Signal-to-noise
Non-Resistance to Fear (Clearing the Channel)
Hill claimed fear creates mental noise—and noise blocks reception. In modern terms, fear narrows perception, increases threat scanning, and destabilizes attention. If you want reliable insight, you need the channel clear.
Core idea
“Non-resistance” doesn’t mean pretending fear isn’t there. It means reducing secondary reactions (panic, avoidance, catastrophes) so the nervous system can regain clarity.
Hill’s six fears (as noise generators)
Hill named six recurrent fears—poverty, criticism, ill health, loss of love, old age, and death—not as moral sins, but as interference patterns that distort cognition.
A practical “channel clearing” loop
- Name the fear precisely (not “everything is wrong”).
- Locate it in the body (tightness, heat, pressure).
- Reduce the time horizon: “What’s the next safe step?”
- Reintroduce rhythm (walk, breath pacing, steady music).
- Only then: decide. Decisions made inside noise tend to be brittle.