Scotophobin, Fear, Memories and The Mandela Effect

Scotophobin

by Chris Chaos

Is memory chemically based? What causes fear? Is there a way to forget a memory or a fear all together?

Scotophobin: a peptide produced in the brain of laboratory rats conditioned to have a fear of darkness: it is claimed that such a fear may be transferred to unconditioned rats by injection of the peptide, thus providing evidence for the theory that memory has a chemical basis.

 

Master Splinter post amygdala lesion

The fear of the dark is a common fear or phobia among children and, to a varying degree, of adults. Fear of the dark is usually not fear of darkness itself, but fear of possible or imagined dangers concealed by darkness. Some degree of fear of the dark is natural, especially as a phase of child development. Most observers report that fear of the dark seldom appears before the age of 2 years. When fear of the dark reaches a degree that is severe enough to be considered pathological, it is sometimes called achluophobia or nyctophobia

Some researchers, beginning with Sigmund Freud, consider the fear of the dark as a manifestation of separation anxiety disorder.

An alternate theory was posited in the 1960s, when scientists conducted experiments in a search for molecules responsible for memory. In one experiment, rats, normally nocturnal animals, were conditioned to fear the dark and a substance called "scotophobin" was supposedly extracted from the rats' brains; this substance was claimed to be responsible for remembering this fear.

Human Memory

Scientists have been busy conducting research and conducting experiments on the brain, memories and the erasing of memories. The University of California in San Diego, conducted experiments where they would shine light on areas of the brain to erase memories in the brain and bring them back. " We can form a memory, erase that memory and can reactivate it, at will, by applying a stimulus that selectively strengthens or weakens synaptic connections."
An emerging science called optogenetics is born.. An inception moment is realized.

Racism or.....

by Chris Chaos

Dictionary.com defines racism as:
the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.

I have been working on a psychological social experiment (that will be documented into a book) that centers on perceived racism and have ran quite a few tests with multiple configurations looking for various outcomes. The conclusion is fast becoming that people are not necessarily racist (hatred/dislike toward people of different races) but just have a general disregard towards ANYONE different than themselves. For an example, if one was to target a person to bully/harass or pick on, once they have a target they take the biggest different  (race, sex, weight, style, height etc) between themselves and their target and they center on that feature for their attack.

For an example:
If person A is white and person B is black they would resort to racist name calling.
If person A is thin and person B is over weight they would call the person fat.
If person A is male and person B is female they would call her a bitch or something anti-female oriented.
If person A does not have glasses and person B does, they would call that person four eyes.

This concept that we refer to as racism is inbred into us, genetic and biological, just look to nature to see how one specie wages war against another. Every animal is food for a competing animal. Even the largest animals that have no natural predators, nor humans who think they are at the top of the food chain, fall to the tiny and lowly viruses and bacteria.

This all seems so kindergarten, but this small mindedness carries over from childhood into adulthood resulting in temper tantrums for the frustrated.

The location where most arguments occur and can be observed is the comment section of ANY webpage (and especially on popular social media sites). There are hundreds of thousands , so you can get a nice cross section of topics and of society by going to specifically topiced sites and observe.

The formula for the people seems to be:
1) go to a website
2) read the headline
3) look at the pictures
4) skip or skim the article
5) form a quick opinion
6) go to comment section and vent all frustrations
7) wait for response
8) bash people that do not agree with your opinion

In my experience of witnessing and observing what was mentioned above I see the offenders (when they get to the step of bashing) start personal attacks based on what was said and also based upon the appearance of their profile picture/avatar. Men bashing woman, blacks bashing whites, the young bashing the old or even just bashing someone because of the shirt they are wearing.

With the recent incident in Ferguson, MO I have seen a rise in racist comments on websites, from whites it is usually in reaction to the targeting of whites by blacks in the form of rioting or getting revenge by attacking them. From blacks it usually is in the form of protest (whether directed properly or not) against white cops killing or beating blacks.

Bottom line is people dislike others that differ too much from themselves. If you are not from the tribe and do not fit in, you are out. Rejected like foreign bacteria in the human body.

Once all results from this social experiment are in and weighed they will be compiled and become available to the public.

Thoughts?

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is a filmmaker, a business owner, writer, urban explorer and investigator of the odd and weird, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of  hot wings. Chris can be reached at AxisVideo@aol.com)