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When did it become okay for people to judge whether or not something that scares you is realistic or not? That really bugs me. If something scares me to the point that I cannot sleep or turn off the lights, then I think that is a very realistic fear...its real to me.

Zombies, ghosts, and crazy murderers like Leather face or Jason, scare me. you can't reason with these beings. You can't stop a zombie and say "wait, before you rip my neck out and eat my brains, I think that we can find a happy common ground. How about we sit down to a nice cup of coffee and talk this out." The fear of not being able to reason with them, that's what scares me, and to me that fear makes sense. But inevitably someone will tell me that my fear is unrealistic... they tell me that zombies and ghosts don't exist and what are the chances that I will be killed by Jason or leather face.

What I want to know - who set down these fear rules that say when a fear is realistic or not? obviously if it scares you then it is real to you.

your thoughts on this?...

Fears are something people tend to have in common, most people that is. Though we are all different, most of us react the same way to certain happenings.

For instance, at night our hormones react different, the level of said hormones fluctuates at different times of the day. Experts say that that is one reason we are afraid of ghosts, and most ghost sightings occur at night. It is a complex combination of things that lead us to supernatural conclusions and in turn, fear...fear of the unknown. When people feel something they feel it and they jump to their own conclusions whether or not they are based on fact.

Fear is relative, yet not so much, for the majority.

I think many people find comfort in discrediting the existance of things that make them feel weak and helpless. It is much easier for us mear mortals to say that evil beings that we are almost powerless against don't exist, than it is to live with the fear that something like that might be lurking in the shadows.

On the contrary, I find that it is far easier to just believe things, as opposed to taking the time to search other possible, more credible avenues.

We naturally believe in the macabre and or supernatural, and a lot of the time that is based on lack of information, or just plain because we are naive.

Having been a child absolutely convinced that little things were under my bed just ready to grab my feet, or worse yet..."GET" me...or consumed with the conviction that going to the bathroom in the middle of the night was a REALLY REALLY bad idea, I learned that making yourself walk through those fears a step at a time was a fundamentally important exercise in becoming a functional adult.

Pretty sure I'm not alone here. Remember making yourself go outside at night or to the bathroom at midnight? Living through it when you knew you wouldn't? That prepares us for all the things that we'll fear in our lives. Fear is a valuable thing. It's designed to make us alert problem-solvers.

It is NOT designed for us to worship and rationalize. "Because I fear, that fear is worth hanging onto and believing in." Not always. That's the birth of superstition.

Waking up in the middle of a street with headlights coming at you...good helpful fear. Staring at a guy with a knife coming your direction...helpful fear. Believing the monsters are already in your closet, so pull the covers over your eyes...not so good.

i personally believe that fear is just a product of an over avtive mind.an example.....if you are walking down a long hallway by yourself your mind will eventually hear footsteps behind you.


or if you are ever home alone you can convince yourself that someone is watching you.

I tend to agree somewhat with Joli.

"Good" fear = A fear based on a situation that has a reasonable probability of causing you harm.

"Bad" fear = A fear that is irrationally based. The situation or focus of the fear has little to no probability of causing you harm.

While the FEAR may be the same, or worse, the BASIS of the fears are not equal.

If an adult is struck with real fear of Zombies or leather faced movie villans they need to find the root cause of these fears. Thearapy or counseling are likely in order to find the reason for the irrational fear and overcome it.

Nothing wrong with being afraid - for sometimes it is what hones your survival skills. Fear of the unknown is only natural. We have over active imaginations that can tend to run away with us, especially after reading a book or watching a certain movie.

Fear of graveyards, of haunted places or beings/spirits in general - I DO NOT have. They have nothing to frighten me, just intrigue me.

What I do fear is of reality - of idiots not paying attention when driving, of those out there ready to attack and rob... humans bent on destroying others is what scares the hell outta me! Guess being attacked and almost raped and also being a police officer gives you an altogether different outlook.

I understand fear as a product of life experiences. Where as I may not be afriad of Jason or movie monsters I have always had a fear of escalators because of a story I was told when I was a little girl.

I am wonder SLHorns why you believe you are afriad of these things? There must have been something that brought about these feelings. Maybe when you were a child.

Fear is such a broad spectrum for a discussion. I see this thread going many directions.

Fear is often born out of abuse.

My grandmother for example was afraid of enclosed spaces because she was once locked in a foot locker, and she was afraid of snakes because she was thrown down a well and told the snakes would get her.

Then as mentioned there is the "at the moment fear" which is very intense, something most people go a lifetime without experiencing. These at the moment fears inspire long term fears.

I agree about graveyards...not afraid. It's the living who are scary!!!

people fear what they do not understand

Fear is not rational . Some fear the dark . Well what is in the dark that is not in the light ? I agree fear is alot to do with the unknown .

Obviously the person that set down the "fear rules" didn't talk to me first. Many of the things that you are afraid of are not things that cause me fear. In fact, I long for many of these things--possibly to bring me fear--to give me some wonderful dreams. I tend to like my scary dreams, more than the average ones.

fear.... things that go bump in the night god i hated being little i feared the dark and my closet door being open if i had to sleep in that room......i think it was for me the not knowing of what was in the dark that really scared the hell outta me.... but once i got over that and relized theres nothing there in the dark that isnt there during the day .... i wasnt so scared anymore..... but the funny thing is my closet door still has to be closed before i go to bed..out of habbit maybe....the night dosent scare me anymore infact i love it.. i love to go creeping around our local graveyard at night and take pictures with son ......i think my worst fear of today are people and what they are capable of..........murderes and such.....i dont know who makes up the rules on fear i had a fried scared to deathof balloons .... go feagure but its a death fear she has of them like they are gonna kill her......i think alot of the fears like that are from our childhoods that our subconcious wont let us forget ..... but we do need fear as said above the good fear like when a cougars gonna attack ya or someone putting a gun to your head........we do need fear to survive or we would be affraid of nothing.....

I have noticed that those that tend to judge fears as being "silly" or what ever are doing one of a few things.. trying to sound as if they themselves do not fear these things as well. Sound as if they are better since they do not fear them. Or that they are just really to narrow minded to relize as you pointed out its not actually the zombie that scares you.. its not being able to reason with it. Alot of people will hear zombie and stop listening and not relize the zombie was an example of your fear.. not the excat fear itself.

Your fears are yours.. no one should be able to tell you what you should or should not fear. I fear thinags that are weird to others myself. Everyone fears something that others would laff at. So just know when those closed minded people are telling you not to fear that.. that there is something they fear that others would say the same to them.

Fear breeds fear. Ever not been afraid of something till someone else was? Walking with a friend in the dark, sensing that persons fear? It heightens your own fear.

Why me of course after partaking from a questionable donor!!

*sinister--smiles*

Well me for one have always enjoyed thing's that go bump in the night ...I must be weird but I would love to be able to talk to a spirit etc...But as for what your saying it's true you should have the right to "fear" what you want.

I think fear begins in the mind......you are taught that things in the dark are scarey when realistically its all in your head.....but as for the rules who knows....all i know is that if im scared of something i keep away from it!

Yes, people have their own unigue fears. We of course do not all fear the same things. Some of us react differently to the dark than others. Some of us may fear swimming in the ocean because of a fear of sharks. Some a fear of flying! Others may have a mortal dread of bunnies!

Psychiatrists make a good deal of money trying to help people overcome their fears!

What I think fear is, is something that we can blam on something. Also fear is in the mind so to me, it never really happened in the first place. Fear and its stories go back years. See its something in your mind.

Fear is verry real just as any other emotion. Its just more powerful in some than otheres thats all. It is true that some fear the drk but its not the dark itself that hey fear. Its whats init. Like the ghost demons and monsters of all types.

I am up for a challenge anything that goes bump in the night. Fiquring out what it is. I love anything scary graveyards at night, haunted places. Anywhere that has a background of being haunted I always want to go. I love taking pics of graveyards at night to see if there are orbs. Call me insane, but I love it.

movies books what we see on tv all have smething to do with what we fear.

superlittlehorns ? I feel you and respect that these fears are real to you...I went searching for something that might help you out or shed some light on this. To the left of this site there are other things to search...good luck =)

http://psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/healthy_fear_or_irrational_phobia_

I think fear draws things to us, now yes fear is a natural thing even to a instinctive nature. But when we are young we don't fear anything. When I was a kid I wouldn't be afraid in the least to walk up to a stray animal reguardless of what it was. But I do think being fearful of this or that is justly and even okay. I do not think being ridiculed for your 'stupid' fear is not a right way of thinking in my honest oppinion.

most fear is from not feeling in control of what happens to u, so any given situation can cause fear, be it crowds to bugs..eww

Well, I used to have nightmares about blood........Why? I have no idea but I did. I used to think that if I stayed in the dark too long that blood would seep in through the floorboards, fill my room, drown me.......I only told my parents once and they sent me to a shrink for it. The woman told me that blood was not a thing to be scared of.....It couldnt hurt me or suffocate me.....So I bit her....and when she started to freak out I told her that maybe my fear wasn't so irrational. I mean, if a grown woman could fear a few drops of blood on her arm then why couldnt i be afraid of my room filling up with it.....I knew it would never happen but it was still very real to me.....And actually, studies show that the more you think something is real, the more it can hurt you....That's where all the hallucinations and crazy thoughts come into play but don't get me started on that or this post will be a mile long....lol

fear is a very human perception, once upon a time my own shadow scared me, i am partial blind and deaf down one side, so my perceptions can be higher sometimes i can see nothing that spooks others.... I am not a fan or pranks and i don't trust the games other humans play.....i have been a long time since being spooked to the point of real fear, i suppose that last time i felt fear was when my mom was very ill and rushed into hospital. I was afraid cause it was not in my control..... i can cope with most things.. and i love the unknown. but i am strange even amounst my closest friends..... just my thoughts only.

I think most of the things that scare us in our minds ,have the ability of taking our life from us or we cant see a way of protecting ourselves from it. Lack of control is a fear of alot of people. and since most people dont want to die before their time, the fear is the response to protect ones self from death or things beyond our control that could threaten our exhistance.

I think there are different sorts of fear and people make fun or play down a fear they don't understand

People have no idea why you're afraid of some things but not others. Why can a guy bungee jump off a tall building yet be unable to move if a spider crawls in front of him. If they don't understand why you're reacting the way you, they dismiss it.

People can and do get over their fears, usually by understanding what is happening in their head. More basic instincts can overcome great fears (a mother might be scared of fire until her children are trapped), it could be that dismissing other people's fears are a way of keeping our own fears in some sort of order in our minds in case we have to deal with them some day.

I hope that makes sense

DONT YOU HATE IT WHEN PEOPLE TELL YOU THAT THE THINGS YOU BELIEVE ARE WRONG? I do, and thats why i dont listen to what they have to say on my beliefs. I just simply ask them who the are to judge, a question in which none of them can answer. As far as I am concerned, there are no rules on what someone else believs.

This reminds me of something. In the movie Boogieman, it shows Barry Watson's character having a childhood flashback of when his father locked him in the closet to help him 'get over his fear'. This reaction is the unrealistic thing. Not the fear itself. A fear or phobia, is very real to the person who fears it. Whether or not the fear in itself is realistic, the fear to the person who fears it, is very real.

i dont have any thoughts to this but wat i think is that i must get over the fear either through fighting it in ur head or mind or just let it keep on bugging u just my thought

These aren't fears I'm trying to get over...they don't cripple me and make it so I can't function, in fact the only time they cross my mind is for only a minute before I close my eyes to sleep.

the question I am asking is who gets to decide when my fear is realistic or not?

Zombies may not exist (it was more of an example) but Texas Chainsaw Massacre was based on real events, and many thousends of people have sworn that they have seen ghosts. doesn't that make them real?

Fear has always come from the unknown or misunderstood. I that we need to concern ourselves is how we deal with that fear.

To me fear is very real, however, at times, feeling the fear is what lets me know I am still alive. The day I totally fear nothing, is the day I am no longer living.

To me fear is very real, however, at times, feeling the fear is what lets me know I am still alive. The day I totally fear nothing, is the day I am no longer living.

I guess for me, fear is something that is a primal instinct. when something scares you, you automatically react to it. It sometimes can be your imagination whereas other times its a real-life thing that can scare you e.g. a person or being threatened.

i cannot tell you that there not real. but i can tell you the scariest thing that goes bump in the night is me. im serious and im a almost nice guy. dont be afraide what happens was ment to happen. so hope for the best. besides if somthing comes for you being awake isnt going to help you. your still dead. just you saw yourself die.

well i think our minds decide what frighten us, not whether or not it is real

it all exists, but, it's not the dark you should fear, it's what's in the dark.

i cannot say what is real or not real in any real debate. i know from personal experiences that certain things do exist. such as spirits. as i was reading this i was goin to say that i didnt have any fears growing up but that is untrue on retrospect. the dark? no i always enjoyed the dark. being locked in my room all day after school, i would pick my lock and sit down in the basement in the wee hours to be alone and unconfined. spirits dont scare me, they entice me. i used to have a fear of little girls as a teenager. i had many reoccuring dreams of a little girl in a colonial style dress who was always saying something to me that scared me very badly. nightmares used to scare me until i learned to embrace them.
my worst fear as a child was to be alone. i overcame that. then of heights, i took up rockclimbing and bested that. i used to get very scared when looking myself in the eyes in mirrors as i didnt recognise the person looking back. i guess what i mean to say is i percieve fear as a learning experience. i try and grow from it. hehe still dont like little girls much though

Hey hun totally get you here and I agree its real. Skeptics will always try to discount things because they have to be bitten on the butt before they will believe something is real. Just because it cant be touched and seen by all doesnt mean its not real and... doesn't mean that it can't be feared. In my book there is no such thing as an unrealistic fear, if it was unrealistic they why would there be a fear emotion attached to it. Just stupidity by some that have to force their opinions on to others...

Fear is primal nature. often showing responce in times of pain, injury or even death. Moderate fears suggest health conserns. and Excessive Fears are often formed from childhood experences.

What we fear, and how we fear it depends on the personality, and how we are to react.being afraid of things from your childhood doesnt mean that you had a bad experience. but had that experience and something else triggered a negitive response which makes your mind believe you are afraid of that.
Anti grandmother being afraid of snakes is a common fear. but the childhood connections and negitive reaction to the snakes make her afraid of them now.
before the well, she [probably] didnt think about being afraid of snakes. and before the foot locker, she probably was fine at hide and seek and childhood games where she could hide in a small space easily. A negitive reaction to being locked in the foot locker sparked a tramatic even for her and that is why she is afraid of those small spaces now.

I myself am afraid of drowning and small spaces. It was the negitive event when I was in the 8th grade that sparked my fear of drowning. I was doing a swim test and my lungs stopped breathing. that water was to cold for my body and I froze up. I failed the test but later believed that if I continued to swim, I would perhaps drown one day. I swim now, but I still have a little bit of that fear.
As for small spaces. Ive never really had a traumatic event to make me think negitively of small spaces. But I know that If I do force myself in a small space, or I get cought in a small space or even when im feeling crowded, its because I feel like I cant breathe and that makes me panic.

everything ur parents told u didn't exsist

THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT IS ME

"The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself."

To be honest, I don't think we can fear something until we have either seen it in real life or experienced it in someway.

Such as needles. Most people that are afraid of needles have been to the doctor a lot in their youth or flat out can't stand the sight of blood and relate needles to it directly.

And as for things like Jason, we have all experienced near death moments atleast once in our life. That's what we are afraid of sometimes. Just losing our lives like that.

Fear is just natural and exists in life. You can't escape it.

we are all afraid of different things, as we are all different.There are no rules as to what scares someone, tis just that person.

im not afraid of drying, im afriad of not living.

lol...Doctors did ....I'm scared to death of sharks.....as far as the spirit world goes I fear the things that are out of control...By the way...Jason would scare the hell out of me to...cause like you said...what the hell could you do? Thats a kill or be killed situation.

I also believe that fear is instilled by our parents, siblings and peers. We have an over active imagination and sometimes it gets the better of us. But I agree w/most..walk through those and work them out..If one recognizes what they are afraid of they can't and won't be afraid anymore.

If something makes my face pale, my heartbeat quicken, and my body feeling as if it's weightless, followed by the weird ant-crawling feeling (blood rushin'), then something has just scared the bejesus out of me, and it is REAL!

fear is relative, and I don't think anyone should be allowed to say what's scary and what's not. You know, at movie stores they place the silence of the lambs and the rest of the hannibla movies under horror, when they're really dramas? And The freddy movies have never been scary, just BRate. i mean, i love freddy, but he's too comical to be scary, and there's alot of sex and gore. the same with chucky. Michal mayers, though... he doesn't speak. Silence from a stalker terrifies me. In Japan, their horror films are full of terror that grips you and drives you insane.. Ju-on.. i couldn't open my closet for a week. I think that they, whoever they may be, should do away with this "scary" buisness, as in the guidelines, and let fear be what it really is. something deep, personal, and sensual.

Far as i know i go bump in the night

i go bump in the night so be afraid be very afraid

I believe it all comes down to the narrow mindedness of some people, the unwilling to believe that ghosts or whatnot are real...and then it comes down to what you said, is it real simply because it is real to you...that fear that zombies, ghosts, Leatherface etc. bring to you...
Personally that is one of the reasons I love scary movies or thriller/suspense...I like that feeling of being frightened of taking a second look at the shadows, of imagining things that go bump in the night ;) But that's just me...

The real bump in the night would be the cats running around and jumping on you when watching a movie that is scary or a tiny mopuse that scury's accross the floor and runs into things to make things move a tad or the skillful quiet guys like me that is sneaky to tap you on the shoulders and say "Boo" just make you jump out of your skin when it's funny to our amusement to get a jolt on those who are easy to scare

For this I have an amusing story. For a few weeks I was hearing scratches in the wall, above me and around me. Couldn't figure it out and it happened mostly in the wee hours of the morning. I thought at first, paranormal activity and yes sometimes I got spooked. I mean you wake up from a dead sleep to loud scratching that seems to be by your head. Well I decided to do something about it. I was doing the lesser banishing ritual because, yes I really did think paranormal and then talking with a coworker, she suggested I lay a mouse trap. I did. I caught 12 damn mice in 3 days. I would have rather it been paranormal...lol

However, with all of that, I'm not so quick to think that bumps in the night are paranormal, it could be mice, cats, and yes even squirrels, raccoons...I'm not so quick to get spooked now

That's true. If it's something you feel you see, should it not be there? Does it matter if other people really believe in what you believe? I'm not sure.

Different people feel/sense/see different things.....everyones mind is different.

I completely agree with Joli. Fear is a survival technique.

While I do believe that littlehorn's fear of ghosts and zombies is irrational and unrealistic (because the likelihood that you will have to survive an onslaught of zombies and ghosts is, well, next to none, and I say 'next to' only because I have no problem admitting that I could be wrong though I'm probably right), it's also sort of endearing. If she can't let go of those fears, then she is kind of right; those fears are real to her.

true, different things, scare different kinds of people.

What goes bump in the night? Sometimes it may be hard to answer. Ask a believer and it maybe a spirit walking it normal path running into your newly placed obstacles. Ask a non believer and it might just be delusion produced by one's over active imagination....

but I still say it's just me looking for my next meal donor...

i guess we all judge what we think to be a real fear on what we are scared of ower selfs

Fear is a learned behavior. When we're little and we have nightmares or hear things in the night, its our parents who decide whether or not it was rational or real...most cases not...just to get us to go back to sleep! Later in life it may be sensing the fear of others that contributes to our own fears..but we learn to differentiate between fear of something that can and will harm us..and "irrational" fears of things that can't or won't.

As an adult, it's noone but you who decides if your fear is rational or real or not....and don't let anyone else decide for you :)

I also tend to think that the overactive or overstimulated mind can create far more frightening things than any real scenario and that often those bumps in the night might not even be real sounds. But that doesn't make the fear wrong...it just explains how you got it.

Personally, I've found that you can think of the most unrealistic thing and if you focus on it too long, you can actually start to scare yourself. I managed to find myself temporarily afraid of flying off the planet if gravity should suddenly stop...arranging it so that I'd be standing under things I could grab on the 'way up'. It's silly...and frankly just plain dumb...but think about it too long and you never look at a night sky over your head the same.

People tend to like to have all the answers. They like to categorize people into rational and irrational, crazy and sane. The real answer is that there is no answer. Rational and irrational fears are relative to the person and the situation. Don't let anyone tell you that you are irrational.

Well people have fears of things for many different reasons. Some come from a trumatic experience or some come for a fear that may have been taught to us from youth. Example for that is my mother was always scared of riding on ariplanes so growing up I heard this so now I have a fear of it as well. I of course fly but feel sick the whole time Im in the air. Now these types of fears cant be helped and should not be judged. I also get very jumpy after watching scary movies and my mind and eyes play tricks on me. I think this is normal and should not be scoffed at. Well this is just my two cents. Some fears are instilled in you and some you just have. Everyone is different.

I find that most people that judge your fears are usually afraid of the same thing but, refuse to admit it.

I would agree that every one's fear is a very real thing and that all individuals should face their fears to an extent. If you understand what you are afraid of it will lessen the fear. When you are speaking of zombies I couldn't help but chuckle a little bit. I was thinking that I had never heard of a zombie running and then the movie Shaun of the Dead popped into my head.

However, when discussing crazy serial killers and things of that nature it is understandable to have a fear.

Getting back to the original post in this thread...It is definitely no one's right to tell another what they can and can't fear.

As far as fearing Zombies that eat your brains, well that is the last thing that would come to mind (no pun intended) when walking throught the dark. I think most people can over come thier fears by understanding that which causes it. I don't particularly love spiders and since I was a small child I was terrified of them. I used to have night mares about them crawling on me and becoming surrounded by spiders hanging on thier webs everywhere. Then as an adult while in the USMC base at Camp LeJune, NC I was forced to live in the woods and swamp areas for training. Laying in ambush and unable to move for long periods of time I faced one of my greatest fears. Spider of all varieties thrive in these woods and I found myself sitting in tall grass with lterally hundreds of them crawling back and forth across my arms and legs. The were no more a threat to me than the other Operators carrying M16/2A rifles loaded with blanks. I soon found a peaceful co-existance with the arachnid family, granted you won't find me cuddling up with a tarntula anytime soon. Now instead of squashing them under my boot, I simlply assist them in relocating to a more accpetable place around me person (like the outdoors).
"The fear of death is more to be dreaded than death itself."
Publilius Syrus (~100 BC)

Fear is one of a group of reactions in life forms with a long history of survival advantages for the owner.

It has compounded from simple reactions like a flower closing it's petals at night, and in humans has many built on symbiotic subroutines, based on triggers of data and internal data construction models or thoughts or reactive peptides and other sub-systems in the human brain.

It occurs during the manifestation of a real or perceived attack on the system, its evolutionary purpose being to incite the system to react. Fear also can be described as a feeling of extreme dislike towards certain conditions, objects, people, or situations such as: fear of darkness, fear of ghosts, etc. Personal fear varies extremely in degree from mild caution to extreme phobia and paranoia.

Some philosophers have considered fear to be a useless emotion; other thinkers note the usefulness of fear as a warning of potentially unpleasant situations or consequences. Still others consider that fear is the fuel that feeds the ego's (as in "separating/judgmental agent") engine.

the mind sometimes seems to create reasons for the unexplainable based on a paranoia possibly caused by stress of the unknown.

I wonder though, does giving in to your fears, feeding them with the power, just make them worse?
Take me, I have been terrified of snakes. I literally froze at the sight and have been known to pass out.
What is so scary about that snake?
What does it represent to me?
Why do I allow it to scare me?
Take any fear, ask yourself these questions. And then work on conquering your fear, if you choose to.
I've been working on mine for 5 years and just got to the point where I will handle pythons and boas.
Will my rationale and process work for you? Maybe, maybe not.
It's a question of will.

LizSara wrote: Some philosophers have considered fear to be a useless emotion; other thinkers note the usefulness of fear as a warning of potentially unpleasant situations or consequences. Still others consider that fear is the fuel that feeds the ego's (as in "separating/judgmental agent") engine.

Most biologists acknowledge three main types of fear. The fight or flight fear, and the longer term anxiety fear and of course phobias.

The fight or flight fear is very useful since it pumps adrenaline and gives us focus on either running away or fighting something life threatening. This can also be things like more mild fears of heights or animals until it crosses over into a phobia...since they make us very aware of our surroundings and we exercise more caution.

Anxiety fear (like the fear of a mortgage or getting fired) tend to be unhealthy since we can't 'do' anything immediate to alleviate those fears. The system still responds like fight or flight but over a longer term which can cause health problems. Fight or flight can also cross into anxiety if experienced for too long (like soldiers on long tours who get PTSD or post traumatic stress disorder)

Phobias are pretty self explanatory but also create anxiety and long term stress illnesses if exposure to our phobia is too much or too long.

Any of these fears can be based on rational or irrational focuses of our fear but it's the time and extent of those fears that render us able bodied or unhealthy. A fear of zombies may be rational or irrational but the likelihood of facing that fear on a regular basis is low so the fear isn't unhealthy per say so long as your not also addicted to zombie films.

just because something is not tangible or solid does not mean it is not real, or is not to be feared. Tyrany is not a physical or tangible thing, but it is still real, and something to be feared. carbon monoxide cannot be seen, felt, or smelled, but you would be an idiot not to believe it can harm you.

Honestly I think that would be about 400 years ago as a product of the Enlightenment... ;-)

I think the distinction that may be lost here is "real" vs. "rational" or "factual". It's entirely possible to scare one's self quite literally to death over something that does not empirically exist. For the individual in question, the fear is very "real" in that it results in a physical response (in this case fairly destructive).

However, if the object of one's terror is not an empirical threat, or worse is an imagined threat - then the fear while "real" is not based on any "real" threat and therefore is not "rational". We as humans tend to want to think we've developed past irrational fear, but I'm skeptical that we have...

There are many ways in which a fear can be considered reasonable or not. It all really depends on the person who is calling out your fear. A couple examples are:

- A person who knows that this cannot happen or hasn't heard of an experience in which it happened.

- As a child they were taught to believe that such things could never happen. Such as with let's say serial killers. They were sheltered.

- The last one I've noticed is when you say something scares you and it scares the other person equally. They don't want to admit it so they play it off as if you were ridiculous for thinking that would ever happen.

Those are just a few that I can think of for why people would deem a fear realistic or not.

I totally agree with you.... however my fears are a little weirder.... how do you think i could rationalise my fear of black and white movies? yeah strange i know.... but i do not understand how they can scare me...

I agree, if you fear it, then it is real enough to you. Also, you must use logic as well on the fears of characters on TV. They are not real, but someone may wish to copy them and kill like them. So fear the posibility, not the character.

its real to me if i want it to be or not its stel real!

Fear is a survival response; it is how it is dealt with that shows courage or cowardliness.
Unreasonable fear would be fear without reason. If you have reason to be fearless is folly.

If the fear is there then it is real It does not matter what someone is afriad of because for them it is very real

I think that time and society has proven that fear of something unrealistic or unlikely is not something we can simply choose to acknowledge as such and forget. It's an automatic conditioned response which is fairly out of our control excepting of course through therapy and/or a great deal of time and work.

to paraphrase from a movie quote "there are things that go bump in the night and I'm one of those who bump back"

Reality is a subjective concept. If you believe something to be true then it is. Therefore if something envokes fear in you to you it is real and valid.

I would like to believe that our minds tend to take very real threats- being out of control, for example- and put a face to them in order for us to be able to focus. I think the author of this thread pinpointed it when she had a very real fear of not being able to rationalise with someone or something, and that in her mind, the face of these fears became the images she saw in movies. Basically, our brains take something intangible and give us something we can put a name to.
I for one have always had claustrophobia, tight places being very uncomfortable to me in the extreme-so movies that depict people in caves or buried alive, have a bad tendency to overwhlem me. That is my brain putting a tangible cover on an intangible emotion, and it gives me a handle with which to deal with my fears...
I never mock anyone's fears, for no matter how silly they may sound, to them they are very real, and be it Leatherface, Dracula, or the creeping crud, whatever their mind puts to it is how they best know how to deal with it...fear being a natural reaction to danger that has been with us eternally-how we deal with those fears is what has changed over the ages.

in my oppinion you are right if you fear something it's real to you. if someone tells you that ghost don't exist he's a fool in my eye's. i'm like you afraid of things you can't reason with. if you can talk there is much less to fear. i'm also scared of things i can't see, feel or hear.
none the less you can't let yourself be downed by it. and alway's try to get a grip on your self when you realise your fear is infront of you. cause wathever it is a strong and devote mind can't be broken not even by a ghost.

if it seems real too someone it is at least in there minds and i have seen enough to convince me that there are some not so nice things out there

That being said, our imaginations can always conjure up something far more frightening that the bad things in reality

i completely agree

Although it is possible that someone's imaginations can run away with them. Expounding upon my previous answer I do not believe it is anyone's right to tell an individual what they can and cannot fear.

If someone fears something then that fear is real to them.

I Agree with FelixFelix. The human mind can always conjure more frightening images then you could ever find in real life.

That doesn't mean that the fears you have developed aren't valid or that anyone has right to mock them.

As I've said before, of course it's not right to mock fear...it's most often an automatic learned response (meaning that it's become instinctive) and that isn't just undone because someone else tells you that it's stupid to be afraid.

I dont fear the things that go bump in the night. For me fear causes an adrenaline rush, and i really enjoy that. the split second reactions u have, and all.

I have one true fear, but unfortunately this is neither the time nor the place for me to name it. Too many ppl will frown on it, and the gods know what else might result.

For years i've been bringing my sister up on horrors and thrillers, and even as a teenager, she still fears little things, even tho on a certain level she knows its not real. we were discussing it a few days ago. Every evening before going to bed, she'll place a chair before her closet door (so she can hear the chair scraping should something come out of it - i know she got that from SAW), she'll check behind the curtains, under table cloths and under the bed, just to ensure herself that nothing is hiding there. When she sits in the lounge, she wont have her feet anywhere near the floor, for fear of something coming from underneath and grabbing her by the ankle. I, of course, find it quite amusing, and i love scaring her. She lives very much on edge, so it doesnt take a lot.
Reminds me of something that happened last night. We were walking thru the darkened house, and she was copying the classic lines in thrillers "hallo? Is anybody there?" when i suddenly startled her. Her scream kinda raised the roof and brought the parents running, to find us both laughing. Needless to say i got into trouble.

Sorry for getting lost there for a moment, happens sometimes.

Fear can be anything, it might seem like nothing to the person next to u, but by bringing it alive in ur mind, it exists for u. And that is enough basis for any fear. The real lesson is to conquer it, and not to become enslaved to it,

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