Tag: fright

Paranormal and Poe

During most of my life I have been fascinated by the paranormal. The idea that we live in a multidimensional reality gets my imagination going. Stories, movies, or documentaries about paranormal investigations are interesting. So, in the spirit of Halloween, approaching us rapidly, here are a few thoughts.

If you want to get yourself into that cool, prickly mood, where terror lurks around the corner, may I suggest rereading a few Edgar Allan Poe stories. I found a collection of his works in my bookcase, and since it’s been long ago that I read these stories, I gobbled up a few.

He was the original Stephen King, circa early 1800’s, and from the front of the book, Poe, “knew every line and shadow in the face of fear”…whoa. “Moods black or melancholy or sensuous or musical were his supreme effects”. I have to wholeheartedly agree. This guy was MELANCHOLY, by Golly. Just read “The Masque of the Red Death”, or “The Oval Portrait”, or “The Fall of the House of Usher” to really get an appreciation of the masterpiece of Poe.

He was the first person, in my estimation, to give true “life” to a house; to bring the house alive and give it mystery and magic. This effect is used today for a good scare piece. Have you watched the Netflix series, “The Haunting of Hill House”? If you haven’t, give it a go. Get ready to gasp and get chilled. The House is like a living being, and that is what Poe also tried to create for us.

When Poe writes upon looking at the House of Usher, he says, “that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus affecting us (unnerving him), still the analysis of this power lies among considerations beyond our depth.”

In other words, certain environments freak us out, and we don’t know why…..it’s deep in there. Speaking of the tendency to like being scared, you can check out a previous blog, “Scary Monsters” https://debhead.home.blog/2019/10/05/scary-monsters/

There are real reasons we like to be afraid.

More to the point of Halloween. If you would like an insight into my very personal report of the paranormal, and how it affected my life, please click on the link below to get a free Audible of my book, “34”, written under the name Debra Fulton. You will see why I changed the name. The book was published in 2012, so, life keeps going.

https://www.audible.com/pd/B07K7ZHQTV/?source_code=AUDFPWS0223189MWT-BK-ACX0-132931&ref=acx_bty_BK_ACX0_132931_rh_us
Cozy up to listening to “34” for a chill.

Here is the Kindle version:

If you do anything, get a little scare going before Thursday night. It’s time to snuggle down and be surprised.

Happy Halloween everyone. Please like, share, comment, and keep on reading!

Cheers, Deb

Scary Monsters

Nosferatu, the Vampire

Do you like to be scared? Are you the first person to stand in line for the next horror flick? I have to tell you that I have always been attracted to the feeling of being scared. Not the kind of scared like, get in an accident scared, but the kind of scared that comes with ghosts, monsters, the occult, and the paranormal.

Get ready kids, because October is here. It’s time to GET SCARED. Let me just remind you that there are plenty of other people out there just like me. Stephen King didn’t become the “master of horror” and best-selling novelist, with movies made from his books, from just a few of us. There are a lot of us.

Here’s where it gets weird. Of all the things in life my boyfriend and I share in our life: similar likes, dislikes, philosophies, and whatnot, he is not a person who likes to be scared. If I want to watch a horror movie, I have to do it on my own (or when his daughter visits). He hates going to see them, he dislikes scary books as well. He did attend a couple ghost tours with me, which I have to thank him for. Side note: a ghost tour in Gettysburg is an absolute MUST. That place is most haunted for sure, and creepy, creepy, creepy.

One psychiatric newsletter online states that there are reasons you are either a “like to be scared” person or a “don’t like to be scared person.”

Here we go, people like me:

  1. Feeling fear is as old of an emotion as man himself. The feeling of fear stimulates your “flight or fight” response, activating hormones that cause bodily changes. Feeling fear creates distraction, and makes us think about nothing else at the time. It brings us into the present moment.
  2. We are social creatures, and emotions are contagious, so when we are in fearful situations with others, it bonds us together.
  3. Finally, when we realize that this is not a true threat, we gain control over it. Feeling in control makes us satisfied, and confident that we can face threatening things and overcome them.

People that don’t like to be scared have some imbalance between the fear and the control. If an experience seems too real, an extreme fear response comes out. If an experience is not triggering the emotional brain – it’s too unreal- then it’s just boring for them.

Some people exhibit extreme fear in some situations and not in others, so they may enjoy something like “Nightmare on Elm Street”, but can’t watch “The Exorcist”, because the notion that demonic spirits could invade your body is just too real for them.

This time of the year is especially fun for people like me who enjoy an occasional trip down paranormal lane. Before Halloween I will blog more about truly terrifying phenomena in my own life. But, for the time being, just remember that not everyone gets a warm, fuzzy feeling from a cold, prickly source. For me personally, it’s the notion that not everything is as cut and dry as it appears to be. There’s a lot of stuff out there we don’t know is there. The human brain probably can’t cope with reality in all its forms. It would be truly mind-blowing.

For now, dig out that pumpkin and orange lights, put a little costume on the family pet, and at least hit the corn maze. Haunted houses? No thanks, the commercial ones are too gorey for me, I’d rather visit a truly haunted one.

Cheers, and happy haunting, Deb

P.S: “Follow” me for regular stuff!

https://www.intellectualtakeout.org/article/why-do-we-being-scared