Reply to comment

Holly’s post last week made me start thinking about being scared of heights and general fear and the I-functions role. It brought me back to one day when I was scuba diving in Costa Rica. We were diving on the edge of an underwater canyon and as I swam over and saw the drop of, I panicked. I thought I was going to fall (keep in mind I was floating. There was no more chance that I would go down, as float up)!! Now normally I have minimal fear of heights, but I saw the bottom drop out and I got an overwhelming, totally irrational wave of panic. After I told myself that I was in the water and could not actually fall down into the canyon I was fine and the panic dissipated. For me most fear is something that can be rationalized and it takes it away, but for some people fear is totally debilitating and cannot be rationalized. What is it about my I-function that makes it able to overcome my unconscious (and irrational) fear where as other people can’t? This brings me to the question what is fear? For me it was probably a wave of adrenaline triggered by my brain but what caused it? And why was my mind (read I-Function) able to stop its production. Just a few questions to dwell on.