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There are many things that we have made up to terrify ourselves, whether it’s machete-wielding lake killers or knife-hands dream haunters. But they remain figments of our imagination that exist for the sole purpose of making us afraid. Sure, they do a good job, many a nightmares and scares were had over those movies back when I was a kid, but turns out, we really don’t need to look to the recesses of our imagination for some good spooks when we have mother nature.
The users of reddit combined powers to create a subreddit aptly named “Creepy”, where they post pictures of the unusual and the strange. Between that sub, the “WTF” sub, and the “Nature Is Metal” sub, you have all the images below which aren’t for the faint of heart. There’s some grotesque realism to the pictures since they’re of actual things that truly happened instead of some kind of fictionalised creation.
Source: Reddit || Reddit || Reddit
Ever wonder what happens to your brain when you’re afraid? The Smithsonian did.
Fear may be as old as life on Earth. It is a fundamental, deeply wired reaction, evolved over the history of biology, to protect organisms against perceived threat to their integrity or existence. Fear may be as simple as a cringe of an antenna in a snail that is touched, or as complex as existential anxiety in a human.
Whether we love or hate to experience fear, it’s hard to deny that we certainly revere it – devoting an entire holiday to the celebration of fear. Thinking about the circuitry of the brain and human psychology, some of the main chemicals that contribute to the “fight or flight” response are also involved in other positive emotional states, such as happiness and excitement. So, it makes sense that the high arousal state we experience during a scare may also be experienced in a more positive light. But what makes the difference between getting a “rush” and feeling completely terrorized?
We are psychiatrists who treat fear and study its neurobiology. Our studies and clinical interactions, as well as those of others, suggest that a major factor in how we experience fear has to do with the context. When our “thinking” brain gives feedback to our “emotional” brain and we perceive ourselves as being in a safe space, we can then quickly shift the way we experience that high arousal state, going from one of fear to one of enjoyment or excitement.
Fear reaction starts in the brain and spreads through the body to make adjustments for the best defense, or flight reaction. The fear response starts in a region of the brain called the amygdala. This almond-shaped set of nuclei in the temporal lobe of the brain is dedicated to detecting the emotional salience of the stimuli – how much something stands out to us.
For example, the amygdala activates whenever we see a human face with an emotion. This reaction is more pronounced with anger and fear. A threat stimulus, such as the sight of a predator, triggers a fear response in the amygdala, which activates areas involved in preparation for motor functions involved in fight or flight. It also triggers release of stress hormones and sympathetic nervous system.
Damn, mother nature, you scary! What do you think?
