Irrational fear of spiders

[DrivingDog]

All I will say is that it's well documented, and I have the knowledge and proof of this, of most phobias being removed in under 20 minutes. Most under an hour.

What Warpe said.

Fear of spiders is a positive genetic adaptation. These help us propogate the species.

In my, and other peoples opinion, this is poorly theorised. And is far from fact. In fact, it's very tenuous. Just like theories on Deja Vu. There is a difference between natural fear (as I touched upon) and a phobia. The latter being an irrational fear of xxx.

The counter argument to your baked bean/spider example is that, due to a phobia being a learned response, an event has to happen (or even picked up from someone who is phobic - more learned behaviour). As a result, it's harder to be in such a predicament with a tin of beans. Especially as other tins are being handled without incident.

Well, no. Fear of spiders is an innate fear that exists in everyone and for that matter in monkeys and apes. And if you read the rest of what I said, i draw the distinction between natural fears and phobias. So I don't get what you or these 'other people' are saying.

I'm not arguing that phobias are genetic. There's no genetic predisposition that can explain the baked beans phobia. What I'm saying is that the emotion of fear itself is to at least some extent hardwired into the brain and when an object naturally evokes fear it is more likely for that fear to overcome reason and for a phobia to develop out of it.

And this belief is backed up by the number of people who are being turned around in less than half an hour. Leaving behind months & years of alternate therapies, such as psychiatry. All of which backs up the belief I stated. In my circle, I don't know anyone who needed more than one session to remove a phobia. And that's spanning decades and thousands of case studies.

Sorry, but you are starting to sound like part infomercial, part cult member. Lots of grandiose claims and lots of mystery and strange terminology but no clear description of what exactly this method is or what the evidence is that it works.

Certainly if this treatment alternative is so much better than what's in the textbooks, at least one of its practitioners would take the time to document it in a scientific journal subject to rigorous peer review. Can you point us to this article? A book? A website? Anything?

Like I said, I'm not an expert on phobias, but I'm surprised I've never heard of this miracle treatment. That doesn't mean it's not possible, but I'd like to see evidence that goes beyond the claims of a single person.