I have fear of space.

[theposhmudcrab]

When I see pictures of other planets, their moons, and the freezing lonely darkness around them, I just feel terrified. Abstract moons like Oberon and Triton, or Titan and Callisto, just shit that's way out there in space, totally separated and unrelated to us. Looking out into the blackness and knowing home is years upon years of travel time away.
Just the idea that as far out as our moon, everything we do and everything we are, is just irrelevant out there. It's so foreign and alien that it gives me goose bumps and makes me wanna cry kind of, just out of the shear loneliness and terror.
I often have dreams about waking up on some foreign moon, without a space suit on and feeling freezing cold, looking up at a giant and foreboding gas giant of a planet filling up the black sky. Most would say it's beautiful, and it really is, but it's equally horrifying. The apathetic blackness of space is crueler than our world could ever be.
The apathy is what scares me the most. We aren't even meant to exist out there. The uncaring and violent nature of space, paired with setting foot on land that was never designed for life, is just suffocatingly scary to me. It's as alien as it gets. The only thing scarier than that is waking up on a moon, in another galaxy, at the other end of the universe. At that point, you may as well be in a different reality.
What's even scarier is that things are so far away that most of what we see may not even be there anymore. Things are so far away that hundreds of generations can go by before something appears in the sky, and even then that same object at the other end could be gone by then. I don't know why but looking at planets, stars, black holes, the moon, just gives me the chills. Looking at the sky is fine, but the thought of outer outer space freaks me out. I have no idea why. I thought that maybe its the openness but I don't know. Like the idea of being stuck there alone freaks me out, but also other things. When I see pictures of the sun or venus the gasses and heat scare me, uranus's and neptune's blueness scares me, pictures of black holes really freak me out, the blackness in space scares me, 
The more I think about it, the more I realize earth is literally the only link we have, and we're vulnerable as fuck. It's like Earth is a bubble floating around in a hail storm above an erupting volcano set off by a nuclear blast. If Earth is destroyed or ruined, space is just gonna do what it does and not care. We could be long gone before the light we give off even reaches other eyes.

[MadMansGun]

 

[ToJKa]

All true.

 

Space isn't a nice and welcoming place like Sci-Fi makes it out to be (even considering the monsters), it is simply infinite insta-kill. And pretty much all of the planets there are even faster insta-kill. Hell, radiation in Saturn's orbit would kill you before you had time hear a Geiger counter.

There might be another planet there that could be livable for us, but finding one, and getting there, is about as realistic and jumping of a ship in the middle of an ocean and hoping to find an island to swim to before you drown.

Humankind lives and dies with this planet.

 

Still, it is beautiful. Deadly, but beautiful.

[Tyrant99]

2 hours ago, theposhmudcrab said:

I don't know why but looking at planets, stars, black holes, the moon, just gives me the chills.

Luckily you can't look at black holes because nothing in the elecromagnetic spectrum can escape the event horizon, including light. So maybe that makes you feel a bit better...

[Guest]

Blackholes are the most terrifyng thing out there for me, we have many theories on them, yet we still don't know jackshit about them.

 

Dark tiny little hole wich crushes, disintegrate and devour anything what close to it, myterious and dangerous.

 

Pretty sure we might need rely on them for space travel in future.

[Reginald_001]

You should play Dead Space. I'm sure that will help you get over your phobia.

[Cynical Misanthrope]

I love the universe and it's incredible wonders. Sometimes I can't even wrap my head around it. But yeah, space is like a beautiful nightmare. So the fear is not invalid.   

 

32 minutes ago, Reginald_001 said:

You should play Dead Space. I'm sure that will help you get over your phobia.

Some would likely read this and think you're trying to be funny. But you're actually right. This approach is exactly how you get over your fears, by facing them. Maybe not head-on 100% but in small portions, and by slowly increasing your exposure to it.

Having an expert or some kind of company close is also helpful.

[Reginald_001]

8 minutes ago, Cynical Misanthrope said:

I love the universe and it's incredible wonders. Sometimes I can't even wrap my head around it. But yeah, space is like a beautiful nightmare. So the fear is not invalid.   

 

Some would likely read this and think you're trying to be funny. But you're actually right. This approach is exactly how you get over your fears, by facing them. Maybe not head-on 100% but in small portions, and by slowly increasing your exposure to it.

Having an expert or some kind of company close is also helpful. 

I was dead serious.. I don't really sugercoat my opinions any longer.. reached an age where I just tell it like it is.

I overcame two phobias (flying in a plane and fear of 'medium' heights) by forcing myself to face it.

Then I overcame many smaller fears in the same way, insects, confrontations with people (e.g. I needed everyone to like me out of fear etc..etc..).

 

In order to overcome my fears of needing everyone to like me, I treated several people like shit on purpose, forcing myself to become what I feared becoming. Then I learned that being an asshole can really help you come out on top in many situations. (That's when I learned why so many people are assholes).

 

I also tried overcoming my fear of life by living it, but that one failed, so it's not foolproof.

[Fakenet]

As you should be but if I read that right your fear is more like existential nihilism than agoraphobia.

47 minutes ago, Reginald_001 said:

You should play Dead Space. I'm sure that will help you get over your phobia.

Nah, for the most part you hardly notice you are in space, only those walks on the hull but even then you only need to keep your eyes down.

Unless you talk about the second and maybe even the third game, those will flatout blast you into open space.

 

 

[ToJKa]

1 hour ago, Resdayn said:

Blackholes are the most terrifyng thing out there for me, we have many theories on them, yet we still don't know jackshit about them.

 

Dark tiny little hole wich crushes, disintegrate and devour anything what close to it, myterious and dangerous.

 

Pretty sure we might need rely on them for space travel in future.

The wormhole hypothesis makes no sense. How could an infinitely dense piece of matter be a tunnel to another infinitely dense piece of matter somewhere else in the universe? And even if they were, they are so far that traveling to them would still require FTL travel.

 

The "Alcubierre drive" (think Warp drive) seems like the best bet for FTL travel according to current science. But the energy required for warping space is insane. And there's nowhere to go.

17 minutes ago, Cynical Misanthrope said:

Some would likely read this and think you're trying to be funny. But you're actually right. This approach is exactly how you get over your fears, by facing them. Maybe not head-on 100% but in small portions, and by slowly increasing your exposure to it.

Having an expert or some kind of company close is also helpful.

But, why would someone need to get over a fear for space? It's not like going there is a common, everyday occurence.

 

And yeah, the space scenes in Dead Space 2 and 3 were great, especially the sound design. Sound doesn't travel trough space (because it's empty), so you can only hear what happens to your suit, and trough what you're touching.

[Cynical Misanthrope]

43 minutes ago, Reginald_001 said:

I was dead serious...

I didn't say you wasn't. In fact I recognized it. Or at least I hoped so when I was writing it. And now you confirmed it, so I want my ? and some ? thank you very much! 

24 minutes ago, ToJKa said:

But, why would someone need to get over a fear for space? It's not like going there is a common, everyday occurence.

Well, I was talking about phobias and fears in general. But yeah some are obvious difficult if not impossible to face  

[Guest]

23 minutes ago, ToJKa said:

The wormhole hypothesis makes no sense. How could an infinitely dense piece of matter be a tunnel to another infinitely dense piece of matter somewhere else in the universe? And even if they were, they are so far that traveling to them would still require FTL travel.

Well nothing make sense out there honestly.

[GrimReaper]

Lovecraft was right

[ToJKa]

1 hour ago, Resdayn said:

Well nothing make sense out there honestly.

Astronomy mostly does. Quantum physics doesn't ?

[Corsayr]

As far as phobias go you have been comparatively fortunate. The odds of you inadvertently ending up in space are very small. 

[GrimReaper]

2 minutes ago, Corsayr said:

As far as phobias go you have been comparatively fortunate. The odds of you inadvertently ending up in space are very small. 

but that's the thing, technically we are in space all the time and there's nowhere to go where space isn't present. gamma rays or meteorites can strike instantly, and we haven't even talked about the possibility that we might exist in a false vacuum that might pop like a bubble instantly (well for us it would appear to be instantly, at least)

[Corsayr]

5 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

but that's the thing, technically we are in space all the time and there's nowhere to go where space isn't present. gamma rays or meteorites can strike instantly, and we haven't even talked about the possibility that we might exist in a false vacuum that might pop like a bubble instantly (well for us it would appear to be instantly, at least)

True enough, and I suppose attempting to rationalize some level of comfort is unrealistic as phobias are by definition irrational. If you have access to therapy you should try it. Phobias are usually linked to some kind of subconscious issue that can spill over into other problems if not addressed. 

 

I assume you have no other irrational death fears? So this isn't a mortality-based fear but more like a not only would you be dead, but everything and everyone and all things moving forward erased from existence in a blink of an eye sort of thing? 

[Tirloque]

32 minutes ago, Corsayr said:

As far as phobias go you have been comparatively fortunate. The odds of you inadvertently ending up in space are very small. 

You have a point there.

28 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

but that's the thing, technically we are in space all the time and there's nowhere to go where space isn't present. gamma rays or meteorites can strike instantly, and we haven't even talked about the possibility that we might exist in a false vacuum that might pop like a bubble instantly (well for us it would appear to be instantly, at least)

"Space" is nearly emptiness, that what defines it's dangers. Having an atmosphere full of different gaz ready to attenuate radiations to casual levels and disintegrate 99,9% of meteorites is what wards us from said dangers. To the point humans could live for thousand of years without even knowing about it.

2 hours ago, Reginald_001 said:

I was dead serious.. I don't really sugercoat my opinions any longer.. reached an age where I just tell it like it is.

I overcame two phobias (flying in a plane and fear of 'medium' heights) by forcing myself to face it.

Then I overcame many smaller fears in the same way, insects, confrontations with people (e.g. I needed everyone to like me out of fear etc..etc..).

 

In order to overcome my fears of needing everyone to like me, I treated several people like shit on purpose, forcing myself to become what I feared becoming. Then I learned that being an asshole can really help you come out on top in many situations. (That's when I learned why so many people are assholes).

Your thinking on the subject is interesting. To confront fear and force oneself to live with it is the way behavioral and cognitive therapies do cure phobias.

Being an asshole/threatening to others is indeed a way to out-threaten the fear other assholes/threatening people might inflict on you. However in that case, one might thing that instead of learning how to live with that fear, you only try reverse the way it's inflicted. You try to remove/push away the source of the fear, not to stop fearing it. And from that point of view, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, religious wars and many others scourges of human history were made by humans too fearful of others to refrain from calling to violence.

 

So I'm not sure becoming "an asshole" is a solution. However the simple fact you suggested a way for Theposhmudcrab to overcome his phobia suggests you're not one.

[Corsayr]

57 minutes ago, GrimReaper said:

false vacuum that might pop like a bubble instantly

This is scary stuff btw

 

Spoiler

How to destroy a universe (the OP should probably not watch this)

 

 

[Guest]

1 hour ago, ToJKa said:

Astronomy mostly does. Quantum physics doesn't ?

Yep

[Jazzman]

Since the kinky bunny hop doesn't qualify me as an astronaut I don't have to be afraid of outer space where the silent death looms over the space traveler.

[Di3sIrae]

We have many fears, and for me it is related to our inner self, most just don't believe in this kind of thing but they say that when you dream, you actually visit other places and then the brain just can't understand what spirit and mind are trying to say, that's why dreams are usually strange. So, in a spiritual level, maybe you are visiting strange places and you see nothing there, that's why you are so afraid of it. Maybe it isn't actually like that but that's what your brain understand and it comes out as a fearful experience to your body.

 

lol just saying, i think that we don't know anything at all, so anything can be possible outside of the physical/material plane. Anything. Even nothing.

But we have unexplicable fears, you can fear a monster that doesn't exist and will never exist, will never get to you, but you still fear it. Our mind is powerful, but still weak. If our brain could understand more what mind has to say...

I think i can totally understand your fear. Fear of being in a strange place without anyone. Fear of things you can't understand without having no one to help you there. Maybe it is not exactly the space itself, but the fear of being left on your own in an alien place, where you feel what you never felt before, you see what you never saw, and can only count on your own. Thinking of it really give me the goosebumps, but not totally in a scary way

[nonusnomeni]

siting in the boat in the middle of ocean and not see a land also can give you a phobia

do you afraid of sea?

 

sea and space are same

there is always some landing place

[GrimReaper]

7 hours ago, Corsayr said:

True enough, and I suppose attempting to rationalize some level of comfort is unrealistic as phobias are by definition irrational. If you have access to therapy you should try it. Phobias are usually linked to some kind of subconscious issue that can spill over into other problems if not addressed. 

 

I assume you have no other irrational death fears? So this isn't a mortality-based fear but more like a not only would you be dead, but everything and everyone and all things moving forward erased from existence in a blink of an eye sort of thing? 

I think because the universe is pretty incomprehensible in itself and pretty dangerous to boot. It's not like you're safe from it on earth, it's just that the universe is so damn large and the earth is so inconceivably small in comparison that most floating rocks of doom or space lasers that would fry our whole planet in an instant simply miss us. However, given that the universe might as well be infinite with an infinite amount of things in it (most of which are deadly) the chances are actually not that bad that something will hit the earth sooner or later - the dinosaurs already experienced something like that, probably. The question isn't if, it's when. Probably not in our lifetime but you never know. Thousands of years are nothing more than the blink of an eye, cosmologically speaking.

[Corsayr]

6 hours ago, GrimReaper said:

given that the universe might as well be infinite with an infinite amount of things in it (most of which are deadly) the chances are actually not that bad that something will hit the earth sooner or later

Ah but, in this instance, the infinite size of the universe also works against all those things that might harm us. Something that is going to harm us needs to be fairly close and the vast majority of the universe is nowhere near us.

 

Also the fact that most of the universe is moving away from us at nearly the speed of light helps. If you watch that video I linked you'd see that even if such an event happened in all likelihood the event horizon would never make it to us because most things are moving away from us too quickly. A GRB or a false vacuum event would basically have to be in our galaxy to even have a shot at getting to us. 

 

and while yes the dinosaurs got taken out by a large object hitting the earth, there are significantly fewer large objects still floating around in an orbital that might hit something now then there was back then. Plus at some point (soon one would hope) we will have the means to protect ourselves from that kind of threat. 

 

To me, space is a lot less scary than what is going on down here.