Are You Afraid Of The Dark?

The fear of the dark began, for me, when I was a child. And it’s so with almost every child. Why do children, or even some adults, become afraid or apprehensive about darkness?

From as far back as I can remember, I wasn’t afraid of the dark until I turned maybe 5 or 6 years old. I wasn’t scared of going into my room or sitting in my room in the dark. I could walk around the house alone in the dark. If anything bothered me, it was bumping into something and getting hurt or worse toppling something breakable and getting a ‘talking to’ for that. So why didn’t the dark scare me?

I thought about it. I went back in time to recall when and why did I start getting afraid in the dark. When did darkness become a bogeyman? And I found my answer inside my question. ‘Bogeyman”. How did the bogeyman become a threat? 

From stories! I was hearing different kinds of stories from friends and overhearing real stories from adults unaware that my ears or their kid’s ears were flapping. Until then, the wicked stepmother, the Fi, Fie, Fo, Fum giant, and the big, bad wolf were the scariest things. The Cinderella, Snow White, Red Riding Hood, Jack & the beanstalk, Three Little Pigs, Hansel & Gretel kind of bedtime tales defined wickedness personified as people or animals that I wasn’t scared of because they didn’t exist in my area and circle of friends or relations. They remained in the realm of fairy tales between the hardcovers of a book.

But soon…

Scary stories about monsters, and things that go bump in the dark… about kidnappers and thieves transformed from fiction to reality. They were the villains and monsters now. It wasn’t the dark that became scary, it was what lurked in the dark that posed a threat. Meanies, witches, “bad” living people and dead ones too, who were out to harm me!

And later, when I was around nine years old, I learned about a new thing called Halloween. We had moved up North and in those days, there were a lot of Anglo-Indians, who were more ‘anglo’ than ‘Indian.’ They followed a lot of western customs, culture, and traditions. So, it was from some Anglo neighbors, I learned about it. They were going to celebrate and attend Halloween parties. That’s all I understood about this day.

Unfortunately, I forgot about it. As it happened, on Halloween evening, I went out in the evening to pick up something mum needed from the shop inside the Defence Officer’s residential area. Winter days being shorter, it was already dark but the pathways were lit up with street lights.

As I reached the corner of our block, I heard the sound of footsteps to my left and looked up. A couple of yards or so away from me loomed this tall, lanky figure in a black suit and a top hat. He was in the shadow of half-light, walking towards the path I was on. I could see him well, though. He reminded me of Abraham Lincoln (from the pictures I’d seen). To say I was scared would be an understatement. I opened my mouth to scream, but no sound came out. My legs flew into the fastest run of my life. That incident cemented the belief that darkness should be feared. It hid ghouls and ghosts as well.

My friend Honey, who was a bookworm and nerd, later confirmed that I had seen a ghost. “They come out at Halloween,” she stressed in an awful whisper that chilled my bones. Her argument was, “Is there anyone as tall and lanky as the person you saw living on your block? No, right?”

Right!

She had convinced me I had seen a ghost. That’s how the first solid brick of the fear of the unknown got embedded in my psyche. I am still petrified of ghosts… not that I’ve met any and I hope I don’t ever! Well, except for that one time… Read about it here.

Of course, I learned that it wasn’t true. That was the elder son (and not a ghost) coming from our neighbor’s place. I hadn’t seen him as he studied in another city. But the fright I got had been real and that remained with me.

It was what hid in the darkness or what a figment of my imagination made me believe lurked in the darkness that made me afraid of the dark. And even today, with good reason (which has nothing to do with ghosts) I am wary of dark, deserted or almost deserted places and streets. I wouldn’t walk out alone late at night, and even if I am with someone, my nerves are on edge and I’m jumpy. A squeak from a mouse would make me jump out of my skin!  

A foray into the internet to find out if there is any solid explanation for this fear since it’s a common occurrence in a majority of children and also if it carries on into adulthood. It seems that it is has a basis in our super past ancestors as the following excerpt reveals. 

“We can’t see what’s out there and it freaks us out because our imagination fills in the worst possible thing. For ancient humans, it was lions and other predators, and in today’s big, predator-free cities, it’s monsters.

We create monsters because they fill that predator void. A great example of this is how horror movies work: good ones never directly show you the monster because your imagination makes something way scarier….

Though we don’t technically need this fear, it’s still there, and it’s confusing. These traits are normally passed down by distant relatives over the centuries to the point of it getting implanted in our psyches.

So, if you or a child in your life is afraid of the dark, remember that at one time it was a vital survival trait that kept our collective ancestors alive. It doesn’t make you a chicken, it just makes your body more attuned for threats and, therefore, more fit to survive.”

https://www.sciencealert.com/here-s-the-evolutionary-reason-why-we-re-afraid-of-the-dark