What is The Darkness??????

A question i have asked myself many a time. What exactly is the darkness? Is it a mear manifestation of evil? Or simply some sort of symbolism and accumulation of the pain and anguish?

or is it something deeper than that?

It is quite obvious to everyone that The Darkness is negativity in its interity; or more simply, its the core of all evil. There was a time when I welcomed the darkness, the pain, then i saw "the light" as it were. But still why is it that humans are so attached to such things?

In nearly every religion and basis of spirituality, there is always evil and a core for that evil, perscribed as The Jedo-christian Hell ruled by Satan. Or the 9 levels of Buddism hell (so i believe). But there are not many true excerpts of what the darkness is, just scattered stories of what it may be.

The Extensive knowledge of www.en.wikipedia.org... Free Encyclopedia states that the darkness is: en.wikipedia.org...


" Is associated with mystery and with unknown things. In Western tradition, darkness is also associated with evil, evil entities (such as demons or Satan), and Hell or the underworld. In the Early Modern Period, the Middle Ages were named Dark ages in an attempt to make them look crude, thus making the speakers' own age seem glorious by comparison. The love of darkness is called lygophilia. The fear of darkness is called lygophobia. In fiction, darkness can symbolize undesirable happenings in various forms ."


For those that believe in or have felt demons before, there is always an intresting mixture of demonology and darkness. Many people feel that demons and evil spirits are materialized from such a being. There was once a time where i welcomed the darkness into my heart. but recieving such pain from it, i couldnt help but reject it. Still i have mental scars from the horrors i have felt and herd.

For those sensitive to feel spirits around them, most feel eyes watching them strongest when there is a lack of light about them. I find it alittle intresting that kids fear the closet and under the bed, for thats where light resides the least ofcourse.

Is it that we as humans are comprised of angels aswell as demons? Why is it that darkness seems to be a piece of our very existance. We as humans are a Yin Yang that is certain......

Is it just coincidence that when we feel any negative emotion (hatred, fear, depression) we retreat to that grim sanctuary within our hearts? Why do we fear this plague amongst the light, yet embrace it when we feel we are appart of it? Is it we feel most helpless when we are alone because we fear the darkness all around us, just waiting to clutch our hearts with its nocturnal claws?

Why does it seem people are truely exposed to the darkness around the ages of puberty? It seems around that time is the most suicide rate, thats around the time most people either give into the darkness or reject it, kids experiment with drugs and go along the darker shades of life. So many times i have ran away from it, and i know too many friends that have embraced and are currently dying from it. I am very proud to say that i have entered the dark zone, and i have emerged semi-victorious. Still there is alot of negativity that resides with me, it seems to come back around the same time every year.....

Give me your thoughts on this if you will. If not comment then atleast ponder this subject for yourself.

[edit on febupmSat, 29 Oct 2005 22:14:39 -050005/27 by Forsaken Druid]

Speaking in terms of literal darkness, as opposed to a metaphorical darkness, there are a number of reasons why a lack of light is associated with negative aspects.

First and foremost amongst these is the simple fact that human beings have poor night vision. Although, as predators, we have fairly decent colour vision and depth perception, we sacrifice proficiency in night vision and as a result the darkness becomes a great unknown for us as a whole. Humans are typically afraid of what they do not know and cannot see. If you are able to identify a threat visually, you are subsequently able to assess it in terms of your ability to deal with it and survive it. Bereft of this ability, humans become somewhat helpless, unable to identify threats and therefore unable to adequately deal with them. This can perhaps best be illustrated through the example of small children, who often demonstrate a vague fear of the darkness. This is the reason why many parents will leave a night light on for their children, so that they are not in total darkness. Because if a child is able to see for themselves that there is nothing to fear, they will be able to sleep more peacefully. When this ability is stripped from them, as is the case when the light is turned off, they are unable to perceive their surroundings and are more capable of entertaining imagined terrors. This simple example can be extrapolated to represent Humanity as a whole - as long as we can see what is before us, we are able to deal with it. When we are unable to see, we are rendered virtually helpless. This is one of the reasons why humans in general fear the darkness and why it has become such a potent metaphor for fear.

Coupled with this is the human experience of being prey to those night predators who hunted us in the past. Whilst humans may not have good night vision, some of our fellow predators do not share this limitation. There are a number of capable predators who are nocturnal, possess superb night vision and have preyed upon humans throughout the centuries. We must consider that Humanity, as we currently understand it, has existed for approximately 200 000 years. Civilisation, on the other hand, has only existed for approximately 8000 years or so. That means that for 192 000 years, or 96% of human existence, we have lived primarily in relatively small communities of hunter-gatherers. Whilst it is true that such societies were often far more capable than we give them credit for, it is equally true that they were often more exposed to the predations of nocturnal animals. Is it unreasonable, then, to posit that humans may still, on some primal level, fear the darkness and the predators that dwell in it? Perhaps we remember, even now, on some instinctual level, what it was like to sit in caves with a series of fires our only defence against predatory night animals. This shared memory may be one of the reasons why darkness is often afforded a negative image, or is associated with monsters or suffering.

A more direct reason for humans to fear the literal darkness is simply that, for a great majority of us, we are essentially unconscious for a significant portion of the night hours. We sleep, which renders us relatively defenceless for a large portion of the night. Whilst this is an oversimplification in some regards, and has been significantly negated by modern living patterns and security technologies, it may be that our fear of the darkness is based upon self-preservation. When we go to sleep each night, we are largely incapable of defending ourselves should the need suddenly arise. When the darkness falls, so does our ability to defend ourselves to a large extent. This may help us to understand why the darkness is often perceived as threatening or malevolent, since it makes sense that beings or creatures that wished to do us harm might attack us when we are at our most vulnerable - during sleep.

I am curious - you seem to refer to the darkness both in a literal sense (your Wikipedia reference, for example) and as something more tangible. Whilst I hope I have helped address at least some of your questions, what do you perceive the darkness, and fear of darkness to be? Do you believe it to be something tangible, or simply a reflection of primal fears?

[edit on 30/10/05 by Jeremiah25]

Is there really such thing as darkness in a literal sense? It is just the absense of light. So perhaps there may be no such thing as evil, and it is just the absense of goodness that we use to relate it . Much like how there is no such thing as cold, but simply the absense of heat.

I don't have much else to say beyond that. I am also confused by your mixing of metaphorical and literal senses of the word.

Without reading all the replies, yeah darkness is just abscense of light or reflection of all colors at the same time.. its nothing to do with evil dark is just dark. The only thing is that since you probably see rather porly in complete or almost complete darkness you are afraid to bump your head or trip on something or beeing in a forest maybe afraid of predators that see better at night.

The Darkness refers to Charlie Murphy

A very bad british pop band.

darkness is an absence of light

Darkness is the absence of light. Its as simple as that. I never did understand why darkness is always associated with the evil and bad aspects of the world.
I think fear of the dark comes from fear of the unknown plus in the dark we seem to percieve that which we have a hard time percieving with other senses like vision on top of it.

People are sensitive to this durring the ages of puberty for a few reasons. I don't know about women, but when men go through puberty, there is soooo much testosterone blasting through their systems, that their brains cannot function properly. Not to mention that their brain is still developing. Therefore, the power of suggestion is much stronger on the undeveloped mind. It is much easier to suggest something that a kid's mind will completely run with and blow out of proportion.