Are you ‘SCURD” of the Dark?? Part 3 of 3

3. NIGHT ATTACKS – Europe in the Middle Ages would have been referenced as a class 3 on the darkness scale when the sun set. To visit one’s nearest neighbor it would be necessary to travel through the moors many miles in on the darkest of nights. Europeans of this time had a mortal fear of traveling at night and with good reason. Nighttime was the perfect environment for highwaymen, thieves and murderers. This circumstance brought about the phrase “safety in numbers,” because if one was in the predicament of having to travel along the dark dangerous roads of Europe in the Middle Ages, they had better bring a friend or two. Even if you were fortunate enough not meet with an attack on your journey, the creaking of the cages hung from trees that contained apprehended highway robbers could be enough to make you wish you had stayed home. Robbers, etc., that were caught were placed in these cages until they starved to death, so it was no rare occurrence to hear the cry and wails of some poor soul in need of a sandwich. If you weren’t robbed and your journey was quiet with no pleads for mercy or death rattles, there was still cause for worry...you could always fall into a ditch. I will not fail to mention that the woods and moors in the pitch of night are considered arduous and dangerous terrain.

4. FIRE – Long ago before the advent of the light bulb, the main and only source of seeing your way through the dark was fire. This is one of the reasons that deadly home fires mainly occurred at night. In medieval times more than one fifth of children were killed in fires. The result for refusing to help put out a fire was to have your head cut off. This may seem like a harsh penalty today with your local fire department available but in a time where one fire could wipe out a whole village...well, I’m not saying its right to behead someone not toting a pail of water, but I understand.

The History Channel “Afraid of the Dark,” aired 2010

Are you " SCURD" of the Dark??? Part 2 of 3

In part one of the “Scared of the Dark” series; we explored the physiological aspects of fear. What happens when something scares us sets off a cascade of activities in our bodies with the end resulting in running, hiding, screaming or maybe…fighting?

In part two of the series we will discuss some factors that make us so afraid of the dark. Some of these factors are beliefs and practices that have been handed down from generation to generation and are still as formidable today as they were thousands of years ago.

First let’s determine the degrees of darkness. On a scale of 1-9, where class 1 is the darkest night possible (the Australian outback would be considered a class 1), and a class 9 would be the skyline of NYC at night (well lit). In the continental United States, there is no class of darkness lower than a class 2. In order to get to a class 1 area, you would have to sail 300 miles into the ocean past the curvature of the earth and maybe, just maybe, you will be surrounded by a class 1 night. Even in the middle of the ocean, engulfed in utter darkness, you would still only be able to observe 1% of the stars Galileo had seen when he roamed the earth.

What are some of the fears and worries about darkness that haunted our ancestors so long ago and still threaten us today? To answer this question we are going to have to take a virtual trip across time and seas to strange and exotic lands. Ready, close your eyes, here we go. The following are eight origins to reasons we are afraid of the dark:

East Africa – 10,000 years ago, darkness of night = class 2 (one of the darkest regions on earth). What fear plague the people of East Africa when darkness falls??

1. FEAR OF BEING EATEN ALIVE – 10,000 years ago, lions, hyenas and leopards could be found in abundance in Eastern Africa. Being these predatory animals hunt at night and there were and are few places to hide in the African terrain, it is no wonder that more than 100 Africans a year are killed by lions. In early times, 6-10% of humans became food to these predators.

Jerusalem – 100 AD, darkness of night = class 4. What goes bump to the Israelis when the sun goes down??

2. Could it be…SATAN – Before 100 AD the idea of Satan was as abstract the Easter Bunny, but something changed and Satan became a physical being…a physical being that was most active at night. People of this time believed that Satan stalked the night. This was a problem because artificial lighting i.e. lanterns and candles were items only the rich could afford, so only the rich were safe from Satan’s presence. The poor improvised with rags soaked in bacon fat, then lit for a make shift, short lived means of light. It was this solution or shaking in the dark waiting to hear Satan’s hooves scraping on the dirt floors of their cottages.

To be continued…

The History Channel “Afraid of the Dark,” aired 2010

Image of Satan: forbiddenplanet.co.uk

Are you " SCURD" of the Dark??? Part 1 of 3

Fear of darkness is as old as darkness itself and as varied as the people who are afraid. Everyone can remember a time (I want to write in childhood but I still experience this) when you dread going into that dark, dank basement or having to shut the closet door before going to sleep in fear of the blackness and whatever maybe waiting…inside. Fear of the dark is one of the few things that are both rational and irrational, sometimes at the same time. Being in the dark makes one vulnerable to their environment, there is not doubt about this, but are the things to which you are vulnerable real or imagined? This is a good question but never the less irrelevant. Fear whether real or just the workings of an imagination is an actuality, handed down from generation to generation, which makes it timeless. Before we consider why we are frightened of the dark, let’s review how we fear.

1. It all starts in the brain (but don’t most things), in a section called the Hippocampus. The hippocampus forms our day to day experiences into memories. These memories are then sent to the amydgala.

2. The amygdala is a “store house” for good and bad memories (created by the hippocampus), experiences and emotions. The amydgala takes the stimuli from our real world information to our environment and sends signals to other areas of the body, resulting in appropriate emotional and physical responses. Physical responses which occur due to amydgala signaling are: dilated pupils, increased heartbeat, hyperventilation, nausea, bladder restricts, bowels slow down and an increase in blood pressure. On the “dark side” of amaydgala’s work, this is also the starting point of phobias. Phobias can start in this section of the brain because the amydgala operates unconsciously, so it can be prone to errors in its interpretation of the information it collects.

3. Signals from the amydgala reach the hypothalamus and triggers changes in the hormones the body produces. These changes get the body ready to take action in response to the emotions stimulated: “fight or flight,” crying, laughing, or for the purposes of this topic, muscle contraction so you can run.

Now that you understand how you are afraid physiologically, the next two posts will discuss why you are afraid. These should be much more interesting to the folks who couldn’t care less about brain functions.

Carter, R., Aldridge, S., Page, M., Parker, S. “The Human Brain Book,” 2009

Image of hypothalamus:

http://www.dana.org/news/brainhealth/detail.aspx?id=10068

The History Channel “Afraid of the Dark,” aired 2010