Ever had moments that seemed right out of a scary movie and the only thing missing was the music increasing in intensity? Just a few seconds later, you realize there was absolutely no foundation to build that fear into a sky scraper.

How come our minds that way? I am not going to venture into deep psychology, but I can suggest that there are two aspects of our brain that make these occurrences pop up in our minds.

The first is triggers that make connections in the brain to a memory or some stored piece of information, which is enhanced by what information we put into it. Such as scary stories see in movies.

The second is our imagination. I believe that this is the reason you do not see scientist running around waving their arms about an asteroid or climate change growing out of control. They do not believe something unless it can be proven.

I had a moment on our last trip that caused my eyes to go wide with a heightened sense of hearing, allowing me to feel my hear rate increase by the second. It was completely unfounded, but got triggered by movie scene.

We were on the tour bus in Iceland when the driver pulled into a parking lot. Without communicating with us, he backed us in between a backhoe and a pile of gravel, opened the door and walked out. There was a gas station about 50 yards ahead of us, but otherwise no people in sight. The movie scene just popped into my head. The jeep parked in the Jurassic Park road with an injured Ian Malcolm in the back seat. As my senses went high alert I waited for the ‘thump, thump’ that would designate the T-rex was unexpectedly approaching. My immediate thought was, ‘Driver, we need you back on the bus!’ Alas, I smiled at the thought, then just looked at the confused tourists who did not understand that we were waiting for another bus to arrive to transfer passengers.

P.S. The AI photo generator made this picture and I think it is hilarious. It pulled from my story the gravel, the empty lot, the distant gas station along with the scared look on people’s faces. These computer programs are getting ridiculous what they can do.

Hope that you have a Happy Friday.