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Author Topic:   Supernatural/paranormal activity and the power of suggestion
Omnivorous
Member
Posts: 3978
From: Adirondackia
Joined: 07-21-2005
Member Rating: 7.3


(1)
Message 13 of 33 (646767)
01-06-2012 11:53 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by hooah212002
12-31-2011 1:03 PM


Too damn quiet...
I think CS is on the right track with his evolutionary analysis.
I spend a lot of time alone in Adirondack forests, sometimes in deep wilderness. Officially, the only predator that need concern me is the black bear which is generally shy of humans unless desensitized to human presence by careless garbage disposal and generally only dangerous when startled or reacting to a perceived threat to cubs.
Unofficially, both large bucks, moose and wolves (occasionally down from Canada) can be threats.
I treasure the peaceful quiet there. But when I realize the surrounding forest has gone dead silent--no bird movements or twitters, no scurrying ground squirrels, when even the wind seems to be holding its breath--my hackles rise. I pause, sniff the air, study the woods around me, and only move on when some intuitive, instinctual part of me is satisfied. Reason is of little use here.
When and where we evolved, we were prey. For a hominid in East Africa, or even an early modern human, that deep alarm system was invaluable. Finding myself alone in a sudden hush still triggers a hyper-alert state, one that served me well in the jungles of East Asia and in large cities around the world: that state can still make me stand silently for 15 minutes in the forest or cross the street to avoid the mouth of a dark alley in New York.
As for the associations you recently make between that trigger and what you've been reading--sure, that sounds like suggestibility, but even suggestibility can be useful if, say, you've heard reports of tigers in the area and then hear a rustling nearby followed by a sudden hush.
That alert/alarm systen is ancient and bypasses the reasoning mind for good reasons. It's not so much irrational as arational, and faster than logic.
If an empty car in the night-time parking garage gave me the creeps, I'd give it a wide berth. The cost of precaution is low, and the penalty for ignoring your own hackles rising can be fatal. One of the first things taught in urban self-defense courses is don't ignore your instincts. Many millennia and hominid deaths went into arming you with them--ridiculing our own instinctive alarms and laughing our way into the maw of death is the premise of a thousand horror flick scenes.
When you find yourself alone, and it suddenly gets quiet--too damn quiet--honor your ancestors and stay alive.
Edited by Omnivorous, : No reason given.

"If you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs, you can collect a lot of heads."

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by hooah212002, posted 12-31-2011 1:03 PM hooah212002 has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 16 by Trixie, posted 01-06-2012 12:36 PM Omnivorous has replied
 Message 17 by hooah212002, posted 01-06-2012 2:31 PM Omnivorous has replied

  
Omnivorous
Member
Posts: 3978
From: Adirondackia
Joined: 07-21-2005
Member Rating: 7.3


Message 22 of 33 (646823)
01-06-2012 4:36 PM
Reply to: Message 17 by hooah212002
01-06-2012 2:31 PM


Re: Too damn quiet...
hooah writes:
Everything you say rings very true and I accept. However...
Take more blue pills, cut back on the reds

"If you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs, you can collect a lot of heads."

This message is a reply to:
 Message 17 by hooah212002, posted 01-06-2012 2:31 PM hooah212002 has seen this message but not replied

  
Omnivorous
Member
Posts: 3978
From: Adirondackia
Joined: 07-21-2005
Member Rating: 7.3


Message 23 of 33 (646824)
01-06-2012 4:53 PM
Reply to: Message 16 by Trixie
01-06-2012 12:36 PM


Re: Too damn quiet...
Trixie writes:
However I then go a step further and shin up the nearest shinnable tree! Fast! Then sit with my heart pounding.
If I'm unarmed, I look for heavy rocks and sticks.
Gendered? Maybe. Though it could be experience.
I've seen bears climb trees. And you can't run in a tree.

"If you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs, you can collect a lot of heads."

This message is a reply to:
 Message 16 by Trixie, posted 01-06-2012 12:36 PM Trixie has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 24 by Trixie, posted 01-06-2012 6:45 PM Omnivorous has replied

  
Omnivorous
Member
Posts: 3978
From: Adirondackia
Joined: 07-21-2005
Member Rating: 7.3


Message 25 of 33 (646855)
01-06-2012 10:00 PM
Reply to: Message 24 by Trixie
01-06-2012 6:45 PM


Re: Too damn quiet...
Trixie writes:
Interesting thought about it being gendered. When this happens to me, the one thing that does come into very sharp focus is that I'm a very small female and don't stand a snowball's in a physical confrontation, stones or no stones. I'm also acutely aware that though I'm a fast runner, I won't get far cos I smoke.
Testosterone does seem to shift the emphasis from flight to fight; on the other hand, if I were a wee bit who could flit up a tree, I might. As it is, my 200 lb. frame, though fairly trim, does not flit.
I'm so glad we don't have bears here.
The deep woods black bears really are terribly shy--they're hunted here--quite different from the brown (grizzly) bears out west that tend to see us as snackies. The only thing you're likely to see of a black bear is a roly-poly rump in hasty retreat, and that only rarely. To avoid misunderstandings when picking berries in thick underbrush, I whistle and sing.
With young hooah reading spooky stories, it may be that spooky things are nearer the suface of his imagination so that when he hears an unexpected noise or sees an unexpected shape, these spooky things get included in his mental list of what the cause could be.
Yes, I suspect so.

"If you can keep your head while those around you are losing theirs, you can collect a lot of heads."

This message is a reply to:
 Message 24 by Trixie, posted 01-06-2012 6:45 PM Trixie has not replied

  
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