Haanel on Fear and Worry: What The Master Key System Teaches

In The Master Key System, fear is the main obstacle to everything the course promises. Charles Haanel calls it "the one arch enemy," treats worry and anxiety as its close relatives, and teaches that all three are forms of thought that produce matching conditions. His remedies are mental: guard the subconscious mind, relax the body, still the mind, replace negative thoughts with positive ones, and become conscious of a greater power.

This page sets out that teaching in Haanel's own words, part by part. It reports what he taught. It is not advice, and anyone struggling with anxiety should talk to a qualified professional.

Fear as "the one arch enemy"

Haanel's strongest language about fear comes in Part Three, in the lesson on the solar plexus, which he treats as the body's center of energy:

Thoughts of courage, power, confidence, and hope all produce a corresponding state, but the one arch enemy of the Solar Plexus which must be absolutely destroyed before there is any possibility of letting any light shine is fear.

He does not soften it. Fear "must be completely destroyed; he must be eliminated; he must be expelled forever." He then describes how far it reaches:

It is this personal devil which makes men fear the past, the present, and the future; fear themselves, their friends, and their enemies; fear everything and everybody.

The same part names one fear in particular. "It is fear of this criticism that causes many ideas to fail to see the light of day," Haanel writes, meaning the criticism of the world.

Fear brings what it fears

For Haanel, fear is not just unpleasant. It is a creative force pointed the wrong way. Part Thirteen puts it in one sentence:

Therefore, if we fear disaster, as fear is a powerful form of thought, disaster will be the certain result of our thinking.

This is the course's law of attraction applied to the negative. Part Seven says the law operates "to bring about poverty, lack, and every form of limitation for those who are continually entertaining thoughts of lack and fear." Part Twenty quotes Job: "The thing I feared has come upon me." Part Twenty-Three applies it to money and success: "if we fear we get what we feared."

Worry works the same way. Part Twelve says that "worry, fear, and all negative thoughts produce a crop after their kind," and that fear, anxiety and discouragement "continually send the things we desire further away, so that it is often one step forward and two steps backward."

How fear gets in: the watchman at the gate

Part Two explains where fear and worry come from. Haanel's answer is suggestion:

It is often true that conditions of fear, worry, poverty, disease, inharmony, and evils of all kinds dominate us by reason of false suggestions accepted by the unguarded subconscious mind.

The conscious mind, trained properly, "may properly be called 'the watchman at the gate' of the great subconscious domain." The danger is greatest when that watchman is off duty: "During the wild excitement of panic, or during the height of anger, or the impulses of the irresponsible mob, or at any other time of unrestrained passion, the conditions are most dangerous." At those moments, Haanel writes, the subconscious is "open to the suggestion of fear, hatred, selfishness, greed, self-depreciation, and other negative forces."

Part Five adds a picture of the long-term cost. Past impressions are the material we build with, and "If these impressions have been of fear, of worry, of care, of anxiety; if they have been despondent, negative, doubtful, then the texture of the material which we are weaving today will be of the same negative material."

Fear in the body

Haanel ties fear and worry to physical states. Part Three links them to tension: "Tension leads to mental unrest and abnormal mental activity of the mind; it produces worry, care, fear, and anxiety." The introduction to Part Nineteen goes further:

Fear is a powerful form of thought. It paralyzes the nerve centers, thus affecting the circulation of the blood.

The introduction to Part Twenty-Two makes the widest claim: "The various forms of inflammation, paralysis, nervousness, and diseased conditions generally are the manifestation of fear, worry, care, anxiety, jealousy, hatred, and similar thought." These are statements of belief, not findings, and our guide to Haanel on health and healing looks at them in more detail.

The first remedy: stillness and letting go

The practical answer begins with the sitting exercise. In Part Two, after a week of sitting still, the student adds a new step:

Now be perfectly still as before, but inhibit all thought. This will give you control over all thoughts of care, worry, and fear, and will enable you to entertain only the kind of thoughts you desire.

Part Three adds physical relaxation, and Part Four asks the student to "mentally let go of all adverse conditions, such as hatred, anger, worry, jealousy, envy, sorrow, trouble, or disappointment of any kind." Haanel expects the objection and answers it: "You may say that you cannot 'let go' of these things, but you can."

Part Seven warns against anxious effort itself. He writes that "we are too anxious; we manifest anxiety, fear, distress," and compares the worried student to "a child who has just planted a seed and every fifteen minutes goes out and stirs up the earth to see if it is growing."

The second remedy: substitution

Haanel does not ask students to fight negative thoughts head on. He asks them to replace them. Part Eight says to "substitute constructive thought for destructive thought. Form the habit of analyzing every thought." It also warns against half measures:

You cannot entertain weak, harmful, negative thoughts ten hours a day and expect to bring about beautiful, strong, and harmonious conditions by ten minutes of strong, positive, creative thought.

The introduction to Part Nine gives the reasoning: "two things cannot exist in the same place at the same time," so the remedy is "to substitute thoughts of courage, power, self-reliance, and confidence, for those of fear, lack, and limitation." The tool is an affirmation. "When a thought of anger, jealousy, fear, or worry creeps in, just start your affirmation going," Part Nine says, adding, "For myself, I never could find any help in denials. Affirm the good, and the bad will vanish."

Part Seventeen turns this into a rule of concentration: "If you wish to eliminate fear, then concentrate on courage."

The third remedy: knowing the source of power

Underneath the techniques is a belief. Fear ends, for Haanel, when a person knows where power comes from. The introduction to Part Nineteen says, "Of course, the way to overcome fear is to become conscious of power." Part Three describes the result. When you can show your "ability to overcome any adverse condition by the power of your thought, you will have nothing to fear; fear will have been destroyed and you will have come into possession of your birthright." That power, in the course, is the Universal Mind.

Reading these passages today

Some of Haanel's advice will sound familiar to modern readers: notice your thoughts, relax the body, and do not keep checking on a goal out of worry. Other parts go well beyond any evidence. Nothing shows that fearing a disaster causes it, or that fear and worry are the source of inflammation and disease. A reader who believes that may end up blaming himself for every misfortune. The passages are best read as a record of how this New Thought course understood the mind, with the practical habits kept and the larger claims weighed with care.