Analysis_Fear_Deep Water. ppt.docx

Fear of a young man

1. DEEP WATER
William Do
Think about some fears
that you or your friends
face/faced.
You will probably say one or more of the following.
• Fear of failure
• Fear of public speaking
• Fear of exams
• Fear of driving
• Fear of flying

2. • Fear of heights
• Fear of drowning
• Fear of darkness

3. What should be our reaction to fears?
Avoid them? Avoid walking into a painful experience?
Avoid emotions that scare us?
Can we hide from potential challenges that can lead us to growth and joy?
Can we hide forever from fear?
Remember that it is waiting to strike us despite our best efforts to suppress
it.

5. Face your fear : Overcome it
…. but how?
• Re-experience the fear in order to extinguish it
• Researches have found that repeated exposure to the events
that created the trauma can help the anxiety subside.
• Treat yourself with an exposure therapy that involves slowly and
repeatedly being exposed to the object/situation that is feared in
a controlled environment.

6. Think about a possible cure to these fears
• Fear of public speaking/stage fright
• Fear of flying

7. William Douglas tried this therapy upon himself
His fear
FEAR OF WATER

8. Beyond the High Himalayas
contracted polio as a youth, escaped
permanent paralysis
William O Douglas
Birth: October 16, 1898 , Maine, Minnesota, US
Death :January 19, 1980, Bethesda, Maryland, United States
Career: public official, legal educator, and associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court,
Best known for his consistent and outspoken defense of civil liberties.
36
1
/2 years of service on the Supreme Court constituted the longest tenure in U.S. history.
His books
Of Men and Mountains,
The Court Years
Go East Young Man
My Wilderness

9. and developed a lifelong love of the outdoors through his
selfimposed regimen of exercise during recovery.
How and when did Douglas develop fear of water?
1. The incident at California Beach
When he was three or four years old,
his father took him to the beach in
California. He and his father stood
together in the surf. The waves
knocked him down and he was buried
in water. Though his father was holding
him, he was frightened and
terrified by the overpowering force of the
waves

10. 2 . Continual Warning by his mother.
Details of each drowning in the Yakima River stayed fresh in his
mind

11. 3. His introduction to Y.M.C.A swimming pool, the safer place for
swimming

The sight of the swimming pool brought back his unpleasant memories
and roused his childish fears. But he tried to learn by paddling with new
water wings, and by watching and imitating other boys. But then the
unfortunate thing happened

12. 4. The misadventure
While sitting alone and waiting for others at the Y.M C.A Pool, big
boy came and threw Douglas into the deep end of the pool

13. Douglas drowning
• He faced it with courage.
• He went down and down with a hope to reach the bottom to
make a big leap upward.
• Three times he went down and on the third time, he lost
consciousness and almost died.

15. Description of drowning graphic and vivid
When Douglas went down the water with a yellow glow, it was a nightmarish
experience for him. Although frightened, he thought of a trick to come up to
the surface but couldn’t execute it successfully. He panicked and felt
suffocated by the water. His sense-perceptions gave way, his heart pounded
loudly, his limbs became paralyzed with fear, his mind became dizzy and his
lungs ached as he gulped water while making desperate attempts to come
out of the water. Finally, he lost all his strength and willingness to keep
struggling and blacked out.
His emotions while drowning
Drowning Stage 1 Drowning Stage 2 drowning stage 3

16. Frightened, but not yet frightened out
of his wits.
His plan: make a big jump: come to the
surface, lie flat on it, and paddle to the
edge of the pool.
Nine feet were more like ninety.
His lungs were ready to burst. Though
made a great spring upwards, he came
up slowly When he opened his eyes, he
saw only water with a yellow tinge to it.
He grew panicky. He was suffocating.
He tried to yell but no sound came. His
eyes and nose came out of the water –
but not his mouth. His legs were
paralysed and rigid. A great force pulled
him under.
He started his long journey back to the
bottom: struck at the water; used up his
energy fighting an irresistible force as if
in a nightmare: lost his breath; his lungs
ached; his head throbbed: was dizzy:
remembered the strategy- the journey
was endless: water with yellow glow
around him – sheer, stark terror seized
him-shrieked under water – paralysed –
stiff, rigid with fearremembered the
strategy-but made no difference- stark
terror took even a deeper hold like a
great charge of electricity- shook and
trembled with fright – tried to call for
help – call for mother
Started down the third time.
Sucked for air and got water All
effort ceased. He relaxed:
blackness swept over his brain – it
wiped out terror – no more panic – he
was carried away lightlyLost his
consciousness
The impact

17. Though he was ultimately saved, a terror of water developed in
him . It made him fear water permanently.

18. Fighting fear
For many years that incident, he stayed away from water but the desire
to go fishing and swimming in nature was strong enough to motivate
him to overcome his fear. His fear of water ruined his fishing trips. It
deprived him of the joy of canoeing, boating, and swimming. Douglas
used every way he knew to overcome this fear he had developed since
childhood. He was determined to get an instructor and learn
swimming to get over this fear of water.

20. Learning it in a controlled environment with
the help of a professional
• He hired an instructor. The instructor built a swimmer out of Douglas
piece by piece.
• For three months he held him high on a rope attached to his belt. He
went back and forth across the pool.
• Panic seized the author every time his head went under water. The
instructor taught Douglas to put his face under water and exhale and
to raise his nose and inhale. Then Douglas had to kick with his legs for
many weeks till these relaxed.

22. Mastering the individual steps of
swimming
Then, he moved on to master individual steps of swimming which were,
finally, integrated into a complete experience of swimming by his
instructor. After about six months, Douglas could not only swim the
length of the pool well but was free of his fear to a great extent.

24. How he made himself completely free from
all the terror.
Douglas still felt terror-stricken when he was alone in the pool. The
remnants of the old terror would return, but he would rebuke it and go
for another length of the pool.
He was still not satisfied. So, he went to Lake Wentworth in New How
Hampshire, dived off a dock at Triggs Island and swam two miles across
the lake.
He had his residual doubts. So, he went to Meade Glacier, dived into
Warm Lake and swam across to the other shore and back. Thus, he
made sure that he had conquered the old terror.

26. The deep meaning
• The experience of terror was a handicap Douglas suffered from his
childhood. His conquering of it shows his determination, will power, and
development of his personality.
• He drew a larger meaning from this experience. “In death there is
peace.” “There is terror only in the fear of death.” He had
experienced both the sensation of dying and the terror that fear of it
can produce. So, the will to live somehow grew in intensity. He felt
released- free to walk the mountain paths, climb the peaks, and brush
aside fear.

27. The World leaders who fought and won over fear

28. The Essence of Gandhi’s Teaching
Non-violent struggle was the choice of the brave, not of the weak

29. Nelson Mandela
Our march to freedom is irreversible.
We must not allow fear to stand in our way.
- Nelson Mandela
"Dangers and difficulties have not deterred
us in the past, they will not frighten us now.
But we must be prepared for them like men
in business who do not waste energy in vain
talk and idle action.
Abraham Lincoln ; the fearless President

30. Martin Luther King Junior
Fear could be a tremendous barrier to political, economic, and social
freedom

32. Thank you