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.
Originally posted by muzzleflash
. . . i have an irrational fear of Hunting with Dick Cheney . . .
Originally posted by Exoviewer
Consider the brain as a computer. A computer with Dos and Windows. Left side of the brain and Right side of the brain. Everything that our senses pick up right now, turn directly into a memory.
Originally posted by Exoviewer
Why not consider that you heard the sound of a plane when you were very young for the first time and it scared the crap out of you and that emotional attachment to that sound stayed with you up into adulthood.
Thats more plausable than blaming it on a different person in a different life in different time don't you think. No disrespect.
Originally posted by l_e_cox
reply to post by kiwifoot
I can't tell if you're being rhetorical or really want our input...
There's no way to prove that past lives are real totally based on the phenomenon of irrational fears.
But as far as I'm concerned, the existence of a non-physical self which has amazing abilities of causation and memory and definitely has lived many, many lives has been proven for a long time.
That means that irrational fears (and I don't know how irrational a fear of spiders or insects is) could definitely come from long-ago experiences. All sorts of other mental phenomena also come from that experience. Things like mysterious scars or chronic pains can also come from past lives.
There is plenty of evidence (but mostly outside of conventional science, as far as I know) that dealing properly with ancient traumatic experiences can bring amazing relief to a being. For a lot of people this isn't a weird idea at all - it's a given part of how life works.
Could most phobias be explained this way?I know people who have phobias of things that they have never, could never and will never come into contact with, but yet they are petrified of them nonetheless. Could the above theory explain this?
Originally posted by kiwifoot
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear."
--- H.P. Lovecraft
A phobia by definintion: An extreme fear of a particular thing or situation, especially one that cannot be reasonably explained.
Some phobias can be understood, if not entirely justified. For example, Verminophobia, the fear of Germs can be explained since certain Germs are known to cause us harm. The fear of Injections or Trypanophobia is another common one and taking into acount the pain of some injections it can also be understood.
However there are dozens of documented phobias that are extremely difficult to explain:
Anything new - Neophobia
Bathing - Ablutophobia
Flutes - Aulophobia
Books - Bibliophobia
Good news, hearing good news - Euphobia
Left-handed; objects at the left side of the body - Sinistrophobia
Mother-in-law - Pentheraphobia - Oops no wait that's a normal one!
Poetry - Metrophobia
Knees - Genuphobia
These are just a few, there are many more that I could give you but you get my point.
What I want to put to you is this: Are irrational fears and phobias caused by events or situations in past lives? Could an Ablutophobe (Bathing) have been drowned in the bath in a previous incarnation. If I was to read a poem to someone and have a fatal heart attack at that very moment would I take with me an irrational fear of poetry, that would manifest itself as Metrophobia?
Could most phobias be explained this way? I know people who have phobias of things that they have never, could never and will never come into contact with, but yet they are petrified of them nonetheless. Could the above theory explain this?
If any of you have irrational fears that you'd like to share to prove/disprove this theory it would be great.
All the best, especailly to you Phobics!
"The only thing we have to fear is fear it'self - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
---- FDR - First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933
[edit on 5-6-2009 by kiwifoot]
[edit on 5-6-2009 by kiwifoot]
Originally posted by XXXN3O
Originally posted by kiwifoot
"The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear."
--- H.P. Lovecraft
A phobia by definintion: An extreme fear of a particular thing or situation, especially one that cannot be reasonably explained.
Some phobias can be understood, if not entirely justified. For example, Verminophobia, the fear of Germs can be explained since certain Germs are known to cause us harm. The fear of Injections or Trypanophobia is another common one and taking into acount the pain of some injections it can also be understood.
However there are dozens of documented phobias that are extremely difficult to explain:
Anything new - Neophobia
Bathing - Ablutophobia
Flutes - Aulophobia
Books - Bibliophobia
Good news, hearing good news - Euphobia
Left-handed; objects at the left side of the body - Sinistrophobia
Mother-in-law - Pentheraphobia - Oops no wait that's a normal one!
Poetry - Metrophobia
Knees - Genuphobia
These are just a few, there are many more that I could give you but you get my point.
What I want to put to you is this: Are irrational fears and phobias caused by events or situations in past lives? Could an Ablutophobe (Bathing) have been drowned in the bath in a previous incarnation. If I was to read a poem to someone and have a fatal heart attack at that very moment would I take with me an irrational fear of poetry, that would manifest itself as Metrophobia?
Could most phobias be explained this way? I know people who have phobias of things that they have never, could never and will never come into contact with, but yet they are petrified of them nonetheless. Could the above theory explain this?
If any of you have irrational fears that you'd like to share to prove/disprove this theory it would be great.
All the best, especailly to you Phobics!
"The only thing we have to fear is fear it'self - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
---- FDR - First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933
[edit on 5-6-2009 by kiwifoot]
[edit on 5-6-2009 by kiwifoot]
I can understand how you reached your conclusion but I find myself disagreeing.
This does depend on what is a clearly irrational fear.
Personally I would fear things at the time in scenarios such as car crashes, plane crashes, gunshot wounds or something like that if that makes sense. This would never stop me from doing something and in general I do not have anything that scares me as I look at life experiences as lessons. If I find myself in a situation that is scary or threatening I take it as a lesson in my actions.
In my circumstances this theory if correct would mean I dont have any previous lives when it comes to phobias. This is why I find it hard to believe.
Just my opinion.
[edit on 1-7-2009 by XXXN3O]