1 00:00:01,800 --> 00:00:06,880 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeart Radio. Hey 2 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:12,440 Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Lauren Vogelbaum. Here, under the watchful gaze of 3 00:00:12,600 --> 00:00:16,680 Speaker 1: crumbling marble saints and baby faced cherubs, you hurry down 4 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:20,919 Speaker 1: a path lined with mausoleums. You pass crops of headstones 5 00:00:21,079 --> 00:00:24,400 Speaker 1: glinting in the moonlight, each engraved with the cliff Notes 6 00:00:24,520 --> 00:00:28,479 Speaker 1: version of a dead person's life. You practically run past 7 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:32,880 Speaker 1: sunken graves and dying bouquets of flowers, hoping upon hope 8 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:35,600 Speaker 1: that the sound you hear is just the wind, and 9 00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:39,280 Speaker 1: trying to shake the feeling that something is following close 10 00:00:39,440 --> 00:00:44,680 Speaker 1: on your heels. All right, So, maybe you've never taken 11 00:00:44,720 --> 00:00:48,440 Speaker 1: a midnight shortcut through the local cemetery, but if you 12 00:00:48,479 --> 00:00:51,479 Speaker 1: have ever set foot in a graveyard, you've likely felt 13 00:00:51,479 --> 00:00:55,320 Speaker 1: a hint of the fear and uneasiness that is their legacy. 14 00:00:55,840 --> 00:00:59,720 Speaker 1: Maybe you were attending a family funeral, a touring historic graveyards, 15 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:04,880 Speaker 1: or simply fleeing flying silver spheres, or whatever your reason 16 00:01:04,959 --> 00:01:09,280 Speaker 1: for strolling amongst the tombstones, you probably felt something noteworthy 17 00:01:09,319 --> 00:01:13,000 Speaker 1: about the experience, something different from all the other spaces 18 00:01:13,040 --> 00:01:17,080 Speaker 1: and places that fill our lives. After all, graveyards are 19 00:01:17,160 --> 00:01:20,080 Speaker 1: the final resting place for many of our dead, and 20 00:01:20,120 --> 00:01:23,759 Speaker 1: people say their last goodbyes there, sometimes returning year after 21 00:01:23,880 --> 00:01:28,399 Speaker 1: year to leave flowers or say a few words. No 22 00:01:28,440 --> 00:01:31,960 Speaker 1: matter where you travel in the world, cemeteries often are 23 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:36,759 Speaker 1: silent and solemn settings, Whether the grounds are finely manicured 24 00:01:36,840 --> 00:01:40,520 Speaker 1: or left the weeds, Graveyards exist as the place where 25 00:01:40,520 --> 00:01:45,720 Speaker 1: the living contemplate the mysteries, traumas, and heartbreaks associated with death. 26 00:01:47,720 --> 00:01:51,120 Speaker 1: But why are so many people so spooked out by graveyards? 27 00:01:51,680 --> 00:01:54,400 Speaker 1: Is it the thought of all those decaying bodies under 28 00:01:54,440 --> 00:01:57,360 Speaker 1: the dirt, or the idea of a bony arm emerging 29 00:01:57,400 --> 00:02:00,160 Speaker 1: from the soil to grab your ankle, or is it 30 00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:03,800 Speaker 1: something deeper To answer that, we'll have to travel to 31 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:07,200 Speaker 1: a place full of dark secrets and hidden skeletons the 32 00:02:07,320 --> 00:02:12,600 Speaker 1: human brain. To us humans, graveyards represent the mystery and 33 00:02:12,639 --> 00:02:16,200 Speaker 1: the outrage of mortality. Like it or not, we're all 34 00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:19,640 Speaker 1: gonna die. You may think you've accepted that fact, but 35 00:02:19,680 --> 00:02:22,320 Speaker 1: it's an issue humanity has struggled with for as long 36 00:02:22,360 --> 00:02:26,200 Speaker 1: as there's been humanity. Unable to avoid it, We've tried 37 00:02:26,240 --> 00:02:29,240 Speaker 1: to figure out what lies beyond its doors. Will we 38 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:33,959 Speaker 1: haunt this world? Live forever in another be reincarnated or 39 00:02:34,120 --> 00:02:38,600 Speaker 1: simply ceased to exist. We've pined for understanding in the 40 00:02:38,639 --> 00:02:41,760 Speaker 1: shadows of the pyramids and stared into the blinking eyes 41 00:02:41,800 --> 00:02:45,440 Speaker 1: of guillotined heads, hoping to glimpse something other than the 42 00:02:45,560 --> 00:02:51,639 Speaker 1: emptiness of non existence. Biologically, fear exists as a response 43 00:02:51,680 --> 00:02:55,320 Speaker 1: to stimuli that threatens our survival. As a species. We're 44 00:02:55,360 --> 00:02:58,679 Speaker 1: programmed to fight or to run from anything that might 45 00:02:58,760 --> 00:03:02,480 Speaker 1: cause death, and we approached death itself with the same attitude. 46 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:05,760 Speaker 1: We flee from it every day by distancing it from 47 00:03:05,760 --> 00:03:08,640 Speaker 1: our thoughts and lives. In many parts of the world, 48 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:11,320 Speaker 1: we've handed the duties of entering the dead over to 49 00:03:11,560 --> 00:03:17,080 Speaker 1: religious or mortuary professionals, thus limiting our personal intimacy with death. 50 00:03:18,720 --> 00:03:23,440 Speaker 1: Fighting death is trickier. To avoid staring down mortality, we 51 00:03:23,680 --> 00:03:27,400 Speaker 1: often redefine what death is. We choose to see dying 52 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:31,120 Speaker 1: not as something our bodies eventually do, but something that 53 00:03:31,160 --> 00:03:35,040 Speaker 1: eventually happens to our bodies. We cast ourselves as the 54 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:38,480 Speaker 1: victim of death, which is the reason grim reapers and 55 00:03:38,560 --> 00:03:43,160 Speaker 1: other death dealing spirits permeate world beliefs. If death is 56 00:03:43,160 --> 00:03:46,000 Speaker 1: a natural counterpart to life, there's nothing we can do 57 00:03:46,040 --> 00:03:49,040 Speaker 1: about it in the end. But if it's something inflicted 58 00:03:49,080 --> 00:03:52,360 Speaker 1: on us by an outside force or being, then perhaps 59 00:03:52,480 --> 00:03:58,000 Speaker 1: we have a fighting chance. Modern society often sets aside 60 00:03:58,040 --> 00:04:01,040 Speaker 1: the angel of death and instead chooses to practice what 61 00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:06,640 Speaker 1: sociologists Sigmat Balmann called the deconstruction of mortality. That is, 62 00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:10,400 Speaker 1: we break down the insurmountable mystery of death into smaller 63 00:04:10,440 --> 00:04:14,720 Speaker 1: pieces that we can digest easily, of biological functions, diseases, 64 00:04:14,760 --> 00:04:19,040 Speaker 1: and mental dysfunctions. If prayer or bribing the reaper doesn't work, 65 00:04:19,320 --> 00:04:24,719 Speaker 1: maybe multiple organ transplants will. But though you can pray 66 00:04:24,839 --> 00:04:27,960 Speaker 1: and philosophize about death all you want, it's still going 67 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:34,080 Speaker 1: to happen. Disposing of a body isn't technically difficult. You 68 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:36,600 Speaker 1: can bury it in the forest, cremate it, or just 69 00:04:36,760 --> 00:04:40,200 Speaker 1: leave it out for vultures, right that Zeoastrians in India 70 00:04:40,279 --> 00:04:44,679 Speaker 1: still practice. Not only are these methods cheaper than buying 71 00:04:44,680 --> 00:04:48,000 Speaker 1: a fancy casket and obtaining a plot in the local cemetery, 72 00:04:48,040 --> 00:04:51,200 Speaker 1: but they also allow the environment to reclaim the decaying 73 00:04:51,320 --> 00:04:55,880 Speaker 1: organic matter faster. The use of stone mausoleums, coffins, and 74 00:04:55,960 --> 00:05:01,960 Speaker 1: embalming procedures only slows down natural decomposition. Some of these 75 00:05:01,960 --> 00:05:05,160 Speaker 1: procedures are based in religious beliefs that the dead may 76 00:05:05,279 --> 00:05:09,119 Speaker 1: need their bodies down the line, but these procedures aren't 77 00:05:09,279 --> 00:05:13,800 Speaker 1: entirely about the dead. They're also about the living. A 78 00:05:13,880 --> 00:05:16,719 Speaker 1: funeral is the last rite of passage we can take 79 00:05:16,760 --> 00:05:19,719 Speaker 1: a loved one through the same way that a prom 80 00:05:19,920 --> 00:05:23,080 Speaker 1: or kin signera or bar mitzvah is a rite of passage. 81 00:05:23,480 --> 00:05:27,520 Speaker 1: So as a funeral and at funerals, we generally do 82 00:05:27,560 --> 00:05:30,799 Speaker 1: our best to stave off some of the unsightly properties 83 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:34,440 Speaker 1: of death for our own sakes, and we build tombstones 84 00:05:34,480 --> 00:05:37,400 Speaker 1: and monuments to serve as long lasting markers of the 85 00:05:37,440 --> 00:05:41,880 Speaker 1: life that was. A cemetery stonework also serves to encourage 86 00:05:41,920 --> 00:05:46,839 Speaker 1: a sacred atmosphere, enforcing notions of afterlife and further establishing 87 00:05:46,839 --> 00:05:49,720 Speaker 1: the site as a kind of sacred ground between life 88 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:55,080 Speaker 1: and death. The humans instinctively fear death, yet we work 89 00:05:55,160 --> 00:05:59,000 Speaker 1: hard to maintain hallowed spaces where the dead are memorialized 90 00:05:59,080 --> 00:06:03,159 Speaker 1: and at least partially preserved. On top of that, we 91 00:06:03,240 --> 00:06:07,359 Speaker 1: have religions heaped full of resurrection prophecies and thousands of 92 00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:11,880 Speaker 1: years worth of superstitions, folk tales and ghost stories. We're 93 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:15,760 Speaker 1: constantly repressing our feelings about death or magnifying them to 94 00:06:15,880 --> 00:06:20,960 Speaker 1: tremendous proportions. Maybe you avoid cemeteries in nursing homes, or 95 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:23,400 Speaker 1: maybe you actively try to speak to the dead through 96 00:06:23,440 --> 00:06:28,160 Speaker 1: a psychic medium. Both cases are somewhat avoiding the real, 97 00:06:28,360 --> 00:06:34,680 Speaker 1: plain relationship that exists between life and death. All that 98 00:06:34,800 --> 00:06:37,480 Speaker 1: is to say that we humans have poured a lot 99 00:06:37,520 --> 00:06:42,320 Speaker 1: of sacrament, superstition, and fear into our graveyards, which makes 100 00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:46,320 Speaker 1: for quite a powerful atmosphere. Graves have long been a 101 00:06:46,360 --> 00:06:50,640 Speaker 1: frequent haunt of legendary and mythical creatures, sometimes their spirits 102 00:06:50,640 --> 00:06:53,880 Speaker 1: of the dead, other times nefarious beings who like to 103 00:06:53,920 --> 00:06:58,080 Speaker 1: hang out near the dead, like ghouls. In extreme cases, 104 00:06:58,160 --> 00:07:02,520 Speaker 1: people may experience cometrophoe, be the fear of graveyards. The 105 00:07:02,560 --> 00:07:06,680 Speaker 1: condition involves a heightened anxiety of graveyards that actively interferes 106 00:07:06,720 --> 00:07:10,200 Speaker 1: with a person's life. Like other phobias, Therapy can help 107 00:07:10,240 --> 00:07:15,000 Speaker 1: patients cope with and overcome the fear, because, for the 108 00:07:15,040 --> 00:07:17,640 Speaker 1: most part, the only things you really have to fear 109 00:07:17,640 --> 00:07:23,040 Speaker 1: in graveyards are collapsing tombstones or falling branches. And besides that, 110 00:07:23,520 --> 00:07:27,000 Speaker 1: living breathing humans are responsible for more graveyard assaults than 111 00:07:27,280 --> 00:07:36,600 Speaker 1: all the vampires, zombies, and ghoules combined. Today's episode is 112 00:07:36,640 --> 00:07:39,440 Speaker 1: based on the article what makes graveyards Scary on how 113 00:07:39,480 --> 00:07:42,840 Speaker 1: stuff works dot Com, written by Robert Lamb. Brainstuff is 114 00:07:42,840 --> 00:07:44,760 Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio in partnership with how 115 00:07:44,800 --> 00:07:47,120 Speaker 1: stuff works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. 116 00:07:47,600 --> 00:07:50,640 Speaker 1: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the heart Radio app, 117 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:53,680 Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.