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Will public speaking be the death of you? According to the ‘Book of Lists,’ the dread of standing in front of a crowd is rated higher than death or disease. And for the majority of people, it is their number one fear. Many of you will be aware of this. What you may be unaware of, is the massive energetic contraction that a fear of this magnitude has on the world.

It is difficult to measure or quantify the amount of fear there is around public speaking. So, just image how truly terrifying it would be if all of that fear was gathered together in one room and you had to go in there. “No thanks, I’d rather die!”

When the World Trade Centre was destroyed, the world reacted with shock and horror; billions of dollars and enormous resources were deployed to defend America against the fear of terrorism. Governments and health organisations world-wide have created many and varied treatments for people suffering depression, heart condition, diabetes, etc; and cancer, one of the top three killers, attracts huge attention. Yet, the number one fear doesn’t seem to rate much of a mention.

Just how much limitation does a fear that affects most people on the planet create and for what insane reason are we living with this as our reality?

Most people are totally unaware of the number one fear until they hear these words, “I’m looking for a volunteer.” or “Would you mind getting up and saying a few words to the group?” Then it can kick in big-time:

You can’t run because that would make you look foolish and you’d rather be shot than look stupid. So you stay and begin to put up your defences: you act and pretend that you’re just fine, you laugh about three octaves higher than normal to release the tension in your jaw, then you have to clamp your teeth together to stop them chattering, you put your hands in your pockets to hide the trembling, you speak quickly to disguise your shaking voice, you pace to stop your knees from knocking together; you know if you don’t breath soon it will all be over, you shrink your body size to be less of a target, you squeeze your buttocks together to prevent any accidents, you try to stop your beating heart from leaping out of your chest, you attempt in-vain to push your stomach back down to where it should be, you contract your energy to be less visible, you wish your head would stop pounding, you lick your lips which have become very dry, you clear your throat which seems full of cement dust, your eyes begin to sting as the sweat off your brow runs in torrents, you wish you were dead as you open your mouth to say the first word and nothing happens, you know you look like a fish out of water and now you are suffering dementia and have forgotten your opening lines, you force out some words and rush through your speech, you put your head down and run off-stage, your ears have stopped working and you miss the applause, you hide in the bathroom and try to figure out how you can slip out without being noticed, you swear never to come back and do this again. How does it get any better than this?

Those moments can seem very intense; however it’s in the everyday routine of your life that it is particularly insidious and you can go through life unconsciously refusing anything that might expose you. Where are all the places you have refused to have more as your life by avoiding being exposed, standing out from the crowd, being seen and heard? What decisions have you made around public speaking?

Dr John Grey, author of the book ‘Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus,’ notes that young children are totally vulnerable; they have no defence to the things we say and do; “… everything goes straight in.” I recall being given the dunce’s hat at school and made to wear it, sitting in a corner of the class room with my back to the other children. I felt ridiculous, unprotected and exposed as the others giggled at my glowing red ears. What decisions did I make that day that stuck me for years? My friend Adrienne recalls, as a young girl, telling a joke in the school play. As the punch line came out of her mouth, she had the shocking awareness that it was totally inappropriate. No one in the audience laughed and there was dead silence. Oh dear …

When functioning from decisions like, “I will never do that again.” you will not allow anything to come into your awareness that doesn’t match. After three years of working for a company in the UK, I was offered the position of Associate; it involved managing projects and supervising a team of people. I turned down the offer and shortly after resigned – I couldn’t speak in groups. How much have you turned down or simply missed out on … for fear. When have you been unable to ask the gorgeous girl out or stammered and spluttered when the handsome man came to talk with you. Every area of your life can become the effect of decisions you have made, around fear, that you are unaware of and are still with you now.

Are you refusing to be the magnificent singer you truly are and living with the grief and frustration of being unable to share your gift. Do you have the ability; the talent to be one of the world’s great leaders, yet will not speak-out … for fear? If you were free to speak-out, could you change the world?

What have you been unwilling to say … for fear … that if you said it would change all realities?

This contraction of our ability to truly communicate in our own lives, nationally and globally creates separation, distrust and misunderstanding. Some of the greatest misunderstandings that have occurred between nations have come about from an inability to communicate. We suffer communication largely as a disability and limit the possibilities of truly communing with and knowing our neighbours; be they one person or many.

Commune is the root of communication and it means common; universal, as in speaking a universal language that everyone gets easily. Laughing is something that is instantly grasped by everyone. What would it be like if we could create our communication from that energy? It would certainly be a lot more fun.

There is a language that is common; universal and available to everyone:

“The first and greatest language is actually energy.” G M. Douglas 2006. Access Consciousness

Quantum physics explores and discusses the phenomena of energy, which shows up in different forms with varying characteristics and it is present in everything. Laughter is an energy that you receive with ease. You know instantly when someone is laughing for the pure fun and joy of it, when they are putting you down or faking; you just get-it with out any effort or having to work it out. What is that communication?

Nature communicates easily without words - sit on a quiet hillside and watch the sun set into the ocean. What is nature communicating to you with that? She holds nothing back and gifts to you her total abundance. A flower communicates to you its beauty without ever saying one word; you get it immediately, fully and without limitation and you are willing to receive that totally. What is that communication?

Nature doesn’t care how you judge her. The sunset will still be all it can be, whether you are there or not. The flower is still a flower whether you like it or not. Nature doesn’t require you to validate what it is being; it simply communicates all it is, all the time, with or without you. Nature creates its own reality, regardless of you.

If you would communicate as nature does, without any point-of-view about how you will be judged, could fear truly exist for you? Are the decisions you hold as truth about how, what, when, where and why you must be around speaking-out, preventing you from creating a change? Is everything you refuse to, dare not, must never and must also be, keeping you locked up in fear and never truly being … you? If you were being you, all of you and the magnificent you, could the number one fear in the world exist as your reality? If you were willing to receive all judgement as just interesting and not resist, react, align or agree with any of them, you would not function as the effect and could create something different as communication.

What change are you unwilling to receive that if you received it would change all communication?

Your willingness to create a change, for you, around speaking in groups will have an effect on the number one fear in the world. What would it take for you to begin creating a change that could change the world? What difference would there be in the world if the number one fear, the fear of speaking in groups; public speaking, was utterly destroyed? Would that set us all free and would that create a change never before seen on planet earth?