THE ACCLIMATION OF FEAR

by Chris Chaos

Most people fear the unknown, whether it be real or a figment of their imagination. But the more you get exposed to this fear and the unknown, the more you get accustomed to the surroundings and the fear goes away and the unknown becomes the known. Effectively
taking the power away from fear.

FEAR: a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.

ACCLIMATION: to accustom or become accustomed to a new climate or environment; adapt.

Repetitive exposure to the offending object or situation will accustom the individual to it and the fear will gradually subside.

Fear is inborn into humans, it is what protects us from the dangers of the environment and predators. It is an evolutionary trait that gets passed down from generation to generation and keeps us alive. In modern human industrialized nations there are no natural predators and not too much that can kill us like in the distant past. Of course this fact is different in under developed nations, but let us take America and most of the Western European nations for an example. For the most part you just have to worry about your health, becoming the victim of a crime in certain areas, traffic and recreational accidents. Many of the dangers of death are self inflicted: drugs, alcohol, poor diet or participating in dangerous activities such as sky diving or skiing.

Some fears are retained in modern man that came from our neanderthal days: fear of the dark, heights, bugs, snakes and people unfamiliar to us. The fear of heights is a natural inbred legitimate fear. There still exists a danger to humans of falling to our deaths, especially in a city with high rise buildings, windows or cliffs.

The fear of the dark stems from the fear of the unknown, you do not know what is there if you cannot see. Sight is the most prominent sense that humans rely on. In the dark there could be a poisonous bug, a venomous snake, an unseen rapist, or the fear that modern man created, a ghost.

THE DARK:
How do we, as a fearful human, combat some of these fears? By getting accustomed to it of course. For an example, if you are afraid of the dark and need to keep unnecessary lights on at night when you are trying to sleep, you need to realize that for the most part there is NOTHING to fear. Go into a room and make sure it is well lit, examine all corners of the room, look in the closet and make sure there are no people, monsters, bugs, snakes or purple people eaters in there. Leave the room and come back 20 minutes later and search the room again. Once you verify that it is safe, leave the room once again for a few minutes and then return, but this time do not turn the light on, go into the room and sit down on a chair or a bed in complete darkness. Repeat these steps several times until you become accustomed to the dark and realize that there is nothing to fear in your safe home.

HEIGHTS:
Another common fear that is widespread in humans and can be a legitimate fear is heights. Some common fears can be: being afraid to go over bridges, going on top of tall buildings or sitting on top of a stopped ferris wheel. All the mentioned examples do provide the real danger of falling, but for the most part there are safety measures put into place to prevent accidents. So how can one get over the fear of heights? Once again you must face the fear head on and become accustomed to it, after repeatedly being exposed to this fear it will diminish. Go to the rooftop of a tall building (or bridge with a foot path), obviously make sure it is a building that you can legally go on and has proper fencing or safety features. Bring a friend that is NOT afraid of heights to look over the area for you and to confirm that it is safe. Gradually get closer to the edge (with a safe fence or barrier to protect you) until you can look down at the ground below and see there is nothing to be scared of. Repeat this process for how ever long it takes you to get accustomed to the fear and it eventually will go away.

THE UNKNOWN:

An additional fear is of the unknown, many people do not act upon something just because they fear what may happen if they do. But I ask you this, do you not fear what may happen if you don't? A common example could be public speaking, when in front of a crowd you may stutter, stammer or forget what you are supposed to be saying. This also is a legitimate fear since the people in the audience may be judging you based on the how's and what you are saying. But as with anything, the more you do it, the more you will feel comfortable in front of the crowd and the better that you will do.

HORROR MOVIES:
A man made fear that obviously has no real physical harm would be a fear of horror movie. Usually when we are young we are fearful of scary imagery that is featured in horror movies and they seem to come back and haunt us at the most inappropriate times; in the dark at bedtime, when we are home alone, or on that walk back from the store in the darkness of night. Obviously as an adult we know that Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers do not really exist, so what makes this fear surface in us when we are alone or in the dark? First you have the fact that at a young age you are unaccustomed to the "horror" presented in these movies, then you have the secondary fears surfacing, such as the setting of darkness, being alone and fear of the unknown. Combine all of these elements together and you can see how a young mind can become scared.

ACCLIMATION:
As time goes on you naturally realize that Jason Voorhees is just a character is a string of Hollywood movies, that there is not a person or a demon hiding in the darkness under your bed and that there is nothing to fear in your closet. As you are exposed to the Jason character it loses its effectiveness, once you realize that nothing hides in that dark room you lose your fear simply because you are familiar with it and are becoming acclimated with it.

BOTTOM LINE:
Repeatedly exposing yourself to said fear, will diminish its power over you.

(Chris Chaos is a long time resident of South Jersey who once again resides in and writes from Gloucester City, New Jersey. He is afilmmaker, 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)

Ghost Hunting and Urban Exploration: Some Things to Consider

by Chris Chaos

How priming can set you up for failure. Priming is activating particular associations in memory. An example might be watching various paranormal shows on TV prior to investigating a location, or reading books concerning ghosts. Although popular concenses may state that the particular location IS haunted, consider all possibilities as to why and how people came to this conclusion about the location. Many locations get the attribute of being haunted for many reasons. Some may be for tourism reasons, others may be that it was a former mental hospital or prison where many atrocities have occurred. Some business owners have been known to start the rumor that their establishment is haunted to draw in interest and more business. For once you have a belief, it influences how you perceive all other relevant information. If you enter a location believing that it is haunted, then every noise you hear, every shadow that you see will convince you further that the place IS haunted. Most likely the noise that you heard came from another team member clumsily stomping around, or a mouse, a bird or possibly a homeless person that seeked shelter in the building that you are investigating. Entering a location with a neutral frame of mind will produce far greater and accurate results. For every piece of information that you gather that confirms your original thoughts and suspisions, try to find a piece that will disprove it. Opposing information is just as important as information that is confirming, if not even more important.

A healthy and appropriate amount of skepticism will usually yield correct results. With each piece of evidence that confirms your beliefs or what you suspected, please reserve some skepticism to test if the original theory is correct. Confirmation bias (a tendency to search for information that confirms one's preconceptions) is usually counter productive without "conflicting" evidence.

William Shakespeare said it best: "The error of our eye directs our mind: what error leads must err"

Usually when one has a solid belief in if a location is haunted or not they ignore all contridicting evidence. This is called Belief Perseverance (persistence of one's initial conceptions, such as when the basis for one's belief is discredited but an explanation of why the belief might be true survives). Many are enticed by the unknown and thrive on the thrill of the hunt, not really caring about the futilness of actually finding anything that is logical.

Amatuers fueled by the popular ghost hunting TV shows, riled up by the stories in Weird NJ and inspired by reading a ghost story may prematurly set off to a location and conduct an impromptu “ghost hunting” session having not properly conducted the research needed to come to any sort of logical conclusion. Usually this behavior is mirrored by individuals that feel the need to either vandalize, take souvenirs or drink and party at the location, disrespecting everything in the process.

"We hear and apprehend only what we already half know" Henry Thoreau

I never really liked the term “ghost hunter”, it always conjured up images of rednecks hopping into a pick up truck and heading off to an adventure. Also are you really hunting ghosts? Or are you investigating a specific location that was rumored to be haunted, using scientific measures to determine if the place is haunted or not? For us we do enjoy venturing to locations that even angels fear to tread. Many of the locations that we researched and documented are/were in danger of being torn down in the name of progress. As reported, after we walked through, took photos, did tests and noted the history and logged our experiences many of the locations have been torn down.

We have documented the history, researched why the location might have been deemed haunted, took photos/videos and conducted experiments to see if there were any spirits at the location. We consider ourselves urban explorers, documentors of historic architect, investigators of the paranormal, preservers of legend and lore. We preserve the various legends and lore of the place with the scientific research of the history of the location to come to our conclusions.

Sometimes this works backwards and the Misinformation Effect may marry Hindsight Bias. The Misinformation Effect is incorporating misinformation into one's memory of the event, after witnessing an event and receiving misleading information about it. Hindsight bias, also known as the knew-it-all-along effect or creeping determinism, is the inclination, after an event has occurred, to see the event as having been predictable, despite there having been little or no objective basis for predicting it, prior to its occurrence. What this means is that you may go out and investigate a location, gather all your information and then when the investigation is complete an outside source may tarnish the gathered evidence by interjecting information that was misleading or bad information. You may look back and figure that whatever was said might have actually happened.

Happy exploring and documenting!

(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)

For more information :

https://www.facebook.com/Cursedbook

A Brief Thought on American and the World Citizens

by Chris Chaos

Over the years I have held various memberships and ranks that have members from international communities and have consistently notices quite a few constants. One that I was studying last night was a vast chasm between citizens of the United States and the citizens of other countries...in discussing various topics with an international audience the topic of professions and country that you reside in came up. Examining the various members it showed that the members that were not living in the United States held upper level positions: teachers, engineers, scientists, doctors etc..and many were from countries that might be considered third world. Now examining the citizens from the United States the vast majority were: unemployed, high school drop outs, or working a low level minimum wage job.

Bottom line in my discussions with the international platform is that most people in the US have their priorities misplaced in the pursuit of fun over education and stability, each wanting things but not willing to put forth effort to earn them. Another reason why most of the world's citizens dislike Americans and their sense of entitlement.

 

(Note to those that do not know me, I am a US citizen and do agree with what many of the internationals are saying)

Feel free to discuss, I would like to hear the input from the readers of this short thought.

Below is a response that I received when this short thought was posted to social media:

NOLAN:

In the 1950s kids lost their innocence. They were liberated from their parents by well-paying jobs, cars, and lyrics in music that gave rise to a new term ---the generation gap.

In the 1960s, kids lost their authority. It was a decade of protest---church, state, and parents were all called into question and found wanting. Their authority was rejected, yet nothing ever replaced it.

In the 1970s, kids lost their love. It was the decade of me-ism dominated by hyphenated words beginning with self. Self-image, Self-esteem, Self-assertion....It made for a lonely world. Kids learned everything there was to know about sex and forgot everything there was to know about love, and no one had the nerve to tell them there was a difference.

In the 1980s, kids lost their hope. Stripped of innocence, authority and love and plagued by the horror of a nuclear nightmare, large and growing numbers of this generation stopped believing in the future.

In the 1990s kids lost their power to reason. Less and less were they taught the very basics of language, truth, and logic and they grew up with the irrationality of a postmodern world.

In the new millennium, kids woke up and found out that somewhere in the midst of all this change, they had lost their imagination. Violence and perversion entertained them till none could talk of killing innocents since none was innocent anymore.

For more writings of Chris Chaos visit:

http://allthingsweird88.blogspot.com/

(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) 

AMERICA'S MOST RETARDED

"AMERICA'S MOST RETARDED"

by Chris Chaos and Baron Craze

Foreword:
In the early 00's we (Axis Video) were in between projects and decided to take on the America's Most Retarded project before preparing for our next big release. Below includes excerpts from
THE BLOODY RISE OF AXIS VIDEO and a brief history of the AMR films.

One of the most ridiculous films to date has to be a film that I was involved with a few years back in the early 00's entitled "AMERICA'S MOST RETARDED" . 1st we were looking for people with oddball talents to showcase on the DVD, but the people that surfaced to be on this production..we were not prepared for.

During casting we were contacted by a Sam Santoro from Leper-con Productions. He wanted to become the director for the America's Most Retarded series. After some time we learned that Sam was the notorious bandit behind the BMG and Columbia House CD/DVD defrauding. He created many upon many accounts in order to receive their "free" products. Sam amassed a small fortune with his new media collection.

Pre-Jackass and pre-2000, we were all fooling around with the video camera and making others do insane things in front of it. We accumulated many hours of footage but had no idea what to do with it. Flash forward several years we constructed an idea to go back and capture the flavor of what we filmed years before. So we placed ads on social media groups looking for people to film and include on this film we were dreaming up. Many people responded and expressed interest wishing to be included in the film. Three individuals stuck out: Jimmy the Busboy, Lenny the Loon and Leathur Wench Rokk, we contacted them and set up the filming dates.

AMR (#1) was filmed over the course of 4 non-consecutive days and then edited down to about 1 hour. A follow up entitled “Americas Most Retarded 2: Stupid Is As Stupid Does” was later edited into a 2 hour disaster, and many other ‘tards were added into this mix along with left over footage from AMR #1. We found people at the subway in need of a ride and filmed them to include in this disasterpiece. I worked with a guy that I dubbed Clock since his one arm was smaller than his other, just like a clock.

Purchase the DVDs here:
America's Most Retarded DVD

America's Most Retarded: Stupid Is As Stupid Does DVD

Digital Downloads are available here:
America's Most Retarded Digital Download

America's Most Retarded: Stupid Is As Stupid Does Digital Download

JIMMY THE BUSBOY:
The 1st person that we filmed was Jimmy the Busboy, a sick fuck and a busboy at one of South Jersey's more seedy establishments, The Coastline (owned by a family of Bangladesh). To set the tone and establish the workers and clientele of this location... The DJ was infected with AIDS and had a chip on his shoulder taking different ladies home each night, sleeping with them in the hopes of spreading and sharing his misery.

As Jimmy put it, "I bused tables for a very looong time." It was a chilly evening and we met with Jimmy at his house right next to the bar, he let us in and took us on a tour of his dwelling. He lived with the rest of the workers from the bar crammed into this little house. Jimmy didn't have any beer and we wanted a drink to get though this shoot so we went with him to the bar and made him purchase us some brew. Upon return back to his house the antics increased and his roommates were home, so we had to go and meet them too. I am not sure how many people lived in that house but it appeared to be many based on the industrial mop, 3 over sized fridges and piles of shoes in each room. The stench of stinky fish and rotten feet filled the air as you attempted to take a breath. He also licked dirty mops and shoes, drank bong water and participated in other degrading acts and also volunteered some very disturbing stories from his life.

LENNY THE LOON:
For the 2nd cast member we found Lenny the Loon, who stated that he had a high threshold for pain and falls asleep while getting tattoos. For the 1st day of filming we met him at his place in Mount Laurel when he started on his antics. He stole a neighborhood kids bike, acquired a stun gun for a stunt a little later in the night. He met us at Keith's place and we set out a full day of filming with him due to his wide talents. Lenny's cast-mates were a stun gun, hot sauce and alcohol. Later in the day we went to a local parking lot and made Lenny our stunt dummy and put him in a shopping cart to be pushed into things, he also ate a whole box of ex-lax with plans for him to shit himself in a crowded store and we also made a real life Mario and had him swim in a sewer pipe.

LEATHUR WENCH ROKK:
LWR out of Atlantic City, what a trollop. Where to begin? Hahaha. She came out to audition for a role in our Jersey Devil documentary and her audition turned into material for this film. We met up with her on several occasions because the comic relief that she provided was priceless. I think we still have hours of unused footage of this beast. On one of the days we filmed her on location in AC and one of the more interestingly framed shots was when we came across an AC bum drinking on a bench, so we placed her on a neighboring bench and made sure we could see the bum in the background drinking his liquor. The next meeting with LWR she took the bullet train up and met at Keith's place where she continued in her stories of all of her adventures. She got overly drunk on wine and Everclear and the events that unfolded afterwards can never be discussed..ever again.

When we edited and released AMR we still had a ton of source footage that did not make the cut, so we dumped it into the sequel. Once again we did casting calls and secured more talent to be included in the next installment. We accumulated so much footage over he years, b-roll, outtakes and just plain insanity that we also included. The main new cast member that we added was dubbed CLOCK. His real name was Sean but we called him Clock due to the fact that his one arm was undeveloped and much smaller, resembling the large and small hand of a time telling device.

CLOCK (Sean):
Clock was the nickname given to another special victim whom had a stumpy hand that resembled a chocolate covered pretzel. He reminded me of a clock since his one hand was shorter than the other. I met him at an office job that I once held while in the corporate world. He was fascinated by all the stories that I told about our filming adventures. He would always come to my office and annoy me so one day I told he to come out and we would make him a star. 1st trip was to the Berlin Farmers Market. We went up to the man selling chainsaws and axes and had a little fun with the man asking questions about body bags, duct tape and if the axes could penetrate bone.

THE COUPLE AT THE TRAIN STATION:
I Think we met this couple while dropping LWR's ass off at the train to send her back to Atlantic City, we made them sing, dance and do other acts of stupidity. They needed a ride to a town a few miles away, so we made the deal to drive them in the back of the van if they would have sex and allow us to film it.

The rest of the cast of the America's Most Retarded series are lost to history, you will have to view it to hear their stories.

And now a word from....

BARON CRAZE: "Axis Video and with some assistance from me had successful completion of two new films, the sequel to the America’s Most Retarded, as early entry into the Jackass Films of today, entitled as America’s Most Retarded 2: Stupid Is…As Stupid Does. This film had scenes of Chris and me at the Ozzfest, showing the injuries of Hacky Sack, Drinking Beer (with me upping the ante) and encounter with a rude Buddhist and myself who deliberately spilled my Busch (ugh) beer. The best though was finding a vehicle in honor of Slayer, this pickup truck, came out of hell, red and black, a skull on the exterior antenna, with an ammo belt on the dash, windows down, and not dare fuck with this vehicle."

America's Most Retarded: Stupid is as Stupid Does
$1.99 digital download sale special!

America's Most Retarded 2: Stupid is as Stupid Does will surely be a reason to dislike sequels.
Starring: Lenny the Loon, Jimmy the Busboy
Run time:1 hour 29 minutes

Whether on your way to Walmart...or the laundry-mat... the future of the world, yes, these people are real..and no ..you are not watching Jerry Springer..this is worse.....much much worse.

AMERICA'S MOST RETARDED: Axis Video's Greatest Sh*ts will include:
More Jimmy the Busboy and Lenny the Loon
Drunken Fools
The hazards of Hackey Sack at Ozzfest
Drunks drinking beer from the dirty parking lot ground
Stupid fights and inbred backyard fighters
Ugly People
Charlene Baby (The Retarded retard) reprises her role and demands violence
Behind the scenes at video shoots
Hot girls (The Sexy B*tches of Axis Video)
Fat squirrels
Retarded Hill Billys from Bumblef*ck USA trying to be funny
The Bums of Philly
and much much more <------a crowd favorite

WHO IS ......SAM SANTORO????
Sam Santoro is the legendary book bandit, video hoarder whom has amassed a small fortune, more than D.B. Cooper, and more notoriety than the A-Team, by scamming Columbia House, BMG, Book Club of the Month, and other
retarded companies that front product before receiving payment.

ON A FUNNY NOTE: The world police (Inter-pol) can't find Osama, but the Postal authorities will get you in no time if you scam through the mail. Poor Sammy.........

The legendary imprisoned SAM SANTORO, mastermind behind AMERICA'S MOST RETARDED, approached Axis Video once again from behind his greasy bars in federal prison.
Sam says to me on one dreary visit, "Chris, see to it that the legend, the saga, the legacy of the Retards lives on. I commission you to produce AMR 2, do whatever it takes to get it to the world. Spread the gospel wide and clear...to
all ends of the earth. Leave no Stone unturned"

So touching, it brought a tear to my eye, or was it the onions in my cheesesteak? AMR 2 will surely be a reason to dislike sequels.

Product Details
Actors: Lenny the Loon, Jimmy the Busboy, wrestlers, many other retarded idiots
Directors: Chris Chaos
Writers: Baron Craze
Format: NTSC
Region: All Regions
Studio: An Axis Video Production
DVD Release Date: June 25, 2009
Run Time: 90 minutes

http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Most-Retarded-Stupid-Does/dp/B004U73U6U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408897481&sr=8-1&keywords=americas+most+retarded

(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)