I put this in IMHO, because I expect the factual question to be answered soon and am also interested if others know this, too. As long as I can remember, I couldn’t look up into the open sky without getting dizzy and disorientated after a short while, I even sometimes loose my balance if I’m standing up. Curiously, this is mostly a concern at daytime, I can look at the night sky much longer without feeling weird. My theory is that is has to do with the fact that I’ve lived my whole life in a mountainous region with a very limited horizon because everywhere you look, there are mountains. That’s why I also feel a little impressed when I travel through/to wide plains, the open skies seem to confuse me. Can anybody relate?
Sounds like your classic vertigo to me, which can be triggered by a wide variety of environments/stimuli.
I thought about vertigo, but I thought that was only the fear of heights. It’s similar, but not totally identical.
As an old Saskatchewan farmer is reputed to have said:
“The mountains are pretty, but they sure do block the view.”
I’m glad this is in IMHO, because no way am I finding a cite for this, but I read/heard that adults from tribes who had lived all their lives in the forests of Borneo had terrible difficulties judging distance when their contact with outsiders gave them a chance to travel to places with wider horizons.
I feel ya.
I’m dizzy headed most of the time. But wide open vistas do a number on me.
I don’t have to look way overhead to experience it.
I live where tall trees are (not Oregon or Washington St. tall but tall.) If I view just over the treetops I get an icky feeling. If I pass a spot where no trees are I generally look down, if I can, to keep my feet under me.
Looking straight up overhead and I’d go down.
I was looking at the ceiling in Walmart the other day. It’s all big duct work and lighting stuff. But everything behind is painted out black. I got the same icky feeling for a few seconds.
I think mountains would ground me. If that makes sense.
I don’t what you call it. Ivy calls it bullshit 
During WWII, the Royal Canadian Navy expanded greatly, both in ships and manpower.
After the war, the navy indicated that in their experience, the best candidates for their sailors were from the Atlantic provinces, because they were so used to seafaring.
The next best candidates were from the Prairies. Even with no seafaring experience, they were psychologically adapted to a limitless horizon. People from central Canada and the mountains of BC tended to find it unsettling.
One aspect of agoraphobia is the unsettledness caused by open spaces. Agoraphobia is more complex than that, usually involving social factors such as fear of public spaces and crowds (hence the root “agora”, the Greek market and meeting place), but wide-open spaces by themselves can be a factor.
Yes, yes, yes!
Yeah, I also thought about agoraphobia, but open spaces on the ground don’t faze me as well as big crowds, I’ve been to many tight-packed concerts with 50,000+ people and that never was a concern. It’s just the open skies.
I’ve posted this pic from Wikipedia before. This is what I’m used to. Pic takens a few kilometres out from the city on the Trans-Canada Highway. I can make out my office tower on it.
@Baker , is this what you’re used to?
Isn’t that the Windows XP standard desktop? 
More remote shot. Plus, wasn’t that on something called a “hill”? 
What happens if you stand in a room, tilt your head back, and look at a mostly featureless ceiling? Or if you tilt your head back & close your eyes?
Nothing. I stay orientated and balanced, no concerns. Outdoors, it’s like the vast sky overwhelms me.
I like the back side of Canada’s dollar bill from 1954, with a wide-open view of the prairie. Is it Manitoba? or Saskatchewan? Does it matter? (It’s the latter). It’s the same view I remember from growing up in the Dakotas, and I have the opposite problem of the OP: I feel really claustrophobic in forested areas.
There’s a story behind that image.
It’s based on a photo that a well-known photographer took, back in the 40s. (Can’t remember his name at the moment.)
When it got on the back of the $1 note, he got asked where it was taken.
He gave vague answers, about it being an iconic prairie scene, it didn’t really matter where it was taken, etc. The important thing was that it memorialised the prairies.
Finally, late in his career he came clean. He couldn’t remember where he took it. He was driving on the Prairies and stopped to take the picture, because of the composition. Purely spur of the moment, but he couldn’t remember where.
But why can’t you remember? the interviewer asked. Surely if you’re on the prairies you would remember the name on the elevator or something?
Well, he said, I was coming home from a Ukrainian wedding celebration that went on for three days of dancing, perogies, and vodka, and was really tired and hung-over…
Everyone in Saskatchewan who has been to a Ukrainian wedding immediately accepted his explanation of memory loss.
Well, if that photographer had felt dizzy and disorientated while looking up to the sky, he at least would have had an explanation. But I’ve never been to an Ukrainian wedding (though maybe I should go one time), and I’m not drunk or hung-over all the time.
Vestibular neuritis? Much in the same way that turning your head quickly can cause dizziness, I’m guessing.