30 Times Innocent Things Almost Gave People A Heart Attack

Have you ever felt like being in a horror movie, terrified by a sight that eventually turned out to be something completely innocent?

I remember seeing so many scary things in the dark when I was a child, that I was afraid to get out of bed. Yet, whenever I turned on the light, I found they were just ordinary objects and their shadows.

Fear is an emotional response induced by a perceived threat and leads to a change in behavior, as well as brain and organ function. It is one of the seven universal emotions experienced by every single person in the world.

Fear arises with the threat of harm, either physical, emotional, or psychological, real or imagined.

Fear can be divided into two responses: biochemical and emotional, and while the first one is universal, the emotional response is highly individual.

When I am afraid, I just feel my body trembling in excitement, my heart rate increasing, and the adrenaline levels skyrocketing, without being able to control it.

Even though it is traditionally considered a negative emotion, it actually serves an important role in keeping us safe as it mobilizes the body to cope with potential danger.

Even when we felt afraid for no particular reason, the instinct kicks at the moment and the body enters a ‘fight or flight’ mode.

The following compilation contains terrifying pictures that were later found to be simple misunderstandings, coincidences, or optical illusions:

1. In the end, it was just a sunset reflection

Our brains have adapted to see what we deem as useful to see, not what is actually there. So, optical illusions challenge our sense of reality and show that what we see is simply our brains’ best interpretation of the sight.

2. I Had To Look Twice

Exploring Optical Illusions claims that there are 3 main types of optical illusion:

Literal illusions- which create images that are different from the objects that make them, like most in this article
Physiological illusions- they are the effects on the eyes or brain of excessive stimulation of a specific type -- brightness, tilt, color, movement, etc.
Cognitive illusions- arise by interaction with assumptions about the world, leading to “unconscious inferences”. They are commonly divided into ambiguous illusions, distorting illusions, paradox illusions, or fiction illusions.

3. I almost had a heart attack but realized my wife left the gloves to dry

4. I was sure this is a ghost baby in my son’s bedroom. The next morning I found out my husband just forgot to put the mattress protector on when he changed the sheets.

5. It is only paprika

6. My heart almost exploded

7. My dog is trying to scare me

8. I freaked out today due to the snail in our office fish tank

9. My Housemate Was Drying His Fishing Waders

10. He loves to sleep like that

11. When he moved, he freaked me out

12. Emergency Light In The Hallway Is My new Nightmare

13. Our son woke us up around 3 am, scared that a guy was on the porch with a stick. IT turned out to be the paper delivery boy, in an attempt to retrieve a mis-thrown paper from our roof