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why are children afraid of the dark?


kaesthebluntedwonder

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ive been thinking a lil lately and was just talking to my dad about this. some say the reason why all children have been afraid to enter a dark empty room at some point in they childhood is because a certain fear has been burned into their unconscious...it dates back to when families would be in the woods say on a picnic and a small child would wander off and get devoured by wolves or perhaps a bear. this could have happened 400 years ago, but all children experience that sort of fear when they are in a dark room and they think a monster is going to get them. it probly sounds like im reaching pretty far here, but cmon, i know every single one of you was scared like that as a child.

 

:idea:

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so your saying its an instinctual thing for young kids to be afraid of darkness. Ill agree with that. Its just too bad that for us humans our instincts have diminished so greatly and to the point where we dont have a clue what it is we actually fear. Not knowing what it is we actually fear brings on a bigger fear of just not knowing. I think its a combination of these 2 factors that enhances the fear of darkness.

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Guest imported_El Mamerro

Not quite as farfetched as you think... That's pure Jungian psychology right there (collective unconscious, etc).

 

I have to agree with what I read on a Calvin and Hobbes... Kids are afraid of the dark because you can't see anything to distract you from your other fears.

 

I kinda think fear is the brain's natural response when it stops receiving sensory input. We rely so much on vision when we're young that upon lack of sight some kind of "Something's Wrong" alarm starts blaring up there, and results in us experiencing fear. Beer,

 

El Mamerro

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Guest Pilau Hands

There was a tv show on for a while..."PROFIT" about something or other. Anyway, the main character was a successful lawyer I think. Fancy apartment, but he had a little room which he kept unlit. Instead of sleeping in his huge bed, he'd go into that room and sleep in the cardboard box he had placed inside. He had a fucked up childhood and that was his comfort...the box.

 

I'm still afraid of the dark soemtimes, cause like mammero said, you can't see anything to distract you from your other fears. I start imagining gigantic sharp-teethed things, and run.

 

At one point I thought I'd plan to lull my baby to sleep in the dark...try and instill comfort in it and dispell fear. Then I thought...what if it ends up as an adult sleeping in a box...

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Guest imported_Tesseract
Originally posted by kaesthebluntedwonder

our western way of thinking isnt so healthy.

 

 

Apart from the kid psycology part, wich i think is compared to chaos for them, I'd like to say that fear is the western worlds biggest product.

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i remember when i was 3 or 4 standing over a puddle in my basement all scared to cross it because it had a reflection of the ceiling on it and i thought i would fall through it or someshit. i dont know, when i find myself behind warehouses in the middle of nowhere at 3 am i'll stop and ponder upon the reason im there for 4 or 5 seconds then keep doing my thing..shit that hurts us usually doesent scare us..shit will sneak up on you all friendly then bite you in the jugular.

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Originally posted by kaesthebluntedwonder

i used to be afraid to jump in the deep end of my grandparents swimming pool because it was a box shaped decline, like a square at the bottom with four sides that inclined up...i thought i would get swallowed up by the thing

 

it was probley your conciounce(sp) telling you not to because of that drain pipe.

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Guest imported_Tesseract

Re: another 2 cents deposited

 

Originally posted by kaesthebluntedwonder

im just saying that the western way of thinking is to prove everything in a scientific manner, which throws spirituality out the window...

 

'Scientific manner' is correct. While science includes spirituality, scientific manner is what leads people to try and make a rule for everything. And to return on my previous post, i will add that eastern worlds biggest value seems to be concentration/focusing, thats the reason why an eastern man sees the whole world in a two line aphorism and a western man sees a 'way' or a tale.

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