Within every person is a strong survival instinct that goes into action, the very moment we sense danger. As a matter of fact, our survival instinct is so strong that it may even start working before our conscious mind recognizes the danger. Back in 1884, a legendary philosopher and psychologist named William James published a controversial paper titled, “What Is Emotion?” In the paper, he suggested that humankind’s survival instinct reacts to danger much faster than our conscious mind. He the example of a person seeing a bear. James suggests that a person would first start running from the bear. Then that person would feel fear because they are running. Finally, the person would connect their fear and the fact that they are running with seeing the bear.
One way to think about his theory is to imagine yourself in a large crowd of people. Suddenly the crowd begins running and screaming in the opposite direction you are walking. Before you know it, you are running as well, maybe even screaming, without being sure why. Something inside you tells you that you need to be afraid and run away. It would not need to make sense, nor would you need first to identify the threat. Our instincts would call for a reaction, then fear, then (maybe) identifying what we are reacting to. From an evolutionary point of view, this theory does make sense. Human beings would have required such instincts to survive environments with hungry predators who would have loved nothing more than to dine on a slow, defenseless, meat bi-Ped.
Below are 30 pictures of scenes that nearly gave some people heart attacks before they could realize what they were really seeing.
1. This totally freaked her out until she realized it was only a reflection of the sunset.
2. This one made me do a double-take
3. This man’s wife left his gloves to dry and almost gave him a heart attack.
4. She was convinced there was a ghost baby in her son’s crib
5. This cat got into some paprika and gave her poor owner quite a fright.
6. He guy’s heart must have dropped into his stomach when he walked in to find this.
7. Now, this one’s just plain wrong.
8. The snail’s new hangout spot in their office fish tank is really freaking people out.
9. He almost had to add the pair of pants he was wearing when he walked into the laundry room and found this. It’s a pair of fishing waders.
10. The bald guy in the middle freaked her out when he started moving.
11. She says her mouse loves to sleep this way, and it freaks her out all the time.
12. Imagine turning the corner to see this?
13. He nearly screamed when he saw his grandma taking a nap like this.
14. They were woken up by their son at 3 AM to show them this from their security monitor. It turned out to be the paper delivery guy.
15. This dog groomer is a vet missing half his arm. But the dog’s owner didn’t know that when he first saw this picture.
16. How about some evil clown bacon slices?
17. Glancing up and finding this cat is sure to creep you out!
18. This professional photographer still freaks out when he sees this thermos shaped like a camera lens in the sink.
19. The mom woke up in the middle of the night and randomly glanced at the baby monitor to see this.
20. His wife left the children’s presents in the car, but he didn’t know it until he checked the rearview.
21. If this isn’t a lesson to put your belt away, I don’t know what is.
22. This was the result of a spilled beet smoothie.
23. This ultrasound photo still frightens her husband.
24. Nope, not a giant spider, but rather an ancient whalebone.
25. He put his son in a cute Halloween onesie but nearly had a heart attack when he saw this at 2 AM
26. His wife almost ran off the road after seeing this in the window of an abandoned old house.
27. This poor guy walked into a clothing store and almost screamed when he saw this thing.
28. This guy’s jacket almost did him in!
29. She looked up and saw someone in her apartment, but it turned out to be clothes hanging by the window.
30. Bad Bill Gates! Bad! Bad! Bad!
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Source: Bored Panda