This week I received a really good question
Every question is a good question, but this one was especially good I thought, so I'm going to answer it today
The question was what's your opinion of horror films, and if we are inherently good, how do you explain people enjoying
movies that are full of violence and gore?
I wanna first talk about adrenaline. If something scares us, the body immediately releases endorphins, dopamine and norepinephrine.
Cocaine which has long been considered the most addictive substance on Earth does nothing more than flood the brain with dopamine.
Norepinephrine on the other hand mimics the second most addictive drug on Earth, which is speed.
Our neuro chemicals are not equal to those illicit drugs, in fact they are significantly more powerful.
The most common endorphin produced by the body is 100 times more powerful - thus more addictive - than morphine.
We become addicted to our own neural chemicals most especially because of how they make us feel. These chemicals exist
In order to help us through a life-threatening emergency situation.
They can provide powerful pain relief and a powerful burst of energy.
It is not only the rush of adrenaline that we become addicted to, it is the wave of relief that we
experience once the threat has passed.
There are many points in a horror film when a person who is an extreme fear releases resistance,
which is an intense experience. It is an extreme release that we experience when the brain's perceived threat has passed.
For example when the credits roll or when a character reaches safety in the film.
When the scene or movie ends the muscles in your body relax and this gives us a moment of release.
This simulates stress reduction, it creates a sense of euphoria.
This intense release is a kind of relief, that most people do not feel in their day to day lifes
can now have.
The long-term effects of this addiction on the body can be just as detrimental as illegal drugs
And the withdrawal is also acute. If you are to live your life in a state of depression or ongoing stress,
then experiencing a movie and that relief that happens when the endorphins are released, would be the closest that you know to relief.
That's why you would continually seek out a horror film or a film that has to do with violence.
It's because you're looking to externally simulate that relief which you don't know how to find within yourself.
Watching the horror film
allows an internal catharsis to occur and any kind of movement is a good thing
when it comes to someone who's stuck in one specific emotion. No one really enjoys being scared.
They enjoy the feeling of the adrenaline and they enjoy the aftermath of the relief
When we feel the high of
adrenaline most often it supersedes the memory of cringing in our seats when we are watching a horror film and
so in retrospect we say we like being scared.
This differentiation between liking being scared and really liking being scared is easy to see.
When we look at the difference between those of us who are watching the silver screen and those of us who are
experiencing horror in real life.
Thrill seekers use the cognitive parts of their brain to recognize that the scary movie isn't really going to hurt them.
Because of this sense of control they feel comfortable
getting high on the sensation and complex emotional states of a horror film.
This is a very positive experience
when we have numbed out to our emotional guidance system, or if we experience a baseline of stress in our daily lives.
Flowing emotion is very fulfilling. It's part of what tells us that we are alive.
This is why many people say fear makes them feel alive.
If a person however sat down in front of a horror film and had a difficult time differentiating between
reality and what they're watching in terms of entertainment, the movie would cease to be enjoyable to them.
When people have post-traumatic stress disorder
they've experienced something in their life which causes them to feel extreme fear relative to any number of triggers.
They experience entertainment as if it is really happening,
they can't differentiate between what is happening in their reality or what's happening in a silver screen and the
experience which they've had or could have.
So what makes a horror film particularly enjoyable to people is the fact that they think they can differentiate
mentally between what is really happening and what is fantasy.
Anyone who has really experienced the things present in an action or horror film does not experience enjoyment,
because to them the experience of fear is very very real. It is a threat to their well-being.
Peoples tolerance of frightening situations varies widely according to their life experiences.
There are two more main reasons
why someone would enjoy horror films. The first being that our society that we live in today is a very disconnected
society. We've lost our touch with community. And
when you're sitting in a horror film and you're screaming with the other audience members you're sharing very
private and very intense emotions with the people that you're sitting around and this creates this feeling of connection with other people.
So it's that connection with other people which is part of why we seek being scared.
That's why there's a joke about if you really want to get close with someone that you're interested in bring them to a horror flick.
The next reason is that bravery adds to self-concept.
For males in particular, part of what attracts them to horror movies, haunted houses or other
unsettling experiences is the ability to conquer something that seems threatening.
Even though it poses no real harm it gives them a sense of success and internal satisfaction.
The fact that we can control fear with a remote or have dominion over it because it isn't real like a haunted house
often causes us to feel powerful and better about ourselves.
This attraction of bravery is also tied into our evolution.
Being the creator type beings whose intention in the physical dimension is to push the envelope,
the human species is a novelty and intensity seeking species.
Homo Sapiens were the only group of early ?homidance? to immigrate over the entire world.
Doing this entailed great risk.
Moving into certain less habitable areas of the globe where meat was the only source of food drink certain times of year
dictate that we had to adapt to begin eating meat.
To do this we needed to hunt in order to survive and those who are more willing to take risks were
likely to be more successful hunters.
So a certain degree of risk-taking behavior fueled by the promise of reward is now an activated part of most humans DNA.
Adrenaline addiction is a form of escapism just like every other addiction.
Adrenaline masks over the deeper feelings we have of disconnection, loss and abandonment. So
those of us that have these kinds of emotions and experiences, which you haven't healed yet seek adrenaline to mask those deeper emotions.
We are running away and using the things which cause us to feel adrenaline as our excuse.
While those people who find enjoyment in horror films are innately good people or addicted to the sensations that those horror films and
violent images cause them to feel, it is my personal opinion, that this type of addiction is incredibly detrimental.
Not only to us as individuals, but to the world.
Bringing violent perversion to life in a universe which is managed by the law of attraction is playing with fire.
We are appalled by
quote on quote "real events" such as the Colorado theater shooting this past July of 2012,
but unwilling to
understand that each and every person who walked into that theater that day was sitting down to watch a movie based on shooting, murder and
suspense.
It is my opinion that until we stop drawing the line between entertainment and reality, where no line actually exists,
we will be planting the seed of destruction in the pot that is to grow our future as a society.
The purpose of horror films or films full of violence is to thrill people and to entertain them.
But the idea of murder and torture as a means to thrill people emotionally is
disturbing at best. It is an indication of our lack of connection with life itself and with our true selves.
This kind of entertainment belittles the worth of life and warps perceptions of what is tolerable. It fuels the very
disconnection that we are also affected by where it affects our physical reality and it will,
because anything you focus on you get more of. If
you are broadcasting the strong intense emotions relative to the images you're watching on a horror film,
that emotion is the indication that you're in the process of creation.
You're in the process of
eliciting the universe to deliver to you the exact result of that focus.
So the emotion that is your indication that you are going to attract experiences which match the
frequency of that very thing which you are looking at.
So you might ask why can people watch horror films every day and not all end up murdered.
The reason is because those people who watch horror films are only
eliciting part of the law of attraction and not the other part. So the law of attraction
works two ways if you're going to use it to your advantage. The first way is via focus and the thoughts you're thinking.
You are creating and
by expecting it or believing it you are allowing, so most people -
that's an overstatement - many people,
who watch a horror film are
creating those horrific things
in their own reality, but they are not allowing it to come into their reality ,because they do not believe that those things are real.
So they are only
activating part of the law of aattraction and not the second part, which is why they don't all end up dead.
More likely they just attract more and more experiences to gain fear out of,
but this is not true for all people, many people do watch these types of films and
create those very things in their reality, because it becomes believable to them the minute they see those images on the screen.
So let's review: As you are focusing on what you do not want to see, the emotion
you are feeling is your indication that you are in the process of creating what you're focused on.
But you do not allow it into your experience, these horrific things, because you do not really expect it. However
when you begin to bring yourself to the belief or expectation
that what you are focused on could happen to you you are allowing it into your experience.
This is a very fine line to be walking, it is a line that we cannot walk with
accuracy and in my opinion it is a line that makes no sense to walk in the first place.
Why create anything that we do not want to have become part of our reality? Whether we are going to allow it or not?
It is sad to many beings including myself personally
that there would ever be a perceived normalcy or enjoyment derived out of the desecration of any life form. A
market that is saturated by images, messages of violence, horror and suspense
creates a desensitization and a normalcy to horror.
The American Academy of child and adolescent psychiatry found that children who watch horror films or violent media are much more likely to engage in
aggressive behaviors and experience anxiety and many sleep disorders. Is
this what we want for our future as people?
The brain does not perceive as much difference between entertainment and reality as we would like to think that it does.
These images and messages do get absorbed into the individual subconscious and worse than that -
they do get absorbed into the collective subconscious. The thrill and adrenalin rush and subsequent relief that's created by horror films
creates a positive
association with the things that they're watching on the film.
It creates a positive association between
yourself and horror. And the problem with thrills is that the body acclimatise.
You need more and more and worse and worse to get a high.
Many of the serial murderers in the past attribute the beginning of their careers to entertainment in the form of horror films or
sadomasochistic porn.
There came a point where to get the same high they had to make the jump from fantasy to reality.
Which was the point at which they took their first victim.
Those of us who are addicted to adrenaline can find new and much more fulfilling sources of the passion which we seek.
When we're able to look back at the things
we're trying to mask and heal the things which we're trying to mask with that adrenalin, then
we have at our disposal a brand new possibility for our own well-being.
It will improve our lives as individuals, our relationships and also our world that we live in.
Living a life that is in alignment with who we really are and living a life which is promoting a state of permanent well-being,
is not just about the thoughts that we think,
it is not just about the foods that we're putting into our body, it is about everything that we're surrounding our being with.
Images and messages of things which we are putting into our body as well.
And we need to become very honest with ourselves about whether those messages and images are in mind with our well-being or not.
Whether they are in fact of benefit, or whether they are detrimental to us.
So I would ask you relative to everything you are about to listen to or watch -
what is it that you want to be putting into your body?
Are these things in line with your well-being? Are they in line with your highest good? If not
they have no business being your object of attention. Have a good week. [music]