Overcoming fear of flying

As I was leaving a county correctional center one morning, after visiting someone who is serving time for repeated drug violations, it occurred to me that unless we are all watchful in daily claiming our true identity as God’s likeness, at one with our divine source, God, we can easily become prisoners ourselves—mental prisoners. Addictions, anger, guilt, belief in lack of any kind, stress, and fear are all prisons. I know, because I was once a prisoner of anxiety about flying.

For over ten years, my job entailed flying to education conventions all over the United States. Some of those flights were turbulent, and included two emergency landings. So I used those frightening experiences to justify to myself my frequent bouts of in-flight queasiness, even though well-meaning friends and statistics insisted that flying was the safest mode of transportation.

Eventually I resolved to loosen my shackles through more consistent prayer, especially on flying days and especially before take-off, and even during each flight. I spent more time studying the Bible Lessons in the Christian Science Quarterly. I read and reread the opening of Psalm 91 in the Bible, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty,” along with this compelling statement: “Christian scientific practice begins with Christ’s keynote of harmony, ‘Be not afraid!’ ” (Mary Baker Eddy, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 410 ). And I regularly carried copies of my favorite hymns on board with me, including these lines written by Anna L. Waring:

But I soon realized it’s one thing to read, ponder, even state such truths aloud, and quite another to make them one’s own and gain a constant, conscious awareness of God’s presence. That is, to really feel deep inside that, as God’s reflection, we are always at one with God, never separated from Him, never in danger, never lacking harmony or any good.

I had ample opportunity to prove this when a friend and I took a trip involving long flights to and from India. During my spiritual preparation I started with the idea that effective prayer calls for quiet listening and for grateful acknowledgment that God unfailingly meets all our needs.

I humbly prayed to really feel God’s presence and love, and as we crossed continents, many comforting passages from the Bible came to thought: “Fear not: for I am with thee” (Isaiah 43:5 ); “Lo, I am with you alway” (Matthew 28:20 ); “My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (II Corinthians 12:9 ); “The Lord your God is he that goeth with you, ... to save you” (Deuteronomy 20:4 ); and Mary Baker Eddy’s rendering of the last line of Psalm 23, which, for me, sums them all up, “I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [love ] for ever” (Science and Health, p. 578 ).

So do I love flying now? Not really. But there was not a moment of anxiety during those long flights, or during subsequent trips I have taken. Before every take-off I pray to see myself, the airport staff, my fellow passengers, and the flight crew as God sees us, as His spiritual, harmonious, loved, individual expressions, at one with Him, in perfect peace—and I find I am no longer a prisoner!

Manuela Meier
Lyndeborough, New Hampshire, US