Where do our greatest fears come from?

I have a couple oddly specific "place" fears.
I have a fear of being in deep water, or even watching/hearing stories about people in deep water. But the odd thing is... not of the sea-floor. Its the idea of being in or under water, where i cant see the bottom, and everything is dark. Even if, in my imagination, I know there are no sharks or monsters or anything.. just being alone and exposed in the empty space of water itself is what scares me.

that, and being stuck in a small tight cave/tunnel/tube. lol.

when i was a small kid, i loved playing in the tunnel space under my water bed(i had bad allergies) when it was pushed into the corner of the room, id stay in there for hours reading and whatever.
but then one day i finally got too big. i was only stuck for about half a second, but i totally 100% lost my mind and nearly broke the headboard scrambling out.


are these sorts of fears some kind of instinct leftover from when we were still low the food-chain? when we still swam in the ocean?
how could they stay so strong for billions of years?

In my opinion, the greatest fears of human beings originate from the unknown. Generally, if someone is afraid of heights, It is unknown what the outcome would be if he climbs the ladder, he could fall, or he could not.

Personally I believe fear comes from the media, I never knew all of those other countries were out to get littlle ole me!
But yeah I feel ya, swimming in a big ocean with miles of empty space would freak me out, just not knowing what was out there waiting and scheming to do who knows what....?
Funny thing is I have been in fear for my life before and the fear I remember does not compare to the things the imagination does.
One more vote for the unknown.

i have irrational fears of the cold....especially getting my toes & fingers frozen.... perhaps i was the mummified 'Ice Man' found in the Alps in a previous life


i also have irrational fear of finding myself stranded in a gang-banger neighborhood, perhaps the car broke down or something...
back before my brain injury that situation was not even on the radar, but now i know how a victim in waiting must feel

I cant really think of what I fear. I guess ive yet to experience it. I know when I do ill be unprepared for it. Ive had fears that ive overcome, like when I was younger I would see a dog and literally freeze.


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Loss of control causes the greatest fear in my opinion.

Thats why I fear Brussels the most right now.


edit: Actually it is more anger than fear... nevermind.

Unknown is a good answer.
Another good theory is noise frequency. 19 HZ (anything close enough will work) is roughly the frequency to a predators growl. It causes fear and dread, and has been strongly linked to ghost encounters. Fear frequency
Another one is discordant noises cause primal fear....discordant noises count for alot of the stuff we call music. The brain interprets it the same way it would a scream. This is why any serious part of any movie has ominous tones...to play with the audience's emotion through primal instinct.
So my answer to the OP is yes, this is left over from a time when survival was not an easy thing to do. It has survived in us because it is still useful to know when there is something to be feared before we see it. We may not be so dependent on hunting, but still useful to know if there is a tiger behind us, or if another human is afraid of something at any given moment, (enough to scream) you probably should be afraid to.
Goes to show whatever causes fear, it's more likely to be something that cannot be seen. Fear does have its uses, Its done a great job of our self preservation, but has also made man-kind as a whole easier to be controlled by the few (example: fear is what bush used to get us to fork over another slice of freedom with few to no questions asked after 9/11). Funny how what kept us alive can also ruin us.

reply to post by BohemianBrim


Some of those fears result from early experiences, like somoene who almost drowned as a kid.
Some of them are developed through the images and and ideas they recieve early on (movies like "Jaws"!)
Some of them are actually expressions of deeper fears in the psyche- like water often is a symbol of emotions; people who have nightmares of tidal waves might fear being overcome by emotion which they can't control and that takes over their ability to think or act.
Some of them are physical fears - like the fear of not being able to percieve yourself in relation to the space you are in..... not knowing where up,and down are, and determining your position in relation to objects in the exterior world.

I would make a guess that your fear of being underwater, in the way you described it, sounds like that last one?
Claustrophobia is the anxiety of not being able to control or change your position in space. Either way you get trapped and unable to choose your movement in relation to what is exterior.

That is probably somewhat instinctive, and we all sort of learn to either accept such a situation of powerlessness, or to fear it as something dangerous, depending upon our early experiences.

I recently started scuba diving and found breathing underwater very stressful and a little water in my mask tipped me over the edge almost into panic once. But being in a state where I could not tell where the bottom was, where the surface was, or anything at all didn't bother me. I feel trusting of that state, for some reason.

I think it is possible to re-train your body. I think it is exactly like with animal training. With horses, we "sack them out" make them experience what they fear, more or less progressively, until they can get to actually having an experience where they can stay in that position for longer and longer periods of time and have their body make the association that nothing bad happens to them. Horses being prey animals that are programmed to flee danger usually have an instinct to panic in areas which are enclosed, like a hall. We start of having them walk through it as quickly as they need, then again and again, until they start to slow down, and then can actually stop and stand there for a few seconds. Each time pushes them to overcome their anxiety just a bit more, and soon it registers in their body that this place is okay.

If such fears are a hindrance to you and limit you from doing some things you'd like to do, a sort of program like this can help. If it isn't a problem for you, well it isn't a problem then!

I also have the fear of being in a wide open sea with dark waters, where you cannot see the bottom. I dont think it is the thought of sharks or sea monsters getting me, but the fact that i am isolated and helpless. I had this fear while playing two games. The first was "Eco the Dolphin" on my old Sega Mega Drive, dont laugh! I couldnt watch it or play it. When the dolphin was swimming in the dark, open water, my back went all funny and shivery. The same happened again when I played "Endless Ocean". I also find it hard to watch wildlife programmes and films which are based in deep water.

I have no idea where this fear would have come from. I have always been a strong swimmer, even as a child. I enjoy swimming in the shallows at the beech, even out of my depth. But just the thought of that dark, cold open sea gives me shivers. I think it could be some kind of survival fear passed down by our ancesters, as quite a few people with no reason have this fear.

This could be the same with other fears.

My boyfriend and I were visiting friends who were showing off their new property, in a beautiful wooded area. They had built a quaint rope bridge that spanned accross an aprox 30' foot gully.

I was excited to cross the little bridge and join my friends in the gazebo on the other side. I stepped onto the bridge and took about 5 steps when it happened. My body took over, my breath was taken. My legs started shaking, my knees went out from under me and found myself crawling on all 4s to get accross the bridge.

I was shocked that I had no control over my body. I had never experienced anyhting like it. I have no idea where it came from.

As others have already mentioned, the fear of the unknown is the root of all fears.
The fear of death is the primary motivator for us humans.

All of your fears are likely to be because you are afraid to die.
If you were to fully embrace death you'd be surprised at how many of your unfounded fears would just melt away and be seen for what they really are. Silly!

The concept of death is the biggest lie ever perpetrated on the human race.
It is this obsession with self preservation that has been the cause of so much unspeakable suffering for thousands of years.

Fear!
Fear of DEATH!
FEAR of the unknown.

Death is scary because it is unknown.
It is unknown because TPTB don't want us to know its true nature because if we did,
their game would be up and we would win.

This is why we are bombarded with messages of fear and death thru news,movies,video games etc.

reply to post by Screwed


im not afraid of death, im afraid of dying. i think its because i dislike sudden irreversible change(until its over then i always seem to enjoy it. like moving to a new city, even if i hate where i live and know ill be happier in the new place, i will hold fast to my horrible depressing but familiar rut till the last moments. then suddenly while im on the road its like a whole new person takes over my brain and im happy again)
.... and im afraid of pain.

but this isnt even about those fears... this feels like something else, something beyond the normal everyday life.. its like my soul and essence itself is terrified.

and actually, when i try to pin it down and shine a light on it.. i dont think its even about the ocean or water or a cave.. those are just symbols or the nearest human equivalent for something else..

*shrug*