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Are You Afraid of the Dark?
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{ 28 comments… read them below or add one }
Is that the cover from a Jack Chick tract?
Yep.
I thought it an appropriate Chick cover for the topic. I have a full set of the original tracts. Dark Dungeons, baby. Yeah!
My 4 year old nephew recently said to his sisters: “I am not afraid of the dark. I’m afraid of the things in the dark.”
I used to be afraid of the dark, then I was camping and someone showed me how much better you can see if you turn off the flashlight and let your vision adjust. I started experimenting with how much my vision adjusted to the dark. Now I don’t mind the dark at all.
A whole set of Chicks? Wow, I’m jealous. However, I have some of them, not to mention a bunch of very early ’70s SoCal Jesus Movement memorabilia and some entertaining stories. Yes, I was a hippie “Jesus Freak,” but don’t tell. Burn the pix!
I can’t give hard answers to the poll. No, I’m not afraid of the dark. But I was dangerously accosted in my 20’s on two different occasions–one day and one night, in places I should have been safe. The daytime one convinced me of angelic intervention. Thankfully, I wasn’t hurt either time. But incidents like this leave a lasting legacy. So I can’t go out walking alone, even during the day. Also, as a woman, I feel more vulnerable.
On the bright side, if someone’s with me, no problem. I love walking in the evening from sunset on. There’s a magic about walking at night.
In the house Korg and I lived in (that I mentioned in another post) I was terrified of the dark, and this was in my early teens. Even on the hottest summer’s night I had to sleep with at least a sheet up to my neck to protect me against werewolf attack. Werewolves and vampires were always around to get me.
From tea time on I dreaded the coming of night and could not go to sleep for fear of something getting me. Our house backed onto bush, and whenever I had to go out to the back yard at night I would sprint back to the house, sure that something would fly out of the bush and get me. My greatest terror was that someone would accidentally lock the back door and leave me out there.
Mum and Dad built an extension on the house and were in the process of turning our bedroom into a dining room. Dad cut an extra doorway into our bedroom and we still there until the extension was c0mpleted. Could you imagine my terror now there were two entrances to my bedroom?
I’m mostly OK now but still answered ‘yes’ to the poll.
What EStrunk’s 4-year old nephew said.
I think it’s utterly awesome that so many here are so willing to confess and share their fears. It’s a relief, really, to find that so many intelligent people have such vivid and fearful imaginations.
Estrunk’s nephew is a pretty insightful kid.
BTW, those Chick tracts were pretty spooky to a baby Christian.
What I’m thinking is that it’s not so much that the imagination creates the fear, but that the fear is hardwired (or instinctive) and that the imagination peoples the fear. Fear comes first, then the brain comes up with a reason for the fear. So the vampires, and ghosts and werewolves are all your brain’s way of finding a reason for the powerful and seemingly irrational fear.
There appear to be two kinds of phobias. We learn – or acquire – both. But one kind we are more prepared to learn, while the other is more dependent on learning. Fear of snakes, the dark, falling and/or high places all appear to be phobias human kind acquires much more readily than others, suggesting that we are pre-wired to learn those fears because there was once a survival value for them. It goes back to our primate ancestors, whose survival depended on staying with the tribe after dark, not falling off trees, and being very, very alert for the presence of snakes.
If it’s so hardwired, why doesn’t everyone have the same level of (seemingly) irrational fear of the dark you ask? Because we do differ in how strong our instincts are. Probably some of us have the anti-dark “survival” gene, and some don’t. Ditto snakes and falling. In the old days, those without the “survival” gene would have been more likely to wander off into the dark, fall off the tree or get eaten by snakes. Nowadays, not so much.
Me, I’ve got the survival gene for darkness, but not for snakes or falling.
I had never heard of Chick tracts till I started studying Catholicism. Suffice it to say that those were more likely to push me toward the Catholic faith–or to thinking the D&D game basically harmless, etc.–than to convince me of their original points.
Arabella says: “On the bright side, if someone’s with me, no problem. I love walking in the evening from sunset on. There’s a magic about walking at night.”
So true! Perhaps the very fact that fear is present but kept at bay adds to the thrill of the experience.
Red Rocker, I have the survival gene for all three, along with just about anything else you can mention. Whether that makes me exceptionally well-evolved or practically a gorilla (or just paranoid)–I’ll leave that to others to decide.
Estrunk, that’s a pretty precocious observation for a four-year-old to make. Well done.
I’m off … see you all in a couple of weeks!
I actually think the Harry Potter books contain some excellent advice about dealing with fear. The “Riddikulus” spell is one we muggles can use. Humor is one of the best ways to get rid of that “afraid” feeling. (And, yes, I think Red Rocker is on to something. Sometimes the fear is there first and then we fill in a reason why.) A young lady of my acquaintance says that when she has to go somewhere alone in order to keep from being afraid she sings the Potter Puppets’ Severus Snape song. It is so silly it makes it impossible to be afraid.
In John’s gospel much is made of light/dark, day/night.
Jesus as the light of the world came into the darkness of evil, sin and ignorance of the truth.
John found it significant that Judas’ betrayal took place at night.
Jesus spoke of night as a time for evil and evil deeds. Now whether that means that there is something about the dark itself that is evil, or that it just provides a convenient cover for wickedness, or that the dark of heart find some affinity with physical darkness, I’m still nutting through. I’m not convinced about my first option though. God created darkness as well as light, and moonlight is sublime.
As Yello say, ‘Moon… beautiful.’ but ‘Sun… even more beautiful.’
Oh dear God, Black Angus, you scare the poop out of me. And I have no idea what you are or what religion you follow. Please tell me you are not Catholic. Because if you are- I will have to renounce my religion.
Interesting points Black Angus,
Natural, outdoor darkness is still full of light but the darkness of a cave or the gloomy hallway have a special fear inducing quality.
It strikes me that even though a cave can be abysmally dark there are still spectacularly beautiful features and colours waiting to be revealed with a source of light.
I remember first hearing that Yellow song on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. Loved it since then.
Joivre,
Can you explain your last comment a bit more please. I don’t get what you’re saying.
Good point EStrunk, I agree that humour is a good panacea for fear. I suspect it’s because the two emotions are not compatible. Something about brain chemicals and brain centers which are activated. Here’s an article suggesting that funny cartoons activate the same brain centres which are activated by cocaine, money and pretty faces (i.e. the reward centres), and depends on the brain neurotransmitter associated with good feelings: dopamine.
http://www.neuroanatomy.wisc.edu/selflearn/accumbens.htm
Our experiences can impact us, as well as unexplainable things like phobias. Or, experiences can help create and feed phobias.
Darkness is benign in itself, but as it has historically been a good cover for evil, we have reason for caution or fear. Also cautionary and scary stories at a young age can mold fear of the dark, and feed nightmares. Thus, our fears of fictional monsters, etc., because in the dark, it’s hard to see very far, and our imaginations can go into high gear, engendering paralyzing terrors.
During the day, although we may suffer legitimate cultural fears–nuclear annihilation, environmental disaster, terrorist attack, the Gosselins–and innate phobias, we don’t usually have nighttime fears–monsters, attack, stuff jumping out at us. So when something monstrous happens during the day to us–my attempted kidnapping by a violent, drugged pervert, or a parking lot robbery–we lose that safe feeling we once had while the sun was up.
Now, I go about my business during the day as long as there are people around. But I can’t be alone, walking by myself, or alone at a beach or park. I used to love to do that. I’m not paranoid, just an experienced realist who knows monsters can look like anyone and attack at any time.
I think a lot of it has to do with experiences and context. As Arabella has shown, one’s experiences affect how one feels about certain situations. Also, there’s a difference between standing in your own backyard, looking out at the stars, as opposed to standing in a dark alley doing the same thing. Also, the backyard thing would change too depending on where your house was. In town, it’s one thing to stand in the dark outside, especially since it’s really never all that dark. But out here if you lived in the country, standing out in your backyard would still be nice but you might have to think about whether or not there was a mountain lion nearby.
I second RevGeorge’s comment. My fear of the dark depends on where it is. Take basements for example. I don’t think I have ever been in a basement that has not felt creepy to me. Something about the thick walls and the lack of windows makes me feel entombed. Being in a basement in the dark is terrifying. Being outside in the wilderness in the dark, on the other hand, is exhilarating. I live in the country where there are no streetlights or house lights (and so it gets really dark), and there is a very real possibility of encountering a moutain lion, but I am never fearful of wandering about there. It feels safe, regardless of whether it actually is. The second thing I would say about fear is that, for me, it based a great deal on feeling vulnerable — of being in a weak or helpless position. Not being able to see because of the dark, when you know that the monsters under your bed can see just fine in the dark, is scary. If I and the monsters are equally near-sighted, its not so bad.
I love the idea of near-sighted monsters! Think of them at LensCrafters, choosing eyewear. Godzilla in red frames to set off his tiny eyes. Frankenstein in horn-rims; his bride in rhinestone cats’ eyes. Dracula in titanium dark blue rimless to lightly express his inner midnight. A werewolf in contacts (needs these because of his sudden monthly changes); or maybe he’d sign up for Lasik surgery.
“I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic’s…”
… his hair was perfect.
…. and his hair was perfect.
….and his hair was perfect.
DOUBLE JINX carriek9!
By the way – I actually am afraid of the dark, won’t sleep without the bathroom light on. I have been that way for a long time. Well except when I was married for 3 short years. Have three great protector dogs who sleep with me as one pack.
Even though – now I am not afraid of my mortal life – I am most of the time afraid of my immortal life.
By the way if anyone wants to hear some music that will quelch that fear – Christian Tetzlaff’s Bach Partitas and Sonatas. He performed here tonight where I work. I was truly blessed to hear him live. Nice man to boot.
Bach has been maligned so often as being scary. He never was. He’s the best music for comfort.
By the way carriek9 there is no “and” in the text. Just simply “his hair was perfect”. Just for future ref.
I’m a stickler.
Heehee, carriek9 I got a laugh out of the idea of nearsighted monsters! Arabella, thinking of them picking out the kinds of styles of glasses that expresses their personality was just so inspired!But now I will be looking around more the next time I go to pick out my own specs!
revgeorge, I luuuuv that song by Warren Zevon! Could you somehow get it on the Hog’s Head for a Halloween sing-a-long? Awoooooo!
Many apologies for my blackberry malfunction. Note to everyone — if you post a response on your blackberry and then put it in your back pocket and then sit on the bus for an hour, you may end up sounding a bit redundant. Joivre – I have no excuse other than to note that I was am used to a Zevon bootleg from an SF radio station where he did a lot of improvisation. Awooooo.