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)

BACKYARD HOOLIGANS, Fighting and Wrestling

by Chris Chaos 

Back in the early 2000's I was in between film projects and looking for the next project to work on. So my business partner and myself put our heads together to think of what project to take on next. After running several ideas, we came up with a fighting themed video, a hybrid documentary/action that featured people fighting. Now we both hated wrestling and the mentality of the people that watched it, but we could tolerate UFC and other real outlets featuring two people fighting.

So we took to the internet in search of people that wished to star in our next action packed film. We really didn't have much of a direction in mind, so we went with the flow and shot gunned our ads in search of participants. One of our first responses was from a wrestling crew in the Mullica Hill, NJ area. They stated they had their own Backyard Wrestling federation, that they used weapons, had a professional ring in their backyard, assured us that all was real and they called themselves the ACW (Anarchy Championship Wrestling).

This all seemed too good to be true since the response was very quick and the information that they supplied sounded great for what we needed. Then came the kicker, they stated they were located on Breakneck Road..hmm, they bash skulls on Breakneck Road, did we just get scammed? So we quickly did a Google search and it came up as a real road in Mullica Hill, New Jersey. The history concerning the name of the road stated that it was historically a dangerous road where many people lost their lives in various car accidents.

I was still hesitant since it all seemed too good to be true. But we set off to see if this was all going to happen. We drove to the area and saw many ritzy houses and wonder who would tolerate this activity in their neighborhood. We reached the address and it looked like an old farm with a shack and several rundown vehicles sitting there. It looked to be a scene straight out of a WWE meeting in Alabama. The ring was there, so we know we had the right location.

We exited our cars and introduced ourselves as we see two people battling it out in the ring. After a few minutes they made their way over to us and introduced themselves as Reaper and Destruction. They then jump into a few matches so that we can film them. The day ends and we agree to meet up again in the future with some themed matches.

That night, after the matches, we brainstormed some crazy matches for them to compete in for our next round of filming. One we dubbed "The Outhouse Match" since they had an actual bonafide nasty outhouse with double portholes on their property. The rules were simple, battle it out and the loser gets their head dunked into the nastiness that lurks below. The aftermath and the stink was unbearable when the loser's head made contact with the poo, it actually made several people throw up. Then Pa came out all mad that his wooden throne was desecrated.

The second match was entitled, "The Breakfast Club". During the match we threw eggs at them and the loser was doused with a gallon of sticky syrup and then covered with feathers from a down pillow. Note that it was summer and bees were in full force. It made for an interesting variable.

The third match was called, "Fish Fight". We purchased the largest fish from the store and left it outside in the heat overnight to gain a real stink. While trying to figure out how to get the fish to stick to the fighters hands. as we didn't wish to touch it ourselves, so we made Reaper give the other wrestler a pep talk while duct taping the fish to his hands. Each time the fighters tried to punch each other, pieces of the fish would fly everywhere. As you can imagine and know, fish smells bad to begin with, just picture a fish after sitting in the sun all day and then brutally smashed into someones face. Yeah.

For the rest of the matches you will have to purchase the DVD:

Breakneck Wrestling

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, has a black cat named Jynx, two rats: Hopping Heather and Climbing Carol, a proud parent, happily taken and a connoisseur of hot wings.