Thursday, April 17, 2008

Do You Believe in Ghosts?

Raise your hand if you do not believe it ghosts.

Admittedly, my wife and I regularly watch Ghost Hunters on the SciFi channel and really like the show. Grant and Jason are entertaining and seem sincere in their intentions, but I can’t help but think there are some shenanigans taking place on the show. While I don’t really feel it is necessary to go through and dispute everything they claim, I will say that in general, if you believe in something strong enough, you can always find some evidence to prove what you believe; even if it is something as outrageous as ghosts.

My three year old daughter is the reason I bring this up. She has recently been talking about things like a man in our attic, the pirates downstairs, or monsters in general. Some of this is probably the fault of her parents as we have taken her on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Walt Disney World and we have let her watch the Monsters, Inc. movie. We also have an occasional critter (a filthy little squirrel) decide to make our attic his temporary hang-out and he makes quite a racket when he visits.

I find it interesting that she has already developed a sense of anxiousness surrounding these topics. She is a good example of how powerful a simple suggestion or experience can be if you don’t fully understand. The problem now, of course, is how do I reverse or correct her thinking? Once you have started down this path mentally, it is hard to get it back. I also worry these feelings will impact her when she gets older. While it might not be a fear of ghosts, it would be unfortunate if she was general fearful of things like new ideas or experiences.

Hopefully, these experiences will not be too big of an impact. In the meantime, I suppose all I can do is continue to reassure her there are no monsters and perhaps I will need to spend a few nights sleeping on her floor or next to the closet. If that’s all it will take, it will be worth a stiff back and little sleep.

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