Friday, May 05, 2006

One thread that's difficult to entirely ignore while researching "cryptoterrestrials" is the large body of encounters with nonhuman beings reported by children. It's as if young people are more receptive to phenomena adults, oddly enough, fail to notice. It's as tempting to speculate an actual neurophysiological basis for this discrepancy as it is to ascribe all childhood encounters to overactive imagination.

If children are, in fact, more prone to seeing the inexplicable (a trend that encompasses the Fatima "miracle"), two immediate options come to mind:

1.) Children possess some form of psychical sensitivity that atrophies in later life.

2.) Children aren't "psychic," but simply more receptive to strange phenomena because they've been spared much of the conditioning associated with adulthood. It follows that even an intelligent and open-minded adult, having learned to perceive the world in a narrowly focused sense, could experience an encounter with nonhumans and not necessarily recognize it as anything exceptionally weird.

Have you had any puzzling or remarkable childhood experiences that seem incompatible with how you "know" the world functions?

6 comments:

Tim Jones said...

Hi, I recall as a very young child, maybe 2 or 3, lying in bed one afternoon, presumably taking an obligatory siesta when for some reason I can't recall, I felt the presence of something next to me in the bed - there was nothing to see, no sound or smell, I don't know why, but I started smacking and pinching thin air - and everything I did was done exactly back to me - to this day I can still 'feel' the strong pinch on my right forearm, (with associated goosebumps) which for me confirms some sort of attached reality to the event- I think I backed off at this point - since then I've never had anything remotely similar happen to me when wide awake, nor have I heard anyone relate a similar story, and as such I have no plausible explanation - over and out...have a good weekend - Tim

Paul Kimball said...

Mac:

I hate to be a wet blanket, but there is a third possibility - children are making it up, as children are wont to do.

Paul

Mac said...

Paul--

I'm not unaware of the third possibility. I mention it in the post:

It's as tempting to speculate an actual neurophysiological basis for this discrepancy as it is to ascribe all childhood encounters to overactive imagination.

In other words, "kids making things up" is definitely in the running, although I'm not sure it's the best theory.

Mac said...

Tim--

Interesting recollection. Thanks!

Ken said...

Mac,

A fourth possibility could be that these cryptoterrestrials prefer to deliberately target children rather than adults. Perhaps children seem more vulnerable or less intimidating...

Mac said...

Ken--

I wouldn't doubt it. Plus there's stealth to consider: Who believes the "crazy" things kids say?