Fear Burster

Hallowe'en is a yearly holiday observed around the world on October 31st. Typical festive Halloween activities include trick-or-treating, attending costume parties, carving jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbling, visiting haunted attractions, playing pranks, telling scary stories, watching horror films ....

Various kinds of fear are embedded deep in the human psyche. And perhaps this festival, where people come with scary masks, give them a chance to get rid of their fear .... to some extent.

Agatha Christie has woven a murder mystery around this festival.

Fear, and crime born out of fear, and psychology of human frailties were very much known to Agatha Christie.

Tongue:The Fear Whisperer

The word we spell out is the onset of communication (Stimulus-Response) and brings effect of various in personal or social life.

Source point of a lot trouble could well be traced back to the communication, the choice of words with the amount of energy & body language there in, may affect the 'threat' perception, causing 'fear' emotion to take on.

'Fear' is basic emotion ( a distressing negative sensation induced by a perceived 'threat'), a basic survival mechanism ( early humans that were quick to 'fear' were more likely to survive & reproduce) leading an urge to confront it or flee from ( fight-or-flight response) and in extreme cases (terror) causing a freeze or paralysis. 'Fear' involves 'thalamus' & 'amygdala' ( the threat center ) in the brain: one old, short, & fast, the other more recently evolved, more circuitous and slower.

History is witness, that a lot of war have been fought due to fear instilled in to a community/caste/creed/sect or a nation and that too with the words of ours.

A quote from "Baha'i" writing is sufficient unto this context:

"..a kindly tongue is the lodestone of the hearts of men. It is the bread of the spirit, it clotheth the words with meaning, it is the fountain of the light of wisdom and understanding."