Meditation has some weird side-effects. They're not particularly predictable, nor is there a good science for explaining them.
I've lost any ability to be frightened by horror movies, and don't suffer imagination-based aftereffects either. Weird.
Conversation
It would be fair to ask how I can claim that's related to meditation, and obviously I can't prove it.
But I notice the number of situations where limbic responses go bone deep are decreasing. The system seems to modulate itself more actively.
1
2
There is also a large extent to which emotional responses are trained and modelled, moreso than authentic.
You are acting out a script. "I'm scared, and this is how scared people act." Only, that part is just a story. Without it, there are only some sensations. Sometimes.
3
3
I don't know if horror stories have ever really invoked anything else than a sensory thrill, a mild catecholamine spike.
But, from when I was a little child:
"Oh, you'll be terrified reading that!"
"You'll have nightmares!"
"You will be scared of those things now!"
1
It's difficult to formulate just how many of our behaviors are formulaic, shallow, self-reinforcing.
What goes in initially percolates, permutates, grows. When the initial response is blunted, the whole response is blunted. But when it's amplified...
Replying to
Even weirder, this seems to work almost by category.
Things that don't prompt self-reinforcing reactions for me:
- Moderate hunger, thirst, tiredness or physical discomfort.
- Pain
- Manufactured extreme emotion (news, horror, religion)
Many other things still do, however.
2