Can anything in Buddhist theory explain phenomena like Buck Fever?

Question

A surprising number of people whom I know, who are generally kind and compassionate, are also avid hunters or at least enthusiastically support hunting by others. They feel hunting is a healthy activity and a good way to provide food. They site biblical references to man having dominion over animals. They feel hunting is part of a tradition that should be upheld. There are also a couple who feel it's a necessary skill to learn for the inevitable doomsday; but that's a whole other thing. ;-)

So these are people who feel good about hunting. At least in theory. But there is a phenomena called Buck Fever which is described as intense nervousness by inexperienced (and sometimes very experienced) hunters. There is a video circulating around the internet now showing a little girl experiencing this "buck fever" and while it's being shared by hunting enthusiasts who think it's great, I couldn't help but feeling disturbed watching it. To me it looks like horror in the guise of exhilaration.

In Buddhism, we understand that any intentional killing will have consequences sooner or later and this is not something to be taken lightly. I wonder if this intense mind and body reaction to killing (or the intention to kill) can be explained by anything in the Abhidhamma or Buddhist theory in general. It's really intellectual curiosity about whether the mind can cause the body to malfunction when the mind perceives something on a deeper level than a person's logical reasoning. Or perhaps it's something else entirely. But I'm interested if Buddhism has anything to teach us about this. Thank you.

Answer 1

Angulimala (finger garland) Bandit was probably the most ruthless serial killer during Buddha's time. I read somewhere but didnt do much research on it that in his previous life he offered food to previous buddha or arahat who was tired and weak from hunger, after that in every life, Angulimala had extraordinary strength than everyone around him. in one of his lives he was a wild buffalo attacking the domesticated buffaloes. The villagers got upset and set up a lynching mob to hunt him down. He was eventually captured, tortured, and killed. He wanted to take revenge on those who killed him. Among the villagers, there was a girl who watched the lynching with teary eyes. She became his mother in his last life (which woulda been his last victim if Buddha didnt intervene) and the villagers became his victims. However, i dont think he took pleasure in killing but rather was misguided. Kalayanamitra is certainly a blessing.

Answer 2

Not sure of any specific theory, but just to throw in a bit of general philosophy/intellectual thought: Maybe because this girl is so young, her conscious mind is not yet developed enough to fully realize the consequences (kammic or otherwise) of the act of killing the deer. Or perhaps, since this is a case of "buck fever" it could apply to any who have not yet killed a sentient being of considerably higher level than say, a bug. For such people, the subconscious mind may be so strongly repulsed by the tremendous negative kamma of such an act, something almost foreign to it and yet extremely large and offensive, it is revolting. In the case of the girl, because she is so young, it may be the case that her body and mind are pure/sensitive/untainted as compared to older individuals who have spent more time in the world or who have become desensitized to killing. As a result, the incredible negative kammic force in her subconscious may be causing a physical reaction.

Answer 3

I may be wrong but looking at the video, the little girl's face seems to me smiley (happy) while her hands (limbs) are shaking. She seemed to me happy that she's having a novel experience. That doesn't look like horror to me: it looks like, I don't know, an adrenaline rush or something like that. Her voice sounds whispery, I suspect that's because her heart is pounding (high breathing and heart rate).

I thought she seemed to be enjoying or at least intrigued by the experience: it's as if her dad had given her amphetamines.

Amphetamines are synthetic chemicals based upon a structure closely resembling that of adrenaline and norepiniphrine. These chemicals, therefore, can induce similar biological responses, such as acting as a stimulant, and creating a greater alertness and a feeling of prowess

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I think that some of the comments under the "field and stream" article that you posted might support this diagnosis:

• And an elevated heart rate is not the kiss of un-death ... for shots taken at acceptable ranges.

• to be honest buck fever is why i go if i didnt get it i wouldnt hunt i get it even when im not gonna shoot it took me 21 years to be able to calm down enough to kill a deer with a bow. If you dont get excited why would you hunt?

• I did read and interesting article (possibly here) that heart rates of hunters can more than double in just a couple of seconds. There are very few things that can cause a jump like that, maybe jumping out of an airplane because the engine just exploded, doing the running of the bulls blindfolded, and certain lapdances.

• If you don't get a little adrenaline spike, why do it?

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Not a very Buddhist answer.

Anyway I suppose that's the cause: it may be comparable in its (physiological and possibly/consequently attachment-inducing or habit-forming) effect to recreational drug use.

Skill (in hunting) may require a person to avoid or overcome (or deny or control or dissipate) that effect (because it can be debilitating): I'd guess the physiological reaction/effect is more evolutionarily helpful for gross motor activities (running and fighting) than for fine motor activities (aiming and shooting).

Wisdom is something else, presumably, i.e. seeing it for what it is.

Answer 4

i think ""vāsanā" might fit the situation best.

from wiki "vāsanā (Skt.). Habitual tendencies or dispositions, a term, often used synonymously with bīja (‘seed’). It is found in Pāli and early Sanskrit sources but comes to prominence with the Yogācāra, for whom it denotes the latent energy resulting from actions which are thought to become ‘imprinted’ in the subject's storehouse-consciousness (ālaya-vijñāna). The accumulation of these habitual tendencies is believed to predispose one to particular patterns of behaviour in the future.

Someone saw ven Sariputra jumped over the edge of a rice field and compliant to Buddha that the behavior was not worthy of a Bhikkhu. Buddha explained that it was Ven Sariputra's Vasana from previos lives. He was born as amonkey many life times, the vasana imprinted on him. Only Bhudda could have his vasana wiped cleaned. Maybe it was that little girl's vasana?