Why are Corn Fields that Creepy
By Maria Anna van Driel, www.nexttruth.com
You drive off the highway, onto a small dirt road and a few minutes later you are stared at by countless creepy, silent corn cobs glued to at least 2-meter-high green hosts who in turn rock hypnotically back and forth.
What is it that makes this view so creepy? It is not the corn itself as it can’t do as much as just staring at you … and even this it can’t do.
What about the plants themselves? Can they walk away? Well, no. At least not that I am aware of. They are firmly anchored in the ground with their roots. At most, they can wiggle their leaves a bit, but only on a windy day. Okay, they could fall over during a storm but that does not count as a grisly attack. Or…? Anyway, even though there are uncountable of them occupying hundreds of square meters, these plants are harmless by nature. Hum, it seems that these lanky plants cannot do much except for just standing thereeee…okay that sounds somewhat creepy indeed.
So, as long as no killer clowns are jumping from between the rows or creatures from the movie “Jeepers Creepers”, why is it that we are feeling that uncomfortable when stepping into, or driving by, a corn field. What makes a corn field that eerie?
I have pondered over this question for several days. I tried to imagine what it would be like to sit in a corn field all by myself. By doing so, two things came to mind of why a such a biological maze is inducing this much fear into people. No, not the myriad movies in where a corn field is playing the lead character… but a cognitive disability in which the senses of time, direction, and recognition of items, people and places become difficult to distinguish or identify, being the main ingredient of these corn fields containing a ‘creepiness’.
The second thing that came to mind is this eerie crackling sound created by the leaves being an obstacle for your ears to take over the function of your eyes. Just a little bit of wind is enough for creating a continuousness noise making it almost impossible for you to distinguish danger from safety.
“Was that the call of a red fox or was that the last sound propulsion from a victim of a serial killer?!”
And even if you get down on your knees hoping to see what it is that is around you…somewhere, your view will be approximately 3 till 4 meters. You suddenly realize that you are close to the ground meaning, you are an easy target/meal for any predator regardless of whether it is of a human or animal nature.
Because you no longer know exactly which way you have to run to to get out of the field and into the safety of the road, your ‘fight-flight’ reaction has became mixed up…badly.
Like a Neanderthal without the safety of his/her cave, your brain has entered a state of a mixture of fear, uncertainties and illusions and the process of experiencing a distorted form of Pareidolia is kicking in what makes it all difficult to distinguish a fluffy unicorn from a blood thirsty dinosaur, so to speak. You have become disorientated and there might be ‘something’ there with you in that huge corn field.
Now of course you can say that when such a field is no higher than, say, chest height, you cannot get disoriented. That is true. You have a perfect overview of where to escape in case of danger but … you have no clue what it is that is crawling underneath the dense, green leafy cover.
These thoughts are leaving the question open for which hazardous creatures are sneaking around your legs, having the power of pulling you down without any warning. Instantly this younger cornfield becomes an ominous scene after all.
