something occured to me a few weeks back. it was something i've read before last year, heard many times before on the telly, and finally something that was mentioned in a recent movie.

now before you get your hopes up about what astounding nugget of information i am about to produce here, i should probably say that many people would have thought about this certain, SOMETHING, that i'm being unneccesarily mysterious about before in their lives.

i am speaking about the peculiar, ingenious, most extraordinary phenomenon of a predator ensnaring its prey by means of bewitching it and practically hypnotising it into an enrapturing entrancement. the prey in this case almost loses all its senses, only feeling the unshakeable desire to stare into its predator's eyes (where applicable) and if possible, arrange itself neatly on a dinner platter with roasted veggies to be presented to the widening mouth of the aforementioned ravenous creature. of course this isn't a laughing matter, as the consequences are terrifying. this form of dazzling one's prey, such that it is near to throwing itself prostrate at your feet begging you to kill it, is truly fearsome.

i first heard this on Animal Planet (of course). on screen was a rabbit directly facing a snake, not a big one or terribly frightening one, just a normal old rabbit-gobbling snake. and the narrator mentioned something about the rabbit being "bewitched" by the snake's eyes, and how it was mesmerised into paralysis, simply standing there watching the future cause of its untimely end without a single twitch. a bit of an easy meal i would think for the serpent, kinda like fast food except that burgers and fries don't stare at you from behind the counter.

and then i came across this.... i don't know what to call it, phenomenon? method?....i shall settle with "thingamajig".... in Twilight. edward cullen (aka Predator) tells bella (aka Prey) that he is the perfect predator and that everything about him draws her in. his eyes, his voice, his looks, his smell even. everything about him makes her want to be near him, and then it would just be a simple matter of choosing where to take a bite out of. and best of all, she would so dearly love for him to do so, even at the expense of her life.

?!?!?!??!?!

does this not scare you!??!?!?!

does it not make you fear everything that attracts you now!??!?!

what if, at the end of every dangling carrot, there is a yawning black mouth with hideously sharp teeth and tremendously bad breath waiting to swallow you??!?!

that, by the way, was a metaphor.

should we not be afraid of predators hypnotising our minds and making us blithely turn off our innate alarm sensors or worse, WANT to be eaten/taken advantage of/robbed/injured/mugged/etc etc??!?!?

what if people perfected this thingamajig (or even this CRAFT) and used it for ends that i can't even think of!??!?!

i fear to take even a single step down this path of imagination. in fact, i might even pause and hesitate, before doing an about-turn and retracing my steps.

it's insane!!!!!! there could be millions of conspiracy theories if you consider it. well maybe not, i don't know, i was just trying to add to the overall sense of panic and chaos.

ah what the hell, i shall leave this now to steam in the juices of my imagination and ponder upon this matter further.