Irrational Fears

Louis_Cypher
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Irrational Fears

Yesterday, I was assisting in a post mortum proceedure involving an older gentleman who had fallen from his boat and drowned, pretty straight forward.

As I was getting ready to prep the body it clicked into place... Lake, water... LEECHES!!!!

Sure enough, I turned the fellow over in the body bag and the damned thing was filled with blood suckers...

I have a pathological FEAR of the little bastards, so much so that I cringed across the room while my Doctor, (all 4'9, 98lbs of her ) plucked them out of the bag with forcepts and dropped them into a bucket of bleach....

Ok... I'm a monster, 6' 280lb ex combat medic, ex firefighter... I cut up corpses for a living... in short, very little on the planet scares me...or even bothers me, except....

I know my fear is irrational... the bastards are no worse than mosquitoes. And I even know where I aquired said fear... but I can't shake it off.

Does any one else here have fears that they can't get past that fall into the class of Irrational?

 

LC >;-}>

 

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Louis_Cypher wrote:I know my

Louis_Cypher wrote:

I know my fear is irrational... the bastards are no worse than mosquitoes. And I even know where I aquired said fear... but I can't shake it off.

Care to indulge us?

 

Louis_Cypher wrote:

Does any one else here have fears that they can't get past that fall into the class of Irrational?

Ya, i got one... im in the same boat for size/weight/profession but seriously... I'm scared shitless of "Grey's"

Thats right... im scared of tiny, skinny, grey aliens with big eyes >.> and i dont know why (or so the CIA tells me)

 

Im not jerkin your chain either, when an image of one gets displayed on a sci-fi channel or something, i literaly MUST change the channel, or walk out of the room.

 

So hah! im scared of something who's existence is in question! while your scared of vampire worms

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Louis_Cypher wrote:I know my

Louis_Cypher wrote:

I know my fear is irrational... the bastards are no worse than mosquitoes. And I even know where I aquired said fear... but I can't shake it off.

Does any one else here have fears that they can't get past that fall into the class of Irrational?

You know, I somehow missed picking up any irrational fears.  I have an almost pathological hatred of mosquitoes, but that's due to a cause and effect relationship: they bite me, and I itch for a week.

I've always felt most phobias were probably evolutionary adaptations.  People that were afraid of spiders, insects, leeches, etc., probably got poisoned a lot less, and therefore bred more successfully.  Those afraid of the dark stayed with the tribe.  Those afraid of feathers...well, some people are just fucked.

The Doomed Soul wrote:

Ya, i got one... im in the same boat for size/weight/profession but seriously... I'm scared shitless of "Grey's"

Thats right... im scared of tiny, skinny, grey aliens with big eyes >.> and i dont know why (or so the CIA tells me)

Thank you for clarifying; for a sec there I thought you were phobic about primetime medical dramas.

Quote:

Im not jerkin your chain either, when an image of one gets displayed on a sci-fi channel or something, i literaly MUST change the channel, or walk out of the room.

Interesting!  I wonder if there's some part of your brain that screams "predator!" when it sees one or something.  Do me a favour:  go take this test and tell me how you score.

Quote:

So hah! im scared of something who's existence is in question! while your scared of vampire worms

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I'm terrified of bats. I

I'm terrified of bats. I won't even go outside when it's dark during warm weather. Every time one came near me I've run screaming and didn't even remember afterward. I remember seeing it and next thing I know I'm in the house.

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shikko wrote:Interesting!

shikko wrote:

Interesting!  I wonder if there's some part of your brain that screams "predator!" when it sees one or something.  Do me a favour:  go take this test and tell me how you score.

I smell a set up >.>

 

edit; Clicked link, got a black screen with a water-mark in the top left corner nothing else o_O

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The Doomed Soul wrote:shikko

The Doomed Soul wrote:

shikko wrote:

Interesting!  I wonder if there's some part of your brain that screams "predator!" when it sees one or something.  Do me a favour:  go take this test and tell me how you score.

I smell a set up >.>

I swear on your life, it is not Rick Astley.

Quote:

edit; Clicked link, got a black screen with a water-mark in the top left corner nothing else o_O

Hrm...that's odd.  It loaded in just about a second over my connection...strange. Ah well.

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Quote:I know my fear is

Quote:
I know my fear is irrational... the bastards are no worse than mosquitoes.

There's a hypothesis in evolutionary psychology involving the nearly ubiquitous revulsion humans have to certain things, most notably disease, parasites, and severe deformity.  As you're probably aware, the main thing humans use to judge the fitness of a potential mate is physical appearance.  You've probably heard the idea before... men like blondes with big boobs because young is better, reproductively.  Blonde hair naturally darkens with age, and bigger boobs sag more than small ones with age.  Therefore, big boobs and blonde hair are good indicators of youth (without makeup and boob jobs entering into the equation... but we certainly haven't had time to adapt to such things...).

Anyway, youth is one thing we instinctively like, but perhaps more important than that is our resistance to disease and parasites.  Most animals have a clear indicator.  A monkey's bright red cowl is an indicator that he has a strong resistance to worms and ticks and parasites.  A monkey with a pale face is likely anemic from blood loss or contamination.

Since our primary "foe" in evolution is parasites, it makes perfect sense that our genes would program us with a sense of revulsion when we look at someone obviously riddled with parasites.  A population that shuns such individuals will have better offspring.

Long way around my ass to get to my elbow, but the point is your fear is probably not that irrational.  Oh, and for what it's worth, I have a thing about ticks.  I nearly throw up when I see a fat tick on a human.

 

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Demons.No shit.My Fundy

Demons.

No shit.

My Fundy extremist demonology-obsessed parental upbringing has scarred me to no end. I sleep well (usually) but I'm just waiting, waiting for the manifestation to occur one night, one night without warning, without warning I'll wake up and...and then:

BBBWWWWWWWWAAAAGGGHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAHHHHAAAAAA!!!!

Seriously, it sux. I need help with this, but it has gotten better the older (and more rational) I get. Eye-wink

 

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The closest thing I have to

The closest thing I have to a phobia is being in water (like water deep enough that you can't touch the bottom with your head out of the water) and "something" attacking me.  Croc, Shark, etc.

In the Navy we occasionally would stop out in the ocean and have a swim call off the fantail.  I was like fuck that!  But I'd sit back there on the aft missile deck and wait for a Great White to wolf down one of my shipmates.

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My window in my room, from

My window in my room, from whence my monster occassionally reaches in.

Social places like bars, clubs, meet-ups, etc, though this has seen some marked improvement over time.

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"Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."

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Well, I have a pretty

Well, I have a pretty intense fear of insects. I can deal if they're small, but if there's tons of them or they're big it freaks me out. It's the way they MOVE, how they have so many LEGS and EYES. Uf;kkgpkh

I'm not sure if this is "irrational" because I feel like there is a legitimate basis for it, but anything that looks and acts too much like a person but isn't a person scares the hell out of me. When I walk by a mannequin (like close up) I get this trippy chill and freak out because I SWEAR it feels like a real person. When I was little I was scared to death by ventriloquist puppets, human-like robot puppets, etc. I read one study that looked into how when our expectations of what is human are defied it unnerves us. Case in point: arms and legs with no body.

 

I don't think most fears are irrational. They're based on instinct, experience and often good judgment. However, they aren't exactly good either, but a healthy dose of fear can be life-saving in certain situations. When they get out of control it's psychologically dangerous.

*Our world is far more complex than the rigid structure we want to assign to it, and we will probably never fully understand it.*

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Being afraid of snakes and

Being afraid of snakes and bugs is not irrational, it's hardwired into you by evolution.

Just as revulsion to things like rotten food and incest is.

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Grasshoppers or locusts.

Grasshoppers or locusts. They aren't dangerous or anything so maybe I can't use instinct excuse, but I will not go near one.

Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible

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This is getting redudnant. My patience with the unteachable[atheists] is limited.

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Loc wrote:Grasshoppers or

Loc wrote:

Grasshoppers or locusts. They aren't dangerous or anything so maybe I can't use instinct excuse, but I will not go near one.

 

Loc dont you live in South Africa?... and you still cant figure out why you have an instinctual fear for locust? for shame >.<

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The Doomed Soul wrote:Loc

The Doomed Soul wrote:

Loc wrote:

Grasshoppers or locusts. They aren't dangerous or anything so maybe I can't use instinct excuse, but I will not go near one.

 

Loc dont you live in South Africa?... and you still cant figure out why you have an instinctual fear for locust? for shame >.<

Hmm I'm not sure how you mean.African locust swarms? I actually hardly ever see them here thankfully.

Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible

dudeofthemoment wrote:
This is getting redudnant. My patience with the unteachable[atheists] is limited.

Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.


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Loc wrote:Hmm I'm not sure

Loc wrote:

Hmm I'm not sure how you mean.African locust swarms? I actually hardly ever see them here thankfully.

 

/facepalm

Yes i mean african locust swarms... what do you think happens when 700million of the suckers land on a farm? boom, no farm... no food... this i can easily assume is hardwired into most peoples psyche.

 

And what im saying is... YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS, your the one living in africa, Canada has the snow, your have da locust (at this point im teasing >.> )

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The Doomed Soul wrote:And

The Doomed Soul wrote:

And what im saying is... YOU SHOULD KNOW THIS, your the one living in africa, Canada has the snow, your have da locust (at this point im teasing >.> )

In my defense,my family tree's probably only been in Africa for 100 years,so I doubt it's had time to hard wire into our psyches.And I don't get many locusts in my area,never mind swarms of them.

Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible

dudeofthemoment wrote:
This is getting redudnant. My patience with the unteachable[atheists] is limited.

Argument from Sadism: Theist presents argument in a wall of text with no punctuation and wrong spelling. Atheist cannot read and is forced to concede.


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Well most of my fears are

Well most of my fears are rational (i wont touch a poisonous snake, because its smart thing to do)

But i have one fear which is really bad for me, and i cant get rid of it:

Its the fear of dentists Smiling

I would rather suffer teeth pain than go to a dentist.


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insects

This is no doubt irrational of a fear, but i hate insects that have yellow and black stripes on them and that can sting, they always make me run out of the area and cause me to go inside my house.

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the smiles you'll give and the tears you'll cry,
all you touch and all you see,
is all your life will ever be."
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Quote:Being afraid of snakes

Quote:

Being afraid of snakes and bugs is not irrational, it's hardwired into you by evolution.

Just as revulsion to things like rotten food and incest is.

Have I mentioned how glad I am that you're posting more often these days?  It's really nice to have some backup when I start talking about evolution.

(Actually, I shouldn't insult you that way.  You're the one with the degree.  Maybe I'm like John the Baptist... preparing the way for the prophet of science...)

 

Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin

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Quote:This is no doubt

Quote:
This is no doubt irrational of a fear, but i hate insects that have yellow and black stripes on them and that can sting, they always make me run out of the area and cause me to go inside my house.

It's an act of sheer willpower for me to appear calm in the presence of yellow and black stingy things.  Every instinct I have tells me to run away, screaming like a little girl, waving my hands frantically.

(By the way, when I was in high school, a yellow jacket flew down my shirt in the middle of the outdoor pavillion.  We won't talk about the emotional scars I still bear)

 

 

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Louis_Cypher wrote: Ok...

Louis_Cypher wrote:

 

Ok... I'm a monster, 6' 280lb ex combat medic, ex firefighter... I cut up corpses for a living... in short, very little on the planet scares me...or even bothers me, except....

 

 

Perhaps I'm reading more into this statement than you intended but are you suggesting that your lack of fear is in proportion to your physical stature ?

As to your actual OP, yes I have an irrational fear .......of reality. ( edited for brevity )


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Being afraid of spiders IS

Being afraid of spiders IS irrational here in Denmark because there are no poisonous spiders here. But many people still are. So it IS irrational. The fact that it is hardwired into us evolutionally doesn't make it any more "rational", just understandable. I mean, this is the RATIONAL response squad, whose main reason to exist is to combat the IRrationality of Religion, and religion, or at least some of it, may well be hardwired into us. Like anthropomorphizing for example. The classic: "imbue something you don't understand with personality, so that maybe you can predict its motives, and therefore what it might do" may well by hardwired in us. That would help us against a tiger, but we'll also use it on the weather and call it Thor. That's still irrational.

 

Now, by the way, it's gonna take a lot of convincing to get me to believe the evolutionary process can hardwire something as specific as "be afraid of locusts, if your ancestors are from south Africa, because they will eat your food.". As I understand natural selection it can never give us very specific instructions like: be afraid of THIS particular species of snake, because it's poisonous.

 

All it can do is say: "be wary of anything that looks remotely alien. It MIGHT be dangerous, and better to play it safe". That's why people are often afraid of spiders: eight legs and eight eyes certainly constitutes "alien" to humans, compared to, for example, cats, that have two eyes, on the front of their face, like humans, and respond to social interaction, like humans. Not nearly as alien, and therefore not a common phobia. When people ARE afraid of cats, it's because of a bad personal experience with cats, and not evolution.

 

I am afraid of zombies. Indeed, I have full-blown zombie-phobia. Now is it weird that I am repulsed by icky walking dead? No, it's perfectly natural to be creeped out by something unnatural. Is it RATIONAL that my heart sometimes races when I'm lying in the dark, and all of a sudden get grabed by a fear that a zombie will stand outside my bedroom window? YES IT IS, and not just because it's not gonna happen, but because I KNOW it's not gonna happen. I don't believe for a MOMENT in vodoo, or silly conspiracies about secret biological weapons that can cause zombies. I mean, I don't even take the "28 days later"-scenario seriously, even though that COULD theoretically happen since the "zombies" in that movie are not technically dead. I'm a rational guy, and when I feel my heart racing over things I KNOW cannot possibly happen then that's irrational.

 

A christian fundie who is afraid of deamons from hell does not have an irrational FEAR. The FEAR is perfectly natural, it's the BELIEF that's irrational. However a Danish person who is afraid of spiders, knowing full well that no Danish spider could ever hurt them, has an IRrational fear, because they don't BELIEVE the spider can hurt them, but they are still afraid. That's the definition of a phobia. Not everyone in Australia is an arachnophopiac, even though I'm sure EVERYONE there is afraid of, or at least careful with, the many deadly spiders they have there.

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I was spawned from original sin
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Quote:Now, by the way, it's

Quote:
Now, by the way, it's gonna take a lot of convincing to get me to believe the evolutionary process can hardwire something as specific as "be afraid of locusts, if your ancestors are from south Africa, because they will eat your food.". As I understand natural selection it can never give us very specific instructions like: be afraid of THIS particular species of snake, because it's poisonous.

As far as we can tell, you're right.  We're afraid of snakes, not cobras, specifically.  Garden snakes give people the willies, too.  So, strictly speaking, once informed that there are no poisonous spiders in Denmark, we could say that someone who actively avoids spiders is acting irrationally, for he knows there is nothing to fear.  However, it's not correct to say that his fear is irrational or rational.  It is an innate reaction, not a reasoned argument.

(I suppose he could embark on a program of aversion therapy to try to reduce his fear reaction... that's another subject.)

Quote:
A christian fundie who is afraid of deamons from hell does not have an irrational FEAR. The FEAR is perfectly natural, it's the BELIEF that's irrational.

I guess I could have read the rest of your post before responding...

 

Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin

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I remember seeing clips of

I remember seeing clips of an episode of Maury, where they brought on people with "irrational" phobias, including people scared of pickles, peaches, and balloons. It was kind of funny, but also mind-boggling to think that they would react as intensely as you or I might react to a shark or something.

 

peppermint wrote:

Well, I have a pretty intense fear of insects. I can deal if they're small, but if there's tons of them or they're big it freaks me out. It's the way they MOVE, how they have so many LEGS and EYES. Uf;kkgpkh

Me too! I don't care about tiny flies/mosquitoes, and I'll readily pick up or observe ones that I know can't hurt me. But some of my fears sort of defy rational thinking. Like spiders - I know they kill all sorts of bugs, but they still kind of seem dangerous to me. Maybe it's my intense fear of them laying a million eggs and having my apartment forever infested... Maybe it's that they somehow manage to find me & bite me in my sleep. I'd actually rather have the flies than the spiders, though I don't usually freak out around either one. And same thing with centipedes - they kill lots of stuff, but my stomach still turns when I see one several inches long slinking across the floor. (Last week I was reading a bug website that said that centipedes should be tolerated around the home if possible, because they're such good predators - I was like "hell fucking no!" )

But by and large, my biggest fear is stinging insects. If I see one, my reaction is to run screaming away. I've even been known to cry in sheer panic. At a family picnic last fall, literally 20 yellow jackets swooped in on our table. But luckily, my sister, and our two cousins (little girls age 7 and 5) all have the same affliction, so even though everyone else was like "It's just a few wasps, they're not gonna sting you.." and sat there calmly eating their food, at least there were 4 of us that refused to come within a few hundred feet of the table, so I didn't look like the only batshit crazy one.

Everyone's different though. My dad is so calm around stinging insects, yet apparently HATES mice and rats. Meanwhile, I work with thousands of mice, and I think they're really cute. Oh and he also hates frogs, which I also think are cute.


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The Doomed Soul

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Archbishop_Of_Canterbury

Archbishop_Of_Canterbury wrote:

posts made by theists in the "Freethinking Anonymous" forum will be DELETED

READ THE RULES

 

rats... now im curious as to what he posted

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My fears....

I have soooo many...

As for actual fear...I feel as though I will die if I am off the ground...I actually feel my heart pound so hard, I cant breath, I feel like I am going to die.  Twice in my life I tried to talk myself into being logical about it...at 15 I got on a Ferris Wheel, I made the man stop it after once around.  at 25 I tried to get on a ski lift...that might be the most afraid I ahve ever been (my nerves were so bad I walked down the mountain instead of skiing...walking carrying skis for 2 hours through the snow)

It is so bad that if I can see people doing things I get scared, though not nearly as bad (It is actually like a rush)  So if I go to the Amusment park I get a thrill out of watching the rides my palms will sweat and Ill get nervous.


I guess that is not Irrational per se, it is not really safe for a person to be up high...but common sense will tell me it is much safer to get on the roller coaster than to get in the car and drive to the park on the interstate.

 

Other than fear, I feel uncomfortable around Large Animals, Hair, murky water, yogurt, dirt....but I dont know if that is really a phobia.

"When the missionaries arrived, the Africans had the Land and the Missionaries had the Bible, They taught us how to pray with our eyes closed. When we opened them, they had the Land and we had the Bible." - Jomo Kenyatta


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Thought on insect fear:As

Thought on insect fear:

As mammals, we depend largely on the emotive responses of other animals for communication. Insects don't really have emotive communication (facial expressions which are found in most mammals), they have an "abnormal" number of legs and eyes, and they are almost robotic in their actions. It could be this robotic, completely instinctual state of being scares us for a deeper reason.

For instance, what if insects had evolved so rapidly instead of us? They would be, sort of as they are now, on an entirely different plane of seeing and reacting to their environment.

It's hard to explain, but maybe it's more than the evolutionary knowledge that they're potentially deadly that makes them unnverving...

*Our world is far more complex than the rigid structure we want to assign to it, and we will probably never fully understand it.*

"Those believers who are sophisticated enough to understand the paradox have found exciting ways to bend logic into pretzel shapes in order to defend the indefensible." - Hamby


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I have a certain fear when

I have a certain fear when I'm in places that have a lot of history that there must be "spirits" around.

Last summer I was in Norway for 6 weeks, and spent most of that time at my family's old farmstead with only my 3-year-old for company. The farm was started by my great-great grandfather in 1865, and I have to say it was pretty eery every night. Being an atheist, I don't actually believe in such things. But there are so many people who I spent time there with - aunts and uncles, great aunts and uncles, etc. who are now deceased. Of course, I don't think it helped that most of them (including my father) are buried in the church cemetery just down the road from the farm.

But I even get that same feeling when I'm in old houses or other buildings. It's like there's so much history that some residue of it must be left behind, material or otherwise.

 

Nobody I know was brainwashed into being an atheist.

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I have a very serious fear

I have a very serious fear of the dark.  It's worse when I don't have my contacts in or my glasses on.  I'm not afraid of total,  pitch black darkness though.  I have never been able to get over this fear, it is totally irrational.  I'm afraid the monsters will get me.  It doesn't make any sense.  There are no monsters, the dark cannot hurt me and I'm so very rational about it... but still utterly afraid.  Though there is one person, who, when he is simply present (albeit asleep and perhaps in another room), makes the fear disappear almost entirely.

I am moderately afraid of insects and bugs and spiders and heights.  I've been working on these ones, they're not so bad anymore.

I hate clowns.  I don't know if I'm afraid of them.  I just hate them.  They have no humility.  That part scares me.  Clowns will do anything in public.  Freaks.  I steer clear of them because otherwise they may somehow involve me in their freakiness and I'll lose face.

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Misunderstanding....

ProzacDeathWish wrote:

Louis_Cypher wrote:

 

Ok... I'm a monster, 6' 280lb ex combat medic, ex firefighter... I cut up corpses for a living... in short, very little on the planet scares me...or even bothers me, except....

 

 

Perhaps I'm reading more into this statement than you intended but are you suggesting that your lack of fear is in proportion to your physical stature ?

As to your actual OP, yes I have an irrational fear .......of reality. ( edited for brevity )

I read the original, pre edited post... You made some very valid points.

However, with few exceptions, the folks you mentioned would not be a threat to me, nor I to them.

Rational people who have confidence in themselves seldom if ever need to prove themselves with aggression.

My lack of 'ordinary fears' stems from my life experience. It's my squemishness in the face of what is basically a nuisance creature is to me, interesting.

A lot of posters had much the same to say.

I applaud them.

It makes us all human.

LC >;-}>

 

Christianity: A disgusting middle eastern blood cult, based in human sacrifice, with sacraments of cannibalism and vampirism, whose highest icon is of a near naked man hanging in torment from a device of torture.


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OP Louis "Does any one else

OP Louis "Does any one else here have fears that they can't get past that fall into the class of Irrational?" ////

   Not blood guts , maggots, nor leaches, not nearly as much as unnecessary WAR .... and the "starving", in all degrees .... I've  been freaked out MORE,  day by day,  by this .... the ugliest things I know ..... all of Separation Mentality ..... ((( The leeches loved that guy ......  

   Oh, almost forgot , terrible odors, cruel diseases, unpleasant mutations, and everyones pain,  definitely does freak me out ..... YICKS !     OUCH !


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i know...

there are quite a few people in the world afraid of mustard.

 

That is kinda odd, no?


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Louis_Cypher

Louis_Cypher wrote:

Yesterday, I was assisting in a post mortum proceedure involving an older gentleman who had fallen from his boat and drowned, pretty straight forward.

As I was getting ready to prep the body it clicked into place... Lake, water... LEECHES!!!!

Sure enough, I turned the fellow over in the body bag and the damned thing was filled with blood suckers...

I have a pathological FEAR of the little bastards, so much so that I cringed across the room while my Doctor, (all 4'9, 98lbs of her ) plucked them out of the bag with forcepts and dropped them into a bucket of bleach....

Ok... I'm a monster, 6' 280lb ex combat medic, ex firefighter... I cut up corpses for a living... in short, very little on the planet scares me...or even bothers me, except....

I know my fear is irrational... the bastards are no worse than mosquitoes. And I even know where I aquired said fear... but I can't shake it off.

Does any one else here have fears that they can't get past that fall into the class of Irrational?

 

LC >;-}>

 

 

I have an EXTREME fear of bees. Even watching a bee from a distance makes my heart pound, and I automatically want to just RUN! The other day, I was taking out the trash, and as I went to come back into my house, a bumble bee was flying around the door. I panicked. Actually, I froze for a minute, and then I chucked a rock at it, ran away as it flew around, confused, eventually flying away, allowing me to go back into my house.

I do have a reason for this fear, however. When I was in preschool, I was playing on the playscape. I loved jumping through the tires...

Well, on this hot July afternoon, I was jumping through the tires, and I crushed a hornets nest. Ouch...needless to say, they were a bit mad. I think I was stung something like thirty two times. Smiling My entire body was swollen for DAYS. To this day, I have not gone near a playscape tire, and I run away from bees. I know, it would be better to not move at all, but I seriously cannot help it.

Laughing out loud After this incident, almost all of my nightmares consisted of bees for like a year. Yeah...so this is definitely my irrational fear.


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I have a phobia on all kinds

I have a phobia on all kinds of worms, or alike vermin. Doesn't matter if it's a leech, a fly larva, or, god forbid, a tapeworm, it haunts my mind for the rest of the day, and a thought of touching them makes me feel like throwing up any soon. I even don't like much a look at a common earthworms and slugs, but they're at least not parasitic...
I'm completely OK with spiders of all sizes, snakes, practically all other insects, they're vertebrates or have exoskeletons, which doesn't make them an abomination in eyes of mine.

Natural fear and caution is a common thing. However, phobia isn't. Remember, my mother is a past life therapist, and we had a plenty of clients with phobia, typically spiders. So, according to her years of work experiences with this kind of therapy, there is a basic principle.
When a person dies at rather harsh circumstances, he/she doesn't process the sensory input (feelings, memory, seen, heard and felt things) properly. It gets "fixated" somehow into a memory, but without a relationship to a specific time, place, and life. So, the person dies, and may have many next incarnations.
In any of this incarnations (lives) an event called "restimulation" may occur. It may be something very innocent, just approximately resembling the original harsh event.
For example, a man who died by a gunshot, saw a gun muzzle as the last thing in one his previous life, so in this life he was extremely afraid of being photographed. Or, a boy saw his grandfather cut a wood by a small axe, and it reminded his body memory of an event in his distant past life, when he was a petty thief in some oriental country. He got caught, his hand was cut off by an axe, and he bleeded to death. In this life, restimulation caused appearing of rather big cysts or tumor-like things on his wrist, where the hand was cut off.
But the restimulating thing doesn't have to be main in the event at all - it can be only a detail, which got registrated before or during the event. For example, the case with a fear of spiders saw herself waiting in a tower for an execution. That tower was old and dusty, and the only thing there to stare at, was a spider on it's web. So, the fear of a soon execution (which then proceeded succesfully) and the sight of a spider became combined together.

So, the regression therapy is about reclaiming the memories of past life, and experiencing that event again and again, including some pain, very strong emotions, authentic feelings and sometimes historical details.
The event then gets properly aligned to a past time and life of the client, so the feelings ceases. 
This is absolutely beyond a brain's simulating capability, specially the emotions and non-familiar sensory input. However, if a client has problem with believing in past lives, in order to let a therapy proceed, he's encouraged to consider it all as a simulation of a brain, result is the same, and being healed from that phobia is the goal. (or allergy, and so on)

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Seeing as there were some

Seeing as there were some heights mentioned: I am about 163 cm (about 5'4&quotEye-wink. I am not really afraid of anything and I don't have any phobias. I do hate leaches though, they were in the damns and rivers I swam in as a kid. (friend of mine trekked in Nepal and had big ones dropping on him out of the trees... sorry Louis)

I'm not saying I'm not cautious I treat venomous animals with the same respect I treat moving cars and sharp knives. I'm in Australia and spent a lot of my childhood in semi-rural, semi-wetland areas with lots of snakes and spiders and encountered quite venomous species from time to time, but I just responded calmly as my father taught me.

I have a friend who is scared of heights who said I was brave. I told him that I am not especially brave, just not scared... it feels different to me. He is the brave one for going up the Eifel tower with his girlfriend despite his fear of heights.

Fear and caution are definately natural responses, but phobias are not. If your fear reaction is too strong you will often respond in a way that is not conducive to survival. Even freezing in fear is not a good reaction because you are unable to respond appropriately.

A lady at work told me she was scared of sharks but likes snorkeling and knows what to do if she sees one (stay calm, don't splash about too much, slowly head to safety). After Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray she suddenly became afraid of them too. First time she saw one she panicked and swam, splashing manicly in a random direction (away from the boat!). The stingray didn't care, of course.

Definately not a good survival mood.

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Jesus said, "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division." - Luke 12:51


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The only one I have is a

The only one I have is a little fear of hights, but I find it works kind of in reverse with me. I can stand in a high place and look down and around me with no problem - it's when I look up that things can get scary. For some reason it's not like that when I'm on the ground, though.

Oh, and everytime I hear someone being scared of insects it makes me chuckle a little. It's just so not like me. In fact, I remember when I was a kid and a big, flying insect landed on my shirt and stayed there for a while. My reaction was like "wow, how cute", and I was actually hoping quietly that it would lay eggs so that more of them could spawn from "me". (That was before I saw Alien, by the way.)

I still have absolutely nothing against insects at all, excluding mosquitos - their sound is irritating and they are born to attack. I've no fear of them, though. I find the oft disliked bees and wasps be quite nice. They'll leave you alone if you leave them alone.

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Yeah, I've got a slight fear

Yeah, I've got a slight fear from heights too. Probably since I got stoned last time (several years ago) on a mountain hike, and visited a lookout tower. It was made of such a metal wire grids, and in my intoxicated state it seemed almost like I could fall thru. Or at least my wallet, if I would drop it.

Proper Gander wrote:

I still have absolutely nothing against insects at all, excluding mosquitos - their sound is irritating and they are born to attack. I've no fear of them, though. I find the oft disliked bees and wasps be quite nice. They'll leave you alone if you leave them alone.


My neighbour has bees, and I can confirm, that it's not so simple. Some people crossbreeds the kinds of bees from all around the world, to make them more resistant to diseases, or making more honey, and so on. 
But some crossbreeded bees are very agressive. The neighbour says, that most of his hives has good and peaceful bees, he can work with them without problems, but he can't get any close to a hive of the bad bees, without a protective suit.

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Luminon wrote:Yeah, I've got

Luminon wrote:

Yeah, I've got a slight fear from heights too. Probably since I got stoned last time (several years ago) on a mountain hike, and visited a lookout tower. It was made of such a metal wire grids, and in my intoxicated state it seemed almost like I could fall thru. Or at least my wallet, if I would drop it.

Proper Gander wrote:

I still have absolutely nothing against insects at all, excluding mosquitos - their sound is irritating and they are born to attack. I've no fear of them, though. I find the oft disliked bees and wasps be quite nice. They'll leave you alone if you leave them alone.


My neighbour has bees, and I can confirm, that it's not so simple. Some people crossbreeds the kinds of bees from all around the world, to make them more resistant to diseases, or making more honey, and so on. 
But some crossbreeded bees are very agressive. The neighbour says, that most of his hives has good and peaceful bees, he can work with them without problems, but he can't get any close to a hive of the bad bees, without a protective suit.

So Luminon, my greatest fear is of a gigantic fedora-wearing monster, who is essentially a featureless black shape, that reaches-in through my window as a hypnagogic hallucination when I have an episode of sleep paralysis.

Did I spend my past life fighting monstrous horrors from beyond time and space? 'Cause that would be pretty kickass.

Quote:
"Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."

- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940


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Kevin R Brown wrote:So

Kevin R Brown wrote:

So Luminon, my greatest fear is of a gigantic fedora-wearing monster, who is essentially a featureless black shape, that reaches-in through my window as a hypnagogic hallucination when I have an episode of sleep paralysis.

Did I spend my past life fighting monstrous horrors from beyond time and space? 'Cause that would be pretty kickass.

Actually... sounds more like you used to be a grand wizard of the KKK ;-p

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Kevin R Brown wrote:So

Kevin R Brown wrote:

So Luminon, my greatest fear is of a gigantic fedora-wearing monster, who is essentially a featureless black shape, that reaches-in through my window as a hypnagogic hallucination when I have an episode of sleep paralysis.

Did I spend my past life fighting monstrous horrors from beyond time and space? 'Cause that would be pretty kickass.


It is possible, though not likely. But possible. If you would know, what was my job in one of my past lives, you'd consider me even more crazy than now.
All right, so the "monstrous horrors from beyond time and space" and specifically "gigantic fedora-wearing monster, who is essentially a featureless black shape", sounds to my best knowledge, definitely as a being from a plane of existence, called emotional or "astral".  This place (lower astral, surely) is like a bad district in a city, full of junk, misfits and thugs, it is, where do we get some percentage of our nightmares. The nature of astral planes as such is a deception, illusion, manipulation, distortion of truth, and so on. This is why various mediums and spiritists claims absolute nonsenses - they've got a weak connection, it doesn't reach further than into these muddy waters.
You, on the other side, are a henchman of reason, intellect, logics, and facts. Maybe your attitude pisses off these low, astral spirits, so one of them comes to scare you a bit sometimes. So yes, maybe you really fight them, at least against their interests of deceiving people.

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Luminon wrote:You, on the

Luminon wrote:


You, on the other side, are a henchman of reason, intellect, logics, and facts.

That is the best thing you have ever said. Ever.

 

EDIT: Err... mods? If it's at all possible to stamp me with a badge that says that, I'd be SO STOKED.

Quote:
"Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."

- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940


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Hambydammit wrote:Quote:This

Hambydammit wrote:

Quote:
This is no doubt irrational of a fear, but i hate insects that have yellow and black stripes on them and that can sting, they always make me run out of the area and cause me to go inside my house.

It's an act of sheer willpower for me to appear calm in the presence of yellow and black stingy things.  Every instinct I have tells me to run away, screaming like a little girl, waving my hands frantically.

(By the way, when I was in high school, a yellow jacket flew down my shirt in the middle of the outdoor pavillion.  We won't talk about the emotional scars I still bear)

 

 

 

Well Hamby, you have far more willpower than I do.  Any thought of dignity flies out the window the second a bee flies into one.  I have absolutely no problem flailing and screaming whenever one of those demonspawns come near.

Oh, and everyone lied when they told me that if I stay still bees don't sting.  The only time I ever got stung was when I WASN'T flailing around like a mental midget. 

I don't think that's all that irrational though.  I am TERRIFIED of geese, which is pretty irrational, imo.  I have nightmares about bears but that's only because I've had multiple run-ins with them (the last one with me hiding in car for a 1/2 hour).

Oh yeah, that Chucky doll scares the shit out of me.  I scream every time I see a commercial - I just can't help it.

{Edit - wasn't finished admitting how utterly neurotic I am}

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Quote:If you would know,

Quote:
If you would know, what was my job in one of my past lives, you'd consider me even more crazy than now.

Luminon, I'm dead serious: Everyone really want to know what this is, especially me. Please, elaborate on this point.

Quote:
"Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."

- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940


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Quote:If you would know,

Quote:
If you would know, what was my job in one of my past lives, you'd consider me even more crazy than now.

Luminon, I'm dead serious: Everyone really want to know what this is, especially me. Please, elaborate on this point.

Quote:
"Natasha has just come up to the window from the courtyard and opened it wider so that the air may enter more freely into my room. I can see the bright green strip of grass beneath the wall, and the clear blue sky above the wall, and sunlight everywhere. Life is beautiful. Let the future generations cleanse it of all evil, oppression and violence, and enjoy it to the full."

- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940


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Kevin R Brown wrote:Quote:If

Kevin R Brown wrote:

Quote:
If you would know, what was my job in one of my past lives, you'd consider me even more crazy than now.

Luminon, I'm dead serious: Everyone really want to know what this is, especially me. Please, elaborate on this point.

At this point I have it narrowed to:

Wizard

Inter dimensional alien

And of course...GOD!

Psalm 14:1 "the fool hath said in his heart there is a God"-From a 1763 misprinted edition of the bible

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This is getting redudnant. My patience with the unteachable[atheists] is limited.

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"Spiritual

    "Spiritual Interpretation"   

  , and then there is "Sexed up atheism" , Pantheism. Lots of "badges"      

           But all is ONE ! 

  How about an "Atheist GAWED Freak" badge ? ( for me too ! )

                           

                    


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Horse-flies and mosquitos,

Horse-flies and mosquitos, disliking beeing bitten by these little buggers I suppose is only normal. But it happens that I lash out and wave about hysterically to get them away from me (or, even better, kill them).

I also dislikes wasps, hornets and bees, got stung on the hand once by what I think was a wasp or a bee and it hurt like hell for quite a while. Bumblebees on the other hand I really like.

 

Hambydammit wrote:
I have a thing about ticks.  I nearly throw up when I see a fat tick on a human.
Ticks aren't that bad, I usally remove a few from myself every summer.

On one ocation a friend of my fathers had 63 at the same time.


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Kevin R Brown wrote:Quote:If

Kevin R Brown wrote:

Quote:
If you would know, what was my job in one of my past lives, you'd consider me even more crazy than now.

Luminon, I'm dead serious: Everyone really want to know what this is, especially me. Please, elaborate on this point.


All right, but I warn you, practically all text you'll read will most probably have no importance for you, it will be unfamiliar and sounding like an insanity to you. Our culture defines, what is possible and what not, what is sane and what insane. It is a local, temporary standard, which says nothing about how things really are, but nonetheless, you take it as real, so I warn you. At the moment you're probably either curious, or wanting an opportunity to mock me, which I can't imagine how useful it will be for you, except of having  a good laugh. (you're free to dgo so) So be assured, that my intention is not to convince you. You shouldn't believe in what I write, unless your experiences supports it. You also shouldn't disbelieve. Unless you have a proof for or against, it's honest to stay neutral.

So, one of my regression therapy sessions I had, showed me a life of my past self, living in ancient Egypt. He was a priest of Anubis, the god of death there. As it seemed, he was quite devoted servant of that particular god. (I hope this won't get me a 'Theist' label or something worse) Later he was killed by some guys with dark complexion, who raided the temple, but nevermind that. Probably Nubians, I guessed.
A few months ago here came a family friend, who is very skilled in communication with a part of a spiritual structure, which can be called a personal superconsciousness. This is very rare ability, which allows to receive genuine informations by transcendental way, and it's radically different from a common "channeling".
So, this family friend suddenly provided additional informations about this past life, she didn't know about at all. According to  some of her informations, my past self's job was introducing the spirits of dead people into afterlife, literally, not just reciting the book of dead, but actual work with spirits. It had a lot of in common with shamanism, when I now think about it.

This isn't anything new. In a completely non-spiritual and non-religional society (two different things) people aren't informed what they should do after they die, they sometimes don't even realize it and tries to do things in a spirit form, but like they would live. It's not much satisfying, though. It's a similar problem like an environment pollution, these unhappy spirits may interfere with people, who has the same problem like they do, for example, too much drinking or smoking, and they try to experience it through person's senses, and also encourage the person to more drinking. Against, it's not too satisfying. But that's just an example, it's quite broad problem. Sometimes it's a grandparent, wanting to 'protect' in a good intention, a newborn (at that time) child of the young family. Again, this is not quite right, and getting rid of such an unwanted influence has a very positive effect on a person.
Convincing these spirits to depart to a higher planes of existence, where they belong and can't harm anyone, is another thing, which my mother does, besides a regression therapy. It's also quite similar in the process, and has nothing in common with religional "exorcism". In my opinion, the exorcism is a damn unpolite way of behaving to someone's lonely dead grandmother.

This is also why I take Geirj's post quite seriously. He seems to have a bit increased ESP, which is a relatively common thing, just not so much among atheists. A lot of ESP usually makes a New Age sympathizant of the atheist, or gets him to a nuthouse. My ESP isn't completely dull as well, and I sometimes get a really weird and intense feeling of vertigo, lasting for a second, when I enter such unknown, old, abandoned places. It feels a bit like something would pass through me, and my aura would wobble for a while, like a waves on a water surface, before it gets steady. It doesn't feel any scary, chilly, or "touch of death"-like at all. Dunno what it is, I've got to ask some time.

Well, as to the topic, it seems that Egypt got raided by Nubia around 730 B.C. and who knows by who else in other times. The cult of Anubis existed about since 3000 BC to 30 BC, so there would be certainly enough of possible time for this my past life to take place. It would give a sense, compared to what sort of person I am now, if it's true, I'm affected by this one or more similar such incarnations, in good, bad and neutral ways, but notably.

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