Our oldest has never had a problem sleeping, he's the typical kid hates getting ready for bed but once he's in there and settled, he's fine...

Last night we put him in his room, closed the door, within 5 minutes he was screaming and crying so hard he was gagging...I thought this was an attempt to get our attention so I ignored it...put him back in his room, the screaming and crying started and I expected him to be sitting near the door so he could cry as loud as he could to get our attention...well he was at the top of his bed, cowering on his pillows saying "I'm afraid of the monsters" and I questioned him about the monsters, where are they, what do they look like, after repeating the questions and trying to reassure him he told me they were behind his tv...(his tv sits in front of his window curtains which remain closed with blackout curtains and a shade underneath that.)..

and I said what do the monsters look like and he said "I don't know I think they're just black"


Of course I don't know what to think of this...Jason may or may not have shared with you the unusual experiences we've had in this house....fleeting shadows, stuff moving on its own accord, we did a house blessing with holy water and it all stopped...but now I'm starting to wonder....


Has anyone else dealt with this? Please share...Thank you.

It is NOT going to help your kids if you believe in all that occult bullshit. This is perfectly normal for kids of that age. You just have to help him through it.

Night light, perhaps? let him keep his door open?May be just a couple day phase where you can lay down with him until he is asleep.

Your avatar probably does not help...

EDIT: Side note...these people that see ghosts...why not leave a freakin light on??????? Thank about it....seriously...leave a light on...1-2-3 EASY!

Cos it doesn't help?
I saw a ghost at the top of the stairs for years, and adding a night light helped nothing (Although it has since dissapeared) And even now I sometimes see a shadow in the corner of my room.
They don't bother me anymore as it would appear that they either can't hurt me or don't intend to (And on cue as I type that part of my Aethernet connection goes flying from my desk... And I really wish I was kidding there)



The only bit of Occultism I ever remembered was that Amethyst can help calm a spirit.
Beyond that, I got nothing.

hmm...how old is your kid? Ours is six.

We used to have a tv in our sons room but started turning the tv on at night by himself it was time to get it out of there. We leave his Lighting McQueen light on when he goes to bed and once he's out, we turn out the light (his bed time is 8pm btw). As my dad explained to me after my son was born, sometimes parents need to sleep (at least laydown) with their kids in their room until they fall asleep. We also have a cross hanging above his door too. Every night we try to say prayers and if we don't we at least bless ourselves. That is what we do.

So my advice, try taking out the TV, get a night light and lay with him (at least if anything wierd happens you'll be there).

We have a cross too...hanging right by his door...We'll all say our prayers together (new family tradition'd)
will try the night light and door open suggestion...

Thanks for your sensitivity to this matter everyone, its much appreciated.

And pete, I'll stop watching Ghosthunters...how's that?

you guys seriously believe in all this religious occultish crap?

i don't have kids, but i've seen quite a bit of stuff on child behaviour, nightmares, "supernatural" happenings, etc... the first thing that came to my mind was night terrors. i'm not an expert, but check this out



you normaly don't wake from them or can't remember them, but my wife suffered from them when she was young and remembers them very vividly. you can read more about them on wiki. however most of the time it's a child's imagination running away with it's self. it sounds silly but tell him you've placed a monster trap outside the window or something along those lines, be creative and think on the child's level. maybe give him a night light too.

try to remember that while there have been "sightings" and people that have experienced this kind of thing will swear that they've seen a ghost, but time and time again while the burdon of proof lies with those claiming it's true, science has disproven the majority of these types of experiences and such. i know, completely different topic, but i think pete's right. telling your child all this Blot is going to spook the Powerglide out of them and will cause them to see things.

Just to make things clear, I never told my son about ghosts...or anything like that... i was a very sensitive, scared child, to this day I won't let my feet hang off the bed because if the dogs tail hits it...I'll be up for hours in fear...or something

He wasn't here when we did the house blessing, he doesn't know what we may or may not have seen....

Colin doesn't even see the computer from where it sits because of the height of my computer desk, its 5 feet off the floor and I sit on a barstool so I know he can't see the monitor because it sits way back on the desk.

to buddykiller

I have no patience for "paranormal" stories. Our perception of reality is determined by a sack of tissue that sloshes around inside our heads, which is notoriously susceptible to error.

I thought most men's perception of reality was determined by a sack of tissue that sloshes around in their pants all day...which is also notoriously susceptible to error.

I take exception to the word "sloshes"... at least at this stage of my life

seriously, there have been studies that demonstrate how you can make someone feel like there's a ghost -- just poke their brain with some electricity in the right place and it messes with their sense of self. It gets displaced to somewhere outside their body and they become absolutely convinced that there's someone else there.

but i don't poke my sons brain with electricity...his is all self-generated

lucky you don't slosh, i step on jason's scrotum every morning on my way to the bathroom...poor fella

Well that's reassuring

Look, lots of kids at that age get scared at night. This is the first time you've experienced this as a parent, so it's natural that you're like "what do we do" and stuff. But it's just part of a normal childhood. It's nothing to get anxious over. The suggestions that were already made -- more light when he's sleeping, staying with him at bedtime -- will all help. But I would personally recommend against superstitious prayers to "keep the demons away". It's not healthy IMO.

So...does that negate the existence of demons?

I wasn't talking about "keep the demons away" prayers....I was talking about "God bless Granny and Grampa..."
that sort of thing...

WE ARE LEGION

I'll take that as a "no" then

*long post about koine Greek and medieval theology and bla bla bla*

NO, ANON IS LEGION, LURK MOAR

anyway in reply to dn, personally, while i believe in some sort of diety, do not believe in any demons or devils or anything of the sort, just that we're merely a victim of circumstance. i think the whole concept of satan and demons is man's innablility to realize that both good and evil are human concepts thus force their "god" to follow said concepts or their desire to believe themselves capable of being perfect in some way or another.

to crazy ghost lady (yea i'm joking) LMH was talking about the whole holy water stuff

"Crazy Ghost Lady" would be a cool board name...

I suppose I'll wait for the PM

don't hold your breath

i get credit!!! >_>

WAHHHHHHHHHH I've already changed my name once this year, I'm not paying $5.00 again.
SO THERE!

Disclaimer: I'm not a parent, superstitious, or even religious.

But just sounds like your son is afraid of the unknown? Note, he doesn't know what these "monsters" look like because, of course, they've never come out. He's afraid of something materializing in that space out of nowhere somehow. Sounds perfectly natural a reaction for everyone when they're a kid?

Leave some kinda night light or small flourescent illuminating that area at night? After a while it may dawn on him that nothing is ever going to be there, even when the light is off. When he starts telling you that leaving the light on all night every night is a waste of electricity, ye'll know he's grown past it.

When I was young I use to thin there were things at my grandmother house that were out to get me. Only in the smallest room though and I'd see many things.......Seriously, I'd hide under the blanket and make sure evey single limb was pulled in and no piece of skin was exposed for I beleived that they would get me if something was left vulnerable. I also felt that if I made a noise that would LTK where I was. I never told anyone and the first time I spent the night in that room after I'd grown up a bit.....I realized it was nothing more than the light playing tricks with the heavy texture of the wall.

I'm with the crowd here on this one. Lay down with him for a few occassional nights, night light, door open....etc. Hell, ask him what he thinks would help. It's the childs imagination so it's susceptibal to his own imagination, you know? What ever he thinks or knows will make them go away just may do the trick. It did for me.

Could it be mice?

It's night terror. I used to have it bad when I was a kid. I was afraid of stuff and would have to sleep with my mom.

And that ghost bullBlot is just that, bullBlot. If a ghost existed and could have living human beings, there would be a lot less people in the world today.

I agree. If it happens on and off, it's either "Night Terrors" or "Nightmare". Look it up on the internets and read up on it. Our son was acting real weird on and off for two weeks before we had him checked for it. Basically, they seem to ramble on about scary Blot and make little to no sense. Our kid would even spin around and fall on the floor. (Not Exorcist type crap er nothin) It almost seemed like a sleep walk which is pretty much what it was and each episode lasted around 10 minutes.

......oh, and his monster was in the light bulb. Everytime.

I'm not a parent but I couldn't keep my self from giving my two cents on this.

Like other people have said, night lights can do wonders. I still have some fear of darkness issues that go way back to when I was little (I especially hate leaving doors open IE closets, makes me think something has come out of them).

Maybe change the curtains that you said were behind the TV. If they are really dark, maybe something lighter with some sort of cartoon character on them could help. Could give you an excuse to pick up TF curtains or something.

If the problem still persists you may want to think about getting him checked out for night terrors (how ever you may do that).

give him a toy lightsaber to keep on his nightstand or under his pillow. Tell him that he can use it to protect himself from the ghosts 'cus they're afraid of jedis

Is that what your wife tells you?

i remember when i was REALLY REALLY young i thought there was a wich in my room

every time i went to bed it was hell

lol, no, just something I did as a little kid, gave me that little bit of confidence I needed until I was able to control my dreams. Now the closest thing I have to nightmares are when I dream about something bad happening to people I care about and can't help them.

Yes.
Do you believe in the big bang, or gravity?*
Cos I got a few truths to point out about them.


Just because you are happy with your little world and it's three dimensions of space and one of time doesn't mean the rest of us cannot conceive of a 2 dimensional being.
Hell, String theory conceives of 0 dimensional and 24 dimensional.

So yeah, I take exception when people call my beliefs bullBlot, I don't go round poo-pooing on your beliefs (...Well. I do take offence to global warming ) so please be courteous and realise that as a human, you know nothing about the Universe.





* Big bag Relies upon their being an object of infinite density. Infinite is a theological number and impossible. (Otherwise the Universe would have infinite density too. You can divide it as many times as you want infinity is still infinity)

Gravity is the same, with one theory working on a planetary scale (Newtonian) and another theory being required to work on a stellar scale... With an infinite weight to balance the equations.

Take some LSD.

(SERIOUSLY!!!)

Get trippin' & realise how powerful (& f'cked-up) the human brain can be. These "ghosts" are figments of people's imaginations. Tell him to forget the "ghosts" & worry about burglars or something.

... yeah....
Firstly, don't think Buddykiller was knocking anyone's belief in religion. It sounds more like he's questioning the use of religion to justify beliefs that using occult charms an' methods will either exorcise ghosts or protect one's child from harm.. Even if one believes there may be ghosts or other supernatural entities, the child in question has not seen anything other than darkness behind a tv screen late at night when the lights are off. And there is nothing supernatural about that.

Secondly, think ye need to stop just looking at a few things physics says an' consider taking time to understand what a lot of it actually means. I mean, what're you suggesting? That you DON'T believe in gravity? Think Wile E. Coyote might disagree with you..

Oh no, don't get me wrong here, all I'm saying is what we (As a species) Know about gravity is total cack, as I say, stellar equations require an infinite weight to actually work (And again, as I have already gone off about, Infinity is an impossible number) not to mention how the Big bang is hailed as being the be all and end all of Origin theories inspite the fact that anyone who actually knows anything about it can drive a truck through the flaws (Yet more infinite weights for starters)


My point (As I thought was abundantly obvious the first time to be honest) Is that we know Nothing.

I don't think that not knowing everything is the same as knowing nothing. The big bang is a scientific theory; that's all. It can be modified or even discarded entirely if future study provides us with another explanation for the origin of the universe.

I also think that making broad statements like "we know nothing" is nothing more than cover for beliefs that are wholly unscientific in nature. Claiming that we don't know anything to begin with makes outlandish claims (such as a belief in the occult) seem less preposterous by calling our epistemology into question.

Well okay, we know very little.
Most of what we are taught to be absolute truths in school is horribly flawed, needing stupid weights to balance them out (I'll stop mentioning gravity) Modern science is seen as the be all and end all of humanity, and woe betide anyone who happens to disagree on something.
Remember people, Fifty years ago we knew there was nothing beyond the Atomic scale and that there were only Four dimensions of Space time.

Of course I don't know where this idea that I believe the world was created by the flying spaghetti monster comes from, I am a very scientifically minded person, I also just happen to believe that maybe -Just maybe- there is some kind of mind out there that doesn't have two arms two legs and looks remarkably like a human.



(And yes, I do have a personal crusade against the big bang, I'll stop )

http://www.TFans.com/talk/index.php?showtopic=79581

asthaloth, this is really getting way off topic and is heading into locked territory for GD, go to said thread for further debate, i'm also requesting that a mod maybe split this topic from asthaloth's post down (excluding siburke's) and merge it into so that things make more sense.

Things making sense versus occultism.

Asthaloth: You're assuming that science has the same "absolute truth" zealot mentality that religion has. Religion states "this is the truth because we believe it is so" - the end. Why? Well, that's why religion is called faith - there is no real critical analysis into it... they just believe it is so. Science on the other hand basically states, "as far as we observe tell this appears to be the truth." Future observations may completely change the appearance of the truth, and science is fine with that. Science is always self-correcting when new evidence arises to contradict former evidence. Nothing is ever set-in-stone gospel in science -- especially scientific THEORIES. The difference between a theory and a law is that theories are not conclusively proven. Theories arise when there is a lot of evidence provided to support a certain concept but there still isn't enough evidence to conclusively prove it as the truth. Laws on the other hand have been proven to be true over and over and over again (ideally in 100% of cases). For example, gravity is a law because any time you drop something on Earth in virtually 100% of cases (disregarding external factors like air, wind et al) the object is guaranteed to fall to the Earth at approx. 9m/s. And while Evolution has yet to be conclusively proven, there is a mountain of evidence out there to support it - fossil records, the Galapogas islands, DNA etc. - yes, there are still gaps in the theory. Duh... that's why it's called a theory. If there weren't any gaps it would be the Law of Evolution, but it's not.

Getting back on topic - to take a stab in the dark (no pun intended) it sounds like the child may just have low self esteem and I think working on the child's confidence may be helpful. I was also interested in what someone said about parts of the brain being stimulated to create hallucinogenic fear. In this case activities to improve mental coordination and confidence may be useful - some studies even show that such activities can be used to counter/treat other mental conditions such as Attention Deficit Disorder (and best of all, drug-free). It basically involves lots of exercise! Particularly exercise that stimulates left-right hand coordination, which in turn stimulates the left and right hemispheres of the brain. Some studies indicate that in children who have some learning disabilities (such as ADD and ADHD) there are certain synapses in the brain that are ill-formed, but after doing a series of coordinative exercise programmes, those synapses actually reformed, thus effectively "curing" the subjects of ADD and ADHD.

As well as improving cognitive development, sports/exercise can also be really useful in boosting self-confidence. And it's not only sports, you can look at any other kind of activity that promotes mental stimulation - such as learning a musical instrument, a foreign language etc.

excuse me but I'd hate to burst your bubble of denial but ghosts are real. I've seen way too much sh1t to say it's not true. hell, I'd only be fooling myself to say that. I've had chairs, coffe mugs and, in one case, a full sized sofa thrown at me from their own accord. 1000% sure. I've even seen the elusive "black manifest being." Looks like a 3D person but totaly black and devoid of feature. They sink into and out of floors. Creepy stuff.


My advise: SEEK T.A.P.S. (or equivelent) ASAP!!!

It's always these anecdotal stories. "I had this happen to me". Yeah, and I got high once and heard voices coming out of the television. Your senses aren't infallible. Your brain can be messed with in more ways than you know. I'm not calling you a liar -- I'm sure that whatever you experienced was very real to you. But making the leap from "I experienced this" to "it really happened" requires an objective third party and documentation and stuff.

I recieved a broken leg from that sofa. I'm pretty sure sofas don't normaly fly and legs don't normaly break themselves. And no drugs for me, thank you.

Mental issues? I'm not flaming, I'm seriously concerned.

Don't mock the occult of the majorly weird, I've seen and I've done, Ever made a coke explode? with your mind?

I believe in the possibility of 'paranormal' behavior. As in, 'unknowable knowledge' and that sort of thing. I call it 'keeping an open mind'. However, while I believe these things are possible, I do not believe them to be unscientific. To me, there is a rational explanation for these events. It just so happens that we have not yet found that explanation. It simply means that our scientific theories are, as of yet, incomplete. That does not mean we have to discard science as a whole, because science is a process, it is not expected to find the answer immediately.

Compare it to the Newtonian Laws. They tried to explain physics (I know, I am generalizing to a level unsurpassed thus far). They did not, however, explain things perfectly. Along came Einstein, and his Laws of Relativity explained things much better. In general, however, Newtons Laws and Einsteins have about the same result. Right now, when it comes to these 'paranormal' events, we are at a level analogue to the Newtonian Laws. We have problem we cannot explain yet, but someday, we might find ourselves with a theory which can. Until then, the present theory explains quite enough for us to work with.

I'm sitting here mocking it to the highest degree possible. It's stupid & I'm not too scared to say it.