When was the last time you felt fear?

Originally posted by DrumsRfun
reply to post by walltofloor

 

Thats kinda funny.

I had a similiar experience like that under different circumstances that ended with me sleeping in a canoe after coming face to face from about 5 feet away.
Fun times!!

At least they weren't grizzlies!!

Too true. I hear the grizzlies are on the way down here though...eek! They introduced a lot of elk where i am so the wolves followed. Only natural for the grizzlies to do the same.

Btw, did you contemplate changing your underwear too whilst under the canoe?

The OP knows fear. Knows it

Others here have evidenced they too, know and understand the sort of fear the OP has described


Still others have chosen to deliver basically lectures about fear, as if it were akin to soiling one's underwear -- as something distasteful and unnecessary

Those of the lecture-brigade are in no position to give advice or pontificate. They don't know fear. They haven't a clue. Hopefully they will experience genuine fear though. Then they'll never again cite nonsensical self-improvement book stanzas about something they know absolutely nothing about

For those who've experienced genuine fear of the kind described by the OP -- I dip my hat. You're members of a club the likes of which the pontificators have no clue. Cheers

There is no such thing as fear in my world, therefore fear doesn't exist. At least for me anyways ,

Originally posted by walltofloor

Originally posted by DrumsRfun
reply to post by walltofloor

Btw, did you contemplate changing your underwear too whilst under the canoe?

edit on 14-3-2011 by walltofloor because: (no reason given)

Nah...it was a fun hot night so I just bobbed around in the moonlight drinking beer in my sleeping bag and laughing at the scenario.

It was my first trip I ever did alone and as funny as it all was I learned a lesson and I will never forget the honesty of nature.

If a man craps himself and there is no person to see it.......did he still crap himself or is he lacking someone to blame???

Originally posted by Dock9
The OP knows fear. Knows it

Others here have evidenced they too, know and understand the sort of fear the OP has described


Still others have chosen to deliver basically lectures about fear, as if it were akin to soiling one's underwear -- as something distasteful and unnecessary

Those of the lecture-brigade are in no position to give advice or pontificate. They don't know fear. They haven't a clue. Hopefully they will experience genuine fear though. Then they'll never again cite nonsensical self-improvement book stanzas about something they know absolutely nothing about

For those who've experienced genuine fear of the kind described by the OP -- I dip my hat. You're members of a club the likes of which the pontificators have no clue. Cheers

Fear is relative to the person experiencing it. What makes one person fearful and how they handle it may not affect another in the same way. I understand where you are coming from but you sound very judgmental about other peoples (lack of) experience in the realm of fear. I chose that story because it was fearful for me and it wasn't something i hadn't told anyone close to me either. I have other stuff that i can't talk about on a public website such as this because i hav'nt even discussed it with my own family yet. It involves the 'Real Fear' you are talking about. I'm talking life and death and thats about where i stop on the matter. Sorry to be such a pontificator by the way.

I notice you have not added your own experience of fear yet. If you would be so kind to share (as we have) I, for one would love to hear about it.

reply to post by walltofloor


Its hard to explain accuratley, however, it is an emotional depth that most people have never really experienced. There is a kind of "barrier" that has to be crossed before someone can experience it. I find that, paradoxically, only those who can experience the more "dense" emotions can experience the more genuinely warm emotions. Perhaps its a kind of "race memory" or "past lives" from a time of general fear/paranoia/cruelty/war...

As an elaboration - times are chaning, a while ago, it was normal to be sad, normal to lose control and get angry, normal to be fearful and lose ones mind... However, as we became "civilised" these things became "unnatural" and the only people left who feel across the complete spectrum are diagnosed with "depression" or "anxiety" or any one of the numerous scientific names for the more unpredictable and volatile human emotions - things that they have been working on phasing out for the last half-century.

We know that we have become detached from our emotions when we start to quantify them, when we treat ourselves as biochemical machines, when we even dare to call emotions "energy" that can somehow be traded like money, let alone things that we are able to control.

When I saw Reactor 3 at the Fukushima nuclear power plant explode.

That was the last time I felt fear.

Everyday now that I've come to the fact that we are really fearful beings. If not of the dark, the most feared is of change. I'm not talking about running around in circles day in and out fear but looking to fear as a teacher and overcoming it bit by bit so I can get a better viewpoint of life, a more positive one. Life really isn't dark. It's just our minds that are. You face your fears, you 'illuminate' your mind more and more to see the real side of life. There's more to it then the small, titanium sealed, welded shut, plywood over, chained up, sealed with concrete box that each individual keeps themselves in until they first see that they're in a box, and then bit by bit, deconstruct it.

reply to post by theibbsta


From your description, it sounds more like panic, than fear.
The most scared I've ever been was on one of the many times I've nearly piled a bike.
The overwhelming sensations are always an intense clarity of vision and thought and a slowing down of time around me. Followed by euphoria. I can't stop laughing for ages.

reply to post by SprocketUK


I once had to bail-out on my motorcycle as I lost traction at an intersection, I landed on both of my feet to see my bike sliding away on its side. I managed to pick my bike up and take it to the side of the road before the light turned green, and basically had to ride home with the steering misaligned. There was another time, it was raining and I could barely see (and I think I had been drinking a bit) and the traffic light went red before my eyes. It was too late to stop, and in light of the risk of hitting on-coming traffic, I realised that I could make a left turn instead. I jammed on the breaks, and basically powerslided my way around the corner. Its that split second, fight or flight, where you have to fight against the panic and confusion in order to save your life. There was yet another time, I went wide around a corner, and was heading into the barrier, however, it was too late to put on the brakes, so I had to deliberatley slide against the barrier to regain control. Its strange, its as if the fear was intense enough create a moment of clarity where I could plan what I was going to do.

The fear that I feel in general, is hard to explain, its more like a feeling of emptiness, or desperation. When I manage to overcome the fear, I feel a sense of elation, in a way its similar to incidents involving narrow escapes from death and injury, however, the emotions are prolonged over a greater period of time, and the fight is mostly on the inner plane, however it often crosses over to the people that I am around, its hard to explain, as if I am being watched, at the same time persecuted by various individuals... Often I feel like I am trying to deal with incidents from my past or my childhood, realisations about certain events that have been blocked from my memory, or realisations about aspects of reality that I am generally blind to. They could be issues from past lives, or perhaps it could even be alien abductions, as I seem to have "post traumatic" kind of symptoms, and I have had many dreams with images and feeling of being tied down/trapped or otherwise tortured. Its coupled with an inner hatred or aggression that I cannot put a face to...

I felt fear, a hopeless sense, yesterday after noon. Normally, I live in Toulouse with my wife, but am presently working away from home near Munich. Yesterday afternoon, she called me from home to tell me that she had-had an epeleptic episode whilst walking in the forest. She thinks that she may have collapsed and remained unconcious for about 30 minutes (unaccounted time). She badly bit her tongue and was in pretty bad shape. The only way she managed to get home was when a passing motorist, who happened to be a fellow Brit was driving past and saw her.

That scared the living sh1t out of me. I was too far away to do anything.

As you can imagine, I am now looking to get transferred back home.

reply to post by SystemResistor


I agree about the near death clarity. I think that's what keeps me coming back to bikes. ;
As for the other, no, my mind tends to shy away from the awful stuff. The closest to that helpless kind of dread was when my daughter came down with pneumonia and one of the docs wanted her tested for cystic fibrosis. That wasn't nice, but my brain rebelled against all that and just kept planning ways out of it.

reply to post by SystemResistor


I remember once when I was 13ish I woke up wide awake at some point in the night. It was dead silent at night, unusual for the area(was summer in a rural area surrounded by woods and fields). I became so terrified I pulled my blanket over my head and just shut my mind down.


Since I was a toddler, like my older brother, I couldn't stand sleeping if there was even a dim light on.
But after that I can't sleep without a light on.

Even thinking back brings tear to my eye's, I have never been so helpless, terrified or frozen in my life. Don't get me wrong it all happened in a few seconds and as soon as I realized I just shut down in fear. Fear I have not felt in any nightmare.

Heck I was held up at gun point on my 18th birthday and I didn't freak out(just went into ultra calm, keeping the situation from getting tense survival mode). It is just not something you can forget.

About 10 years ago...I was working for a commercial tree service company based in Va. We did contract work for power co-ops and munincipalities...clearing power lines and right-of-ways.

I had to go up 60 ft in a bucket truck...loaded with hydraulic power eqipment and chainsaws...hanging over and in between power lines carrying 28,000 volts of electricity....one slip...one wrong turn and you are dead...no oops, no sorry, no I'll do better next time...DEAD.

Even in 20 degree weather in winter, I would break out in cold sweats...get a knot in my stomach...knees shaking....

We would get our paycheck and they would attach warnings and accident check list so "This Won't Happen To You." One guy got dragged into a big ass diesel wood chipper when his leg got caught on a stub on the log.... another guy got his faced ripped off when a pine tree he was cutting started falling away...but because he had too little help on the ground...it fell back towards him...scrapped his face off and pushed him through the bottom of the bucket... danging by his safety harness with no face....

Yup...every day was an execise in fear...you had to have your stuff together out there.

reply to post by AlreadyGone


I can relate to that, as I have worked for my local volunteer emergency service - numerous times I was on rooftops, tied to a rope with a chainsaw, clearing away and cutting branches, or climing on a roof during rain in order to replace a few tiles. Its that feeling of being on the edge, that feeling of "knowing".

reply to post by korathin


Thats the kind of fear that I am talking about, at least with physical danger, you can see the variables, at least there is adrenaline to numb the pain, however, the other kind of fear is literally messing with your soul/spirit, its something that some people can live an entire lifetime without really experiencing.

I sometimes feel fear but my fear is a little off what anyone else fears.. I fear what i will become when things change because right now i am struggling to get by the way i want, turns out when you hit adult you are not allowed to live anymore, i want my freedom and i want a life worth living not working until im dead.. I am not lazy if thats what anyone thinks, i just fear that my life will disappear and turn into endless work. the cost of living in the future has me feared... Is this normal for an 18 year old?.

reply to post by SystemResistor


Right now and every single day that I awaken to more news about economic collapse, earthquakes, nuclear plant meltdowns, it's amazing I can function!

The last time I felt fear in a nonphysical sense was during my nightmare a few weeks ago. I made a post about it, 200 underground levels and some really scary stuff down at the last level but not having a clear picture of WHAT it was that actually scared me:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

The last time I felt fear in the "real" world was last Monday when I heard the radiation cloud from Japan might hit the West Coast where I live and that the Japanese and U.S. governments are downplaying the situation, lying to the people in order to keep them calm.

To answer the question of this thread, I would say the last time I felt fear was while watching the numbers climb upwards on the display to RIDICULOUS AMOUNTS while pumping my gasoline.

The real fear set in when I realized that I WASN'T even HALFWAY filled yet.