Why the Deep Sea Frightens Us

When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you. An exploration of the leviathans that swim in the deep sea, and why the human mind fears the uncharted depths.
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Thumbnail Art Credit: Matt Millard - www.artstation.com/artwork/Qo9JB
Miller's art based on a concept by Denis Loebner - www.artstation.com/artwork/q9ND2
SCP-3000 Short Film Credit: ForlornFoundry - / @forlornfoundry
The Colossal Eel Credit: 3D Print Guy - / @3dprintguy
The term ‘Thalassophobia’ means ‘An intense fear of deep water.’ It is one of the most primal and understandable phobias - for the dark abyss has always been a birthplace of monsters.
Lurking below the waves are not only bizarre species known to science - but a vast multitude of imagined leviathans. Something about the fathomless void floods the human mind with visions of nightmarish creatures, which have scared and fascinated us since we first gazed into the deep.
So, for this entry into the archive, we’ll dive into depths both real and imagined, and discover what terrors lurk within the heart of the sea...
0:00 The Fathomless Deep
0:50 Iron Lung
3:53 Abyssus Theory
5:41 Realm of Monsters
7:44 Teeming Seas
11:31 Megalodons and Mermaids
14:04 Uncharted Waters
16:58 The Unending Serpent
18:55 One Last Breath
Copyright Disclaimer: Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education, and research. All video/image content is edited under fair use rights for reasons of commentary.
I do not own the images, music, or footage used in this video. All rights and credit goes to the original owners.
Media Shown: Iron Lung, Subnautica, Subnautica: Below Zero, The Meg, Underwater, Mermaids: The Body Found, Abzû, Beyond Blue, In Other Waters, Water Womb World, The Abyss, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, It Came from Beneath the Sea, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, SCP-3000 The Unending Serpent (ForlornFoundry), SCP-3000: The Colossal Eel (3D Print Guy)
Sources:
Thalassophobia Definition by Marney A. White: www.medicalnewstoday.com/arti...
Abyssus Theory, Article by Thomas R Anderson, Tony Rice: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17097...
History of the Bathysphere, Article by William Firebrace: thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/sp...
History of the so-called 'Bloop:' oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/b...
Deep Sea Gigantism, Article by James MacDonald: daily.jstor.org/why-deep-sea-...
♫ Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio:
Mysterious Green Fluid, Sanity Unravels, Haddonfield Horror, Alone in the Dark, Dusk, The Witching Hour, The Vanishing, Tenebrae, The Guardian
♫ Additional music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com):
Beauty Flow
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
#CuriousArchive #Worldbuilding

[@Tyrexthecreaturedesigner]

Even though I have Thalassophobia, I’m kind of obsessed with gigantic sea monsters hiding within the watery abyss

[@madtechnocrat9234]

Have you heard of a game barotrauma?

[@Tyrexthecreaturedesigner]

@@madtechnocrat9234 sadly not

[@Tyrexthecreaturedesigner]

@@madtechnocrat9234 please tell me more

[@madtechnocrat9234]

@@Tyrexthecreaturedesigner kzbin.info/www/bejne/bXWWk2SgepZsd5I&ab_channel=BiffTheBear

[@cocoschannel2668]

Same

[@mailleweaver]

For me, Subnautica was not just about fear, but about overcoming fear through understanding. The more I learned about what was in the depths, the less scary they became. And the more I learned of the dangerous creatures, the less scary they became. It gave me deeper insight into myself. I now know more about the mechanisms of my own fears and how to face them, appreciate them, and work through them.

[@Kligor2]

I wish I could say the same lol its not so much the fear of those creatures that scares me but the imaginary ceatures my brain says "what if?" like I know theres no gargantuan leviathan alive in the game without mods.... but what if? Also god help me if I get bit Ill throw something in fear lol

[@patrickflesner526]

Kind I’d like a type of Exposure Therapy

[@peabrain6872]

I wasnt very scared in Subnautica personally, cause it wasn’t meant to be

[@lgamradt]

That’s called fear of the unknown. Fear starts to vanish as soon people get to understand what they are looking at.

[@RoamingSimp]

I want to say the same if it’s not that I almost broke my computer when I first found Reaper

[@tyrannosauruscock]

The fact that the coelacanth was first discovered as a fossil, and then as a living creature is both fascinating and terrifying.

[@thenewtoaster6196]

Why is this terrifying? It's just interesting and a cool discovery to me

[@australiannotanemu1603]

⁠because if something is first discovered as a fossil such as a megaladon but then found as a animal still alive would be scary at shit

[@Skylerrelyks93]

@@australiannotanemu1603rest assured the megalodon is extinct.

[@Dabeliiuteef]

@@Skylerrelyks93 Everyone keeps saying that but i don't want to believe it 🥲

[@westernization]

​@@Skylerrelyks93You sound like a guy who has already explored all the seas 😂

[@nextcaesargaming5469]

This video reminds me of a tale my Father (a Marine Corps veteran and, more recently, a retired police officer) sometimes recounts from when he was active duty in the 80s. Dad was scuba diving in Okinawa, Japan, in the year 1985, nearby Camp Courtney. He and three other guys were in the water for about thirty minutes, two to three hundred yards from shore, before they came back to shore. While standing on the docks, unloading the gear from the boat, his buddy gestured with a "hey, look at that" and Dad looked up to see a fairly long flatbed truck on a nearby roadway, driving right to left up an incline, and on the flatbed was what looked to be a very, *very* large fish that was partially covered in what looked like a tarp, it's tail-end long enough that it was hanging off the back of the truck. There were two locals riding on the top of the strapped down fish as the truck went along as if they were riding a horse. The next day, the guy who had said "hey, look at that" walked in at where Dad was working on the Marine Corps base, and the buddy tossed down a local Japanese newspaper on the desk. Once again, he said "look at that", and what was on the paper was a photograph of a Great White Shark on the back of a truck, with it's mouth winched open and one guy sitting on the back of the shark with the rope holding the mouth open and another man standing next to the mouth. The mouth was so large he could have stepped into it. The newspaper had the date on it, which showed that the picture was from the day before. His buddy said, "That was the 'fish' from yesterday. It was in the same bay as us while we were in the water." Suffice to say, my Father has NOT been scuba diving since.

[@Blksammy4488]

Yup and that right there is why I do not fuck around in deep water. 😂

[@fisherfoster6032]

Yeaaaaah i completely understand why he stopped 😂

[@Johnboy33545]

@@Blksammy4488 I won't trouble you with where most shark attacks happen.

[@jaymevosburgh3660]

I'm pretty sure you can just tickle the shark and they'll stop. I remember reading that somewhere.

[@coopachew]

@@jaymevosburgh3660sthat’s thats reassuring ahh crap they don’t even have exposed testicles to shamelessly attack might as well be super man or an elephant that you battling

[@FatManWithNoPlans]

Personally, I think fear of the ocean isn't just fear of the unknown, but call of the void as well. Imagine gazing into a black abyss, with unimaginable monsters likely lurking within. What's scarier, the creatures that hunger for an easy meal, or the voice in your head screaming for you to go meet the monster in the dark?

[@jakkank]

Swimming in the sea at dusk really gives this call of the abyss/void feeling.

[@Lumberjack_king]

Exactly

[@alexterieur8813]

The call for void transposes to the call for death that all humans somewhat feel in some form or another. Maybe only because of our insatiable curiosity!

[@jacobfoss7783]

What's scarier, the monsters in the void, or the void itself, cold, unfeeling and hungry? Both will put the fear of God into you.

[@SandiaOfficial]

@@jacobfoss7783 or will put the god of fear on you

[@GrayMajik]

I like how you are expanding the scope of the channel recently. Speculative biology projects are cool, but I think your recent videos on broader concepts are what has really been standing out. It allows you to insert your own creativity and style without solely focusing on someone else’s work, and they have just seemed more unique and worth watching.

[@kaidenrodriguez8285]

e

[@Lumberjack_king]

Exactly 😊

[@kaidenrodriguez8285]

nah

[@AlexandrePereira-cr6hx]

Its cool seeing them expand but I kinda hope CA still does videos about spec projects

[@Inkfinitycomics]

This channel has introduced me to a whole bunch of incredible projects so I hope to see more of that. A genre is like an ecosystem; it requires others of its species to survive. We need more videos about other people’s projects

[@AkuTenshiiZero]

Subnautica is like a roller coaster of emotions. One moment I'm terrified and trying to avoid the notice of the Ghost Leviathan, and then moments later I find what looks like an underwater tree holding a giant egg and surrounded by blue tide pools and angelic neon blue rays. I remember I was so stunned by that area that I had to go tear down my base and rebuild it there.

[@maksphoto78]

Tree Cove. it's so pretty, and a very safe zone to build a base in. Lots of resources around. ^_^

[@mr_ekshun]

I did the same!!! And then later discovered that apparently that egg is actually a Ghost Leviathan egg hahaha

[@z54964380]

Don’t forget the sense of godlike power when you’re in the Prawn, come catch these drill hands Reaper!

[@sib3155]

also the turning of the screams of fauna from scary to annoying

[@GogiRegion]

@@z54964380Even the prawn suit has some horror aspects, though. In the lore, several people went insane thinking they were immortal when they very much weren’t, which reminds you that you need to be careful.

[@ghost-facedhindu4275]

When you're on land, you're in society. When you're in the water, you're in the food chain.

[@theinternetsightseer2935]

I remember being fascinated by deep sea life as a child. The creatures there were so monstrous and alien. My mother on the other hand was terrified of them as she had thalassophobia. When I asked her why they had ugly and horrific appearances, she responded," The closer they are to hell, the more demonic they become." It's a quote that sticks with me even now.

[@headwreak1768]

she has a point, with Pressure high enough to crush a man and salinity so strong that it kills top-dwelling fish, the creatures must adapt in weird but cool ways.

[@johnnynunez1843]

I love the idea of the deep sea and the abyss. It literally trumps what we know about biology and evolution. Understand there are some things humans are NOT meant to see. We are quite literally aliens in an environment designed to kill us despite our best efforts. Who knows what’s truly down there?

[@headwreak1768]

@@johnnynunez1843 it's truely in Human nature to persevere and overcome places.

[@LandersWorkshop]

Inner secrets and insights indeed Seer of Sights!

[@justinmcgough3958]

Dam, that line goes so hard

[@cherrysalmon5108]

as someone who loves the ocean, oceanic horror is definitely my favorite kind of horror. partially cause it doesn’t keep me up at night but also because the ocean is just. so scary. even if you know about what’s down there, it’s still really spooky to think about the depths

[@pokidotgamer6318]

It's even more horrifying when the ocean is pitch black underneath.

[@Hen3349]

same here I love the ocean and it doesnt scare me at all id be a bit panicked if I found myself in the middle of it or deep in it but not scared the ocean is just amazing to me

[@leighness1988]

Same here, I feel like people who love the ocean are drawn to even it’s dark side. I’ve always said, I will never live in a landlocked state ever again. I need to be right next to the ocean or I feel anxious 😂

[@C.G.Gaster]

I love the ocean, it's great. Swimming with sharks was fun. But something about when it's super deep and dark scares me. It's why I will refuse to go in at night.

[@samuelhawksworth1923]

I was once swimming in Greece checking out the awesome fish when at some point I became aware of how deep I was. I looked out away from the shore and it was absolutely giant. The blue went on for what seemed like forever, like anything could come out at any second. This is probably what introduced me to the intensity the ocean holds

[@MrVibriocholerae]

Next time you are in Greece, rent an underwater ROV 😊

[@samuelhawksworth1923]

Sounds fun!

[@greystash1750]

And think that’s only the med which is relatively shallow… Imagine the Atlantic, or even the Pacific

[@FearMyLvl]

Note for anyone that's curious as to why SCP-3000 is so popular - the reason is because the -000 entries are chosen by competition, with multiple submissions being voted on by the community to determine which one gets to occupy the slot. The reason 3000 won is not just because of that it's a giant eel, but because it's forms a major part of the Foundation, namely it's ability to produce a substance, Y-909, that allows the creation of extremely effective amnestics (the drugs used to give people selective amnesia so the Foundation can uphold the masquerade of normalcy despite all the crazy shit that goes on). The way it does this, at least given the information shared, is through the ingestion of people. It doesn't digest them, but instead seems to absorb their sapience and secrete the 'leftovers' in the form of a jelly through its skin that's then collected by the Foundation for the production of their amnestics. And yes, the Foundation does regularly feed D-class to 3000 so it keeps producing Y-909. The eel also has the effect of making people slowly lose their memories (and at times replace them with the memories of others) by being near it for extended periods of time. A better example for fear of the deep sea might have been SCP-169, which is titled 'Leviathan', as it is estimated to be between 2000-8000 KM long and is located in the southern Atlantic Ocean, possibly stretching around the tip of South America; or SCP-1128, which is aquatic predator that, if a person is given a full description of the being's appearance through either spoken/written descriptions or visual depictions of the being, will pull any person that is submerged into a body of water (even a bath tub or a kiddy pool) into a large stretch of ocean to be devoured attacked by it.

[@maxdean9205]

"The true terror of any sailor is not sailing the seas nor the raging tides but forgetting how deep the water you float on really is. How ancient the tides truly are, and when you gaze into that deep abyss as water fills your lungs, every sailor knows that something is with you good or bad, never forget that."

[@peabrain6872]

The plankton in my lungs:

[@c.istopmotionstudio1900]

@@peabrain6872 The plankton:👁👄👁

[@jeweltorkelson]

Thanks I hate it

[@matthewparker5277]

No matter how deep the water is, when you drown it feels endless and time starts to stretch farther and farther until every second feels like an eternity, experiencing that will give anyone a fear of the water

[@demilung]

No. The abyss is just there. Waves, rocks and currents are what will break your boat and doom you to die. Sailing always was a job, and a pretty tough, being all poetic.on "hoe ancient is the water around us" makes poor sailors.

[@KuriousCitten]

A body of water with nothing in it, is just as scary as one filled with creatures. Because you’re so small, you still feel uncomfortable alone, and an empty body of water is just as dangerous as one that isn’t.

[@kamawesomer5744]

cap! is a pool dangerous?

[@KuriousCitten]

@@kamawesomer5744 It can definitely still kill you.

[@JohnJacob-cz8dc]

Especially when you can’t see or touch the bottom. Even if the pool says it’s 16 ft deep, it feels like a void.

[@KuriousCitten]

@@JohnJacob-cz8dc It does, and even shallow pools are still dangerous. It also definitely stems from a fear that even when nothing is there you FEEL like there is. Which is why so many people are afraid of water regardless. It’s doesn’t even need to be a pool, it could be a small bathtub or shower.

[@USSFFRU]

Water is a majestic thing to watch and see. It's beautiful. But if there's one thing Mother Nature has taught humanity, the more beautiful, the more violent it is.

[@realsteventalvinzvestial420]

Please do not disturb us down here. We're just only swimming, breathing, hiding, vibing and making plans.

[@allthings_fnaf]

Am I the only person that clicked on this vid bcuz of the thumbnail?

[@Katsu_ragi]

Yes.

[@potato2367]

It’s a good 20 minutes and 4 seconds when Curious Archive uploads

[@tylnozcn27]

🙏

[@jonnyhasabonny2891]

It's a good 20 mins and 4 seconds that I'm not gonna watch cuz I'm gonna shit myself lol

[@potato2367]

@@jonnyhasabonny2891 LMAO

[@adamdubin1276]

A common thread in the SCP community is the use of Amnestics, a chemical that can make people completely forget recent events and memories and is usually used to cover up things like newly discovered SCP's and containment breaches. It is believed that the Amnestics are either made from the secretions of SCP-3000 or that they were inspired by and based off of the effect SCP-3000 seems to have on those who encounter it.

[@randomgeneration7781]

I recall that Amnestics was perhaps the only known way to save someone from SCP-1128: if the subject could not remember what 1128 looked like, 1128 would not be able to track them. So in another way of looking at it, the only way to save the life of a select group of test subjects from being eaten by a giant aquatic monster, is for another select group of test subjects to get eaten by another giant aquatic monster so the staff can collect its after-dinner secretions. (I hated 1128 so much, did my already crippling thalassophobia no favors; I disliked 3000 less because at least 3000 wasn't as actively intent on hunting its prey down.)

[@paulkanja]

Plot twist, they are actually from 85, but we can't remember or know for sure because, well, 85

[@MrQuantumInc]

To be more precise, the foundation has several kinds of Amnestic drugs, but the most powerful drugs come from SCP-3000 when they feed it a person. They are usually reserved for dealing with other SCPs that not only affect the mind but causes those affected minds to have their own anomalous effects (ex. reading a forbidden book gives you telekinesis).

[@IzeecClarke]

Amnestics existed way before SCP-3000's Y-909 was discovered by the Foundation, the SCP-3000 entry explicitly stated that the Y-909 excreted by SCP-3000 stabilized all previous existing amnestics and just made it better.

[@peabrain6872]

Stfu about god damned scp shit, this is childish absolute first grader imagination you tiny tots

[@Carlisho]

Playing Subnautica is one of the most memorable gaming experiences I have ever had, what a masterpiece of a game. Its scarier than an actual horror game without even trying to scare you lol

[@solluxcaptor6823]

I have a love for the ocean and all it’s creatures but the entire thing terrifies me. It’s so deep and unimaginably old it almost feels sacred. It holds so much information and so many secrets it feels like it’s another planet.

[@bltelysian]

they are trying to scare you, just subliminally, unlike the vast sea of trash horror games that rely on jumpscares

[@nargacuga05]

I feel like the opportunity to bring up “soma” was missed, it’s legitimately one of the scariest games I’ve ever played and the mission of navigating between outposts in the deep sea totally fits with everything described here

[@MotionlessKnight]

I have mild thalassophobia I think. Thinking about deep places in the ocean and stuff really freaks me out. I have a love/hate relationship with it, because I like watching documentaries and stuff that explore it, but then again, I have sort of a deep fear of imagining being in it myself. I've had nightmares about it. It's still estimated that there's a ridiculous amount of creatures down there that we haven't discovered, and I'm sure some of them are absolutely horrifying and God knows when they could just kinda show up out of the woodwork. It's spooky.

[@mishacochran2825]

Thats just anyone with common sense

[@alexterieur8813]

I think we have plenty of horrifying creatures on earth or shallow waters, i would be surprised if an animal of a greater scale of terrifyingness existed

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

@@alexterieur8813 Consider for a moment that we now "officially" know that the Architeuthis actually exists... That's the "legit" name for a Giant Squid (aka "Architeuthidae")... Other than one "plausible candidate" that's spent nearly a century in the Smithsonian Institute, we have exactly 2 video clips (a few seconds each) of it, and both were "captured" after 2000... BOTH were caught off the coast of Japan, not far from the famous Marianna Trench... and were estimated, likely about 90% "dumb luck". We also know more about the moons over Mars than we do about the bottom of the ocean... to the degree that we haven't yet even mapped more than 5% of the territory down there! Frankly, I'd be surprised if we did NOT find something more interesting, fascinating, and remarkably disturbing or outright horrific in the depths... Hell, we didn't have confirmation of the Iceland sharks OR the Six-gill until around 20-ish years ago, and we (humans generally) like to believe that we know A LOT about sharks... as much as we've studied since the mass slaughter fiasco over "Jaws" sent Benchley to admit his regret for ever writing the book... I'm not even sure how recent discoveries like the cookie-cutter, goblin, or the megamouth are... As a (usually) "dry caver" I've been tasked with accompanying biologists and zoologists into caves ON LAND to discover new species... and you might not consider insects and relatively small fish all that significant, but they're more than "germs"... AND "complex species" are being discovered all the time... It's almost a point of foolish to assume we've already discovered all the creatures in the sea... The pacific alone is deep enough to STACK Mt. Everest several times over and not break the surface... Think about that. ;o)

[@gloomyallo1830]

@@gnarthdarkanen7464 To be fair, we have reason not to fear what else might live down there, because we'd know if there were another giant predator. Extremely stagnant animals like Iceland or Six-gill sharks, who live in both extremely isolated regions that coincide with being on the seabed, make sense in that they aren't active enough and too distant to make their presence known like giant squids are (Who are still subtle enough that we barely have any film of them), and even then we know giant or colossal squids are the biggest you get with deep sea predators because they're still devoured by sperm whales. I feel like we'd know if there were another giant marine organism because it would reflect upon the behavior of all other animals in the surrounding environment and beyond, sperm whales deep-sea dive daily to access giant squid without a care, a behavior that reflects no pressure from predators. So, we probably won't have to worry about finding an eldritch abomination.

[@alexterieur8813]

@@gnarthdarkanen7464 pretty sure the 5% of ocean floors maps isnt a real thing

[@rae-rae8005]

I like how you mentioned that fear of a shark in the swimming pool. I ALWAYS imagined that. Still do. And I hate it because I love to swim

[@paulymorphous9958]

Yeah, I always imagined that one too. No idea how common it was.

[@rae-rae8005]

@@paulymorphous9958 I wish more people talked about it. sure it feels embarrassing but still, more people need to talk about it.

[@AGULL]

Omg yes, i was sometimes scared while having swimlessons. That melodi didnt help either😅

[@cosmicdistortion4350]

for me it's when i take a cold shower i get reminded of sharks. hence i hate taking cold showers lol

[@peabrain6872]

Sharks shouldn’t be feared

[@SrValeriolete]

The level of your writting never ceases to impress me "the ocean is deep space in our backyard" is so clever and impactfull and summarizes so well the idea of the video.

[@nasseralharbi5528]

This has hands down been one of my favourite channels to watch recently, please never stop making content like this

[@macromondo8026]

It took this video for me to realize I have Thalassophobia, just...the isolation, the fear of drowning at shallow depths, the fear of being crushed in the total darkness of abyssal depths, the fear of being surrounded by bizarre organisms, nope, no thanks, imma stay right here in land thank you very much (this video scared me more than any horror movie and I loved every minute of it lol.)

[@Jeyblox]

I think thalassophobia is as much a natural reaction as being afraid of the dark, some experience it more strongly than others. I realised I had it when our family got this large poster of dolphins under the sea, compared to others I wasn’t looking at the cute dolphins, but at the large body of empty darkness behind them that was distracting and disturbing to me, lmao.

[@chattycatty3336]

​@@Jeyblox I feel this 😂 I can barely watch finding nemo because the vast empty backgrounds low-key terrify me 💀

[@DarkModeIndonesiaEdition]

I think you have some phobia of void cuz all of the fear you have is related to them

[@noirangel6416]

One of the most terrifying iterations of the fear of deep sea life came from Junji Ito's "The thing that drifted ashore". I wont spoil it, but much of it ask what other horrors could be seen within the deep dark sea. Ps: I kiss the dry land that keeps me safe from the horrors of the abyss.

[@jennifervan75]

That one is one of my favourite stories because it's so scary

[@darrelsam419]

The imagery of that manga was horrifying, as with most of Ito's work. Still the idea of the story scares me more because the thought of humans being twisted in that way is terrifying.

[@azneter]

I pray to whatever elder thing Junji worships that this story gets made into an episode of Maniac 😭

[@peabrain6872]

There are no horrors of the deep

[@azneter]

@@peabrain6872 Do you know what a Tusoteuthis was?

[@heather9130]

You can also get this experience by doing a night swim in the ocean. I went on a night dive. Outside of the beam of your flashlight is pitch darkness. It was amazing seeing these glowing worm creatures, squid, and octopi. Feeling like a shark could loom out of the darkness as any moment. And I've never done it since lol, absolutely terrifying. This was a really interesting video (I subbed), I picked up Iron Lung immediately. What a great concept for a game.

[@scpWyatt]

“Giant sea noodle, leaks fear juice. Do not touch.”

[@Jimera0]

Watching this video made me realize I've had a bit of an odd reaction to the deep compared to most people. When I was a young kid I was scared of deep water, yes. Terrified even. But what scared me was the very real threat of drowning, not the thought of a monster lurking below. I knew I couldn't swim, and the thought of water deep enough I couldn't touch the bottom was literally enough to give me nightmares. But when I learned what awesome creatures lived down there, rather than frighten me it only fascinated me. My favorite animal growing up was the giant squid, and I wanted nothing more than to see it and creatures like it in person. Once I learned to swim my fear of the deep dissipated, and only wonder remained. Maybe this is why I both loved Subnautica and was never very frightened of it, while my friends would have to play in short bursts to give themselves chances to rest from all the anxiety it was causing them.

[@titan_o7]

I think that almost all of humanity has some level of thalassophobia, myself included. As someone who lives in a landlocked state thousands of miles from the nearest coastline, the ocean (and even just pictures of deep sea creatures) has always made me physically shudder. Despite that though, I’ve been scuba diving in the ocean once before, and while it was very scary at first, the fear gradually faded and I began to enjoy it. Hopefully I’ll be able to dive again sometime in the future, it was an amazing and unique experience.

[@mzjalic324]

I really like these videos on horror adjacent concepts that can be tied to speculative biology. They've been honestly fantastic looks into things that are scary, and why they might be so. With a great helping of atmosphere and great narration, of course!

[@Johnny_L1]

Absolutely loved how you combined videogames, movies and real life to make this incredibly entertaining video. Thank you!

[@tacos3341]

The ocean is fascinating and frightening at the same time

[@einienj3281]

It's not our element..

[@tijanamilenkovic9442]

@@einienj3281 if you really want to really shit your pants there is a wide array of athletic sea creatures ***(I am saying creatures because one of these are not fish)*** and these include larger sharks, tarpons, mahi mahi, billfishes, tunas, mackerels and dolphins. All of them have very low body fat percentage, most of their fat is polyunsaturated fat and conjugated linoleic acid, making them all of them super ripped and showing humans what 2% body fat looks like. For the record, dolphins are the leanest and the most muscular of the cetaceans and one of the leanest, most muscular marine mammals, being surprisingly lean for whales; in fact, most of the whales have up to 50% body fat, but dolphins have 4 -5% body fat. Unsurprisingly, up to 50% of all of these sea creatures' overall body mass is pure muscles; in fact, that would translate to sharks having anywhere from 25 kg to 1 t of pure muscle, depending on the species, tarpons having up to 161 kg of pure muscle, mahi mahi having up to 18 kg of pure muscle, billfishes having 58 kg to 650 kg of pure muscle, depending on the species, tunas having 60.3 kg to 200 kg of pure muscles, mackerels having 0.75 kg to 3.4 kg of pure muscle and dolphins having anywhere from 25 kg to 6 t of pure muscle, depending on the species. With that much muscle mass, dolphins are definitely the marine mammals that deserve the title ''Herculean", and you know, sharks, tunas and billfishes are truly the bodybuilders of the ocean, along with dolphins

[@whynottalklikeapirat]

@@einienj3281 Speak for yourself

[@einienj3281]

@@whynottalklikeapirat You can live underwater or something? I like diving and swimming, but I don't live in the sea.. as a kid my dream was to be a mermaid, but no such luck..

[@whynottalklikeapirat]

@@einienj3281 Can you live outside in the snow unassisted? Is a persons only true element a house at room temperature? Just because something can’t be sustained indefinitely doesn’t mean it’s all alien and uninhabitable and non-elementy the rest of the time. Pretty sure a fair amount of professional seamen, fishermen or commercial divers consider it their element. The Bayou people of SE Asia sure do living on and in the ocean more or less their entire lives. Anyway being a mermaid is a good dream. I believe it’s even a real job in some aquariums. Every summer I spend a couple of months outside in the arctic living off spearfishing. I’ll be off for like 4 hours a day hunting and exploring, that’s about as far as my wetsuit will carry me. I’d starve or have to go home if I didn’t so I feel like, that makes it my element in a rather down to earth (or down to the beach and into the briney) kind of way, for the time that I am there. In the tropics I could stay out all day, more or less. But if I were to go out on my balcony as I am now, here in the city and stay there I most likely would not survive the night. Is the balcony my element? Only if I dress for the occasion :D

[@ianp.1617]

Hey, recently the game "Evolve" seemed to be revived. I don't know if you know about it(though it wouldn't surprise me if you did), but basically is a hunting game where 4 players hunt down a fifth player that controls a creature able to evolve within minutes (but only after completing a couple of requirements ofc). I think it would be fascinating to get into the biology of the planets where those creatures developed, and theorizing about how they could have been possible. I don't know, just putting the idea out there. p.s. I love your videos, hope you're able to continue this project as long as you can, and enjoy it ofc; great day, and thanks for reading if you did (Whoever read this really, not necessarily the Archivist)

[@troysbuilds.3896]

I got like 200 hours on this game and have every monster and hunter in the game I love it

[@Pumkin5000]

Can someone tell me the name of the movie where some ppl went to an is land which has gold and i think the Dwayne the rock was in it and the ending was where they were fighting an eel

[@thehowlingjoker]

@@Pumkin5000 Journey 2: The Mysterious Island

[@Pumkin5000]

@@thehowlingjoker thx bro imma watch it tonight

[@thehowlingjoker]

@@Pumkin5000 np

[@TinyPuppet1706]

loving these concept exploration videos man it’s so interesting seeing a variety of interpretations

[@Lyuda556]

You have one of my most favorite storytelling voices of all time. Thank you for your narration.

[@rga1605]

To be honest, I really like to think Iron Lung as a dream or dream-like experience, because it doesn't make it less scary, because the premise itself is nightmarish enough (especially if you interpret the blood ocean as the blood of all mankind that was raptured).

[@alexlea6777]

For centuries, the bottom of the deepest seas have been shrouded in mystery and superstition. Some say it's a hostile place, inhabited by the strangest creatures. Others, that it serves as a prison for the most dangerous of outcasts. But the only way of ever finding out is to go there and see for yourself... -Bionicle

[@EZ-mx5ci]

I love that video! I would watch it over and over as a kid it gave me such chills and wonder!

[@alexlea6777]

@@EZ-mx5ci And the music in it is just sooo good

[@chrisinnaabyss]

@@alexlea6777 Whats the video called?

[@alexlea6777]

@@chrisinnaabyss The song is called creeping in my soul, and as for the video look up "Bionicle Barraki commerical" on KZbin

[@pr_watcher]

The Meg is actually based on a book series by Steve Alten. He specializes in underwater horror stories with a tinge of real science behind them. (Bad science, but real enough to make the story plausible.). The Meg is an enjoyable series to read if you like deep sea horror, dinosaurs, or anyhting adjacent to them.

[@oldparatrooper]

Was just coming to say this too.

[@himbourbanist]

The Ocean is both absolutely beautiful, mesmerizing, and intriguing, while simultaneously being the most horrific, infinite abyss imaginable. It's so cool, and terrifying.

[@thisischrys]

Recently found your channel thanks to your Subnautica documentary and honestly I'm so glad I stumbled in here! The amount of depth in your analyses really blows me away, I'm gonna struggle to pace myself and not binge through all your videos this week haha. Would love to see you cover the worldbuilding and biology of Fallen London/Sunless Sea sometime!

[@germanluna3297]

Thalassophobia is probably one of the only fears I have. The dark abyss is one of the most horrifying things in the world to me.

[@nyarparablepsis872]

I've always found the deep sea to be fascinating and ...so beautifully calm. When I look at those life forms I rejoice in the stunning variety of life. ABZU is one of my favourite games because it captures this feeling. I also want to add that, from a historical perspective, I am unaware of any myths or stories from the earliest civilizations that deal with the supposedly universal thalassophobia. The few occurrences of sea monsters cannot be seen as indicative of that, since there are just as many monsters associated with mountain peaks, or with forests. Anyways, awesome video (as always!). I love your speculative evolution videos (so inspiring!), but these thematic dives are a great way to sharpen your own profile.

[@Hrafenclaw]

The picture with the monster scared me so bad. I love to swim a lot but even in pools I still get so scared to look down and close my eyes, it’s like I feel I’m in the deep open abbys. When I saw the monster eye- it confirmed my fears.

[@GandalfTheTsaagan]

I'm super glad that you dedicated a section to "In Other Waters", it's one of my favorite games of all time and probably one of the best portrayals of science in videogames Another favorite game of mine that's also about deep sea exploration with a stellar presentation is "Shinsekai: Into The Depths" This one is a metroidvania, and you play as a diver who still depends on his submarine to explore a postapocalyptic flooded Earth covered in ice that has to reach the deepest depth in order to find out what happened to the world, and you get to catalogue the fauna in the process

[@MrH4ckerman]

Really loving the more unique video styles you're doing apart from speculative biology, keep it up!

[@LezbionestHere]

I'm so glad you brought up abzu. I've played it several times over the years and it's my favourite exploration game. The music, the visuals, is all just so good

[@enigmaticchasm9319]

pov: youre in oceangate

[@Unit87XB]

Always a treat whenever you post something.

[@alvaronavarro4895]

Yaaay! New Curious Archive video! Im such a Big fan, man. I LOVE watching your videos after a hard week.

[@mrthg2831]

This is one of my favourite videos of all time. Thank you.

[@therealjordiano]

I love your comedic narration with iron lung there, great touch and very relatable stuff

[@carolynallisee2463]

Thank you, CA, for clearing up a mystery that's been hovering about for a few years now. It started when I encountered a video clip purporting to show migrating mermaids running afoul of a Megalodon. Try as I might, I just couldn't find the programme this clip had come from. I kept getting bounced back to the 'Bloop' recording and all the conspiracy theories surrounding it. I gave up searching after a while, and had all but forgotten about it, especially as, despite what some conspiracy hold outs would have you believe, it now seems almost certain the 'Bloop' was caused by melting and moving ice. So it turns out that the clip came from this 'mockumentary'. I think I'd kind of realised it wasn't real at the time, but it did seem highly intriguing at the time. I guess its one of those TV shows like 'The Last Dragon', a kind of speculative evolution documentary, like you say, trying to make mythological creatures seem plausible.

[@dodgersdoon1130]

This is awesome, my wife actually has thalassophobia. I could never show her this, however I enjoyed it immensely. Thank you

[@soullogz]

For some reason hearing you talking about the Abyssus Theory made me so exited and taking me aback to Uni were i first read about it, while writing a paper about deep sea exploration. :)

[@RizztrainingOrder]

I love the obscure person that initially covers an obscure topic that eventually and inevitably seem to make the rounds once in awhile on previously obscure channels.

[@Kabutoes]

In 2011 I had this fear and I’m blown away how far it’s been discussed on the internet. Virtually nobody was interested in talking about vast and space like the oceans are

[@sb792079]

One of my favorite childhood mangas had the line “idolization/fascination is the farthest emotion from understanding” And i would say, so is fear. Fear and fascination both share a similar place extremely far from understanding, And this kind of sums up my weird mixture of being intensely shaken by the deep sea, but also allured by it

[@mayonnaisesamurai]

I just found this channel and all your videos are so incredibly well researched and narrated!!! Subscribed 😊

[@Cobretsov2022]

Coming from a family full of Royal navy personnel and Royal marines it is just natural for me to not be afraid of the sea, but these stories. Thalassophobia itself is extremely intriguing for me, I may never experience the terror and discomfort of people with it feel, but it definitely is understandable

[@steveirwin3594]

Great video. I love how you focused both on real life creatures and footage, and media interpretations of them. Thanks for this, I found it somehow relaxing rather than unsettling. One note about the Meg, the movie's actually based on a 1997 book that came out wayyy before the discovery channel 'documentary' if you can call it that.

[@exorcist3d99]

Finally someone who knows, my boy steve alten deserves some credit that entire series was so awesome and intriguing to me as a kid

[@mfs353]

dude I kid you not watching the intro legit made me tense up, its almost ridiculous how strong thalassophobia is.

[@jonathancross2790]

I scrolled down and listened to the entire video like a podcast. I appreciate the work mate. Sorry for not watching the whole thing. But you are a brave hero in my book.

[@rafaelfortuna9322]

This video is perfect. It perfectly portrays all the feelings I feel about the ocean. Despite being terrifying it's still beautiful and the terrifying parts are still fascinating and just hella interesting. Some people don't quite appreciate how just crazy the ocean is and take it for granted

[@Ceece20]

I love Subnautica precisely because it’s so chilling and chilly. It makes me relax with the views and constantly looking over my shoulder for predators. Reminded me going snorkeling in the British Virgin Islands when I was a child, and I just dove down to be surrounded by the fish, only to find a small shark investigating who is disturbing the school of fish.

[@SolarBeamScotty]

I absolutely love the deep sea and sea creatures and monsters. Amazing episode!

[@jiririnagl302]

I love Underwater, it captures fear of deep sea very well, very underrated movie.That Nemo point is insane, imagine that sheer loneliness you must feel if you end up there.

[@Ghostmite98]

I have a major case of Thalassophobia, but i love the first Subnautica game simply because when you go to the dark areas and hear dozens of different sounds coalescing to make your imagination go wild just triggers something primal in me. The creatures you see in the game aren't really scary once you've seen them a few times and become numb to them, but even though you know their no longer scary to you, something in the back of your mind causes the hair on the back of your neck to stand up when you go to pitch black areas when you just have the ambience of the game to accompany you through the deep depths and i can't help but love it.

[@j.a.i.s_hptl]

Subnautica just got that mystic kinda Vibe, that can not be described when you watch someone playing it. You have to play it your self to experience this amazing but somehow also terrifing feeling

[@SmolBloof]

Thanks for the reminder of all the games that've kept me awake at night, jumping at imagined leviathans and gaping maws. Sad that you didn't mention Barotrauma though! It's another subnautical game that manages to trigger that thalassophobia despite flat, 2D visuals.

[@orengle485]

Props for adding every single source of every clip

[@Mav3ricky]

1-I love love love the ocean 2- I've played most of thiese games and am terrified of the deep water 3- Your voice, dear Archivist, is so soothing I come to watch you videos when my anxiety spikes. I adore your voice. LOVE this video, I like how you're branching out. ❤❤❤❤

[@PrismFowl]

Leviathans and other incomprehensible creatures lurking around reminds me of cosmic horror. You know it’s there but you can only see a little bit of it at a time.

[@artastic_friend]

I love the ocean so much, So much potential for exploration and so much potential for both beauty and horror

[@Hollowdude15]

Deep seas are so awesome and great video man :]

[@NoneOfTheAbove123]

The uncertainty of the unknown and the sheer expanse of the ocean frightens me.

[@purplemosasaurus5987]

I have such intense Thalassophobia that I am truly terrified of any part of the ocean except coral reefs.

[@randomgeneration7781]

I have crippling thalassophobia. You're completely right about how powerful the irrational human imagination can be when it comes to the unknown abyss, because I contracted the phobia as a child by being shown speculative prehistoric documentaries around massive aquatic monsters and more specifically basilosaurus, the prehistoric carnivorous whale. Before my first documentary, I enjoyed learning how to swim. After those documentaries I can barely manage being on the bank of a lake, I get panic attacks on boats, and at my worst I'd get triggered by the running water surrounding me while taking a shower (I'm afraid of baths now too). I know how bad my phobia is, and I knew what I was in for when I saw the video title and the brief video description. Then I saw you made it and I clicked it anyway. I can't finish watching it, but I don't regret watching it at all - you're still an amazing narrator.

[@ohiologist9256]

Playing and beating Subnautica would look like it'd make it worse, but it's actually great therapy for thalassophobia. Once you kill your first leviathan, you start feeling less scared of the deep. I started out not even wanting to leave my pod but now I go leviathan hunting with nothing more than a stasis rifle and a thermo knife in really deep areas killing one leviathan after the other.

[@randomgeneration7781]

@@ohiologist9256 This is a good idea, and my therapist did recommend I attempt some open world games involving deep sea exploration so I learn to associate more positive memories of deep water for my imagination to lock onto. It's a delicate process involving the survival mechanism however; I can fill my day with pleasant encounters, but all my brain will latch onto and remember is the two seconds of the one thing that went horribly wrong. As I understand it, my memory storage prioritizes "remember this? don't do that" memories to teach the rest of the meat to avoid repeating a set of circumstances to prolong survival, which unfortunately backfires fantastically when what I remember is not only realistically impossible but instead impedes my ability to survive in that particular situation. On the other side of the spectrum, my old school parents decided dragging me along on boating trips my other siblings enjoyed but I was terrified of would "cure" the fear out of me through hard exposure. They meant well, but with my brother and sister demanding "easier" attention my panic went invalidated and settled into associative memory. Huge unknown shadows that came a tad too close to the boat at times will always stay with me, no matter how many times the captain explained those were underwater mud banks he was trying to avoid.

[@ohiologist9256]

@@randomgeneration7781 ah I see. Still, if you're up to it it's an amazing game.

[@Hanisua]

Amazing video not gonna lie bro! Keep up the good work!

[@Alteori]

This was an amazing adventure!

[@sirarcher777]

As a SCUBA diver, I am very comfortable with the ocean, and love the vast depths, finding it even relaxing. But it’s super interesting to see why a lot of people are afraid of it.

[@aidenmclaughlin1076]

I love the ocean, I’m a diver and a sailor and I find the open ocean, staring into the abyss strangely soothing. I want something to be down there, I want there to be huge krakens of unknowable size and massive sharks of epic proportions. Something that makes me genuinely sad is when Jack finds the dead Kraken in Pirates of the Caribbean, and he contemplates the world getting smaller. I don’t know why it makes me sad, I just really want something like that to exist I guess.

[@ChloeChemical]

That was a beautiful spoken essay, I really really enjoyed this video!!

[@ashheart985]

Ever since I was a little kid I've wanted to be one of the first people to reach the bottom of the challenger deep. All free time I had I spent researching the ocean, abyssal creatures, and even a submarine I could take. I spent days upon days worth of hours playing a game one the Wii called Endless Ocean, and when I unlocked the abyssal dive site I was ecstatic. It's quite like Beyond Blue which I also played but I liked it better because Beyond Blue had an ending, then you restarted, for Endless Ocean it was... endless. And then I read a wonderful work of fiction called Into the Drowning Deep, a book with really quite accurate science but about fictional Sirens that people found living in the abyss. All my friends would flip when I told them this dream I had and I'd just smile and laugh, not understanding their fear. For me it was adventure, discovery. Loving the unknown, feeling pride as more people had been to the moon than to the bottom of even our own ocean. In giant swimming pools I love swimming with feet of water in every direction, so I assume I'd also love the open ocean of the pacific, never knowing when a colossal creature like a whale will show up in your field of view. The deep is my first love. No need to be afraid everyone, its calling you :)

[@ArcNeoMasato]

Any time I see videos like this, I'm taken back to my original Playstation and the first game to truly terrify me when I wasn't just a kid, Treasures of the Deep. The earlier parts of the game are just really really chill, and even beautiful in a lot of cases. But later in the game, you start going deeper and deeper, until one level is outright in the Marianas Trench. Even as a 31 year old adult, I struggle to bring myself to play some of those levels again.

[@ot7biasedmashups]

My thalassophobia is quite interesting. A lot of people who are scared of deep water are also scared of deep space which I'm not. For me it's rather connected to my fear of heights. I don't care about monsters in the deep. However, when I'm swimming in a large lake or the sea and feel a way too cold current that could have only come from wayyyy down or even I look down only to see bottomless darkness.... That absolutely terrifies me. It doesn't matter if I KNOW the bottom is just 20m down. I can't see it. I can't feel it. Therefore it might as well not be there. Just the imagination how the sea can be kilometers deep is bone chilling. For my fear of heights I'm obviously afraid of falling. But it's also a feeling of weakness because I'm so high up I wouldn't be able to change anything if I were to fall. It's similar for large bodies of water. If my strengths leave me, I can't do anything about sinking down and drowning. Thalassophobia is so fascinating to me because I've always loved swimming and especially diving. As a baby I tried to swim before I could even walk. I do freediving/mermaiding. I don't feel as comfortable anywhere as I do underwater. Yet I'm still so terrified of the depth.

[@nobodi12]

Love it. Would liove if you do a video about history of diving all the tech suits, how the tech changed over the years, real underwater habitat.

[@zenyatta5064]

This was great, I subbed

[@gloomyallo1830]

Europa Report is a very obscure and sometimes questionable film, but is nonetheless mostly grounded in realism. The entire premise is the crew of a manned mission to Europa, the ice moon with a theoretical subsurface ocean, and how they're gradually hunted by a foreign "light", climatically revealed to be a giant tentacled marine alien upon the death of the last crew member. The beast truly looks like a lifeform that could exist on Europa, and the glimpses of the bottomless pitch blackness that is Europa's subsurface ocean are equally unnerving. Europa's subsurface ocean is said to be much deeper than Earth's despite the moon as a whole being much smaller, thus that's countless miles of void inhabited by whatever calls the moon's waters home.

[@lolafierling2154]

I absolutely love that movie. It can be a bit questionable at times but overall I felt like it was truly disturbing. Being based in reality is always the scariest thing about any scary/disturbing movie.

[@SitaraAleu]

One correction; The Meg was inspired by the eponymous books by Steve Alten, not entirely the irrational fears of the public. The books have been around for years 😅 The movies just kind of went in their own direction with his concept. Other than that, this video was amazing. I love the ocean and I’m always fascinated to see more of it down there

[@CountLilac]

Was looking for this comment

[@TroyTheCatFish]

Thank You 🙏

[@CalciumOxyde]

Wasn't expecting any scp in this video. SCP-3000 is my favorite of all time.

[@diontaedaughtry974]

Thank you this was very informative, Great video 👍👍

[@sketchalater4656]

For me, it's not so much the sea, but rather lakes. Especially when swimming in murky ones where you can't see the bottom. Even though the only largest things in my region would be sturgeon, bass, catfish, etc. I have a small fear of putting my feet on the ground, worried that I'll step on a giant fish lol. Also, I would hate to step on a crawdad, a dead carcass of some sort, trash, broken glass, etc. I'll just sit on my floatie and keep my feet near the surface and I'm fine. Also if the water is clear, I would have no problems, even if there was big fish around.

[@TheHumanHollow]

This is so weird to me, because I don't fear those aspects of the ocean at all. That's actually why I never understood the love for SCP 3000 compared to other aquatic SCPs because it was just not frightening or in depth enough for me. The ocean/depths is more mysterious/inspiring/enigmatic than frightening. Perhaps that's because I've always been aware of it and the creatures there, but I don't know. To me the fear of the water is how vulnerable you are, in context of breath. At any moment just getting lost means you drown. Equipment malfunctions? Drown. Animal to curious? Drown. Pressure will get you too. That fear, especially in cave diving, is waaaayyy scarier to me that the creatures there or the expansive environment. That's just me though.

[@shadowgirl00]

I'm in the middle of playing Dredge and sailed over a large sink hole in the ocean that has... some sort of large sea creature in it, and I had a sudden well of anxiety seeing it and the sink hole, and thought of this video. There is a reason why Lovecratifian/Eldritch horror works so well with the sea, it makes you feel very small.

[@duncanouwens6417]

Such a cool video. Nice work!

[@sharlin648]

It kinda reminds me of this thing I saw online about the Uncanny valley, asking what was it so long ago where we encountered something that looked human, but wasn't and that has stuck with us ever since.

[@ethanlackey8048]

I thought that was just an effect caused by the brains facial pattern recognition? Or maybe a means to detect danger in other humans that aren’t like us. Like a serial killer detection sensor.

[@mikehat7652]

​@Ethan Lackey there's no evidence that serial killers look differently than any other person in any kind of way

[@ethanlackey8048]

@@mikehat7652 I know, but some people just set off alarm bells so idk. It’s just a thought.

[@arvianworkshop7118]

I really hope curious archive will cover "Delicious in Dungeon" the way they explained the classic fantasy monster into a more plausible creature is so cool! Like how mimic is just a massive Hermit crab, how a living armor is just a colony of mollusk like animal, or how succubus is more similar to mosquitoes

[@deinsilverdrac8695]

hey Curious archive, great video like always, it's about some spec evo project you've talked about, the dragonslayer codex. Just to say the project kind of went wild and made dozen of new creatures that could be use in a second video on that.

[@Uriah-Caplot]

I have thalasophibia for me it’s whenever I look out into the fog of the water I think something is going to come out of the abyss and grab and devour me, I fell off wile tubing one time and it took the people driving a bit to realize I fell of so it was just me and the abyss, I looked down and I couldn’t see anything I started swimming to the shore so fast my adrenaline kicked rite in, I could feel my heart pumping. I still do things like tubing but I only feel scared wen I’m alone, I never swim in the deep alone.