8 ms·
Interesting that there are so many similarities between how people describe the distortions and fantasy creatures like orcs, vampires, etc. It makes me wonder h
by kimbernator 2y ago
Interesting that there are so many similarities between how people describe the distortions and fantasy creatures like orcs, vampires, etc. It makes me wonder how much our own fiction influences these peoples' conditions, or in reverse how people with conditions such as these have influenced our fiction.
Realistically, the simple answer is that it's probably not much of either; There's a "built-in" concept of what is scary in terms of physical features that has an evolutionary benefit in keeping us safe from certain animals that we can easily transpose onto humans, and that system is being tapped into in some form for these people in the routine processing of faces.
- micheljansen 2y agoMy son has night terrors and if I were living in the Middle Ages, I would probably have called in a priest for an exorcism by now. I can absolutely imagine that in less enlightened times, where we did not have access to the internet, peer reviewed journals and MRI machines, people with night terrors were believed to be possessed by demons.
- smegsicle 2y agostill might work
- reverius42 2y agoWould be interesting to see a paper published on the efficacy of the placebo effect in exorcisms.
- leoqa 2y agoMany parents use monster spray to combat night visions, seems effective.
- amelius 2y agoIf those were my parents I would have required them to spray every little corner of my room.
- card_zero 2y agoThe idea is that you give the monster spray to the small child, who then ceases to be scared of monsters. This didn't work one notable time when the monster turned out to be 50,000 bees, nesting behind the closet wall.
- ijxjdffnkkpp 2y agoI think this is a John Dies at the End reference! If not, John Dies at the End references this. A salute to you either way! Great book series.
- micheljansen 2y agoThat may help for bad dreams, but not for night terrors (which are medically a different thing, where you are not consciously awake).
- pc86 2y agoThis presumes that some exorcisms are not placebos.
- the_sleaze_ 2y agoProve they aren't. (only semiserious)
- bandie91 2y agopeople still believe they have a self-consistent world view when they dismiss the extra-natural world just because it is not accessible by natural means. it's like "there are no forests because you can't drive in them because there are no motorways in them"
- paulryanrogers 2y agoWhat other 'means' are there besides 'natural' ones?
- wruza 2y agoIf a world can only be accessed through very specific patterns in neuron activity, but not through “natural” physical measurements, this world is imaginary by definition. Millions of dollars are awaiting those who can confidently sync their imagination at a distance, but all these people who claim these objective worlds real are traditionally “above money”, keeping us in the dark.
- xeromal 2y agoI had night terrors for years as a 30 year old and I finally fixed them. * Removed all blinking lights from my room. Cover up smoke detector LED or turn it off. This seems to trigger my night terrors. * Let the brain rest before bed. No phone, screen, book, anything about 20-30 minutes before bed. Hop in the shower, hop in bed. Don't think.
- amelius 2y agoWe need more movies where the bad looking people/creatures are the good guys and the good looking people are the bad guys.
- rustcleaner 2y agoNo, please, I'm tired of what Amazon-Netflix are doing. Don't make it worse!
- ryandrake 2y agoReminds me of Clarke's Childhood's End, where the good guys have to wait decades before revealing their physical appearance, because they happen to look like the bad guys from a certain religion.
- blue_dragon 2y agoIt wasn't happenstance, though. There is a specific reason as to why humanity's depictions of demons look the same as those aliens, and it's a critical plot point. (Can't say more or I'll spoil one of the best sci-fi books of all time for those who haven't read it). Edit: it's also highly debatable whether the Overlords are in fact the good guys.
- type0 2y agoNightmare stems from when a mare comes at night and sits on your chest https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mare_(folklore) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mare_(folklore) https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nightmare https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nightmare
- obruchez 2y agoTIL: in French, "nightmare" is "cauchemar" and has the same etymology (the second part, at least).
- az09mugen 2y agoAnd this is induced by sleep paralysis : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis
- micheljansen 2y agoNightmares differ from night terrors though. To quote Wikipedia: Night terrors are distinct from nightmares.[31] In fact, in nightmares there are almost never vocalization or agitation, and if there are any, they are less strong in comparison to night terrors.[31] In addition, nightmares appear ordinarily during REM sleep in contrast to night terrors, which occur in NREM sleep.[2] Finally, individuals with nightmares can wake up completely and easily and have clear and detailed memories of their dreams.[2][31] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_terror https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_terror For a good description of what they are like, read the "Signs and Symptoms" section of that article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_terror#Signs_and_symptoms https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_terror#Signs_and_symptom...).
- smegsicle 2y agoin other words the same monsters living in everyone's heads
- darby_nine 2y ago> There's a "built-in" concept of what is scary in terms of physical features that has an evolutionary benefit in keeping us safe from certain animals that we can easily transpose onto humans, and that system is being tapped into in some form for these people in the routine processing of faces. I can see this with spiders and snakes, but vampires? I don't see it. They don't even generally resemble the bats they're associated with. It's worth noting those who hear audio hallucinations, literal voices speaking to them, appear to hear different attitudes depending on the culture they come from. This wouldn't be the first time we've noted that qualia is culturally relative.
- ip26 2y agoVampire bats were named ex post facto. They are a New World species, and vampires as an idea predated discovery of the bat.
- Sharlin 2y agoVampires are predators. They have prominent canines. What’s more, they’re nocturnal predators, probably one of the scariest and most dangerous things that a protohuman on an African savanna could imagine. That said, vampire myths are actually extremely diverse, and it’s not clear at all that they share an origin in some primordial fear of predators. Peter Watts, in Blindsight, of course presents an interesting hypothesis: vampire myths exist because vampires used to exist. Or more precisely, there used to exist a hominid species or subspecies that predated on us.
- darby_nine 2y agoRight, but we don't seem to fear predators the same way we fear snakes and spiders. I don't see fangs when I look at noise, for instance, even though I do see snakes and spiders. If you take hallucinogens this strong fear of specifically spiders and snakes is even more apparent. That said, I think vampires can be traced back to burial practices in medieval Eastern Europe. They aren't exactly an ancient myth, nor are they cross-cultural.
- 2y ago
- o_____________o 2y agoReminds me of the DMT "machine elves" that appear in hallucinations to westerners that have been exposed to those ideas, whereas indigenous ayahuasca experiences tended to materialize more naturalistic visions like animal spirits, etc.