I need your fears. It's for science.

[Aly]

For someone who fears things like bees and ceiling fans, writing a horror is a little difficult to tap into. So I'm asking you lovely people: What are your deepest, most crippling fears?

When looking into fears, it'd help if it had to do with specific situations, like being buried alive, ect. Explanations below!

The Story: People Watching

Some of you guys might remember I wrote a novel for NaNo a couple years ago based off of the Stanford Prison experiment. I hated that story, but I love the concept, so I'm re-writing it.

Ten people (five guys, five girls) sign up to be test subjects in a psychological experiment. They're the isolated group, and there's going to be a special on TV about it, so they're taken away to a big house to endure the experiments.

There's Lynn, the MC, the mouthpiece, or a type of nurse that communicates between the producers and scientists of the study. She's an element to ensure the study remains double-blind. The other element is Isaac, who helped finance the experiment, but is only a PhD student so he has little say in the study. Isaac is the only external party with communication to Lynn, as Lynn is the only one of the group to communicate with Isaac.

The subjects only know there will be a NatGeo special on it, and that it lasts two weeks.
Lynn is only aware that there are three tiers to the experiment. (Plus what the subjects know.)
Isaac is only aware that the experiment revolves around studying the possibility of collective consciousness, and how natural-born leaders are elected through non-verbal communication. (Plus what Lynn knows.)

And here is where I'm stuck. I have the characters detailed out as well as the setting, but as for the specific experiments I'm at a loss.

The first tier will have to do with man vs nature, the second man vs man, and the third a combination of the two...or something like that.

Any scary situations you think might help spark an idea would be lovely. Or, if you have any interesting studies to link, that'll work too!

Any and all responses will be awarded with virtual cookies.

[Rosabeth]

I remember reading about this experiment in psychology! That stuff was fucked up.

Anyway, my biggest fears are death (of myself and loved ones), forgetting everyone and everything in an Alzheimer's kind of fashion, being held up at gun point, being kidnapped/held hostage/raped (each can be individual or one big scenario for an ultimate fear), unintentionally betraying someone close to me, and falling to my death.

If you want more specific things then I can help, but those are probably my biggest fears, with my own death and the nothingness beyond that being such a big fear I can make myself start to hyperventilate/have an anxiety attack if I think about it too much.

[cat.]

Oooh, fears. That could get into some deep junk. I would have to say that a big fear is humiliation. Another is failure to succeed in life, or fear that one won't do something with themselves. Then there's fear of falling from heights, being stalked/chased, stabbed, abandoned, or possessed. Highly varying examples, but you get it

[Tiara]

I am afraid of orcas, dolphins, and a lot of sea life.
Open water.
Wasps, bees.
Pain
Being run over
People living in my walls
Clowns
Not knowing anyone

In my family, my mother is very very claustrophobic, and my aunt is afraid of snakes or lizards getting stuck in her throat.

The fear of losing a sense is very powerful.

I will try to update this if I think of any more later.

[laura]

I'm terrified of heights, more so if I don't feel secure with where I am. Example; I was perfectly okay with standing at the top of the empire state building, because there was a solid stone wall between me and a view of the ground, but when I went into the crown of the statue of liberty, I was crimpled with fear - shaking, crying, the works. It was a mess.

Other fears include -

Peacocks. Everything about them creeps me out.
Snakes and spiders.
Small spaces.
Loved ones dying. This includes my dogs.
Drastic change.
Being in deep water; I start becoming increasingly paranoid that there's something beneath me, waiting to strike.

[Ange Keating]

- Needles. I used to get really bad anxiety before blood tests or vaccinations; so much so I had a full blown panic attack at the doctor's office when I was like 13-ish before getting three shots.
- Crossing the street. Again with the anxiety, I hate crossing really busy roads, even if there's a crosswalk. I have a really, really huge fear of getting hit by a car, seeing as I had a really close friend of mines die in a way similar to that one last December.
- Failing. I'm a workaholic and pretty much OCD when it comes to my studies. I get really, really, really upset when I even score Bs on tests because I always think I could have done better. I'm not sure how I'd cope if the plan I have for myself ends up getting derailed.

I think that's it! This sounds super interesting though, Aly ;D I haven't heard of those Stanford Prison experiments but I'm intrigued and will go look them up tonight!

[Maddie]

I'm terrified of fire - I don't know why it happens but sometimes I just get stuck in this train of thought about what I would do if my house caught fire, how flammable the power strip by my bed is with tufts of dog hair on my floor and my blankets hanging over the edge of the bed.

Also robberies, people breaking into my house and hurting me or my family, what I would do in that situation. Being assaulted. I always feel like someone is hiding behind the shower curtain, or in the bathroom closet or my closet even though there's no room for anyone to hide there. I don't like standing near the edge of my bed or having limbs hanging off my bed because I'm scared something could reach out and grab me even though I know the worst things under my bed are several large dust bunnies.

I've been thinking a lot about my dogs dying lately, too - I don't even know how to process that thought. It's slightly beyond fear.

[Aly]

Wow, guys! Thank you so much for all your responses! They're very inspiring <3 I adore you all for this. And, as promised, in the spoiler are virtual cookies for all of you.

SPOILER: Click to show

So what I get from a lot of the fears are a loss of power, a fear of ultimate vulnerability, unknown and...some other stuff that fits in other categories. (I, too, am absolutely terrified of my loved ones, especially dogs, dying. As well as crowds, spiders, ect. And now Insidious 2 scared the SHIT out of me.)

I was talking to my boyfriend about universal fears, or fears that everyone can relate to, and he was talking about the loss of a protector. Like in Insidious, he was talking about how it was scary that this ultimate symbol of protection was suddenly taken away and that's what helped make it scary. I have to admit, that scares me almost as much as the idea of not being able to protect people, myself.

It's very, very interesting.

If you guys want to delve into further meanings I would absolutely love to open a discussion about it. For now, nature-induced fears, from insects to disasters--stuff like that.

--

For those curious, the full documentary on the Stanford Prison experiment is on Youtube

[Hello Holly]

I DON'T KNOW IF I'M TOO LATE but I broke the computer (it wasn't actually my fault it just broke when I happened to be using it as per) so I've been v behind and missed out on everything so shh shhhhh

I think I've pretty much figured out my worst nightmare(s) and wow no, so bear with.
--- to have to go on a huge commercial jet/plane and then be surrounded by dead people which no thank you and then for there to be a lot of spiders and for the plane to crash in the middle of the ocean in exceptionally deep water in a storm in the middle of the night. That's more like a, physical sort of fear I guess? like a surface one not a deep deep emotional one which is next

--- this would be probably to like find someone who really liked me and for us to then get together and for it to go so far down the line where I feel utterly safe and loved and happy and for me to then be humiliated publicly by finding out that it was all a hoax and for the whole journey of said relationship had been like recorded and people had been laughing at me during it. But mostly the idea of falling for someone so deeply and to then find out it was all a big joke and they actually can't stand the sight of me that would honestly just fucking kill me.

--- humiliation is quite a huge big thing but I also think like similar to what Rosabeth said where I lose memories? But like waking up somewhere and having no idea how I got there. Kind of like if I was in a coma and then woke up like 10 years plus and everyone I knew had died or left and I had no memory of those past ten years that would probably drive me into an asylum fo sho'.

--- losing my right hand. this sounds weird, but all I can do is draw, like I do everything with my right hand (I WAS MY RIGHT HAND!!!11! jaime lannister anybody~~). If I didn't have it and I couldn't make my art with it like I genuinely don't think I'd be able to cope with it.

Strangely I don't really fear death all the much. I'm kind of ambivalent towards it. I know it's going to happen, we're all going to die, everything is going to die some day, the plants the people the earth the universe everything. So I know my family members are going to die, I know my friends will and my dog will, some earlier than others but I don't fear it so much. I don't fully comprehend death anyway I think I just think of it more as they've just gone on holiday for a really long time like they're not actually gone they're just not there. it's weird.
I think about these things a lot.