From a walk in the woods at night to exploring a ghostly derelict building or riding a bloodcurdling rollercoaster, can a dose of fear make you forget your everyday worries?
ifty feet, Danny!” Lucy shrieks as we ascend to the top of the Big One, the UK’s tallest rollercoaster. “One hundred feet … one hundred and fifty feet … two hun …” she continues. “OK, I get it; we’re high,” I reply. “Oh God, oh God, oh God! Aaaaaargh!” We scream as our carriage reaches the track’s apex and plummets back to Earth at 70mph.
Kerr is a sociologist and her book is a science travelogue that explores fear and why people pursue it. In it, she rides extreme rollercoasters, braves supercharged “scare houses” , stays overnight in an abandoned prison and bravesLong way down … the Big One, at Blackpool Pleasure Beach, is Britain’s tallest rollercoaster.“I grew up a fan of horror movies and haunted houses and was a bit of a thrill-seeker,” Kerr says. “I think that’s what initially got me interested.
Some therapies take place in virtual-reality environments, such as a crowded train filled with hostile passengers in absurd costumes staring judgmentally at patients. “They’re not being told to try to calm down. They’re being told that they can scream, they can laugh. We start there and then work down to a subway car just full of humans. The idea is that, after you do a fun, scary experience, humans should not be as scary in comparison,” says Kerr.
The sympathetic nervous system handles the fight-or-flight response we experience during a threatening encounter, and the parasympathetic nervous system is responsible for the relief and sense of presence we feel after it has passed. The UK’s tallest rollercoaster piques my interest, but ultimately leaves me unsatisfied. Surprise and a sense of jeopardy are more likely to produce Kerr’s “feargood factor” – and there is a different ride at the Pleasure Beach better suited to that. Icon twists, turns, loops and rolls like a drunken gymnast – it is awful and excellent.
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