, though of great complexity, and an animal as merely a certain kind of material organism, with no spiritual significance, then we would have to say that an anxiety state is nothing but a manifestation of certain reactions of the material organism to certain kinds of material conditions or stimuli. This is the usual view of materialists.

[8] But we are not all materialists. Even in the twentieth century, with its great emphasis on the successes of materialistic science, there are still millions of human beings who do not think of themselves as merely material organisms, but as spiritual beings, although incarnate in physical bodies.

[9] For those who believe themselves to be essentially spiritual beings,