Active Imagination

I just read an article posted by someone I follow on twitter.  http://tiny.cc/aolsm

The article is about the human response to horror movies.

I used to enjoy horror films as a kid, but I don't anymore. I was just talking about this with my husband last night.  He doesn't like horror movies either. 

The article says; "Those who don’t enjoy scary movies, she hypothesized, may either have a weaker hormonal response that provides less pleasure and doesn’t cancel out the negative images, or a stronger response that pushes everything to the next, very uncomfortable step..."  And then it goes on to explain that the next step is actual fear.

Neither of these explains my husband's dislike, or mine.  For him, I'm quite certain that he doesn't enjoy them for the same reason he doesn't like it when people curse. It's a negative impact that is entirely unnecessary.  He doesn't want to read or hear news about people being hurt or killed, or even read overly graphic books, why would he want to watch movies of those things? (Why would anyone?  The article explains the hormonal response, but still I'm incredulous!)

For me, however, I actually feel those hormonal responses very intensely, even while reading graphic scenes in novels.  And yet I hate the way it feels.  I'm repulsed by how my hormones rage inside my body as I watch or read something that is disgusting or horrific.  It makes me feel as though someone has thrown me into a waste bin and closed the lid.

Horror movies and even things people tell me, can create graphic images in my head that never go away.  I had a nightmare last night (which is what got my husband and I talking about horror movies) that had a really graphic scene of someone I loved being mutilated.  I woke up feeling desolate and not interested in doing anything.  I speculated that I have these dreams because of watching so many really horrible movies in my life.  There is nothing in my personal experience that would cause me to dream of mutilation.

But let's talk about the other thing I mentioned.  Sometimes I get graphic disparaging images in my mind due to someone talking to me.  Even a description of something tragic can cause me to imagine something so vividly that it can stick with me for hours, days, weeks or even years.  It astounds me when people chose to watch the news when the topic is how someone was murdered or something else to that effect. 

I'm guessing this is all because my imagination is highly developed.  I'm a freelance artist (digital painter, graphic designer), a writer, a poet, a continual-blogger, and I even like taking creative photos, making nice food arrangements, putting together unusual and striking outfits, and many other actively creative pass-times.  When something is within my imagination, it's so vivid that I react as though it's real.

Please stop and consider that whenever you're about to call up a friend to tell them about so-and-so who died in some-obscene-and-overly-described way that you just heard about on some-such news station.