Fear Experiment #6-12:

Simone’s Notes:

Death anxiety is multidimensional; it covers "fears related to one's own death, the death of others, fear of the unknown after death, fear of obliteration, and fear of the dying process, which includes fear of a slow death and a painful death". The Yale philosopher Shelly Kagan examined fear of death in a 2007 Yale open course by examining the following questions: Is fear of death a reasonable appropriate response? What conditions are required and what are appropriate conditions for feeling fear of death? What is meant by fear, and how much fear is appropriate? According to Kagan for fear in general to make sense, three conditions should be met: the object of fear needs to be "something bad", there needs to be a non-negligible chance that the bad state of affairs will happen, and there needs to be some uncertainty about the bad state of affairs. The amount of fear should be appropriate to the size of "the bad". If the 3 conditions aren't met, fear is an inappropriate emotion. He argues, that death does not meet the first two criteria, even if death is a "deprivation of good things" and even if one believes in a painful afterlife. Because death is certain, it also does not meet the third criteria, but he grants that the unpredictability of when one dies may be cause to a sense of fear.

Dr. Pierce looked through his latest records. This work alone had been a rather productive week, to say the least.

Fear Experiment #6

Subject: Jamie

Fear: Leeches

Summary: I trapped the pet down in a basement box with live leeches. Subject was left down there for five days. I checked on her process. She stopped screaming after three and accepted the bastards drinking her blood.

Results: Pet is broken, but not dead

Fear Experiment #7

Subject: Joan

Fear: Darkness

Summary: I trapped the pet down in a pit black room and locked the door. Subject was left down there for eight days. I checked on her process as I played loud, random noises. She cried and sat huddled in a ball for the rest of the week.

Results: Pet is broken, but not dead

Fear Experiment #8

Subject: Sadie

Fear: Spiders

Summary: I trapped the pet down in a room of live spiders. Subject was left down there for four days. I checked on her process as I added more spiders into the room. She tried fight off the spiders, but gave up exhausted in the end.

Results: Pet is broken, but not dead

Fear Experiment #9

Subject: Jo

Fear: Dogs

Summary: I locked the pet in narrow yard with hungry, wild dogs. Subject was locked in for five days. I checked on her process and I added more wild, dogs into the yard. After running and pleading to be let out, the pet gave wounded and worn out.

Results: Pet is broken, but not dead

Fear Experiment #10

Subject: Ran

Fear: Rats

Summary: I locked the pet in narrow basement room with wild hungry rats. Subject was locked in for six days. I checked on his process and teased him with a number of stuffed rats. Pet became angry and more resistant. Need to work harder on him.

Results: Pet not broken and still alive

Fear Experiment #11

Subject: Bill

Fear: Worms

Summary: I locked the pet in a glass box outdoors with dirt and worms inside. Subject was locked in for one week. I checked on his process and took notes. Pet almost suffocated and died as a result. Darn it, so close! Will work hard.

Results: Pet is broken, but not dead

Fear Experiment #12

Subject: Amber

Fear: Millipedes

Summary: I locked the pet in basement under my lab filled with millipedes. Subject was locked in for eight days. I checked on her process and added more millipedes. She cried and sat huddled, biting on her hands in a ball for the rest of the week.

Results: Pet is broken, but not dead

Dr. Pierce sat back and took a smoke. Sure, he did produce results, all but one pet was broken, and he had been busy. However, it wasn’t enough for him. The good doctor still wanted to see if it was possible to kill one of the pets with fright. He guessed he would have to see in later experiments.