MANILA, Philippines - It?s that time of the year again when the netherworld comes to the forefront of the national consciousness, whether you?re just dressing up for a Halloween party or remembering the dead. Horror movies become standard TV and movie fare all week, and people actually pay to get spooked.

Tetchie Agbayani, professor of psychology at St. Joseph?s College, believes it?s the fear of things we can?t explain and quantify that is hardest for a person to handle. ?According to Howard Lovecraft, ?The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.??

Fears can be classified into two types, Agbayani explains. ?There is the kind of fear that stems from the environment, which poses a direct physical threat to the person, such as physical harm, danger, natural catastrophe. These are considered rational fears, and can be overcome by escape or retaliation.? Then, there?s the psychological fear ?that poses no direct threat to the person, but is aroused by such things as ghost stories, the supernatural, etc. That?s the irrational fear.?

It?s the irrational fear that can create some really big monsters in our head. ?The thing about fear is that it has the capacity to arouse and generate more fear,? Agbayani says. ?The victim of fear can find himself in a nightmare of his own making if he allows his imagination to get out of hand, and does not take control of the situation.?

The interesting part is, fear is not in itself a bad thing or a bad emotion. ?It is an unpleasant feeling, but necessary to our survival,? writes Dr. Michael Craig Miller in the article ?Sad Brain, Happy Brain,? an examination of cognitive neuroscience in the October 6 issue of Newsweek. ?Humans would not have lasted very long in the wilderness without it.?

?Since fear is an intense form of anxiety, it causes the ego to set up defense mechanisms to protect itself, such as rationalization,? says Agbayani. ?These defenses help us to adapt and survive in the environment for the sole purpose of self-preservation, whether that?s psychological or physical.? In short, fear exists in humans to keep them alive, and is so instinctive and ?extraordinarily efficient,? Miller writes, ?that you don?t need to consciously register what is happening for the brain to kick off a response. If a car swerves into your lane of traffic, you will feel the fear before you understand it.? Thus, you have people wondering why they acted a certain way in the face of a feared object or situation, when their brain tells them that shouldn?t have happened.

?When certain chemicals are released in the bloodstream by fear, we are hardly aware of what?s happening to us physically,? Agbayani agrees. ?We simply find ourselves in a reactive state controlled by the autonomic nervous system that either propels us to run away from the fear agent or attack it directly.?

The latter is what is known as the ?fight or flight? reaction, which is preceded by familiar physical signs. ?The brain signals the release of certain chemicals that cause this natural ?fight or flight? reaction in humans,? Agbayani says. That?s when you witness or experience rapid breathing, heart palpitations, trembling and shaking, sweating, shortness of breath, a choking feeling, and constricted or flexed muscles, Agbayani enumerates. Hence, the familiar sight of a wide-eyed, open-mouthed, panting actress as she turns another dark corner in your favorite horror movie, inches away from the ghost, killer, alien or whatever.

An aside: speaking of acting, yes, Agbayani the psychologist is also the actress, and she has coincidentally just wrapped up work for her first independent film, ?Yanggaw? (that?s Ilonggo for aswang). Filmed entirely in Ilonggo, ?Yanggaw,? showing this November and directed by Richard Somes, is a supernatural story with a strong focus on familial relations.

?I played a demented, deformed ghost once on television, and it was fun and creative to do,? Agbayani recalls. It?s always a thrill learning the different tricks and special effects used to create scary scenes, Agbayani says. ?Expect the set to be full of smoke effects, fake blood, and dismembered limbs made of foam. Some scenes take a little longer because of all the special effects that need to be in place, and the prosthetic makeup applied on actors.?

Creating a scary character is a different challenge altogether. ?It?s more mental, psychological, and creative work, compared to a drama. I find it easier to make the audience empathize and cry with a character. In a horror movie, one needs to think ahead of what would be believably scary, and execute it in a subtle and unpredictable manner. It takes a bit more work to play with the psyche of the viewers to elicit fear.?

This concept of aswang, that dark denizen of Philippine lower mythology, is very much part of the Filipino consciousness even today, Agbayani says, turning teacher once again. ?A number of people I?ve met speak of aswang still existing today in their province, or of someone who belongs to a family of aswang. I think the concept of aswang resonates with the shadow part of our collective Filipino psyche. It?s a manifestation of that part of our personality where we hide what is unacceptable, dark, and sinister. While we are repulsed by the vileness of that shadow side, it cannot be disowned, as it?s a part of each and every one of us. That?s why, whether real or imagined, it?s still very much embraced.?

Back in the psychologist?s room, extreme phobias of physical, tangible fears can be dealt with through therapy, Agbayani says, using such techniques as systematic desensitization, where a subject is faced with several ?scary? situations and asked to rank its effect on him or her.

In the case of irrational fears, it will take a lot more will power than anything else. ?You?ll just have to change the way you think,? Agbayani says. ?You can control your thoughts. Since you?re only able to consciously focus and think about one thing at a time, only allow positive thoughts to go through your mind. Whenever a negative thought or fear enters, simply choose to stop it right in its tracks, and immediately change that thought to something positive.?

Now that?s something to think about―when things go bump in the night.