I watched the Grudge when i was younger, god.....every time i'm in an empty hallway or its dark i imagine that damned girl is right behind me.
To those afraid of the dark.
- Thread starter Juven Ignus
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I guess people fear darkness because you can't see anything coming to you, i'm guessing that you use your hearing more than your eyes since you can't see , so your hearing things and then human instinct automatically thinks its something to fear therefor your scared.
I think that this is a major reason for fear of the dark. People have simply gotten used to having everything lit up for them. Darkness has become less common, perhaps even mysterious to some. This naturally intrigues some and scares off the rest.Juven Ignus said:
And then you've got the whole stereotype that Shine-Osophical pointed out. From what I hear getting mugged is NOT fun.
Not afraid of the dark, though I will be a bit jumpy if I just saw something scary on TV/movies/games.
And I think a lot of posters above me got the idea. But I fully understand why people are afraid of the dark. 'cause I am absolutely terrified of deep water. Being in a boat is fine, but actually swimming in it... *shudder*
Staring down into the deep, where anything can be. We haven't explored that much of the deep sea. Cthulhu might be down there for all we know!
And I think a lot of posters above me got the idea. But I fully understand why people are afraid of the dark. 'cause I am absolutely terrified of deep water. Being in a boat is fine, but actually swimming in it... *shudder*
Staring down into the deep, where anything can be. We haven't explored that much of the deep sea. Cthulhu might be down there for all we know!
I hate being in the car driving along an unlit road at night when you can't see into the trees. Always worried about what I can't see. I remember in ARMA 2 I was a soviet sniper at night and I didn't have night vision. It was scarier then a game like Dead Space because 1. It was more realistic. 2. I couldn't see worth a damn. 3. This was a challenge in which American soldiers were hunting me and I had to survive for a set amount of time.
It was really scary watching a humvee drive through a field directly in front of me with it's lights on while all I could do was lay in the tall grass and wait for it to pass. What only made it scarier was the possibility that there might be marines walking around and because they didn't need flashlights they were harder to track.
Ended up navigating with a map to the coast where I hid in a pile of rocks. The sounds of the waves breaking covered up any noise I made and the rocks were tall enough to conceal me.
It was really scary watching a humvee drive through a field directly in front of me with it's lights on while all I could do was lay in the tall grass and wait for it to pass. What only made it scarier was the possibility that there might be marines walking around and because they didn't need flashlights they were harder to track.
Ended up navigating with a map to the coast where I hid in a pile of rocks. The sounds of the waves breaking covered up any noise I made and the rocks were tall enough to conceal me.
It's not the darkness...it's being alone in the darkness that's creepy =S. Having said that I've never really been afraid of the dark, there are just some times when you wake up at like 3am, and it's pitch frakking black, and for a second you don't know where you are...and all is silent...
....... the monitor screen properly.MaxTheReaper said:
seriously tho, ive never been scared of the dark - i find my predatory instincts come out at night. When its REALY dark i get a little on edge, but thats just my senses adapting - and i have excelent night vision, so good my eyes hurt in the day. As reagrds that feeling of being watched, well you are - birds, bats, rats, cats etc are all watching you.
Its odd what instincts us humans have kept, we dont realy need that fear of the dark, or more precisely fear of the unknown any more. weve made our environment safe and the biggest threat to a human is another human. (discounting virus and bacteria)
I had the same thing happen to me with the cave thing, it was cheddar gorge. They turned out the lights and i actualy felt more comfortable - but again i will say i felt my 'fight response' kicking in stretching my senses for nearby objects. I actualy found the cave roof the scary part - i still have a phobia of being underground.
I think that different people have carried on difernt phobias or rather tendencies to phobias depending on genetic lineage, and our experiences in life then bring these old primal instincts out more. fear of the dark is simply one of these primal instincts that let us suvive and encourage us to progress.. ie why make fire if not for light and warmth.
The same is true for agrophobia, clostophobia, fear of snakes, fear of spiders, fear of hights - there all hangups from our more primal past that are made more pronounced by psycological issues we may have developed in life. Whats REALY interesting is why do different people have different fears wired into them.
As others have said, sight is one of our main senses for sensory input, and it doesn't help that our society is built around sight more than any other sense. Without sight, one's mobility is hampered (in society: being not able to drive, normally: not being able to find your way around), Visual cues are lost (not being able to tell hostile from neutral (animals, other humans, you name it)), and most importantly, you have to switch to using your less developed senses to navigate (and they're much less trained to handle daily life without the amount of practice you have using sight).
Don't believe me? Close your eyes and try and find your way around a room, or try to respond to some stimuli (a phone ringing, for example). Most likely, you'll fall on your ass, bump into things, etc. Now try doing it without hearing. You might not hear a phone ringing, but you'll definitely see it (buzzing on the table, seeing flashing colors and lights, etc.) Any of your other senses, you'll be fine. But sight? Gives you the most trouble.
What does this have to do with being afraid of the dark? It's an evolutionary response. I believe (not sure, too lazy to check wiki) it takes an average of about 10 minutes for one's eyes to adjust to the dark (night-vision), and that's constant exposure to the dark (like in the woods late at night). But we have made technological advances so that natural darkness is rare: computer screens, TV's, or just plain electricity. So when we face true darkness, away from not only our most developed sense but also from our creature comforts that produce light, that may be (in part) why some of us have come to fear the dark so much.
I also have this theory that elements that combine light and dark (i.e. flickering lights, dimly lit hallways, etc.) work as horror/fear elements because our natural response for our vision to adapt to light/dark fails us, but that's for another time.
Don't believe me? Close your eyes and try and find your way around a room, or try to respond to some stimuli (a phone ringing, for example). Most likely, you'll fall on your ass, bump into things, etc. Now try doing it without hearing. You might not hear a phone ringing, but you'll definitely see it (buzzing on the table, seeing flashing colors and lights, etc.) Any of your other senses, you'll be fine. But sight? Gives you the most trouble.
What does this have to do with being afraid of the dark? It's an evolutionary response. I believe (not sure, too lazy to check wiki) it takes an average of about 10 minutes for one's eyes to adjust to the dark (night-vision), and that's constant exposure to the dark (like in the woods late at night). But we have made technological advances so that natural darkness is rare: computer screens, TV's, or just plain electricity. So when we face true darkness, away from not only our most developed sense but also from our creature comforts that produce light, that may be (in part) why some of us have come to fear the dark so much.
I also have this theory that elements that combine light and dark (i.e. flickering lights, dimly lit hallways, etc.) work as horror/fear elements because our natural response for our vision to adapt to light/dark fails us, but that's for another time.
The dark is fine unless it seems like there's a threat or something nasty lurking there. For instance: there are lots of spider webs (and spiders) in my yard. I don't like going out there in the dark. Inside? Just fine, though I wouldn't be venturing into a crawlspace or anything.
Cause you don't know whats in the dark, the dark itself doesn't scare anyone (at least I don't think so). Personally i have a fear of water (not like showering, or bathing or swimming but the ocean), Its something about what can lurk there, I don't know what could be in it and I absolutely hate my lack of control in the water. (at least i doubt my ability to out maneuver anything that live in it)Juven Ignus said:
Ahem. boo [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28GaKoCuobU]
Sorry, couldn't resist.
I like the darkness, it hides how hideous I am.
Sorry, couldn't resist.
I like the darkness, it hides how hideous I am.
It's probably a natural emotion in humans to fear the darkness, because it represents a time when its senses cannot properly detect a predator, so the inclination is to be hiding at the time, often sleeping, which is what recent scientific journals suggest.
So if you're afraid of the dark, you're not a coward, you're just normal.
So if you're afraid of the dark, you're not a coward, you're just normal.
lol, blame the linguists and the direct influence of the bible for that one, not science. =Pmycpuamnts said: