I like your question. I can relate to the subtlety of the "opposite force" being used as a positive energy in consciousness. Here the positive energy is not in reference to the idea positive = good. But rather it is used with the understanding that positive = definite or as capable of producing results.

I hope this is the idea you are trying to get at. It is rather subtle.

I found that fear & worry can be used as a trigger to break the consciousness out of the autopilot mode of "manifesting without attention to consequence".

I found that when ever I pointed out to someone who is constantly worrying about things that haven't happened to them yet, that their constant worry is the reason for the event existing in their experience, they would often do an about turn and insist "No I am not worrying about that".

I'll give an exact example. I have a co-worker that constantly experiences vindictive behaviour from many people in her life. She constantly points out "No matter how nice & helpful I am towards others, some people are always trying to bring me down, because they are jealous of my abilities".

I kept telling her "Look that statement you just made right now tells me that you are always imagining that these people are constantly trying to do something to you, and that continuous though is the exact reason why it is happening to you".

to this she always replies "No I am not constantly thinking this, I am telling you that these people don't leave me alone, they are trying to destroy me and bring me down whether I think about it or not".

In other words, she is in constant denial that she is the initiator or attractor of her suffering. Having worked on this exact problem in my own life, I put together a technique for her (and myself) to try. This idea is not original to me; I borrowed components of it from various "experts".

When you worry or fear something, the first thing you do is acknowledge it with the statement "I am choosing to worry about this right now". So if you are afraid of losing your job you make the statement "I am choosing to be afraid of losing my job right now"

I know, you may say "Hey come-on that's not fair I don't choose my worries or fears, they show up within my consciousness without my invitation"

This maybe so, but if you want to stop that automatic worry from showing up without invitation, you have to acknowledge that you are the worrier that is experiencing the worry in the eternal now moment.

The next statement you make is to say "By worrying or being afraid of this experience I am attracting & choosing to participate in this experience". YOU HAVE TO SAY "I am choosing" NOT "It is happening to me because".

So in the case of the fear of loosing the job you say "By worrying about losing my job in this moment I AM CHOOSING to experience the loss of my job in this eternal now moment in my life"

UNTIL YOU SAY I AM CHOOSING THIS EXPERIENCE, YOU ARE IN DENIAL OF THE TRUTH THAT YOU ARE THE ARCHITECHT OF YOUR REALITY.

And most of us constantly deny our own contribution towards the suffering we experience.

Only after you make this statement do you then make an about face & say "But Wait a minute, I do not want to experience the loss of my job".
"Therefore, I am choosing to let this experience go, I am no longer interested in participating in the experience of losing my job."

Each time you are afraid or worry about something you have to repeat this exercise again and again (if you want to get rid of the experience of it)

Initially it will seem like a lot of work. But with practice the whole process quickens up to just a flash in your mind where you can acknowledge & release the experience you don't want in one thought.

Eventually the automatic worry or fear shows up less & less until one day it stops showing up.

So this is how I use fear to catch myself in the act of attracting what I don't want and I let it go as quickly as possible.

This is a very thought provoking question and I love it!

There are 2 types of fear in this world:

1. Fear of God
2. Conditioned fear

The former is the fear resulting from respect. I sometimes think it was created and mentioned by God in order to keep us accountable for our actions (not just spiritual actions but all life's actions).

The latter is, as typed, describes clearly that it is only an emotion that results from the conditioning of society and such that we are losing something or someone.

Both fears can be used to our advantage by knowing that it exists for their specific reasons. That is, hold yourself accountable for your actions when you fear God and do what you do to feel your connection with Him. The conditioned fear can be used to our advantage by simply being aware of the emotion and thought itself rather than being in fear of fear itself. This is usually what happens. We fear fear itself. Once we realize that it is a false and endless loop, we can use that in any category of life and understand that when we are in fear, we simply want the best for ourselves. The moment you realize this very fact, you begin to shift your fear into excitement and start to automatically focus on what is best for yourself.

My 2 cents.

My answer may be based on a misunderstanding of the question and or a misinterpretation of the teachings of Abraham-Hicks in relation to the subject matter that is "fear". I realize this question is from 4 yrs. ago and many of your more recent responses to questions do reveal a more complete understanding, which includes the point I am adding.

Fear is an emotion. Some would call it one of two primary emotions, Love being the other. According to this theory, all the other emotions are variations of these two "parent" emotions. According to Abraham, all emotional responses play a role with regards to Law of Attraction. They are the key element of an internal guidance system and should be considered from that perspective. They serve as indicators of our alignment with our desires and the beliefs we have related to those desires, the idealize versions of what we want to become and have come to us.

When we experience joyful, loving emotions, it tells us we are on the right track to achieving those Ideals. Fear and its related emotions would be an indication that we are not heading in the right direction. To use your example of the matches, fear comes about because being burnt is not in alignment with our desire to avoid pain and injury. On the other hand, we will feel love and appreciation for the match when it is in alignment with our desire for a nice juicy hamburger and the belief that the flame is the means to achieving that.

If this is correct, then we should be responding to our emotions in the same detached manner we would respond to what the gauges in our automobiles. I can admit, however, that this is something easier said than done, especially when gripped by fear or during a fit of anger. It probably gets easier with practice. It's almost funny to think our lives are whipped around in a frenzy of emotions, all the pain and sorrow, happiness and joy caused by a simple sort of temperature gauge just doing what is was designed to do. No doubt a great source of humor to an otherworldly observer.

Great question Wade. I think when we begin to wake up and make the decision to face our fears head on, instead of shrinking from or succumbing to them, that the fear actually begins to shrink before us.The fear is often the catalyst for our catharsis and when we face it boldly we realise that the only power it has is the power we have given it.

Depending on what the fear is it can often take a lot of courage and determination to face it, but here again persistence pays off. To answer your question then I would say we can use it in a positive way when we let it become our motivation for growth and change - people often get to the stage where the fear is controlling their lives and they either have to face it or die.

Using our fear of FEAR becomes the teacher and sheds light on how to utilize that secondary fear to grow beyond our everyday fears. It is a complex work, but leads us away from the distraction that FEAR dangles over our heads to keep us from evolving. I believe all of our fears can be seen as lessons disguised as obstacles. While not an easy path to tread, well worthwhile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5kBqrHphjo fear is the only darkness! you fear because you don't understand something! once you understand it or master it you don't need to fear anny more! so fear is also the beguinning of wisdom: if you fear to burn your self because you have put your hand in the fire and burn your self you will take precaution and learn about the fire and eventually master it!

it may be better if respect replaced what you call fear,
accepting the unique power,
wondering how it may have evolved to such a potency.
maybe there is no need to fear,
do you have to be like it or just understand that it exists,
you choose

Hi @Wade I love this question especially because it implies that fear can be positive, wow!

What does fear mean to me? It's a strong emotion that I feel inside me that can be activated in two ways. It can be activated by an event in the immediate outer environment my outer space that threatens my physical body, for example a mad dog growling and running towards me.

In this case fear is useful and helpful it averts me that I should act immediately, in fact things happen so fast in these cases that I just react without thinking, without really being conscious of having been afraid.

Fear can also be activated from inside, but what exactly is "fear coming from inside"? To explain I'd like to describe what emotions in general mean to me. I feel emotions as being movements of energy in my inner space, they're a flow of movements of energy just as when I listen to a piece of music for example, they all blend into a pleasureable experience. The music may activate emotions such as sad, slow, fast, exciting, happy etc but the general flow is pleasureable. Imagine a single note piece of music it would quickly become boring, it wouldn't really mean anything, it's only in the flow that the notes have a value that brings out the flavour. In other words all raw emotions are neutral including fear and more importantly all emotions can be appreciated just as they are, all emotions have a raison d'être.

So what is all this about emotions being on a scale "positive"/"negative"? What does positive negative mean to me? Well to me it's exactly a reflection of the yin yang. Yin and yang are different ways of expressing the same raw energy, just as raw energy divides into pure electric and pure magnetic to form a dynamic couple electro-magnetic energy, the building blocks of the physical universe. So which energy is positive and which energy is negative? Neither, yin can't exist without yang and yang can't exist without yin. Just like man can't exist without woman and woman can't exist without man. It's the basis of reproduction in the physical world.

Ok now I've got that off my chest now to the question "how can the power of fear be used in positive ways?"

When I feel fear on the inside, meaning that when I feel the characteristic movement of neutral energy within me that I recognize and know as having been labeled fear by my education, it's a signal that there's an opportunity to expand my consciousness. It's a signal that there's something real good coming my way. Fear is excitement, it's thrilling, just think back to the time you saw someone you really fancy, wasn't it thrilling and at the same time fearful? The characteristic movement of energy that I feel and have learned to name excitement is so close to fear that in practice the two easily associate and have the same effect. Someone less attractive is far easier to approach and talk to there's very little tension the emotions are bland. La joie de vivre is what living is all about, fear points to what I am, points to what makes me vibrate

Here's a couple of articles you may find enlightening

http://www.existing2living.com/8-reasons-why-fear-is-good-for-you/

http://www.jonathanfields.com/3-ways-fear-can-be-your-friend/

So with all this integrated into my reality what does it all boil down to? integrate, to make whole; the painting "La Dance" by Henri Matisse just about sums it up

three colours red, green and blue, five nudes dancing rythmically and in succession ... the five senses completely liberated and playing perfectly together with the music of life. The two extremes red and blue oscillating perfectly together with green the midpoint neutral.

Epilogue; throughout history we have regularly had to update our beliefs because they no longer serve us due to scientific discoveries. For example long ago people believed that the earth was flat, later they believed that the earth was round and even today many people who still only believe what they can see hold that belief as being the only valid possibility, and why do people resist updating their beliefs? because it means entering the unknown like a dark room and that's scary :)

update; Finally all you need is to love your fear, it only gets bigger when you allow it :)