The psychology behind "Doomsdayers"

The psychology behind "doomsdayers" is very intriguing.

When these individuals speak of "the end of times" they ultimately create a window of insight into themselves.

I break these people down into a few different groups listed in no particular order.

- Unhappy / Want the world to end.
- Egotistical / The world will end when I parish.
- Paranoid & Anxiety Prone / Succumb to the theories out of inner fears.
- Science Ignorant / Know no better than to believe what they hear, watch, and read.
- Gullible / Going to believe it regardless.

The question remains why so many people immediately join the ranks of this list. Nobody is forcing them to but psychologically they are driven to.

There is some unknown force driving society to fall into line with doomsday theories. It isn't a recent phenomenon but a reoccurring one.

The two most famous ones are Y2K and 2012 as of the past decade or so. However, if you dig between the cracks on this website and others you will find hundreds of thousands of doomsday theories in between (and before).

The future isn't vaccinated from these theories either. Yesterday a relative of mine, whom is actually a science teacher, mentioned he read of an Asteroid on course to come very close to earth and/or strike earth in 2028. Really? 2028?

2000, 2012, 2028

When it comes to the date of the apocalypse pick your poison. But, many do choose to pick a poison.

Society obviously will be driven further to paranoia during times of economic stress, anxiety, and the ever increasing feeling of being out of control of their lives. I don't see that as the outer lying cause for this social movement.

Additionally these theories have been around for centuries. Is it a built-in fear of the end of times? Obviously the Bible mentions it which could be one of the very first instigators of these theories.

What makes people so confident they have the proper theory? Economically this is a battle between theories (sometimes) as they try to gain ground on a book, movie (2012), website (ATS), or other form of income.

So if doomsday is someone else's pyramid scheme, why are so many intelligent people prone to jumping on the bandwagon? Why don't we reach a point of spiritual enlightenment where we realize we can't predict the apocalypse?

Instead it is this faithful cycle of generations and generations believing the world will soon end. It has gone on for thousands of years and we never learn to live a faith based life, based on faith that tomorrow will come?

In your response please indicate whether or not you believe in a particular doomsday theory, and which one you fall in line with. This is just so that I can get some statistics at least on this isolated forum.

[edit on 17-1-2010 by Jedi411]

reply to post by Jedi411


The world cannot end, because if it could end it would have done so long ago. Also, I cannot die because if I could die I would have died many years ago.

There are different types of Doomsday. Like an Eskimo who has many words to describe snow and maybe even facial expressions and hand gestures to go along with the words.

2012=False Doomsday, there is "Doomsday", and of course, "Final Doomsday". For now, when the sunspots start popping all over the sun, it will seem like a true Doomsday. Increased solar activity could also raise the dome at the lake in Yellowstone. So it will be scary enough. A tsunami, a destructive hurricane/typhoon season will all cause concern. In the next couple of years we will see a sampler plate of a true doomsday or a final doomsday, but there is time left.

Originally posted by chorizo3
For now, when the sunspots start popping all over the sun, it will seem like a true Doomsday. Increased solar activity could also raise the dome at the lake in Yellowstone. So it will be scary enough. A tsunami, a destructive hurricane/typhoon season will all cause concern. In the next couple of years we will see a sampler plate of a true doomsday or a final doomsday, but there is time left.

There is no reason to believe that Yellowstone blowing would eliminate humans on the planet.

There is no reason to believe humans would be wiped out by any of the other situations you described either.

This is what I'm talking about. You mention "In the next couple of years we will see a sampler plate of a true doomsday".

WHO ARE YOU?

Seriously though who blessed you with the ability to see the future? Noone?

Right then. So why would you spread the nonsense?

The endisnighe! the endisnighe! the endisnighe!


I'm sorry, I thought this was a thread about me.

The psychology of fear, is an awesome look into why we as people, fear things but why we like it so much. Ever wonder why those movies like Jaws or Friday the 13th do so well. We love to be scared, it gets the adrenaline and the other neurological endorphins flowing.

Ever have a close call? Remember that rush you got when the adrenal gland kicked in? How about the shakes that followed it? Remember the heightened sense of awareness?

Dread is another emotional response that could be said to cause these type of release of endorphins. Only without the adrenaline release.

I always wondered if these endorphins are addictive.

I remember a movie where an alien injected huge quantities of drugs into the humans and then extracted the endorphins for those drugs. Pretty cool concept.

I am more of a political doomer. Just read through my threads and you will see that-

The endisnighe!

As for the OP, have you never heard of THE RAPTURE. Or how about the doom of nuclear destruction in the 50's-80's, DUCK AND COVER!

We have been put in the box of fear and doom, since we were children. The boogeyman?

I think your OP should have been much longer and with some external links on the psychology of fear and maybe a few other things.

Doom is not new. It is as old as people themselves are.

Cool discussion by the way, will give you a flag but no star. You should have expanded your OP.

edit to add-The only doom I believe in is the absolute certainty that as people we will always be as stupid as the government that runs things are.

Other then that, maybe a biological warfare agent gets released like in Stephen King's The Stand and wipes out 99.99% of the Earth's population.

Now that one is scary, NO?

[edit on 1/17/2010 by endisnighe]

Well, the science teacher was right about the asteroid coming, this is a real thing. The year is supposed to be 2029.

Russia may send spacecraft to knock away asteroid

When the 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated its chances of smashing into Earth in its first flyby, in 2029, at 1-in-37.

Source

Not an ELE but could do some serious damage. That's pretty close odds.

reply to post by timewalker


From your article...

Further studies have ruled out the possibility of an impact in 2029, when the asteroid is expected to come no closer than 18,300 miles (29,450 kilometers) from Earth's surface, but they indicated a small possibility of a hit on subsequent encounters.

reply to post by Jedi411


I am a person, like you, that's who. But, let's not forget that even a clock that is stopped is right twice a day. I believe that the earths' core has become increasingly unstable and there is a very real chance of a core breech during a solar maximum. I'm not seeing Yellowstone as being a big threat, but the notion of it is kinda scary.

Down there, on the ocean floor, the fissures, the superheated water, that can't escape, that is where I see the big problem. The sun can heat the planet not just on the surface but from the core out like a microwave oven. What's at the core? Possibly heavy metals? Anyhow, that's honestly how I see things.

There is an element of "to me ness" about our perceptions of reality and the future. Was Bishop Barkeley correct that our perceptions of reality could be so subjective that much critical thought was impossible, or was Shakespeare correct, "a rose by any name"...

reply to post by chorizo3


Oooh, I forgot about Yellowstone.

There is another doom that is ripe with death and destruction. Good call.

I believe my endorphins are building, come on people-More Doom!

reply to post by Jedi411

I was just saying that the "asteroid" is real. Real enough for Russia to dedicate a space program for it.

Interesting OP

I reckon you could add feckless pessimists to that list too. Doomsday believers are likely as old as complex language. In a tribe of the distant past, there wasn't the word to express the concept of 'doomsday.' Someone had to invent it and then he bored or scared his fellow tribespeople with it. "For Frak's sake, Akl, enough already with the burning and the flooding. Go clean your frackin cave...it's like doomsday already happened in there!"

The 100% FAIL rate of Doom mongers won't pierce the 'Shield of Certainty' they all carry. A nice list is 44 failed & 1 ambiguous end-of-the-world
predictions between 30 and 1920. Somewhere on this site is a list of several 100 failed prophecies, but I can't find it anymore.

You may have guessed I don't believe in Doomsday theories or prophets. Maybe I do a little bit? There could be a large enough asteroid with our name on it. The only thing that could ensure the end of the human race would need to be an immense environmental catastrophe. It'd have to be big enough to wipe out most life on the planet to get rid of us. We aren't extremophiles like the water bear, but we're pretty tenacious critters in the scheme of things.

PS Cool first thread, but fix the title, 'psychology.'

[edit on 17-1-2010 by Kandinsky]

reply to post by Jedi411


Are you saying that the world will never end? Or are you saying that our species (humans) will never suffer extinction? Species go extinct, planets die, I can't see us (or a future generation) ecaping this future. When is this future event? Who knows, but I believe this is a matter of when not if.

Well, they certainly don't bring out the charitable side in me... I find them just as tedious as the indigo crowd, but with more negative rhetoric.

Why so longing for some Mecha/jesus/maitreya "saviour" to cleanse us? Why not get off their backsides and do something? Babbling about it on here is a VERY different thing to volunteering to go work with the homeless, or others in need.

Personally, if the apocalypse is coming, I'm ok with that, I just don't see it happening, it's just gonna be another cycle of the planet.

Lol, seems to me you just stereo type and then say they are different. bravo my friend, bravo

Originally posted by darkelf
reply to post by Jedi411

 

Are you saying that the world will never end?

What if it never does?

Originally posted by chorizo3
I am a person, like you, that's who. But, let's not forget that even a clock that is stopped is right twice a day.

Which is more methodical a clock or human emotion?

[edit on 17-1-2010 by Jedi411]

Originally posted by chorizo3
I am a person, like you, that's who. But, let's not forget that even a clock that is stopped is right twice a day. I believe that the earths' core has become increasingly unstable and there is a very real chance of a core breech during a solar maximum. I'm not seeing Yellowstone as being a big threat, but the notion of it is kinda scary.

Doomsday theories are more like a clock with the wrong time. It's changes every second and it's never right.

Just look how you bounce around to other theories when one is defeated. I believe someone else in this thread mentioned, "No matter how many times the theories are defeated, you cannot defeat the will to believe in new ones."

The question remains...
- Are endorphins released as a result of conceiving an apocalypse scenario?
- Does this fill a void in the individual's life?
- Are doomsdayers thinking positively of an apocalypse for any reason?
- Why is there no "off" switch and why can't some accept life on earth?

i believe doomsday is comming simply from reading history and seeing that it keeps getting worce. The different ways we kill each other is increasing to unimaginal preportions. We no longer have to worry about neclear war, we have to worry about some virus some stupid government is working on.The fact that it can escape into the world.The releasing into the world the gene splicing bacteria that monsanto uses to attatch round -up herbacide and poisen into the corn plant to make it part of that plant.It will probably be something new that we cant even fathom. THE mixing of so many different chemicals into our water that mix and creates new chemicals uncontroled. Global warming that real-[did anybody think that if ya heat up the air you are insulating the ground, wich in turn will cause volcanoes-earthquakes-things we cant imagine--and dont say its not real or they wouldnt have been spraying n-wisconsin for over 10 years daily--I said daily-we hardly have a blue sky day now except in winter -We are at least 25 degrees above normal for january and way down on snowfall this year--and thats been the norm for over 15 years now---I think that is why we feel doomsday is comming--ITS INEVITABLE

Originally posted by itsawild1

i believe doomsday is comming simply from reading history and seeing that it keeps getting worce.

I would have to disagree that it keeps getting worst.

From my perspective the world has been through a lot already and as the technology revolution continues to evolve it seems there's much more prevention of evil than execution.

If we were to go on this as a basis for the apocalypse I am sure during WW2 there were hundreds if not thousands of doomsday theories.

Thank you for the insight however it continues to be progressively intriguing.

reply to post by Jedi411

In your response please indicate whether or not you believe in a particular doomsday theory, and which one you fall in line with. This is just so that I can get some statistics at least on this isolated forum.

LOL, sorry. I am neither smart enough to know when doomsday will come or silly enough to pretend to understand the human dynamic so well that I can simply classify people's individual logic like a carton of eggs.

People believe things for a variety of reasons and many who believe the same things did not arrive at said belief on the same bus.

And you know what? If doomsday DOES come... many of us are going to feel even sillier after we collected guffaws at their expense.

Just saying...





[edit on 17-1-2010 by redoubt]

Originally posted by redoubt
And you know what? If doomsday DOES come... many of us are going to feel even sillier after we collected guffaws at their expense.

Just saying...

I have to disagree with you there.

If doomsday does come it will not be predicted by conspiracy theorists and if the human race is extinct who will feel silly? Who will say, "I told you so"?

There is something in the present created by these theories likely to be some sort of inner pleasure through believing them, supporting them and spreading them.

There is no logical point in attempting to predict the apocalypse, so I am seeking the illogical reason behind it. It almost seems like a built in humanly mechanism that is tricked into going off through these theories.

reply to post by Jedi411

If doomsday does come it will not be predicted by conspiracy theorists and if the human race is extinct who will feel silly? Who will say, "I told you so"?

Point taken... but that does leave us back at square one. So, if it happens, it happens. If it does not, then all the better. As for those who feed from the subject? No harm done either way.

Cheers