07/23/2026
One middle-aged gentleman came to see me about a severe fear of heights. His fear was so strong that as he was recounting one of his family road trips (he wasn't going anywhere near an airplane!) in which just seeing another car driving high up a nearby mountain had made him afraid, he interrupted himself to tell me “Renu, my palms are getting sweaty just thinking about it now!” As it turns out, he couldn’t even look at the *photos* from this trip without discomfort.
He and I we tracked his fear back to a single incident that took place when he was about 9 years old. He and his friend were at home playing while his grandfather happened to be doing some work on the roof. Thinking it would be funny, the boys moved the ladder!
…Needless to say, they got into heaps of trouble for their behaviour!
So how does this translate to a fear of heights? Looking back on the event, he realized that he still felt guilty over leaving his grandfather stranded on the roof. He knew he was just a kid, and that his grandfather would definitely have forgiven him, but close to 50 years later, he was still unable to forgive himself. His fear of heights was the product of the guilt he was experiencing – taking on the fear that his grandfather would have felt during that episode was one way that his subconscious was trying to signal him to resolve the guilt.
After we identified the event, he then mentioned to me that he would occasionally have dreams where he himself was the one trapped on the roof, unable to get down…an even clearer signal was being sent by his subconscious!
The next step was to heal the event - let go of the guilt and allow him to forgive himself - after which I then asked him to think again about the car on the mountain that we had been discussing not even an hour before. He concentrated on the memory for a few moments and then asked me…”I’m thinking about it, so how come my palms aren’t getting sweaty?”
I only had one reply to give him. “Because you’re no longer afraid of heights.”
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The subconscious is wild! If you want to know more about how the subconscious operates - either to heal your own issues or to learn how its done - head to my linktree for all the ways you can connect with me. https://linktr.ee/renuarora.ca I'd love to hear from you!
