The belief in the unknown

Why are some people afraid of Horror movies, religion, the supernatural, and others believe in the power of good in these things? I never really took the time to stop and think about why others like myself choose to believe in certain aspects of things that can provoke fear, and others not so much. Fear can help and hinder our sense whether we realize it or not.

For some people fear provides that sense of excitement and arousal that in turn leads a person to seek out that source, but for others fear is what people often repressed. For example, a child growing up afraid of the dark, could fear that someone is out to get them when fear is just something that one is used to fearing.

I don’t remember fearing anything in my childhood like ghost, monsters, etc., but I do remember at the age of twelve I experience my grandmother’s death, and right to this day I cannot sleep in her room because I feel like the ghost of her spirit still lives on. Fear has a way to create suspicious and conspiracy in a way that forces a person to not only have that negative emotion, but to also believe in things that sound silly. 

Something about the intensity, the power, and the believing that something is out there only alerts our senses, and makes us want to jump in fear, or react in away that gets our senses awaken, that is what horror movies, and supernatural does to us. For example, nobody knows whether there is a devil, yet that fear of him is very strong. Why? Because we all have heard time after time again about who he is and what his purpose is. We have all seen those red fiery images of the devil and other creatures that are used to scared little children, so when people watch movies, especially horror movies, that familiarity jumps out at use causing us to categorize that image, description, or thing with what we know, and believe. 

Storytelling is also another way that fear can frighten or get people to believe in the unknown. I have heard so many stories from the time I was child about the spirits of the dead that I have come to believe that this “supernatural” voices and spirits are present in real life. For some people fear can lead to doubt, but that doubt in turns leads to a sense of unknown. It is hard to believe whether what we hear is true or not, but that fear that is often instilled into our brains forces us to protect what we believe in versus what we don’t know about.

For example, the short story, “The Lottery” is a perfect example of how we fear the unknown and never see how some things are coming. Everyday people go about their lives not expecting the unknown, but when the unknown does come then fear takes over.