Fear is an emotion familiar even to daredevils. But what exactly are we most afraid of? Losing your home or job, watching the death of a loved one, seeing how the world around you is sliding into the throat of war? Perhaps each person has their own, personal greatest fear.
Interestingly, quite a few people have a fear of the dead, which inspired the creators of numerous horror films. But such fear is completely unfounded, for one must be afraid of the living. As the classic said, "for a thousand years, all the dead taken together have caused less harm to this world than the living in one day."
The last minutes before death
Do you know the expression “at that moment my whole life flashed before my eyes”? This is not a poetic fiction, but the very real reality. It's just that in an extreme situation, the human brain begins to work in an accelerated mode, usually not typical for it. There is a feeling of time slowing down.
You yourself may have experienced a similar phenomenon if you have ever been involved in a car accident or other life-threatening situation. But you are probably wondering why I suddenly began to consider this unusual phenomenon of the psyche in an article on fear? Well, now everything will become clear to you.
Many religions agree that the torment of hell awaits suicides after death. Believe it or not, what is an indisputable fact is that the suffering of a suicide begins in this world. Take, for example, such a popular way of settling accounts with life, like hanging.
If the loop is tightened in a "good" position, then loss of consciousness may occur in a few seconds. But not every person has the skills of the executioner of the medieval inquisition. Therefore, suffocation can last more than two minutes (cases are known when up to 15 minutes). And if we take into account that the mind at this time works in the notorious "hyper mode" … Subjectively, the agony may seem eternal, and it is really scary.
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Fanaticism
If you and I, dear reader, were suddenly transported to the Middle Ages, then a warm (I would even say, hot) welcome in the gloomy basements of the Inquisition would already await us there. I would probably find myself there for creating a site about mysticism and magic, and you - for reading such heretical literature. Let's talk about another most terrible manifestation of the human soul - fanaticism.
Wikipedia defines fanaticism as blind and unconditional adherence to certain beliefs. She also adds that most often fanaticism manifests itself in the national, political and scientific-religious spheres. What Wikipedia is silent about is the millions of victims of this notorious fanaticism. About the bonfires of medieval Spain, about the Parisian Bartholomew's night, about the horrors of concentration camps. About genocide based on ethnicity and not only.
Can you imagine anything darker than a crowd of crazy fanatics who clearly do not share your beliefs? Each of them individually can be a completely adequate person, but the crowd … The crowd is not inclined to listen to other people's arguments. Moreover, she needs a "stranger", a conditional enemy who can be blamed for all troubles.