According to Osho, we fear meeting our true self because society has layered us with a cultivated personality that wins approval, security, and respectability. Encountering the authentic being would expose the mask, threaten our social position, invalidate lifelong investments, demand aloneness and rebellion, and confront the unknown. Hence we cling to the comfortable false—though it can never bring real peace, joy, or dignity.
We’re scared to see who we really are because we built a pretend self to please others, and being real might cost us their approval and make us feel alone.