Is anyone scared of ...

[EdipisReks]

i am able to separate fantasy from reality, so no.

[HansMustermann]

TBH, I can't think of any case where I thought there was a ghost around. If I think I see something moving in the dark, or weird noises, I tend to think stuff like "is there someone in the house?" or even more likely, stuff like, "does that sound like water dripping?", than "is there a ghost in the house?"

Mind you, I'm not saying I'm Mr Fearless or anything. It's just that if it comes to speculate about something being horribly wrong and about to get worse, I tend to come up with something that can actually be a problem. A burglar can be a big problem. A broken pipe can be almost as big a problem. But a ghost? Not so much.

I mean, even if the people who tend to see them are right (and I don't think so), ghosts are basically described as harmless.

[Buckaroo]

Originally Posted by JeanFromBNA

When hinges creak in doorless chambers, when strange and frightening sounds echo through the halls, whenever candlelights flicker, where the air is deathly still, that is the time when ghosts are present, practicing their terror With ghoulish delight.

You beat me to it.

BIG Haunted Mansion fan here.

[JeanFromBNA]

Originally Posted by Buckaroo

You beat me to it.

BIG Haunted Mansion fan here.

[xtifr]

Suspension of disbelief is an important element for enjoying fiction. However, there's an important distinction between suspending your disbelief and dropping it entirely. Skeptics are perfectly able to do the former without doing the latter. Which is why we can still enjoy a good, scary story without actually believing in ghosts. And, in fact, why we can enjoy fiction at all!

[quarky]

Caspar, the friendly ghost, was pretty scary. I don't know why i found him to be extra creepy. Whereas, Wendy, the friendly witch, was ok. Misogyny on my part? Wendy was cute. Cuter than Lil' Lotta. Also, Richie Rich, though not a ghost per se', was the first cartoon hero that i wished to become a ghost. And Archie, for that matter.

Ultra-bland morality, disguised as comic relief...very scary stuff.
And even that pablum was controversial for the moral right.

Though I digress, and have drifted.
As i choose to live "off the beaten track", where all manner of things go bump in the dark, and the monsters under the bed have been replaced with brown recluse spiders and copperhead snakes shedding their skin, fear of ghosts would be palliative.

[Stomatopoda]

on the topic of fear: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcrJ2HFKogs

[xjx388]

When I was about 7, I saw The Exorcist for the first time while visiting family in
Texas. That movie scared the **** out of my catholic kid's mind. When we went back home to California, I tried to fall asleep the first night. Imagine my horror when my bed started shaking! Turns out it was just a little tremor but my parents couldn't convince me of that. I was being possessed dammit!

I have not seen The Exorcist since then and when I come across pictures of
Linda Blair in makeup, I startle like an infant. This despite the fact that I'm no longer Catholic, don't believe in the Devil and not really scared of anything supernatural.

[quarky]

Fear of Linda Blair in makeup is a legitimate issue.
Or Tammy Faye Baker, for that matter.

[Cainkane1]

Originally Posted by KateHL

ghosts, despite that they don't believe in said ghosts? I am, usually after I see a horror movie. It usually lasts up to nearly a year (I shouldn't be allowed to watch scary movies). And it only happens at night with no lights on. Sometimes I feel that I'm utterly crazy. When I'm scared of ghosts, I curl up in a ball and I say, "physics, physics, physics" over and over.

Anyone else?

I think people are afraid of so called haunted houses because large empty spaces in our minds ougt to be occupied and we instinctively fear what our ancestors feared about large empty spaces. Nothing kept predatory humans and animals out of caves for instance.

[tsig]

Originally Posted by quarky

Fear of Linda Blair in makeup is a legitimate issue.
Or Tammy Faye Baker, for that matter.

Tammy Faye with crocodile tears streaking her makeup, the blood runs cold.

Then she opens her mouth. Old Ones eat me now!

[Traveler Steve]

Originally Posted by Buckaroo

You beat me to it.

BIG Haunted Mansion fan here.

I've been going to Disney World every year for a very long time, absolutely love HM. I admit that the Bride does give me chills. One Halloween I was down there with friends and dressed as the Gravedigger for the Party they run. Fun stuff!

Ghosts et. al don't (and didn't) get to me, but I admit when I was a kid I got pretty freaked out swimming in any public pool. I always had the fear that "they" (not sure who) would open the grate at the bottom and release pirana or sharks or somesuch.

[aggle-rithm]

I don't really get afraid of ghosts. When I'm afraid in the dark of night, it's my own mind I'm scared of. It's turned on me a few times, and I don't really trust it.

[Resume]

Originally Posted by aggle-rithm

I don't really get afraid of ghosts. When I'm afraid in the dark of night, it's my own mind I'm scared of. It's turned on me a few times, and I don't really trust it.

"There are no haunted houses, just haunted people."

I don't know who said that, but I think it works.

[luchog]

Originally Posted by JoeBentley

I'm a diehard atheist, skeptic, and rationalist.

I'm definitely the latter two; though not the first. I absolutely do not believe in ghosts of any sort, and never have. Even as a kid; and horror movies never scared me, they just made me laugh (except Poltergeist, that frightened me pretty good at the time). I am definitely not afraid of ghosts.

Unless they're spider ghosts. Spiders scare the crap out of me.

Quote:

And I spend an inordinate amount of time mentally preparing zombie defense strategies for rooms and buildings I'm in.

Well, that's just prudent. Any reasonable person would do the same. In fact, that's number three on my list of necessities for any house I buy. 1) Must have a yard suitable for growing things. 2) Must have a gas range in the kitchen, or have hookups so I can easily install one. 3) Must be easily defended against zombies.

[Xulld]

Originally Posted by KateHL

Yeah, I think this stems from my darkphobia. I won't even leave my bedroom at night because the hallway is dark and scary. I need some therapy so maybe some day I will be free from the fear. It's not fun to hold your pee in for several hours until the sun rises.

About once a week I hear a noise downstairs and try to wake up the Marquis to make sure there's not an axe-wielding madman waiting to chop my head off.

Maybe a flashlight would help?

I am kind of a stick in the mud type, I am not immune to fear of the dark, or random imaginary flashes of concern, but am not apt to being afraid of the dark to the point of it effecting my behaviors. My advice, get a flash light, and go pee!

Ghosts, vamps, run of the mill horror movies never did it for me. ME? I was afraid of movies like JAWS, or Deep Star Six.

When I was a little kid I would see nothing in the pool, but still be afraid to jump in alone lol. I loved swimming, and before that dam pair of movies I was fine with swimming alone, but not after!!!!

For me it was becuase there really do exist monsters in the sea, and maybe a little bit of the lizard brain WAAAAY in the back was still saying, WATER IS DANGEROUS DUDE!

[CORed]

Originally Posted by MG1962

I had just finished watching the exorcist one night went out for a smoke and a white specter floated past me - once the mostly rational side of my mind re-established itself I realized it was a white plastic shopping bag caught on the wind lol

I remember when I saw "The Exorcist" when it first came out. I was pretty scared until about halfway through, when my willing suspension of disbelief overloaded and I thought, "Come on, give me a break!".

[I Ratant]

Originally Posted by tsig

Tammy Faye with crocodile tears streaking her makeup, the blood runs cold.

Then she opens her mouth. Old Ones eat me now!

.
Get the tee-shirt!

[elipse]

Originally Posted by Saule

Ditto.

same here. Crazy man with ax/gun/grudge= create plan to get out of house while my roommate is being killed. Try to think what would be the best weapon in my bedroom (there's really nothing. Like, nothing.)
ghost/zombie/guy who lives in dreams= no thoughts at all post-movie

Frankly, I don't think this makes me really that much more rational. Getting robbed might be a reasonable fear, but the idea of a killer in a ski mask is almost as unreasonable as a fear in ghosts. My mind can relax at impossibilities, but, apparently, not improbabilities.

[BStrong]

Ghosts?

I ain't afraid of no ghosts.

I do have a friend who is afraid of ghosts, and claims to have seen ghosts more than once.

[elipse]

Originally Posted by Mark6

If I ever saw something that looked like a ghost, I probably would be startled, but not scared.

That's the best way to describe what horror movies actually do. Gross, gorey movies are different, but the "don't go up the stairs" type movies really are in it to startle you.

I have no problem with those movies. I can't stand movies that set up a horrifying scenario and then show you vividly what's going on. Bleargh.

The shining? Awesome and creepy, but no nightmares. Misery? Nope, I will never watch that. I do not need to do that to myself.

[MetalSeagull]

I looked at someone's ghost photos yesterday. They were just pictures of trees, shadows, and dappled sunlight reflected off windows. But he saw ghosts everywhere. He's a nice guy but completely delusional.

If only horror movies depicted ghosts like that, I could stand to see them. I like comedy and absurdism.

[Jre1983]

Less often than ghosts, it's alien abduction for me, and usually only after I've watched some overly credulous "documentary" or watched a movie involving it, or early x-files. Aliens are like the only thing I can't totally convince myself are crap, even if all the ufology stuff I've seen is garbage. But sometimes ghosts.

[Stomatopoda]

Just remember to sketch out Pythagorean Theorem, using any available implements, so the aliens won't mistake you for livestock.

[Jre1983]

I find that if you sigh instead if flinching when probed, they don't come back.

[tsig]

Originally Posted by Stomatopoda

Just remember to sketch out Pythagorean Theorem, using any available implements, so the aliens won't mistake you for livestock.

Unless they're brain sucking aliens looking for intelligent life.

[Soapy Sam]

I'm scared when alone in the dark- but, oddly, it's only when I'm indoors. I've been alone in the absolute dark underground in caves and loved it.
I have no idea why I get spooked . I don't believe in ghosts at all, but the fear is still there. It just seems to be how humans are wired. So we look for something spooky- and of course we find it.
It's a wholly different fear from fear of Ebola or nuclear war or lurkers in the dark.
Irrationality is real. Ghosts ain't. (Which I find kind of sad, but there it is.)

[Foolmewunz]

I don't enjoy suspense movies - I just don't like being scared/manipulated like that and even though I recognize that they're just the product of talented film-makers doing their thing (and sometimes the product of untalented hacks doing their thing), a well-built suspense/horror scene can really get to me. But it ends there. I leave the cinema or turn off the DVD and it doesn't stay with me.

Now, books on the other hand.... I can recall sleeping with a light on for about a week when I was about twelve... Curse you, H.P. Lovecraft! Scared the crap out of me.

But the worst was when I was about 19 or 20. I fell for the conceit of The Amityville Horror and believed the foreword - that it was a true story. Lights on? Hell, I didn't sleep the night I read it. I kept reading and kept looking out the window hoping the sun had come up. I fell asleep about ten a.m. Someone later that day told me that it was not non-fiction and I just erased the fear from my mind. Snap! Just like that! But I still won't buy/read horror.