Explaining Psychic Children

Paranormal literature is full of cases of psychic children. A poltergeist is almost certain to have a child at the centre of activity, and visions of the Virgin Mary are famous for involving children.
Go back to the days of the Witchhunts and you often read of children being easiest to bewitch, and many accusations of witchcraft came from children ‘affected’ by the supposed witch’s spells.

Can a study of children be of value to research?

By looking at the mentality within the child, can we identify elements that show the optimum state of mind for a psychic event to occur? Perhaps it can.
The sceptic will obviously jump straight in, here, and advise us that children are merely more fantasy-prone. Their minds believe more in wonder, so they are more easily conned by a trick, or even an illusion.

This is quite true.
But simply because such factors can be identified, it does not mean the subject is closed. For instance, many children have ‘imaginary’ friends. Do we just leave the subject alone by saying, ‘oh well’?

Of course not. We attempt to discover why this is so. And the obvious question to ask is this: does the average childhood mentality allow the mind to access something that is more remote from the adult?

I’ve often pondered a central sceptic’s criticism of phenomena.
If paranormality was real, why don’t we experience it all the time? And I think an answer can come from an understanding of the human mind.

We are said to have evolved from nature. Yet what is often ignored is the possibility of psychological evolution running alongside the physical. If we were part of nature, then chances are our drives were instinctual.

This would not have required the ability to think as we do today.
However, just as we evolved physically due to technology, I think the same holds for the mind. In effect, by using technology, we were required to ‘concentrate’ on a task at hand.

This would be an ability above instinct. And in order to concentrate, we have to clear the mind of all unrelated factors. Could this have caused the creation of a distinct conscious and unconscious mind – the former to allow concentration on the world; the latter, a repository for memory not required at that moment?
Evolution is thus applied to the mind. And we can argue that instinct was retained in the unconscious, whilst increasing technology, and the information it produces, would expand the conscious and move the unconscious further away from conscious thought.

Such a mind model explains why the paranormal is not experienced as a norm. Residing in the unconscious, it is only accessed when outside information declines, allowing the unconscious to move closer to conscious thought.
But it also shows that the more outside information we deal with, the less psychic we become. Hence, education, work – adult activity in general – becomes inhibiting to paranormal phenomena – unless, of course, they are of a mystical bent, thus being able to cut off outside information through meditation, etc; or retain the sense of wonder of a child.

Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr

Image by epSos.de via Flickr

Image by The Library of Congress via Flickr