The Unknown Is So Much Known, After All

It is the Unknown that draws people.

One of my friends recently received a gift by parcel. There was no name written on it, so she kept inquiring all her friends one by one including me whether we send that gift as a surprise for her. But none of us had any role to play there.

Knowing, it is from somebody unknown, she got scared to open it. Who could have sent it? What’s their intention? In fact, she kept it unopened for long.

Time passed and slowly excitement took the place of fear. She opened it and was thrilled to find a beautiful showpiece that still occupies a place in her home. The strange gift though initially scared her, but in the end, she enjoyed this unusual happening. The suspenseful memory of it would lay forever in her brain.

There’s something in the unknown feeling we all like to cherish. Everyone in their life has at least one such mystery memory saved.

Psychology of unknown

What happens when we encounter something not known to us and why do people get drawn towards it?

Man innately is a curious animal. A Baby learns more in the first three months of their life than they learn later. And this is not just the curiosity, but the true invading spirit of humans to unfold mysteries for a pleasant reward.

Neuropsychologist Michael Gruber says, “Satisfied curiosity provides the brain with a sense of achievement”.

When you truly step out of your comfort zone and walk into the unknown. When you know something great awaits you, but you don’t know if you’ll make it or if you’ll fail. But you KNOW you have to risk it and go for it. When you do this, you ALWAYS gain something, regardless if you make it or fail.

“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.”— John Bunyan

If the person you are helping is somebody you are not going to meet in the future, then this help for sure carries much more weight. Helping an unknown gives more peace. The reason lies in building the grounds of humanity by breaking barriers of regions, caste color, or creed for who knows who the stranger is or where he belongs to. Encouraging such behavior can make nations friendly and not deadly to each other.

Pandora box effect

To discover new things, people typically surpass their limitations. The temptation of the forbidden seems simply overpowering. In the book ‘The Power and Peril of Curiosity’, the American scientists Christopher K. Hsee and Bowen Ruan demonstrated that humans are willing to research new things, even if they can expect negative consequences.

This is found true, particularly in the extramarital affairs scenario where one partner gets charmed by the other person and wants to unlock everything unknown to that person, not valuing the spouse’s qualities.

What is the purpose?

Does nature want to explain something by letting us explore this unknown?

• Is it a lesson to be learned?
• Or is it to simply increase self-worth by wandering into risks and later conquering them?
• Or to let us heal ourselves by healing others?
• Or simply exposure to a thrill?

Whatever it is, one thing is sure life never remains the same afterwards and the journey with the ‘unknown’ stops at the destination of personal growth. Since

“Often, it’s not about becoming a new person, but becoming the person you were meant to be, and already are, but don’t know how to be.”— Health L. Buckmaster

Thank you for reading.

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