Why is it most believers in ghosts and paranormal base their belief on experiences as a child?

Question

Most of the believers I hear base their belief on experiences that happened to them usually when they were less then 10 years old.

When I was a child way back in the stoneage I can remember having a very vivid imagination and believed many pratical pranks .

I have been gulity of messing with childrens minds myself.

To this day my nephews who are now 36 and 32 believe they saw things flying off shelves and other suppossedly ghostly hapennings due to me messing with them and I cannot convince them now it was a joke.

Children are very impressionable and I wonder about believers who base their beliefs on things that happened as a child.

I apologize if this offends anyone but I cannot believe based on your experience as a child.

I am a true believer by the way. I am not a skeptic.

Answer 1

Good question. Coming from a skeptic's position, I tend to think it may be because our beliefs, experiences and dreams from childhood can leave very potent memories. These memories we retain and can be important to us in our adult years. In addition, at that young age we don't have all the information we need to rationally investigate and understand things we may see or hear, whether they be visual illusions, dreams, pranks or whatever.  So we may have "paranormal experiences" when young that really stick with us and impact our beliefs in adulthood.

Answer 2

This is becuz it is supposedly considered that children have higher perseption to the paranormal and are more liable to pick up the certain frequencies so to say...  I have had experiences with things like this from my younger ages and have had some lately as well...  idk what else to say....

Answer 3

Very good point.  Add to that the experiences right around sleepy time and a significant portion of paranormal claims becomes dubious.

My young nephew knows what the moon is and can describe its different phases, but he still has imaginary friends.

As I have said before, I began as a believer.  All I needed was a tiny instance of something unusual happening to me as an impressionable child and I might have been a believer for life.

EDIT: Why is it so predictable that the paranormal apologists would explain away what you're talking about here?  They say it's not that children are apt to misunderstand or think more fantastically, but that they are more in tune with and open to the paranormal universe.  The mental contortionism is amazing.

Answer 4

while you are certainly entitled to your opionion, and though it is valid, i also believe that children are more able and capable of seeing the unseen.  they [most of those under 6] are not socialized enough to squash their magical thinking.  they are more easily contacted by the dead because of this.

Answer 5

Yes, our experiences seem to say a lot about our opinions, and I don't want to be wrong in either camp. I want ironclad facts-what the heck is REALLY happening?

Considering we've only been alive on Earth a short while, there could be lots of extra-normal things going on that science CAN'T grasp, which tells us we're still growing in understanding. We may not get the answers, but the work we do can provide our future with a better chance at grasping them. Life is not a cosmic joke...

Answer 6

Wow great question! Its been very interesting reading other people's answers. :)

There are a few different reasons why children may have more experiences than adults in my opinion.

First of all - children are not hindered by a thorough understanding of how the world works - so therefore all things are possible to their minds. This makes it easier to for them to have experiences.

Adults on the otherhand, understand cause and effect, and the natural order of things. In addition, most adult minds are consumed with their day to day existence - work, family, chores, bills etc. So paranormal events may happen around them without them even noticing.  How many of us have heard a crash in another room and gone in to find something smashed on the floor? We roll our eyes then clean it up. We don't presume anything about how it happened because we naturally assume it was the result of gravity.

Children on the otherhand are unincumbered by the adult brain and can come up with all different kinds of theories on why it happened.

Another possibility I know of is based on the belief system that we are connected to the universe/ spirit world through our crown chakra and into the pituitary gland. This is the strongest connector.

As a baby our pituitary gland is quite large, and begins to shrink as we age. By age seven, (approximately) it is considerably smaller than at birth, and is now the size that it will remain for the rest of our lives.

that being said, many children who seem to just "know" things and "see" things, tend to slow it down and almost stop completely around age seven. Coincidence? I don't think so, but I would love to see some research done on this theory.

Lastly, I think that children can easily differentiate between what they experience and what they imagine. Sometimes we don't give kids enough credit. What they see or experience may not be rooted in the supernatural, but I believe that the experiences are real to them.

Answer 7

the brain is more susceptible to ideas and false facts than they are at an older age

Answer 8

I am a skeptic--in fact, I'm a confirmed non-believer in any kind of supernatural phenomena, including any kind of god.  You  make a good point about the childhood experience.  That's also when most people are indoctrinated into a religion.  Children don't yet have the mature reasoning power of adults (and some adults never quite develop that).  This is why they can't vote or sign contracts.  But this is also when people develop life-long beliefs that they very often do not question as they grow older.  Doesn't really make sense, does it?

Answer 9

You make some good points, but kids are weeded out by the supernatural primarily because they are pure and open -minded which allows them to be more susceptible to paranormal activity.  I am sure we all have gone through someone teasing us here and there about ghosts and such.  I recall a situation when I was little and we were visiting some friends of my parents and the guy would tell me his place was haunted and teased me by acting really scared that something was behind me at one point.  I recall that as plain as day. BUT I think it is easier for a child to discern teasing/pranking to actual phenomena than we might think.  For, yes, my mind goes back to that time, like your nephews, however I have experienced paranormal stuff since and there really is a big difference.  Maybe they actually have had their own paranormal experiences that have validated their beliefs.  Have you asked them if they had experienced anything other than the pranking you pulled?  Right now, on several occasions, one of my daughters (who is 3) has commented about a ghost in her bed.  Another one told me once she saw a bear in our backyard while we were looking out the window together, I saw nothing.  She was about 3 then, too. I am hoping to probe those more and find out what is going on, but whenever they tell me stuff like that, I listen, for I believe they could be a portal to world that lies beyond what is seen.

Answer 10

One of the real Paranormal investigators here.Has told me he's found paranormal events to be very rare.He has more of a problem with people finding a new ghost everyday then I do.To me believing in any of this would be a difficult jump.I can't imagine believing on the basis of a childhood memory or a TV show.Even with adults memory is a tricky thing.With children,you really can't believe anything they say.Their memories are no more dependable.

Answer 11

Not sure, but I do believe and I really haven't had any weird experiences, just watch the hauntings on discovery, some weird stuff happens!!

Answer 12

Wow, what a great observation. I never took into consideration that most of people's experiences are when they are young. See, I am very skeptical of people's so-say paranormal experiences. I know that many people lie, more exaggerate, and most of the time it is nothing but simple misinterpretation of something completely normal. I had my one and only paranormal experience at the 26 (less than a year ago).

Answer 13

I didn't have any experiences/encounters with ghosts until I was an adult.

Answer 14

Jesuit motto "Give me a child until he is seven and I will give you the man,"

I'm so lucky, I never had a single 'paranormal' experience as a child.

Or at any other time.

Answer 15

I don't remember believing in that stuff til I was in my teens which is usually when poltergeist-like activity seems to occur.  Since I was (and still am) an avid reader I still don't know if it was due to the changes I was going through or if I was witnessing actual ghostly activity.  Living in an area known locally by the oldtimers as "Dark Corners" didn't help my imagination either! LOL!  No one seemed to know why the area was known as that.

Answer 16

childrens imaginations are pretty vivid, they think they hear or see things and their imaginations just run wild with it. The reasoning of a kids mind isn't the same as ours, they don't analyze what is going on and figure the logical reasoning behind it. h**l I told my step daughter there was an internet monster in the basement 3 years ago and she is still scared of that and she is 13?

Answer 17

I believe in ghosts but I never had ghostly things or happen to me when I was young or pranks and stuff. I've just generally found it interesting to believe in.