It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.

Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.

Thank you.

 

Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.

 

Could a person be driven insane by an image?

page: 2
7
<< 1    3  4 >>

log in

join
share:

posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 07:35 AM
link   
What if a person was exposed to a picture that showed them, beyond a show of a doubt, that something they have worked so hard do deny and fade out of their reality their entire life was infact a very real reality...such a thing could instantly shatter a persons belief system and everything they worked so hard to deny....all though it still all depends on what the person was shown and the actual person being shown but I'm sure such a picture would work well depending on how important the particular reality was to the person...

EDIT: Yes..."$"...that has driven us all insane...

[edit on 20/4/09 by CHA0S]



posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 07:44 AM
link   
You bet and in this day of Photoshop and CGI making it possible to custom tailor said image to a single person I'd say its darn easy to do!

Okay lets say I want to drive you crazy to the point I wanted you to happily murder another...
What if I had the photoshop guys make up images of someones wife or daughter being brutally raped... Day after day I produce more and more shocking images maybe even a vid of their loved one pleading for help ...

How long do you think it would take to break someone... how long before rage overcame reason?



posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 07:45 AM
link   
reply to post by CHA0S
 


Yes..."$"...that has driven us all insane...

I think it's more accurate to say


The fear of no $ has driven us ...



posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 08:02 AM
link   

Originally posted by DaddyBare
You bet and in this day of Photoshop and CGI making it possible to custom tailor said image to a single person I'd say its darn easy to do!



Yep i am sure, you can show a person, a picture and they could start having nightmares about them, and it could severly affect there concious mind. I am sure it is possible. If you guys look at the buildings in the montauk base, some of the rooms where painted all these funny patterns or colours.

I am sure if they knew alot about a person, they could make a picture or painting that would give that person nightmares.



posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 08:03 AM
link   
reply to post by visible_villain
 


Herbert plagarised this from Orwell's 1984.

If, by engaging the viewer on an emotional level, images can be used to sell, then it stands to reason that images can be used for any emotional purpose.



posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 08:40 AM
link   
reply to post by silent thunder
 


This one freaked me out as a kid - i had nightmares for ages and had a bridge phobia for a couple of years
It is from the ladybird book 'Three Billy Goats Gruff' which is illustrated by Robert Lumley. I couldn't find the colour version, which is slightly more disturbing :

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/71b3388beb95.jpg[/atsimg]

this is the colour it should be in, another pic from the book, and not as scary as the one above:
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/f5ce8b97f2d3.jpg[/atsimg]








posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 08:43 AM
link   
I think it depends on your beliefs and your own mind. I would say yes for some a picture could probably drive them insane. I also think that for a picture to drive someone insane they might have to have some sort of mental imbalance to begin with. IDK, just saying my opinion.



posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 09:48 AM
link   
Sanity is a matter of consensus. If you were running with Attila the Hun's crowd back in the Third Century, then mindless violence would be perfectly "sane" and acceptable. Society itself decides what is right & wrong, what is good & evil, so your "sanity" just depends on the society from which you spring. That which you consider sane may be perceived by another person as the depths of insanity, yes?

But, could a single image throw you completely out of whack relative to the rest of society? Many people are already close to the edge, anyway, and it doesn't require much of a shove, so yes a single image could easily be the catalyst for a psychotic break, even if it's only a temporary flight from sanity.

Remember the King of the Hill episode in which Hank accidentally witnessed his elderly mother having sex with some guy on a washing machine? Hank went blind instantly, which was rather humorous, but that was a comedic exploration of a very real condition called hysterical blindness — the mind is so repulsed by an image that the optical image processing center of the brain just shuts down.

There's also hysterical paralysis, hysterical deafness, and even the hysterical loss of speech, triggered by some combination of anxieties, as well as a whole smorgasbord of other "instant craziness" conditions just waiting out there for each of us.

So, yeah, a single image might drive you crazy, just as a sudden noise might cause you to have a heart attack. Who knows what will trigger the next serial killer or school-shooter, eh?

We're reactive creatures, we react to external stimuli. Some of us get carried away, some of us just shrug it off.

— Doc Velocity



posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 10:04 AM
link   
reply to post by visible_villain
 

Cripes! Dude, okay that picture right there will do it.
Sheesh, where in hell, and I mean that literally, did you find that? Nearly choked on my coffee.

There are certain visual textures and patterns that do make me uncomfortable and I don't know why. But I have a hard time imagining a picture that would drive me insane, when harsh realities of life haven't managed to do the job. I suppose if the subject matter were horrific enough it could trip certain psychological triggers and aversions. I just hope I never find out.



posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 10:18 AM
link   
Sensory input creates impression on everyone, its how memory influences our personality.

Propaganda and brainwashing is a form of imposed mental illness of some degree. Look what happened here in the states during our latest Prez election.

This also reminds of the Monty Python sketch, where a joke was discovered that was so funny, anyone who heard or read it laughed themselves to death.

It was used as a secret weapon in WWII, translated into German so Brit soldiers would be safe.



posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 10:34 AM
link   
Read a bit of Lovecraft and you'll be reminded insanity is always just one small event away. Pikmins model deals with this very thing actually.



posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 11:54 AM
link   
reply to post by teapot
 


You said :

Fear is the mind killer.
Herbert plagarised this from Orwell's 1984.

Well, I really didn't know this.

Even though it's no big deal, I was suprised to be wrong about something as basic as this, so I went and checked, and was not able to confirm your claim.

Could you please provide a citation to support your claim ?

Feel free to do so by u2u, if you'd prefer ...




posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 12:11 PM
link   

Originally posted by DaddyBare
You bet and in this day of Photoshop and CGI making it possible to custom tailor said image to a single person I'd say its darn easy to do!
I'd turn around and say the opposite. I'd say an image could have done that before we became such an image aware society, but with hundreds of thousands of pictures facing us every day (30 frames per second on TV, every newspaper, magazine or billboard we might encounter, every ad on every website we visit...) I think we're immune to actually "going crazy" because of an image. We're aware enough to know that what we see in a flat image IS NOT reality. It's not like the early days of motion pictures when there was a riot because someone had a movie of a train going into the theater...



posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 12:14 PM
link   
I think an image or a picture could cause somebody to become insane, but there would have to be an underlying mental imbalance for that to happen. I would not have thought you could go from sane to tipping over the edge just by looking at an image! I suppose it is also possible to have suffered an emotional trauma within your past and then a photo or an image can resurrect those feelings to such an extent that it causes a nervous breakdown, particularly if you were a victim.



posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 12:15 PM
link   
reply to post by visible_villain
 


Sorry mate, don't have a copy available. As I recall, 'fear is the mind killer' appears in the chapter/s telling of when Winston Smith, the anti-hero/central character, is being interrogated by O'Brien in Room 101, the parties most feared sanction against thought crime.

I've read both 1984 and Herbert's Dune series. Actually, it was not fair for me to say Herbert plagarised the phrase. It's an assumption I made as 1984 was written much earlier than Dune. 1984 is a good read, if you haven't been there, I'd recommend it.



posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 12:18 PM
link   
Most definitely yes , T.V has been doing it for years .

I will even go one further and say that images can even "brain wash" people .



posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 12:29 PM
link   
reply to post by teapot
 


1984 is a good read, if you haven't been there, I'd recommend it.

Yes, I've been there - and I'm still there now, in a manner of speaking ...

Wouldn't recommend it at all, myself !

But it is a great book ...




posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 12:29 PM
link   
I think it has a lot to do with how your mind works for you, everyone is different, an image sending someone insane permanently I find hard to fathom, however an image disturbing someone at the time of seeing it and playing on their mind is very real.

I had a friend who sent another friend an image years ago, a picture of someone dead in a car crash I believe, anyhow, it disturbed them terribly for weeks, so much the friend who sent it lost them forever as a friend, it was only after counselling, that they could deal with it, yet now the same person can look at death and not batter an eye lid.

I think that is because their mind was processing what they had seen, and conditioned itself and became prepared to see it again without the same reaction, why anyone would send someone an image like that, thinking it was fun is beyond me, but there it is they did, and I don't know why.

So temporary insanity a real possibility, permanent I don't know for sure.



posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 01:55 PM
link   
reply to post by silent thunder
 
It would take either alot of something or just one image I really hated to make me go insane. Or just a picture of Rosie O'Donnell kissing Oprah or something. I'd have to claw my eyes out with rusty farm equipment and then get a nice tight straight jacket.


[edit on 10-04-08 by Beach Bum]

[edit on 10-04-08 by Beach Bum]



posted on Apr, 20 2009 @ 02:02 PM
link   
Hehehe I've got Edvard Munch's 'Scream' as a poster on my bedroom wall, crazy to look at, but I don't feel too crazy myself.
But on the other hand, I've also got a poster of all of the past Buddhas gathered in Nirvana, which is used in 'refuge' meditation, I still can't get my head round it...



new topics

top topics



 
7
<< 1    3  4 >>

log in

join