Do you think...

Couldn't think of any more interesting title that wasn't a mile long <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" /><!-- s --> Anyways, my question is this:

Do you think that children, otherkin or not, are more psychically attuned or aware, specifically when it comes to 'kin or the presence energetic beings?

This came up on another forum, where a member was considering whether or not they were angelic because, as a child, they used to have only angels as "imaginary friends". I got thinking about it and realized something pretty bizarre as well: I've been "bothered" (for lack of a better word) by a shadow or some kind of fear-feeding demon for some time. It made me terrified of the dark when I was a child, so all I can remember about him now is the fear, which still comes on whenever I realize he's around. I asked my mom if I had any imaginary friends as a child, and she said that she used to catch me talking, mostly at night, to my friend "Oti" all the time. She figured it was the dog from the Garfield comics. After thinking about it a while and looking up the name, I realized that "Oti" can be short for Otieno, meaning "born at night." <!-- s:? --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_confused.gif" alt=":?" title="Confused" /><!-- s:? --> Found it insanely coincidental.

I also know that Oti and I are connected from a past life, which is why he still hangs around. This is mostly why I believe that kids are more aware or just less jaded by the super-/un-natural, and also because I've heard some pretty crazy, but true things from the mouths of babes. It was a kid's comment who first got me looking into the whole idea of Otherkin in the first place!

I think that children are more sensitive to the "unseen" because they haven't been socialized yet to believe that it doesn't exist, is taboo, is wrong, etc. As a child grows up many lose that ability because they are taught that it doesn't exist or something similar so they tune it out, ignore it, or whatever and slowly lose the ability all together.

Children by their nature do not think logically. It is often times the job of a parent to stop their child from illogical proceedings and correct them. Until such time as that sticks, a mind is quite open to an outstanding number of new experiences.

The problem is though that sometimes the mind of a child can be tricked, because they don't know any better and cannot use deductive logic in their process of disseminating fact from fiction. Long Story short, if a child's mind were likened to an email account, they have a really bad spam filter. As they grow older that spam filter gets better, and while it filters out a lot of the spam no one wants, it also kicks out a few good things that might look like spam.

Thanks for the honest answers, guys. It's really helping me sort this out, having some like-minded people to bounce things off of. <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->

Our pleasure

To be honest, I don't really think children are "more" perceptive than their elders.
I do however think that the spam-folder analogy has value.

With an active imagination and a brain which is still shaping itself, children do have a lot of "spam".

Terro Wrote:Children by their nature do not think logically. It is often times the job of a parent to stop their child from illogical proceedings and correct them. Until such time as that sticks, a mind is quite open to an outstanding number of new experiences.

I suppose this is another place where I differ from most. I've always been very logical, even as young as three. But I've always had a strong sense of the supernatural. I've also always had dreams that were simultaneously very fantastic and had an odd, under-lying logic. Maybe it's only when one becomes "more" logical that one loses the ability to notice supernatural things.

azokat Wrote:Couldn't think of any more interesting title that wasn't a mile long <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" /><!-- s --> Anyways, my question is this:

Do you think that children, otherkin or not, are more psychically attuned or aware, specifically when it comes to 'kin or the presence energetic beings?

Nope, not remotely.

I think it likely that children are more prone to flights of fancy and thus may believe that they are experiencing something "weird", but that doesn't make it so.

For example - tense up the muscles in your neck and head so your eyes vibrate, and the world will go shaky. As a young child I noticed this and wondered if it was a psychic power of some kind, that I was literally shaking the world . . . as an adult of course I know it's just that my eyes are shaking. Totally ridiculous? Yep, but I'm yet to come across examples of children having psychic experiences that are more common or notable than adult ones. Just a lot of obviously non-psychic phenomena that children might think are psychic.

As a kid, I had "imaginary friends" who I now believe were actually non-physical entities . . . but guess what, as an adult those same individuals are still around. It's not a child thing.

Quote:I've been "bothered" (for lack of a better word) by a shadow or some kind of fear-feeding demon for some time. It made me terrified of the dark when I was a child, so all I can remember about him now is the fear, which still comes on whenever I realize he's around.

Is he a fear-eater, or is it just that your reaction to him is fear? I mean I'm terrified of yellow sponge foam (really! No joke!) but the sponge foam isn't eating or even creating the fear - the reaction is entirely my own.

Quote:I asked my mom if I had any imaginary friends as a child, and she said that she used to catch me talking, mostly at night, to my friend "Oti" all the time. She figured it was the dog from the Garfield comics. After thinking about it a while and looking up the name, I realized that "Oti" can be short for Otieno, meaning "born at night." <!-- s:? --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_confused.gif" alt=":?" title="Confused" /><!-- s:? --> Found it insanely coincidental.

That's pretty awesome, actually.

I once casually mentioned imaginary friends to my mother (not having had any - just non-imaginary non-corporeal chums, that is) and I was rather surprised to hear her say I had one. Apparently I used to go off into the garden talking to someone she couldn't see, looking over my shoulder to see if I was being watched. I thought I'd been more subtle than that <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s -->

Quote:I also know that Oti and I are connected from a past life, which is why he still hangs around. This is mostly why I believe that kids are more aware or just less jaded by the super-/un-natural, and also because I've heard some pretty crazy, but true things from the mouths of babes. It was a kid's comment who first got me looking into the whole idea of Otherkin in the first place!

I'd say it's more likely that children tend to have fewer critical thinking skills than adults. So they might see something paranormal and know it's there . . . but they might shake their head and think the world is magically moving, too. You say that your knowledge of Oti is why you believe children are more aware or less jaded than adults . . . but as an adult you're aware of him too, right? So if you were aware of him as a child, and you're aware of him as an adult, why would that be evidence of children being more aware?


(PS - I'm a shadow - feel free to ask any time for comments on how to interact with Oti, or whatever. I know we can be tricky buggers to have a chat with.)

That's a good point you made, Archer. I just don't bother talking to him anymore, like I apparently did as a kid, which I thought was kind of odd. I mean, he obviously didn't scare the crap out of my then like he does now <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_razz.gif" alt=":P" title="Razz" /><!-- s --> . But I think you're right. Maybe it's just that kids are more likely to actually admit to things like that? It's not as though if my mom asked me now, I'd say I was afraid of a creepy black thing that lurks around in my room at night!

I've actually been reading up about it and talking with Kahoku about it, and he suggested that Oti might actually be a daemon. Judging from the traditional definition, it makes a crapload of sense. Once I figure out some more, I'll post up a more detailed history, but right now I feel like I'm too "new" to all this to really take things at face value <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_smile.gif" alt=":)" title="Smile" /><!-- s -->

Thanks for the offer, I'm sure you'll get some PM's in the near future.

azokat Wrote:and he suggested that Oti might actually be a daemon. Judging from the traditional definition, it makes a crapload of sense.

A daemon or a demon? The traditional definition of "daemon" is just something somewhere in between a human and a god . . . which is like, hmmm, half the people on this forum <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_e_wink.gif" alt=";)" title="Wink" /><!-- s -->