“My four year-old can see spirits!”
I was once confronted with the above claim during the course of my paranormal work. It never ceases to amaze me how logic can be thrown completely out the window sometimes when it comes to belief in the paranormal.
Think back to when you were a child. Were you afraid of the dark? Or the monster under the bed? The benefit of adult hindsight tells you this is simply the imaginings of a child who doesn’t fully understand the world and invents and external antagonist to explain their own internal fears.
But picture an alternate reality where your parents not only believed you, but actually became scared of the monster under the bed themselves! Re-arranging furniture, relocating you to another room, calling in “expert” monster removers, or even moving house to escape the monster.
Sounds pretty implausible right?
So why is it, that when a parent (usually ones with airy-fairy spiritualist ideas), is completely willing to believe the word of a four year-old when they tell them they are seeing spirits? Apparently no other proof is required.
It must be true! Quick, call the ghost hunters!
Is it not more reasonable to assume that the child simply has an over-active imagination?
The claim is always made “children are more open to seeing things that adults can’t see.” But where’s the proof of this? As a child of around the age of four I recall seeing a small creature which I could only describe as a gremlin, which would peek around the doorway at the top of the stairs while I watched television.
Is this conclusive proof of gremlins? Of course not! It was my imagination exaggerating artefacts in my peripheral vision while my eyes were focussed on the television screen.
As a sceptic, my views on this matter are at odds with people who have spiritual beliefs, and when it comes to belief I’ve found that logic takes a back-seat.
Disclaimer: My opinions in this post do not reflect the opinions of Haunted Auckland.
