Sardello calls this presence "the double" following the lead from literature. We are being told that a new presence is in the world that is not reducible to external "causes" but is nonetheless very real and influencing the actions of our children. The only way to perceive this presence of Fear is through the organ of the soul and everything Sardello says in his book can only be understood if the reader accepts an "epistemology of the soul" that is to say, the imagination as a legitimate way of knowing the world. By the way, this way of knowing reigned supreme until the Age of Science which systematically seeks to excise any shred of imagination from observation on the false grounds that imagination is merely subjective.
If the reader can accept the reality of the soul as a way of knowing the world objectively-once the method of observation has been learned of course, as in science-then the problems facing us today in our lives yield to astonishing and fresh insight in this book.
This book is about Fear in the world and the organ of the soul teaches us that this Fear is an autonomous presence in the world, invisibly influencing even determining events in the world. Sardello's approach, rooted in his Spiritual Psychology concludes that modern therapies search fruitlessly for psychological causes to this fear, as rooted in experiences in the past (p.151ff). Instead we need to perceive Fear as an actual presence in the world which can enter us and affect our body and senses, as he describes in great detail in the first chapters of the book. The way to deal with Fear according to Sardello is to become conscious of how it affects us now, rather than to seek causes in the past. We can become so conscious if we can exercise and develop the capacities of the human soul.
This book is concerned with fear and Sardello does not shrink from giving us the facts about fear according to the epistemology of the soul. This also makes difficult and yet necessary reading. Yet, none of this "facing reality" is intended merely to frighten or to sensationalize. On the contrary, I understand the whole premise of the book to be that Fear is in the world is a necessary agent to wake us up to the profound absence of Love in the world today. Once woken up, we no longer need to continually feed our fears. Instead Sardello gives throughout the book, systematic meditative exercises designed to strengthen the capacity of the soul to love. As Sardello says Love casts out Fear.
So this book, which does not flinch from describing the reality of a fear-filled world is after all primarily a book of Love, teaching us how to develop the capacity of love for the sake of a world bereft of love. Fear then becomes a strange and disturbing visitor who brings us the important news that we must bend to the task of creating Love for the sake of our future on this earth.