Initiation into fear and our responses to it is the great personal work we need to do.
Episode 1 of Channel 4 Apocalypse, which I reviewed, offers a great example of how people bully others when their insecurities are threatened. “It brings out the first real character combination: a frightened bully who has already admitted to being afraid of the dark and calls themselves an alpha woman (I stand 6 feet tall without heels). Basically a frightened bully.” Solidarity Prepping.
I would suggest the same is true of some fiction writers and podcasters who need to convince their followers, fans, and members of their “cult” that their method of connecting to nature is the only way. So it’s the fear of a different way of connecting to nature (the web of life), one that involves survival skills and building relationships with non-food plants, that triggers an outburst worthy of Channel 4’s Apocalypse contestants. “Survival skills matter because they foster resilience and individual resourcefulness. During natural disasters like Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina, residents equipped with practical survival, self-sufficiency, and traditional skills—such as off-grid communication, chainsaw operation, foraging, and timber processing—fared much better during extended utility and supply disruptions.” https://solidarityprepping.co.uk/2026/08/25/solidarity-prepping-why-i-will-keep-explaining-what-solidarity-prepping-is/
Fear of the Dark is Very Real and Primal
If you think you can convince yourself that whatever it is in the dark you fear isn’t there, your amygdala has already overridden that decision. Did you notice any other things? Dilated pupils, tunnel vision, increased heart rate, tight chest, hair on the back of your neck standing up (or feeling like it does), increased breathing? Your amygdala is running in survival mode, based on your imagination. This over 1,000,000-year-old survival response is prompted by the dark and genetic history of predation on us at night. Modern humans have replaced fear of predation with every minor trauma (Not Complex Trauma or SA) that happened during childhood/teenager/young-adult (pre-25), and because we don’t initiate through a variety of skills that can be objectively judged and seen to act on the individual’s engagement with the natural world.
There are some things we should fear in the dark, but the chances of encountering dangerous predators in the UK, including big cats, are very low. Human predators — dubious people who just want to frighten you when you are camping in woods they think are theirs?
If we honored fear of the darkness, we wouldn’t get anything done. We learn to use the amygdala to our advantage without letting it override common sense. This is a low-level initiation. There’s even a story about the Buddha before his enlightenment, when he lived in the forest among ascetics. He wanted to overcome his fear of the Tiger in the forest. The fear of death and the fear of being eaten alive: big cats kill their prey 1st, Bears eat you alive, though. He gave up: Fear of predation and the pain of it occurring is a primal fear we cannot overcome, but we can use the fear to survive, rather than to rule us and our responses.
Initiation cultures need people who can observe from the fire into the darkness without seeing danger that isn’t there, without a torch. That means a process of learning to harness the eyes and look at the dark world using certain parts of our vision. This has to be done deep in nature, and it’s part of connecting to nature. As a former outdoor therapist, I agree that exposure therapy is for people who are defensively aggressive about their fears. ““The gold standard treatment for phobias is exposure therapy, Norberg tells IFLScience. “It has been shown to work better than waitlist control conditions, placebo control treatments, and active treatment control conditions.”
In other words, you have to face your fear. “Exposure therapy involves confronting feared stimuli in a non-dangerous manner and learning first-hand that the stimulus doesn’t need to be feared,” she explains. “So for being afraid of the dark, this means going into dark rooms and being alone at night, in the absence of monsters, ghosts, criminals, and dangerous animals. You would do this over and over again until you convincingly believe the dark is not dangerous.”
Maybe that’s too terrifying for you right now – that’s okay, Norberg says. In that case, a graded approach can be used: “As a therapist, I would ask you to go into a dim, but not fully dark room,” she explains. https://www.iflscience.com/why-we-fear-the-dark-and-how-to-overcome-it-76070
Darkness in a real survival situation/game is still darkness. In Episode 1, Channel 4, Apocalypse, however awful it is, I can’t help but wonder if all these people are being watched (by psychologists) — another primal fear. We find a lot to build our monsters out of; they live under the bed and in our shadow. Skills-based initiations in nature practiced by indigenous people have been shown to prepare them for nature. Rather than being mere symbolic rituals, these rites of passage serve as rigorous, practical training frameworks that deeply connect an individual to their local ecosystem. Ecological knowledge and connection to the land and nature require presence, learning survival skills, and wood husbandry skills such as coppicing and hedge-laying. This doesn’t happen through visualization.
Polychronic Time is Related to Season, Place, Soil, and Plants
- Ecological Literacy: Initiates must memorize vast taxonomies of local plants, animal behaviors, weather patterns, and water sources. This goes beyond academic knowledge; it is a life-or-death understanding of how the ecosystem functions.
- Practical Survival Skills: Rites often require mastering hard skills such as tracking, toolmaking, shelter building, fire-friction techniques, and foraging under extreme stress or isolation.
- Risk Management: Facing hunger, cold, and wild animals during isolation periods teaches initiates to manage fear, regulate their nervous systems, and make rational decisions in a crisis.
The Three-Stage Initiation Framework Hypothesis
Anthropologists note that most indigenous initiations follow a specific structural pattern that rewires how a person interacts with the natural world:
| Stage | Purpose | Action in Nature |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Separation | Detachment from childhood comforts | The youth is removed from the village and stripped of everyday safety nets. |
| 2. Liminality | The transition and testing phase | The initiate survives alone or in a small group in the wilderness, facing trials of endurance and skill. |
| 3. Incorporation | Return as a contributing adult | The individual returns to the tribe, now trusted to hunt, protect, and pass down ecological knowledge. |
Indigenous knowledge and sustainability are closely related. Around the world, Indigenous people live in almost every country and region. They practice their beliefs and traditional knowledge. This knowledge fully promotes sustainability and sustainable practices. Indigenous knowledge represents a dynamic and invaluable resource rooted in cultural traditions, local practices, and situational wisdom. Indigenous Knowledge (IK) plays a vital role in pursuing sustainable practices.
Industrialism and today’s technology are not sustainable on a finite planet.
Preparedness reduces fear; when you fail to plan, you plan to fail. Remember the influencers who denied COVID and then died from the virus? When influencers suggest ignoring governmental advice, are they offering something better and will you have to pay for it?
These are basic skills.
- https://www.redcross.org/take-a-class/resources/articles/11-survival-skills-to-know
- https://prepare.campaign.gov.uk/get-prepared-for-emergencies/
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/article/how-to-survive-natural-disaster-storm-hurricane-expert-tips
- https://www.ready.gov/kit
Or you could be super-skilled.
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