Afraid of the Dark? Fear Not!

(Nyctophobia Case)

by: Ma. Sharmine R. Ventura

Some of us is afraid in the dark. This is a kind of phobia called Nyctophobia or Fear of the dark. It is triggered by the brains disfigured perception of what would or could happen when in a dark environment. (Source: google.com) Some are scared of dark places because of the ghost or any un-earthly element’s that can possibly appear in the dark place. Despite its pervasive nature, there has been a lack of etiological research on the subject. Nyctophobia is a psychologically-impacted feeling of being disposed from comfort to fear-evoking state. It has several non-clinical terminologies- lyphobia, scotophobia, and achluophobia. It is a phobia generally related to children but, according to J. Adrian Williams article intitled; Indirect Hypnotic therapy of Therapy of Nyctophobia, a case report, many clinics with pediatric patients have a great chance of having adults who have nyctophobia. (Source: Wikipedia.org)

     

Why do we have this certain fear of the dark?
     I tried to ask ten of my classmate’s if they are afraid when they are in dark places. Five of them answered yes. The reason why they fear dark places? It’s because they are afraid of ghost.
      When we are young, we used to hear stories about white ladies, dwarfs, fairies, lost spirits, zombies and many supernatural beings from the elders. And, there are also a lot of horror movies we watch. Those things that we hear and see on the television, which are all coming out in times of darkness, brought goosebumps and cause us to fear during night time or when we are on a dark place.
      But do you know that those supernatural beings are only product of our wide imagination brought by stress?
      Yes, they don’t really exist. According to an article I’ve read while surfing the net, our mind is capable on playing trick. Just imagine yourself inside a room, alone and blindfolded with some howling and creepy sounds. Surely, you will get afraid and think that there’s some supernatural being inside that room. The article also stated that, perhaps, in some of us, that capacity of our mind is more pronounced and they are more susceptible to hearing things or seeing things or drawing interferences. It is our mind that creates the ghost, irrespective of whether they exist in real or not. In that respect, ghost can only be a figment of our imagination. (Source: google.com)

How to cure Nyctophobia?
     *Hypnotheraphy
-helps to re-program your sub-conscious “programs” that may be part of your.
      *Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP)
-NLP is basically the study and practice of how we create our reality. From the NLP viewpoint, a phobia is the result of your programs or “constructs” that you have created that don’t work very well. With NLP, these contents are revealed and re-program so that the Nyctophobia is minimized and often eliminated. 
      Energy Psychology
-Energy Psychology is emerging as an excellent therapy for fears and phobias because in studies, it is shown to be rapid, safe, effective and long lasting. It is based on theory and practice that has been around for couple of thousand years. It has the same foundation or roots as acupuncture, except in this case there are no needles used. (Source: phobia-fear-release.com)

      These are only some of the treatment we can apply to cure Nyctophobia. If you browse the net, you can still found lots of available treatment you can possibly use.

      

      We are not actually afraid of the dark. The truth is, we are afraid of what would be inside the darkness. We fear darkness because we fear the things that might occur in its time. In order to overcome it, we must always have a relaxed mind, positive thoughts and a great faith.
      We all have our personal fear’s, but if we are brave enough to face those fears, surely we can passed it with flying color. 

“I-Reflect:Behind the song Lord Patawad”

by: Ma. Sharmine Ventura

Lord, patawad
Pagka’t akoy makasalanan
Makasalanang nilalang
Lord, patawad
Pakat akoy makasalanan
Makasalanang nilalang…..

            I am pretty sure that we are all familiar with this song. It is entitled ‘Lord Patawad’ by Basilyo. It is such a very reflective song, anyone who can hear it will easily relate his/her self to every lyrics of the song. But what was the purpose of the songwriter in writing this song? What message does he/she wanted to share with the listener’s?
            O n the first part of the song, the singer concede that he only remembers to talk to God when he wants something or need’s something. This is very wrong. The bible tells us a lot of things about praising and calling to God. Yes, there’s nothing            wrong on talking to him while we suffer from different circumstances in life. He, Himself, as God and head of every creation, has offer Himself and say; ‘Come unto Me…’ and there’s no such law that avoids us on calling to Him. But the fact that we merely forget God after He has granted all our desires is such a shameful thing. Why? Come to think of it; we are sinners, so unworthy for His love and blessing’s, but still, He chose to offer His only begotten son Jesus Christ for us to be cleansed. Just like what is written in John 3:16. Even we don’t ask Him to do such thing He still does it for the sake of His great love for us. In this case, can we say that He is not worthy for even our simple ‘Thank You’ to Him?
            The second part of the song focused about going to church. In this, let me asked; ‘How often do you find time spending inside the church? Do you come to the house of God every Sunday’s to worship and glorify Him?’ In Matthew 6 verse 33, it is stated; ‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all this things shall be added on to you…’ Coming unto the Lords house is His command, not for His own sake but for the sake of our spiritual bodies who also needs to be feed. The songs and messages we hear from His appointed disciples are our spiritual food. If we don’t managed spending time going to church, our souls will be weak. And that was the time were we are easily attacked by the enemy.
            I can say that the songwriter has a brilliant talent in putting up his best to write the things that He observed to each of us, including himself, when it comes to God. On the last part he remembers how he became selfish to God and to other people. And then he ended up asking forgiveness to Him for everything he has done.
            We humans are not perfect; we have to admit that in every single day that had pass in our life, we do commit sin. But let’s believe that our God is not a deaf upon hearing our prayers when we asked for His forgiveness. He is neither not blind to see our sincere heart as we call to Him.
            The very lesson we must learn when we hear this song is that; having quality time to put God on the top of our priorities. No matter how busy kind of life we had, we have to remember to pause once in a while to praise Him. And most of all; we should not forget to be humble; we should asked for forgiveness and thank Him for every good things He has done rather than blaming Him for those unpleasant things happen in our lives.  

Inside ICT: ’Through the Bridge towards technology’

by: Ma. Sharmine Ventura

"Only qualities such as creativity and imagination will enable us to adopt in a world where information has become the primary raw material…"   ~Robert Salmon

            ‘We do not ride on the railroad; it rides upon us, things in saddle and ride mankind. Do we control machines, or do they control us? Who is master, who is slave?’ this is an axiom of a writer named Philip McFarland. Nowadays, technology is ruling over us. Yes, it’s true. Even if we said that human’s are more sophisticated than machines, still we can’t erase the fact that our work will never be easy without them. What was the purpose of the inventors in inventing those gadgets? Can’t we live without technology?
            As we observed today’s generation, we can see those high-tech gadgets and technologies that are getting more and more upgraded each day. People, specially teenagers and kids are getting attach to those stuffs. As a result, people became lazy upon doing thing’s which can be done manually without any machine. We became dependent on what technology can make rather than doing it on ourselves. Yes, it is life living a better way, but did we forget that God has made us master’s of all things here on earth?  So why would we have to cage ourselves inside the cold rails of modern technology? For the sake of being ‘in’ and updated?
            Technologies may give us convenience in our life but there was always negative effect on it. As creatures, God has given us the authority to lead among other species on earth and not to be under the spell of unique technologies.
            Individuals like us has the strength to do things on our own. It’s only the imagination and creativity that cross the distance between human and machinery things.  Because the knowledge of human was no longer wide, they never stop thinking of alternative ways to make our life comfortable. Otherwise, machines work for us.
            We are not slaves of our own creatures, but we are prisoners of their influence. We are the controller, at the same time, they do control us. There’s no more way to cut the tie that binds between we, human, and the things we had created. But once in a while, we had to bare in our minds that our role here is to rule and not to be ruled over other creations.