So you think youngsters (say, under 13) shouldn’t
investigate the paranormal? They aren’t mature enough to handle what may come.
Fair enough, considering none of us in this living realm factually know what is
going on in other realms. But then I heard someone talk about how kids are more
open to seeing or experiencing paranormal activity because they haven’t learned
the social bias’ the adults might have that causes us to “not see” what may
happen around us. So how does a child who is more open to these experiences
learn to deal with these things, if they are too young? Enter the parents who
must take the time to learn for themselves and to unlearn their own
misconceptions, misunderstandings and religious teachings.
Recently, our team Cornerstone Paranormal, had the
opportunity at the public library to give a presentation about ghost hunting
and ghosts to the under-12 crowd (with parents). We had 50 seats available, and
a couple standing up. We had kids as young as 4 asking questions about ghosts.
Telling us their stories about things they believe they have experienced in
some way. Guess what? They weren’t shy about telling the story, and they were
all ears when it came to us talking about how they can be in control over their
environment.
We had some folks who were highly interested in the field of
paranormal investigations. They spoke of being told to get their kids out of
the house for fear of possible possession or other manipulations by dark
forces. Are you kidding me? What right minded paranormal researcher tells a
family to uproot and move because the evil entities want their child’s body and
soul? What intelligent parent buys into that garbage and actually goes through
the motions and expense of actually moving? These “investigators” had no proof
or evidence to back up these statements. They had a “sensitive” tell them the
children were in danger.
We spoke of never encountering a “demon” in almost 14 years
of investigating but since the mainstream acceptance of the paranormal
community has really hit a few years ago, it seems that “evil spirits” exist
now more than ever. Why is that? We spoke about how being touched or scratched
in some manner doesn’t mean you were attacked. If you asked for a spirit to
make contact with you, maybe that was all they had. It’s also possible that
they touched you, but your body reacted in a manner to produce a mark, scratch,
bruise or something. It certainly doesn’t prove by any reasonable measure that
a person was attacked, and there is also no quantifiable way to gauge the “intent”
of a spirit that might have interacted with you. All of these interpretations
are simply from the mind of the investigator. If you’re looking for evil
spirits, you’ll find them. But were they truly evil to begin with? The simple
answer is most likely, 99.99% of the time no negative intent to begin with. To
claim otherwise would require solid proof, of which none truly exists today.
We were treated to a story about a child who thinks they saw
grandma on the morning of which she died later in the evening. Grandma appeared
to the child in the early morning hours prior to her death to tell said child
that she was proud of them, loved them, and she was always around. The child
tells the family this story at breakfast, and learned of the death just prior
to dinner time that night. It was grandma, so the child wasn’t even scared. She
said thanks and went back to sleep.
So before you continue to talk about how children aren’t
ready for the paranormal, if all of your other beliefs are valid, then you can’t
be right about this. The paranormal is around them all the time. Sure some kids
will not be emotionally able to handle things if something were to happen. That
isn’t their fault though, it’s ours. As investigators put out conflicting and
often sensationalized “evidence” the parents don’t even know what to expect. As
a field we need to get together and tighten up the standards. However, when
someone tries to do that, and calls out others for being on other side of the
fence, these people are labeled as starting drama in the field. The sad truth,
and true drama, is the people in this field who don’t take things seriously
enough to not just be thrill seekers, and those who simply ignore them, giving
them tacit approval of their ridiculous methods and mis-interpreted “evidence”.
