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Having never grown out of my childhood fear of the dark, I\u2019m probably not the person you want by your side if things go a bit 28 Days Later.<\/p>\n
But after learning about the potential benefits of fear exposure, I decided to try and build up my tolerance by visiting a bar where your heart rate sets the prices.<\/p>\n
Halloween has come early to Clerkenwell, London, where The Kraken Rum has opened the \u201cShock Exchange\u201d pop-up bar in the atmospheric catacombs.<\/p>\n
The black spiced rum brand worked with Danish scientists at Aarhus University\u2019s Recreational Fear Lab to design a \u201cgauntlet of relentless horror\u201d that punters must pass through to earn a beverage.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: Perfect place to visit in autumn is ‘most haunted location in the UK’<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n With Daily Express colleagues Tara and Emily in tow for use as human shields, I braved the immersive horror experience.<\/p>\n Upon entry, we were fitted with heart rate monitors and made our way through a series of rooms filled with terrifying sights, eerie sounds and actors in monstrous costumes.<\/p>\n Professor Mathias Clasen, director of the Recreational Fear Lab, says fear \u201creduces people to their biological core\u201d.<\/p>\n He adds: \u201cEvery neurologically normal individual is born with a fear system that tends to respond to relatively predictable things such as spiders, snakes, heights, deep water, darkness or social situations in which we are vulnerable.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was fun for us to share what we know about the physiology and psychology of fear for this experience, which is all about keeping fear down.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Kraken experience is about measuring heart rate which you can\u2019t really control rationally.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A creepy hospital room, demonic doll, hall of mirrors, and menacing figures that loomed out of the darkness were among the lurking terrors.<\/p>\n Our hearts began racing and our bodies prepared to trigger a fight or flight response as we stumbled over the uneven floor.<\/p>\n Your heart rate rises in preparation for an attack or other threat, Prof Clasen explains. \u201cIf you perceive potential danger, your whole system goes into alert mode with a range of predictable, swift, recalibrations in the body.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of those is increased heart rate, because you need to pump out a lot of energy to the big muscle groups so that you\u2019re ready to run away or fight. It\u2019s the nervous system preparing the organism for attack.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Eventually we burst through the door to the bar, where our bravery (or lack of) decided how much we would have to cough up.<\/p>\n Tara came out on top, her heart rate rising by just 24 percent. This earned her the title of a \u201cBravest Beast\u201d, 16th place on the night\u2019s leaderboard and \u00a33 cocktails.<\/p>\n Emily was slightly more spooked, with a 28 percent rise, and I proved my cowardly credentials with a 31 percent jump. We were dubbed \u201cStrong Souls\u201d and charged \u00a35, narrowly avoiding falling into the \u201cWimps\u201d category which would have seen us fork out \u00a38 per cocktail.<\/p>\n As we made our way to the bar we were handed Kraken Adrenaline Shots – blood red beverages with a chilli kick, served in a giant syringe. After more than earning it, I calmed my nerves with a much-needed espresso rumtini.<\/p>\n Kraken\u2019s Screamfest VII: Shock Exchange runs until Saturday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n [ad_2]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [ad_1] Having never grown out of my childhood fear of the dark, I\u2019m probably not the person you want by your side if things go a bit 28 Days Later. But after learning about the potential benefits of fear exposure, I decided to try and build up my tolerance by visiting a bar where your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9587,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[763],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9586"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farratanews.online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}