# Chain: Fear Of Full Immersion > *The fear of full immersion in the Love* **The argument it traces:** The obstacle to full reception is not unworthiness or error but a near-universal fear of being wholly immersed → the feared losses run from vulnerability and possessions down to identity itself → the obstacle is clothing, worn and removable (mental assumptions, fears, the mind's judgments), not a condition of the soul → the half-measure, sipping from the bank, is named and surpassed → nothing in harmony is lost; all is enhanced **3** messages · **6** supporting · complete --- ## Foundation ### 2016-08-15 - [[2016-08-15 The Reluctance to Step Fully into the Light|The Reluctance to Step Fully into the Light]] **(anchor)** The near-universal reluctance to full immersion ("It is a reluctance to enter that pool of water... This is almost universally true with each soul in this world. So few wish to be immersed in God's great Love so fully"), the feared losses named down to identity itself, vulnerability, possessions, security, and the answer, that nothing in harmony is lost and all is enhanced. The obstacle is specifically not unworthiness, which is the boundary the thread is built on. Presumptive section anchor; the answering message is [[2016-08-28 Come Down to the River|2016-08-28-af-francis-of-assisi]], thirteen days later in the same travelling circle and the same water image. ## Elaboration ### 2016-09-04 - [[2016-09-04 God's Love Is the Key|God's Love Is the Key]] The fear caught at the point of turning away, and named as fear of the change itself rather than of any particular loss. "Many decide to turn away from this once they feel the power and the wonderment and the potential of this great journey of Love. They are fearful, fearful of change. For if there is one major component of the gift of the Father's Love it is that it changes you." Nearest to it is [[2016-08-15 The Reluctance to Step Fully into the Light|2016-08-15-af-alec-gaunt]], which itemizes the feared losses, vulnerability, possessions, security, identity, and answers them with the assurance that nothing in harmony is lost. That one describes a soul hesitating at the threshold; this describes souls who have already tasted the gift and retreat because of what it did, which puts the fear after the first reception rather than before it. The chain treats the obstacle as clothing that can be removed; here people put the clothing back on. ## Reframe ### 2016-08-28 - [[2016-08-28 Come Down to the River|Come Down to the River]] The obstacle recast as clothing, worn and removable, not a condition of the soul: "I not only ask you to bend down and sip of these waters but to remove the clothing of your mental assumptions... Release the yoke of your fears. Release the judgements of your mind and come and wade within these waters of Love. Let them carry you," closing "it is for each one of you, beloved souls, to release all that which holds you from being immersed in this wondrous Gift." Adds the half-measure the candidate lacked, sipping from the bank, the name for what stands between reluctance and immersion. Reframe over Objection-removed: no contrary belief is cleared; the obstacle is re-imaged. --- ## Also touches on this *These messages restate or echo the idea rather than carry it forward, so they sit alongside the thread rather than in it.* - **2015-03-27** [[2015-03-27 Every Human Soul Is Damaged by the Earth Condition|Every Human Soul Is Damaged by the Earth Condition]] (witness) - The same subject from the other side. Where the thread diagnoses what people fear to lose, Andrew asks for the thing directly: "Will you open yourselves to this in a complete and vulnerable way? Be with God, as you never have been before," with "desire to be completely in God's Love" earlier. An invitation rather than an account of the obstacle, and a witness rather than a sighting because the complete-and-vulnerable opening it asks for is this thread's own subject named from the requesting end. - **2016-05-02** [[2016-05-02 Two Paths Towards Love and Purification|Two Paths Towards Love and Purification]] (witness) - "Do not hold back from God, but open yourself completely to His Touch and allow His healing Hand to release you from your burdens." The holding-back named without the fear diagnosed; [[2016-08-15 The Reluctance to Step Fully into the Light|2016-08-15-af-alec-gaunt]] supplies the diagnosis. Witness rather than sighting because the holding back is the behaviour the thread exists to explain, stated here in the imperative. - **2016-09-09** [[2016-09-09 Nurture Your Soul|Nurture Your Soul]] (sighting) - The same spirit reusing that chain's own image with the opposite meaning. In [[2016-08-28 Come Down to the River|2016-08-28-af-francis-of-assisi]] the sip from the bank is precisely the half-measure to be surpassed, and he asks the circle to wade in far enough to be carried. Here he tells one man "Drink the Love deeply, for that thirst will never be quenched but with each sip of this Love you will be stronger and more fulfilled," where the sip is the unit of incremental strengthening and the unquenchable thirst is offered as a good rather than a lack. Either the sip is simply a flexible figure and this message is unrelated, or the two together show immersion and incremental sipping to be complementary rather than opposed. Recorded so the pair is not separated. - **2016-11-07** [[2016-11-07 Love Is the Key|Love Is the Key]] (build) - That chain's founding message, [[2016-08-15 The Reluctance to Step Fully into the Light|2016-08-15-af-alec-gaunt]], says the obstacle to full reception is the fear of being wholly immersed, and specifically not unworthiness. Here Andrew names the one obstacle as the belief that you are not loved, reinforced by the world: "So much of the world distracts you and brings a message to you that you are unworthy." Either two different obstacles are being described, or believing yourself unloved is a distinct thing from believing yourself unworthy. Both passages are worth quoting when this is settled. - **2016-11-29** [[2016-11-29 Your Capacity to Love Is Limited by Your Mind's Impediments|Your Capacity to Love Is Limited by Your Mind's Impediments]] (build) - Bears on the tension recorded at [[2016-11-07 Love Is the Key|2016-11-07-af-andrew]]. Andrew lists believing yourself unworthy and believing yourself not loved as separate thoughts, side by side, "your thought that you are unworthy, or that you are not loved, or that you cannot love," and places all of them in "your mind's conception." The love in question here is the love that flows out through a person, not the Love received. - **2017-05-11** [[2017-05-11 Jesus Speaks of the Pentecost|Jesus Speaks of the Pentecost]] (witness) - Vulnerability named as the cost of the full opening, "In this opening comes a great vulnerability and an acknowledgment of those conditions within your souls that are not in harmony with God."