Caulrofobia (Imperia)
Introduction - Grock
Grock was a famous clown, who lived in Villa Grock. Grock was born in Loveresse, a village in the Bernese Jura in the Canton of Bern. He started early as a performer, learning musicianship and acrobatic skills from his father. When a caravan of Roma passed through, he joined them, learning more instruments and gaining confidence with them. In 1894, he debuted with Fiame Wetzel's traveling circus. He became a clown, working first with Brick in 1903, adopting the name "Grock", and then the famous clown Antonet (Umberto Guillaum). This second act was developed with the aim of making the transition from circus to music hall stages, which were more lucrative. While not initially successful, Antonet and Grock did manage to secure a London engagement in 1911. Refining their performances according to audience response, Grock came to dominate the act, and they eventually split up.
Career and later life
By 1913, Grock's fame had spread, his act having developed into the mixture of pantomime and musical blunders for which he is now remembered. With the outbreak of World War I, he made Britain his base, remaining there until 1924, when he returned to continental Europe. He performed throughout Europe and in the United States, commanding ever higher fees, and his continuing success enabled him to establish his own circus in 1951, with which he toured until his final performance in Hamburg on October 30, 1954. He retired to the Villa Bianca (now named "Villa Grock"), a 50-room house he had had built in the 1920s in Imperia, Italy, where he died in 1959.
Some of Grock's performances have been preserved on film. He made the 1927 silent movie What For?, and French and German language versions of Grock in 1931. A biopic, Au revoir, M. Grock (1950), featured Grock as himself, with Adrien Osperi and Ted Rémy playing Grock as a boy and young man, respectively. In retirement, he made some appearances on Italian television. He also wrote several books, including an autobiography. Grock's career is commemorated with the Grock d'Or, an annual competition for young circus artists which first took place in 2003. This competition has been discontinued since 2008.
Coulrophobia
The word Coulrophobia means a persistent and irrational fear of clowns. It possibly originates from Greek Kolon meaning stilt or stilt-walkers which are often used by clowns. The word clown might have even originated from Cloyne, Clod or Colonus- a rustic country bumpkin, farmer, yokel or someone who lacks common sense.
Coulrophobic individuals report feeling “shaken and traumatized” at the sight or even the mere thought of clowns. A study conducted by a Hospital in UK showed that decorating a children’s ward with images of clowns actually backfired when more than 250 children (in the age groups of 4 to 16) reported disliking the images.
It is not just children suffering from this fear; many people having this specific anxiety disorder are middle-aged adults. Media, novels (Stephen King’s novel and movie of the same name (IT) about Penny-wise the Dancing Clown- terrorized many adult Americans who even resorted to wearing t-shirts which read “Can’t Sleep-Clowns will Eat Me Alive”) are known to be major contributory factors in the mass hysteria or fear of clowns. Thus, King’s Penny-wise probably did to people what Jaws did for swimming in the ocean and Hitchcock’s Psycho did for showers. It is believed that the idea of King’s IT might have originated from the author’s own life-long fear of clowns.
What causes Coulrophobia?
As stated above, representations of evil clowns in media is a big contributor for instilling this phobia in young or anxious minded adults.
Clowns and court jesters have been around for thousands of years. Even Emperors and kings in Egypt, China and Europe allowed their court Jesters to mock them where no else could. It was a pretty important position in court. The clown or the Fool was the ‘village idiot who was allowed to be blasphemous’. He might have been a harmless eccentric who was ‘obscenely humorous’ or uninhibited in his sexual acts. In fact: in many Pueblo tribal celebrations, clowns performed sexual acts like masturbation, intercourse, sodomy etc. in front of the entire tribe. These associations are known to exist in modern pop culture and media representations.
Psychologists also believe that, like in case of other specific phobias, the fear of clowns could be deeply rooted in childhood, mainly because children below the age of 4 years are highly reactive to familiar body type and unfamiliar faces. One phobic, for example, recalls having visited a fair as a young girl where she encountered a “foul-smelling, yellow-teethed clown who got in her face”.
Symptoms of Coulrophobia and treatment
Like in case of other phobias, Coulrophobia also produces many physical, mental and emotional symptoms in the sufferer some of which are: Sweating, Nausea, Feelings of dread, Accelerated heartbeat and rapid breathing, Crying or screaming and Feeling angry at being placed in a situation where clowns are present.
The fear of clowns is treated in the same way as other phobias are: gradually coming in contact with the object of one’s fear so that one has a more controlled response to that object, in this case- clowns.
Fortunately, Coulrophobia does not affect one’s day-to-day life as the phobic can generally avoid situations (circuses, birthday parties etc.) where one is likelier to encounter clowns. However, if the phobia is interfering with one’s professional or personal life it is best to seek psychotherapeutic counseling for it. This includes methods like NLP or Neuro-linguistic programming, Hypnotherapy or Gradual or systematic desensitization done with the help of a trained therapist.
(Reference: Fearof.net)
The cache
Look for a small green waterproof cylinder. Put the cache back the way you found it (or better if it was visible).
Since is it usually very crowded close by, there are a lot of muggles around. So use stealth when needed… If you solve the puzzle, you will find spoilerpics in the checker below, to be sure that you can find the cache easily amongst the muggles. And I’ve you don’t suffer from caulrofobia, you can also visit House Grock ;-)
The puzzle
But first you will have to solve the puzzle. Answer the following questions and find the cache at:
N 043 53.ABC
E 008 02.DEF
Question 1.
Which celebrity did not suffer from coulrophobia ?
Daniel Radcliffe (A=2), Johnny Depp (A=4), Charly chaplin (A=6), P. Diddy (A=8).
Question 2.
People with Globophobia have
Fear of the world being flat (B=4), Fear of the world being round (B=6), Fear of globalisition (B=8), Fear of balloons (B=0).
Question 3.
Which phobia does not exist ?
Fear of returning home (C=6), Fear of mother in law (C=8), Fear of nudity (C=0), Fear of rain (C=2) or They all exist (C=4).
Question 4.
When you have Plutophobia, you have
Fear of wealth (D=6), Fear of god Pluto (D=8), Fear of Disney character Pluto, (D=0) or Fear of planet Pluto (D=2).
Question 5.
Heterophobia is
Fear of beeing straight (E=2), Fear of persons that are not gay (E=4), Fear of the opposite sex (E=6) or Fear of fying from Heathrow airport (E=8).
Question 6.
Sinistrophobia is
Fear of sinister looking people (F=9), Fear of sinister looking locations (F=1), Fear of sins or people that commit sins (F=3), Fear of things to the left or left-handed (F=5)
Happy caching!
Marrakesj
