The only one that bothers me is the breast. I don’t have this aversion, though I have heard of it, and I always wondered if it was because the pods looked so alien and unfamiliar to our eyes.
The breast is just because it just doesn’t go together and it offends my sense of order.
I showed MrWhatsit the lotus breast – actually, I told him how to find the URL and looked away from the computer while he viewed it – and while he agreed that it was extremely skeevy and weird, he studied it with interest for a few minutes, looking at the picture to see if you could tell it was faked, etc.
NO way in FUCK could I bear to look at that picture for any longer than a split millisecond. Thinking it is disgusting and weird seems pretty normal to me. Not even being able to look at the page title in Firefox, seems like something more.
I have to admit, I’m glad this is something that is pretty easily avoided in everyday life. I have sudden sympathy for, say, agoraphobics. If going outside their house makes them feel the same horror and revulsion that seeing the inside of a pomegranate or a spider’s eye (yes, both of them set me off) do to me… ugh. Hard to imagine.
I’ve never noticed any aversion before, but after I saw that lotus boob picture yesterday I felt slightly sick to my stomach for hours. And now those pictures posted above by **pbbth **are creeping me out.
Yeah, I have no problem with pomegranates or tomatoes or anything either. I also think that a symetrical pattern (like a honeycomb) is pretty cool and I have an urge to run my fingers over it. The lotus pods tend to be asymetrical and that is part of what bothers me.
Also, just so you know, when I was searching for images for this thread I found one of a lotus pod the size of a person. It didn’t bother me too much but I imagine this might be a worst fear come to life for many people here. Seriously, do NOT search for lotus images on google if you have issues with trypophobia!
For me, it has to be a hole with a finite end. I have no problem with honeycomb cereal, but honeycombs give me the heebie-jeebies.
A cross section of a pomegranate doesn’t bother me, but the little dried stem on the end makes me feel slightly uncomfortable.
And here in Florida, occasionally you’ll find a rock/coral on the beach that looks like a bunch of little tubes all bunched together. That gets my skin a-crawlin’.
I’m necroing this thread; I have no qualms about this.
I saw “that” picture years ago, and it haunted my dreams since.
Today on another forum of “what’s your phobia?” I learned that this fear had a name, trypophobia. There were some different pictures there that I really shouldn’t have looked at… “I have trypophobia! That means I get a panic attack from this: pic pic pic” Vomit, vomit, vomit.
I disabled pictures on my browser and did a search for the term. That brought me to this thread, which brought me to the Snopes link.
Oh my God, knowing it’s fake, I can finally live in peace. I think my blood pressure just reached a normal baseline for the first time in seven years.
Thanks, Teeming Millions.
It was actually sort of a relief for me just finding out that there were other people who had this too, and that I wasn’t just a crazy person. (Or at least, there are other people who are crazy in the same way.)
PS, I know this thread is a zombie, but I’d kind of like it if we could leave it open, mods. I understand if you feel like you have to close it, though.
My horror! MY HORROR! IT has a name!!!
I don’t like clusters of holes or round things either, but for most things, I can deal with it. I can look at a honeycomb, or a bunch of straws, but the lotus roots bug me if the holes are too black.
Also, I don’t know what the hell this “lotus boob” thing is, but if it is that picture I accidently saw online once while searching for porn with the breast and a bunch of black dots on the nipples then that is by far the worse case of this phobia I have ever encountered. I feel like bugs are crawling on my skin by even thinking about it
Oh my god, I have this too! I always thought I was crazy, because I have this overwhelming urge to smash the object in question. Overall though, it’s not too severe (the honeycombs and stuff are fine), but if any of you have also run across that picture with the girl with the holes on her elbows and knees…my god, that makes my skin crawl.
I was just thinking about this yesterday when I was shopping for floral arrangements and I saw those dried pod things (are those the lotus flowers? The brown dried pods with the seed balls inside the holes? I am not going to google to find out) and I always shudder a bit when I see those. Why oh why would anyone want those as a decorative object in their house?
And yes, I saw the boob pic a few years ago and it made me feel kind of sick for a few days. I really don’t like to think about it. But, honeycombs and things like straws don’t bother me, so for the most part this is a phobia that only comes up once in a great while. I have found that if the cluster of holes looks clean and clearly empty, that is better than if it looks dark/squishy/with things inside or emerging. (I have to stop talking about this now as even describing it brings back the memories.)
Lotus Boob has no effect on me. I am immune to lotus boob.
However, my biggest nightmare, ever since I was a kid, is opening a chicken egg to find a chicken fetus inside. I think fetuses are creepy. Even though I know that the eggs aren’t fertilized, I have this horror of cracking one open to find a fertilized one accidentally slipped through. There’s a tiny little voice in the back of my mind telling me to brace myself every time I crack one open.
So when my friend discovered there was such a thing as this, (could only glance at the page long enough to grab the link and bleach my eyes.) and that it’s actually a delicacy in some countries, much hilarity was had. By him. Only him. Him=Hilarity, Me=Omygodwhatthefuckisthatyoucan’tbefuckingseriousaaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!
How’s that for a weird fear?
Weird fear, but not the one currently under discussion. 
True! But we all have weird fears, and we all need to share the trauma. We all need to come out of the weird fear closet! 
Would playing Whack-A-Mole constitute cognitive therapy for trypophobics?
And how do they feel about bubble wrap?
Man, people are fascinating!
I have issues with the lotus picture because I have a horror of botflies … and certain other parasites:eek:
Do those people calling the chick embryo dish “high protein” realize that the protein in the embryo was all there to begin with? The embryo does not fix nitrogen from the air and end up containing more protein than a plain old egg.
I think it might have roots in a fear of bugs/maggots/creepy-crawlies. For me, at least, I didn’t think much of lotus pods one way or another until I saw Lotus Boob. After that, ALL lotus seeds look like bugs to me, is intractably associated with bugs chewing their way out of my body, and are therefore anywhere from mildly to deeply unsettling. Creeeeepy. (Eating sliced lotus in stir fry/salad doesn’t bother me at all, though… it’s definitely pod + seeds peeking out.)
The only other “cluster of holes” thing that freaks me out that I can think of is the Surinam toad. They basically absorb their own eggs into the skin on their back, and after a time tiny baby toadlets hatch from these… well they LOOK like pus pockets. And then there are holes on the parent toad’s back. EEEUUUAAAGGGHHH. I’m not normally squeamish, but I can NOT look at a photo of that damn toad.
Yeah, I think it’s a parasite phobia.
I’m assuming tripe won’t be a popular menu item for trypophobics. Hmmm Tripe-o-phobia.
Speaking of the ‘Lotus Boob’ image, there is a recent Lipton’s advert which is unpleasantly reminiscent of it, featured (and criticised for being nasty) here: http://kingdomofstyle.typepad.co.uk/my_weblog/2009/12/lick-your-lips.html . Being an advert, it is by no means as unpleasant of course.