Scared of the Dark?

[Stryder]

I've written this post because I was reading a post that had absolutely nothing to do with this topic but I thought I might as wel put my understand of what people fear and is it really because they are Scared of the Dark?

Firstly I'm not scared of the dark, although on occasion I do find myself staring restlessly into the darkness when trying to sleep. I find on occasion I can't stare for too long because the night itself is alive.

How I mean alive is the fact that night, although suffering from the lack of daylight still has particular light frequencies floating around, which is known especially when nightvision is mentioned.

I noticed that these frequencies can cause a flickering sensation within a room, from bouncing off walls, and being at opposite ends of a visual spectrum. The shape of the room can also contribute to how these near un-noticible visuals are percieved such as an open cupboard etc.

I realise that these very flickers could cause minor or un-noticible epileptic attacks, that could cause paranoia, the feeling of nausia that could be associated with being scared.

That merged with a state of mind that is preparing for sleep would possible also spike the imagination into seeing, hearing or thinking of things that scare. As all of us know the saying:

Once bitten, Twice Shy

I see that as a method to explain that if you awake in the night in a panic stricken state, you feel as if your bitten and then find it particularly hard to get back to sleep because you feel twice shy.

Night is also something that can be feared because our visual range doesn't allow us to see things within a room, and any movement has our imaginations and logic trying to sculpture some physical understanding of what the movement was from and where it was.

Any trickle of light through windows also can cause shadows which is something else that can cause the mind to try and elaborate upon using the imagination.

Has anybody anything to add of perhaps their fears of the night/dark? perhaps you've combatted your fears through finding out the answer, and explaining what you realised might help someone somewhere. Feel free to reply

[Banshee]

I like to reply.
About Afraid in the Dark, I am not. I even see better when night falls.
The things that come with darkness are mostly what scares people off. Bad concious maybe??
You have to pay attention, especially at night.
There are things to see and to experience if you look for it.

Go take a walk in the dark woods, it is breath taking.
A little spooky, but so unrealistic, so strange, so beautiful.
Go there, by ful moon, it is breath taking, really...
I love it.

[tmegeney]

Up until about the time I was 20, I was deathly afriad of the dark. Darkness had a kind of tangible presence that could surround you and draw strenght from you. Since that time, I have lost my fear. I have come to develop a fondness for the dark. To have an ability to wrap the dark around me like a shield.

To some, it might just be a stage of maturity, but I believe that the answer lies beyond that. I think it has something to do with vision. When I was 20, I had eye surgery to combat farsightedness. It worked, but also had an unusual side effect. I think you might have hit it right on the head as there are plenty of light frequencies that we as humans do not consciously perceive. That doesn't mean that we can't unconsciously perceive them though.
Terry

[Banshee]

You see what I mean by I can 'see' more in the dark??
The only thing you have got to do is pay attention.
But then, that counts for the day time too.
Pay more attention.
There is much more to 'see' if you look right.....

[Deadwood]

Perhaps being afraid of the dark could have something to do with a fewar of the unknown? Just a thought.

[Banshee]

Yes, I guess you are right there.
People are afraid of 'things' they do not understand and fear, because they do not understand that there is nothing to be afraid of.

Is it bad conscience? Or something very old, what grew along with humanity, throughout all ages.
Always people feared bad demons.
Where does that come fom??
Where has this began??
Long ago, very long ago.
But why??
I do not have a clue.....
I guess in earlier times people feared thunder and lightning in the sky.
That made them afraid. So the first demon was born, I guess....
I do not know how the thought of a bad demon has existed, but some how it brought out the 'bad demons' or whatever you like to call it. And through the ages all people learned from their elderly people, bad demons exist.
it is only a thought, nothing more.
I can be so wrong, I don't have a clue.....

[Stryder]

I'm not one for running through old post that I put in the category and replacing them at the top of the list

But I kind to had to, because people seemed to be
"Scared more by the thread, than of the dark"

[peter/peter]

Try getting lost on Bali in the middle of the night 15 miles from where you want to be and do it drunk.

That will scare the crap out of you.

The place ain't all pretty and surreal then.

[Bowser]

I think that in the darkness you are more alone with your imagination. Depending on the nature of your imagination, darkness can be a good thing or it can be a bad thing.

I often lie in bed, alone with my thoughts, in the dark. It's very relaxing.

[Banshee]

But why are humans afraid of the dark?

Doesn't matter at what place you are located. If the humans at such place don't behave themselves after dark and you can't go out of your house because of it, the matter changes totally.

As far as being afraid of the dark because your imagination takes over...well, how come?

Bad concious?

Imagination comes from your consiousness.

The dark is just a part of the day...called night.

Look up at the Sky...Lights enough.

[Bebelina]

I am very scared of the dark. There. It´s all out in the open. Go ahead, mock me. I can already hear your minds...."oh, that´s how illuminated she was..." spoken with a very annoying voice...
I see things, I feel presences and they are not always friendly. Of course it´s my fear that draws them to me...but what can I do? It´s probably something deeply rooted from my childhood that I don´t seem to be able to get rid of...
Its not that I can´t master the feeling if I have to, but it´s just uncanny and I prefer to stay in the light.

[peter/peter]

Stop drop'in the acid so late, then you may stop feeling those presence's.

[Rick]

untill about 14 i was always afraid of dark,i had this stupid friend of mine(James,no not James R)who used to tell me places and crappy stories about ghosts and witchcrat etc,whenever i used to be alone,it scared the hell out of me.

gradually when our meetings decreased as i had moved couple of blocks away,i lost this habbit.

bye!

[Greg Bernhardt]

i kinda still am afraid of the dark, i have gotten better though.
Stryderunknown, I think you are really on to something, keep it up!

[Banshee]

Bebelina, my friend, nobody has to mock you for this.

Let them come and I'll kick them for you.

Short minded humans...

[MuliBoy]

Cool darkness is what soothes me the most. Hot darkness sucks if you´re trying to sleep.
But yes, I love the dark

[Banshee]

The darkness of the night is great. Especially when you can go to the Woods by a ful Moon and have a long walk there.

You can hear and see all kind of sounds in the Woods at night...A whole new world...

At a clear night by ful Moon and all the Stars up above.

I love it...

Yeah, if you are made afraid of the dark as a little child, because of the stories about witchcraft and creepy creatures, I can imagine that you are afraid of the dark.
Humans should know better then to tell little children these 'ghost stories'. Poor children, it are stories, no truth.

But the imagination of a child works completely different then of an adult. Children believe in those stories, because they are not so closed minded yet. When older, the big world and the rude behaviour come to them and then they don't have the time to see things that clear as in their childhood.

They grow up and change into adults who are shaped by the vision of the world. And sometimes the creepy feelings of the stories they are told keep with them...

[machaon]

Perhaps I am afraid of the dark. But only when it is dark, and I am in it. When I am lying alone in bed listening to the cars as they pass by on roads slickened with the night rain. What demons pass by smiling like children on the way to school in a big orange bus...? How many cold stares gaze at the warm light cast forth by my window? Hands shaking, I turn off the lamp. My prayers a styrofoam shield against my own pain, burst like a dam in my dreams.....

[esp]

Got to admit, I'm with banshee again on this one.
I've been on three Outward Bound Expeditions, in the Welsh mountains, the English lake district and the Scottish highlands.
The highlight of each of these has been being in the middle of nowhere, with no artificial light for miles and miles, wandering about the foothills and waterfalls in the middle of the night.
Spooky but a real tonic for a city boy like me.

There can be fewer things more unsettling than complete darknessthough; the sensory deprivation aspect of it alone gives me the willies.

Humans are afraid of the dark in general. It houses the worst fears of our minds because we cannot visually prove at the time what isn't there. Our imaginations people the pitch of night with the most appalling entities possible.

Anyone see the film I think was called Pitch Black or Pitch dark or something? Stay away Bebelina, stay away.

The monsters come when it's dark.
(Paraphrase, Newt, Aliens, Alan Dean Foster)

[Banshee]

Great, wandering through the Highlands in Scotland in the dark.

Must be wonderful to be there. Man, I envy you...

If humans are afraid of the dark because they can't see enough and there is darkness in their minds, well, figure it out then.

Something special why they have these imaginations only by darkness...??? Unless they are made afraid of the darkness by things happened to them in the past.

Time of day isn't important. Time is passing by every second and the darkness of night belongs with it...