Thread: How can I overcome my fear of the dark?

I have never succesfully WILDed, but I have gotten partway there and experienced SP. And I have never had visual hallucinations. Not even very much audio. All I get is the "falling sensation" that freaks a lot of people out. I actually love it. It's fun.

The point is, everyone's different. You might not ever experience visual hallucinations during SP.

not so long ago I got my fear of dark back. It wasn't that I couldn't sleep of it I just didn't like being in a dark room. but it all past away when me and my class went on "practic"(instead of spending the first two weeks of summer siting at class like the other schools, we go to some other city for a week to draw stuff and the other week we draw stuff somewhere near the school. we call that "practic" ) we lived in some other schools dormitory and in the 5th floor I lived alone in room for two and at night I would leave the curtains open just for fun. and if I woke up at night I would look at the stars. and once I woke up at 3 am and wanted to watch the sun rise, but I fell asleep . and my fear just dissapeared because I started thinking that the "dark" and the "night" are such beautifull things and I shouldn't be afraid of them and now I'm not afraid anymore

Originally Posted by Leixor

For me, and I suspect a lot of people, fear of the dark is fear of the unknown. I had a great trouble in my life doing anything I didn't know the outcome of. In overcoming that, I overcame my fear of the dark as well. Ironically I'm quite the opposite now. I sleep in a room of perfect black.

now when I think of it now that I'm not scared of the dark, I'm usually excited about the unknown
I usually love to do something at night with other people at summer camp too...
and I'm not afraid of heights or anything else if I don't want to
and I like sleeping as dark as possible too

Originally Posted by Ivi942

now when I think of it now that I'm not scared of the dark, I'm usually excited about the unknown
I usually love to do something at night with other people at summer camp too...
and I'm not afraid of heights or anything else if I don't want to
and I like sleeping as dark as possible too

For me it's really more of a fear of being ALONE in the dark. If I'm with friends I'm pretty OK for the most part.

I get semi-afraid in the dark. I have a lamp by me that I leave on until I'm under my blanket, a huge ass fan that drowns out 98% of the overall noise, a radio with classical music on very loudly, socks, and ear plugs that block about 75% of the overall noise.

I also keep totally wrapped up in a comforter.

I dunno, that works for me pretty well.

I'm terrified of the dark... Got a real phobia of Aliens.
For me, I just snuggle myself into the blankets tightly, it seems to work pretty well xD

It's normal to fear the dark because cave men did. Just think to yourself that everything in your room is exactly the same as in the day. You could try leaving your tv on at a low level volume all night, that helped my friend.

Originally Posted by Dreamhope11

It's normal to fear the dark because cave men did. Just think to yourself that everything in your room is exactly the same as in the day. You could try leaving your tv on at a low level volume all night, that helped my friend.

how do you know that cave men feared the dark?

Originally Posted by Altasi

I'm terrified of the dark... Got a real phobia of Aliens.
For me, I just snuggle myself into the blankets tightly, it seems to work pretty well xD

I so hear you on the alien phobia thing. I try to pretend they don't, but they scare the crap out of me. I had nightmares for a year straight when I was little about aliens, and to this day I start panicking if I see on on the like scifi channel Signs was a blast Watching movies like Mars Attacks really helps though, if you haven't seen it you should

Shift because they couldn't see anything and thats when they got hunted by lions, tigers etc.. So the instinct is passed through generation to generation.

Originally Posted by Dreamhope11

Shift because they couldn't see anything and thats when they got hunted by lions, tigers etc.. So the instinct is passed through generation to generation.

But has that been scientifically proven?

Our most developed sense is that of sight (relatively). In the dark, a human being is helpless. If something attacks him (a snake or panther), he won't be able to defend himself. So fear of the dark was a nature's way of ensuring man didn't unnecessarily risk his life. Now a predators strike is usually accompanied by a sudden loud noise. So fear boosts man's reflexes/attention and prepares him for flight. Even when man becomes too frightened to move, he becomes harder to see (if camouflaged or in dim light) owing to the fact that moving objects catch the eye better than still ones - which is again a necessity because moving prey and predators are more important than still plants and rocks.

So yes the fear of the dark is completely natural..
How can you scientificly prove any human instinct??

Originally Posted by Dreamhope11

Our most developed sense is that of sight (relatively). In the dark, a human being is helpless. If something attacks him (a snake or panther), he won't be able to defend himself. So fear of the dark was a nature's way of ensuring man didn't unnecessarily risk his life. Now a predators strike is usually accompanied by a sudden loud noise. So fear boosts man's reflexes/attention and prepares him for flight. Even when man becomes too frightened to move, he becomes harder to see (if camouflaged or in dim light) owing to the fact that moving objects catch the eye better than still ones - which is again a necessity because moving prey and predators are more important than still plants and rocks.

So yes the fear of the dark is completely natural..
How can you scientificly prove any human instinct??

Precisely, I'm simply saying don't make factual statements if you can't actually prove them.

Thats like saying the moon tastes like cheese, you can't prove it wrong untill someone actually tastes it!

Originally Posted by Dreamhope11

Thats like saying the moon tastes like cheese, you can't prove it wrong untill someone actually tastes it!

That's why they invented the scientific method, and why falsifiability is so integral to scientific experimentation. Until it is proven false, there is always the chance that a hypothesis is correct. But to state it as fact is ridiculous no matter how much supporting evidence, especially with the limited amount of research we are able to do on cavemen