> attributing feelings here and now to decade old stories and narratives is spooky action at a distance.

Pattern recognition, recurrent excitation of particular stimulus chains, formative psychology, neuroplasticity, and extraordinary stimulus leading to categorical responses. There seems to be deep evolutionary roots and reasons for all those behaviours and their collective expression.

I was bitten on the face by a dog as a child. I attribute feelings around curious dogs now to that decades old experience. My nervous system seems to think it’s an obvious connection, not spooky.

Feel better is easier outside of fight/flight conditioning.