The 'Children With Psychic Powers' Phenomena

[Bella Fortuna]

There's something particularly sad and vexing to me about these stories you see once in awhile about a child who claims (always flanked by its parents) to be able to see the dead, or diagnose illness, or been reincarnated... the brainwashing galls me, and there is a huge degree of exploitation in it because the assumed 'innocence' of the child is purported to prove the existence of their claims. What do you think?

Some examples:
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/psychic-kids ... id=7916213
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=8387485
http://www.childpastlives.org/childrenspastlives.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reincarnation_research

[charlou]

Of course there are natural explanations for these things, but I can understand why people, parents in particular, might think as they do about them ...

One of my daughters, when age three, was very disturbed by a picture we have of a nineteenth century rural family harvesting wheat. She was looking at it and became upset, to the point of crying, and saying, very adamantly, those people were her family, that she'd lived there. It was most strange and a little upsetting at the time, but I just consoled her and reminded her that we're her family and we love her, but she continued to be certain that those people were her real family for some moments.

She doesn't remember that incident now, ten years later. We still have that picture and it evokes no more such reaction from her. Looking back, I think it may have just been that she was a bit sleepy and looking so intently at the picture that a kind of dreamlike imagination may have come into play, though she was seemingly wide awake ...

I kid you not, and I can't help but wonder about the depths of the human mind ...

[JimC]

Of course there are natural explanations for these things, but I can understand why people, parents in particular, might think as they do about them ...

One of my daughters, when age three, was very disturbed by a picture we have of a nineteenth century rural family harvesting wheat. She was looking at it and became upset, to the point of crying, and saying, very adamantly, those people were her family, that she'd lived there. It was most strange and a little upsetting at the time, but I just consoled her and reminded her that we're her family and we love her, but she continued to be certain that those people were her real family for some moments.

She doesn't remember that incident now, ten years later. We still have that picture and it evokes no more such reaction from her. Looking back, I think it may have just been that she was a bit sleepy and looking so intently at the picture that a kind of dreamlike imagination may have come into play, though she was seemingly wide awake ...

I kid you not, and I can't help but wonder about the depths of the human mind ...

A very good example, Charlou - RD and others have recorded many similar examples. The ability of the human mind to create inner fantasies is immense. There are many people who honestly believe that such subjective experiences are valid data about the way the world operates...

And then there are the cynical charlatans; those of them that exploit children are contemptible...

[Thinking Aloud]

One example I looked into was a young boy called James who allegedly started channeling the spirit of a WW2 fighter pilot called James. A word he babbled was seized upon by his parents who found a US ship that served in WW2 with that name. Sure enough, they'd had a pilot on board called James. All this after his dad had taken him to a War Museum. Anyway, apparently the kid was able to tell all kinds of things that "only the WW2 James would have known" ... and the parents even enlisted a woo author to write all about it and be their spokesperson.

Unfortunately the kid was turning 7 shortly, and that, according to the woo author, would signify the end of his abilities, and so he couldn't be questioned in any detail by anyone outside the family...

Sadly it's only the early bits of these stories that get peddalled around, and not the bits where parents and associates start to cover things up for fear of being found out.

[floppit]

I agree wholeheartedly! Next on my hit list would be the muppets that sign babies up for Mensa! Call me cynical but I don't believe there's any way in hell those kids haven't been hothoused - started talking all by himself at 4 mths? Yeah right... Ok, clever kids are a certainty in terms of them existing which is almost opposite to psychic kids, but from a parenting point of view you seem the same waxed over glaze from mummy and daddy, topped with a semi denied love of the media and a kid heading for a whole heap of hard life.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

The Indigo Children are among us, quietly working to create a new world of peace, love, and dope.

The Ultraviolet Children are a special subset of the Indigo Children, exhibiting atypical vampirism and a major horn for Milla Jojovich.

[Trolldor]

a major horn for Milla Jojovich.

I think that's true of all children no matter the colour of the spectrum.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

a major horn for Milla Jojovich.

I think that's true of all children no matter the colour of the spectrum.

...nor their age. I fucking would.

[Drewish]

I recommend this movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0912592/
It's not about being psychic, but I think it clearly demonstrates a very similar parallel narrative.

[Animavore]

I recommend this movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0912592/
It's not about being psychic, but I think it clearly demonstrates a very similar parallel narrative.

I thought you were gonna say this one.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068924/

[charlou]

I recommend this movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0912592/
It's not about being psychic, but I think it clearly demonstrates a very similar parallel narrative.

I thought you were gonna say this one.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068924/

Gah. I think that one would be far too upsetting for me to watch ... along the lines of Jesus Camp, only worse. Graphic violence is a piece of cake compared to this kind of psychological molestation of children.

[Animavore]

I recommend this movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0912592/
It's not about being psychic, but I think it clearly demonstrates a very similar parallel narrative.

I thought you were gonna say this one.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068924/

Gah. I think that one would be far too upsetting for me to watch ... along the lines of Jesus Camp, only worse. Graphic violence is a piece of cake compared to this kind of psychological molestation of children.

Actually no. Its brilliant. Y'see the boy, Marjoe, ran away from home as a teen and joined some hippies and lost his faith. He then got a camera crew together and told them that he was going to show them how preaching is done and basically reveal all its tricks and bullshit. He then staged a comeback which drew in crowds but he would keep coming back to the cameras, winking, and saying Look how I can make people do as I want...etc. Its the perfect film to watch if you want to understand the lies and manipulation that goes on in the world of Christian preaching in America. It should turn most people with rational thinking off charlatans like Benny Hinn and his ilk.

EDIT: 'off' 'of' paradox

[charlou]

I recommend this movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0912592/
It's not about being psychic, but I think it clearly demonstrates a very similar parallel narrative.

I thought you were gonna say this one.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068924/

Gah. I think that one would be far too upsetting for me to watch ... along the lines of Jesus Camp, only worse. Graphic violence is a piece of cake compared to this kind of psychological molestation of children.

Actually no. Its brilliant. Y'see the boy, Marjoe, ran away from home as a teen and joined some hippies and lost his faith. He then got a camera crew together and told them that he was going to show them how preaching is done and basically reveal all its tricks and bullshit. He then staged a comeback which drew in crowds but he would keep coming back to the cameras, winking, and saying Look how I can make people do as I want...etc. Its the perfect film to watch if you want to understand the lies and manipulation that goes on in the world of Christian preaching in America. It should turn most people with rational thinking off charlatans like Benny Hinn and his ilk.

EDIT: 'off' 'of' paradox

Ah, I see.

[FBM]

wrt the OP, that kind of thing is rampant in Buddhist countries as "proof" of reincarnation, where the uninformed masses don't even know that the Buddha himself taught that there is no soul to be reincarnated.

wrt Charlou's daughter, the brain does all sort of chaotic misfiring all the time, especially when it's young, rewiring and growing quickly. Deja vu, for example, is, I think, just an electro-chemical event, just as is the sense of certainty you have when you actually do know something. A random set of misfirings that include the part of the brain that produces the sense of certainty would explain why people are so adamant that they have actually perceived something paranorma. That and the Certainty Bias: http://www.scientificamerican.com/artic ... ainty-bias

For years, I was absolutely certain that I'd seen a flying saucer when I was in middle school. I believed it well into my university days. Then one day I chanced across something that explained various perceptual distortions, and it clicked. I'd seen an airplane shortly after takeoff, rising and banking to the left in the distance (explaining the lack of sound and the apparent lack of wings) crossing between me and the sun, which caused the intense light (reflected). It was a moment on a par with when I realized the Bible and Gwod were made up.

[Thinking Aloud]

I recommend this movie
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0912592/
It's not about being psychic, but I think it clearly demonstrates a very similar parallel narrative.

I thought you were gonna say this one.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0068924/

Gah. I think that one would be far too upsetting for me to watch ... along the lines of Jesus Camp, only worse. Graphic violence is a piece of cake compared to this kind of psychological molestation of children.

Actually no. Its brilliant. Y'see the boy, Marjoe, ran away from home as a teen and joined some hippies and lost his faith. He then got a camera crew together and told them that he was going to show them how preaching is done and basically reveal all its tricks and bullshit. He then staged a comeback which drew in crowds but he would keep coming back to the cameras, winking, and saying Look how I can make people do as I want...etc. Its the perfect film to watch if you want to understand the lies and manipulation that goes on in the world of Christian preaching in America. It should turn most people with rational thinking off charlatans like Benny Hinn and his ilk.

It's a good film. He (Marjoe) also appeared in Airwolf as a preacher in later life.