Thursday, November 4, 2010

We are born fearless, but gradually shun the virtue


The idea of this post was planted in my mind around two-three years ago when I was watching a show on ' Discovery' .The show did a demonstration about how infants understand the 'fear' of depth. To start with, they made an infant crawl on a glass floor with half surface over plain area and the other half over a deep area. The glass created a mirage as if the half line of glass surface was really an edge and as if you would fall tripping the half. Initially, the little infant crawled all over the surface, without understanding the meaning of depth and what it entails. He walked with the same speed on both halves. Then, the scientists threw objects down the deep half by removing the lid. They made sure the baby observed it and re-covered the lid. Gradually , baby started to understand what the depth factor can lead it. In a week or so(don't remember the time), the infant stopped on reaching the half line and preferred not to crawl on other half!!!

So, what my point is that the fear of depth was injected in baby. Naturally, he was born to face the world fearlessly. That's what we learn in life-to not confront fear , rather evade it!!

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