Fear in the Dark
30 June, 2009
By Justin Kunsman
An evolutionary explanation for the belief in space aliens
Photo by Cheryl Empey
I admit that I have a guilty pleasure, one that I do not readily share: I love UFO documentaries. Let me be clear though. I do not believe Aliens have visited us. I am a skeptic to the core, but I do watch UFO Hunters for entertainment value only.
My interest started when I saw a UFO, which turned out to be a new cell phone tower. I was then as I am now a strict skeptic. As skeptical as I was, I saw what I believed was something out of this world. I did not want to see what I was looking at it. I could not deny what my eyes were seeing. If not for the overwhelming fear, I might have been about to stop and think of rational explanations, but when afraid our brain is not hardwired to think rationally. It was the most frightening thing I have ever experienced and it made me want to examine the UFO phenomenon.
The UFO phenomenon has roots in pre-history. In our evolutionary history, we evolved to react to false positives rather than false negatives. In other words, it is safer to falsely believe a predator is hunting you than to falsely believe one is NOT hunting you. While this hardwired reaction is not necessarily beneficial in our time, it was extremely beneficial on the savanna of pre-history, so much so that only those with this trait lived to pass it on to future generations.
Now, when we see something that we cannot readily explain, our brain's natural tendency is to categorize an anomaly as a threat. When I was all alone on a country road in my truck, and I saw a triangle shaped series of lights that appeared to be following my truck, my brain's hardwiring kicked in and told me it was dangerous. Once fear came into play, my brain went into survival mode. Like I said, it was the most frightening thing I have ever experienced.
The human brain is designed for the savanna, not the modern world. The brain stores an amazing amount of information in its subconscious which originally allowed our ancestors to instinctively know where to find food and water, potential mates, as well as identify threats. Today, we do not need this ability, but the brain's tendency to collect and store information continues. This is the source of Archetypes and symbolic associations. It is why we sometimes feel strange or uncomfortable in certain situations. For instance, when I worked at True Green, I would get this ominous undefined sense of gloom or unease at certain houses. I though about this and tried to figure out what was causing this unease. The houses where I felt like this all had similar characteristics: run down, overgrown yard, almost empty yards, and surrounded by some barrier like a fence or a hedgerow. This is a popular conception of a house where a serial murderer or deviant of some sort lives according to popular culture (at least in my experience of popular culture).
We no longer spend our days filling our brains with information that suits us on the savanna; instead we fill it with images of pop culture. Instead of lions or bears, we have Nightmare on Elm Street, Chain Saw Massacre, The Exorcist, and yes, Aliens. This is why abductions are more widely reported now than ever before.
The reason I believe that Aliens and not other pop culture terrors are so commonly reported is that we as a society believe in the possibility of Aliens where as pop culture icons like vampires, demons and other archetypes are easily dismissed.
If we combine pop culture, belief, and a human condition known as sleep paralysis, we can get individuals who believe that they have been abducted.
Sleep Paralysis is a condition in which the person essentially is half awake during a REM state. The person experiencing this usually reports sensing a presence in the room, inability to move, and an intense fear. The brain in this state is subject to subconscious emotions and thoughts and the rational part of the brain is subdued. The fact that the subject is half awake only makes the experience that much more real because the person knows they are awake and fear follows, but they are unaware that they are in fact dreaming. Keep in mind that the brain is hardwired for false positives, the brain suddenly senses something in the room and the brain immediately tries to identify this presence and instead of imagery of lions and tigers and other predators, modern humans have images of aliens.
What is really interesting is that science has been able to completely recreate these experiences in the lab. A test subject is put in this state and they report the exact same things, fear, a presence in the room (Even if the room is clearly a laboratory with scientists about) and the inability to move though they do not see the aliens or the demons.
People have always had these experiences, but the presence mentioned has always been appropriate for the time. In the middle ages it was demons and witches and today it is aliens. In tribal cultures, animal type characters are common, tricksters such the coyote or rabbit are often seen in visions-- though these visions are seen as beneficial whereas alien abduction visions are usually inspire fear. Why there is a difference is a question I will leave to the anthropologists.
What then happens is really not forgivable. I can understand sleep paralysis, but then hypnotists often try to get the subject to remember the experience in detail, often planting rather than uncovering memories. At this point, the vague illusion of being abducted becomes a solid and convincing reality. The subject no longer accepts the possibility of illusion and is totally convinced that the experience was real.
To understand aliens, we need to understand our brains, because that is where they originate. They do not exist outside of our minds. We are programmed to believe that any threat is real as a survival mechanism. Threats in the prehistoric age came from everywhere. Some studies even suggest that large birds were capable of killing prehumans by striking them on the head. Humans thus may have evolved a fear of things coming down upon them from above. They have fear of things in the ground, like caves and dens, thus this could explain belief in trolls and even things like hell. Threats came from the trees, from the dark, even from inside our own bodies. We are designed to identify threats from a variety of sources. If we mix this natural fear of all things unknown with the onslaught of imagery from popular culture, we get aliens.
© 2009 Justin Kunsman
Feedback: Comment on a thread in our forum.
The views expressed in Grindstone Journal are those of the individual contributors and not necessarily those of the editors, publishers and advertisers of the Grindstone Journal. The Grindstone Journal publishes opinion and commentary. It is not a peer reviewed academic journal and should not be construed as such.
Justin Kunsman Justin Kunsman currently lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma and works in the Homeland Security field. Email: justin@grindstonejournal.com
