Childhood friends

[emalia]

Alright, this came up in one of the other boards I frequent.

Are Childhood imaginarey friends just that, imaginary or are they spirits of people past?

[Morrigan]

Hmmmmmmmmmm.... well there needs to be another one...lol some of mine where really imaginary... others I belive were spirits...I mean i really saw them.... others i pretended to see them... soooooooooo I would have half and half on that one

[emalia]

Ok. SO I revised the original question.

[justLori]

I've had both--an imaginary friend when I was a child, and a spirit that watched over me for a few years. There is a distinction, at least in my mind, between the two.

I knew when I was imagining a playmate, and I knew when the person was real. That distinction makes the difference.

I think that children know that difference as well, but can't express it to you easily. They want you to join them in their game of pretend, and when it isn't pretend, they ask you to do the same as if it was pretend.

just Lori

[Belladonna]

I think it's both. I think that the child at first creates the friend, but then spirits are able to use it in order to watch over the child in a way that wouldnt be nearly as scary. I think that's why more children without sibilings experience this.

My nephew, who's got a Chromosonal abnormality known as Ring 28 (or something like that) Has four imaginary friends. they are all superheros, and they all have abilities that he doesn't. I like to think that some of that is his guardians helping him to deal with his differences.

[Tink]

To my recollection...I didn't have any imaginary friends.

[jmthane]

My books were my friends - I imagined the exploits of, say, Sherlock Holmes in "The Speckled Band" or of Cinderella or of [fill in the blank, whatever I read]. But I knew they were stories, and my friends - my books - shared them with me, because that's what books were for.

I also didn't really have any imaginary friends. (Didn't have many real ones, either - I'm doing a lot better in that department now. :D )

[Mairi the Herbwench]

I had 2 imaginary friends, both of whom had pets. They were real to me - (I spent a lot of time alone as a young child) and they left me shortly after my grandfather died when I was 3. :( I don't *think* they were sprirts - like I said, they were real to me.

[Pearl_Fox]

I have to say, that I have had versions of both... as far as I believe. I was an only child and both forms helped to get me through alot.

[jillian]

Some days I think a few of my real friends are imaginary.




Is this not the saddest little lot of round people you've ever seen? I love these things!
:irked: :grumpy: :hmm: :sigh:

[Alewyn of Aventinus]

I couldn't answer the poll. My answer would have been 'I don't know'. Having never had an imaginary friend, I couldn't. My little girl has an imaginary friend. I think she is real to her, but then my daughter is only 3. Mickey Mouse and TV characters are real to her. Maybe our imaginary friends are real until we get older and 'wiser'.

I do know my imagination was much more vivid until puberty. When I was real small, younger than 4, I had memories that have caused me to believe in reincarnation. From about ages 4 to 8, I believed in fairy tales & Santa Claus. From ~8 to puberty I still believed in miracles and magic. It gives one pause for thought. Are there things out there only 'real' to the very young? Do we get so 'educated' we can't see these things anymore?

I miss believing in fairies.

[emalia]

I Do we get so 'educated' we can't see these things anymore?

I miss believing in fairies.

I truly believe that we do. As a student in the middle and high schools children are taught to strictly believe in what is tangible. They are taught only cold, hard facts and logic. It isn't logic that there is something that can't be tangible...

As far as fairies, I still believe in them. I guess that is what they would be called. These are the things that steal one sock per load of wash, hide your car keys only to put them right back in teh same spot that you looked in 10 minutes ago and they weren't there. They are the same things that magically put $ where you least expect it and when you need it most (like the discovery of a $20 in jeans pockets, or in the dry or when you clean out your purse.) Same little dudes that hide your favorite pair of slippers when you are the only person home and you had them on your feet when you plopped on teh could to snuggle withthe furchildren and aren't there when you get up 2 hours late because of the law of kitty on chest. But suddenly return after you walk accross the house looking for them on your way to the Bathroom.

[Alewyn of Aventinus]

Thanks! Its nice to know that fairies still exist even if I'm too ignorant to see them. I'm thinking they have kidnapped many of my daughter's Polly Pockets and part of the paid-too-much teaset I bought her in Germany.

[Bathsheba Khandayce]

Hi All,
Ya know only here would I see a truely serious discussion on imaginary friends.
Anywho, yes I have had an imaginary friend for most of my life. At first my friend was someone I thought of as a real person who my family had to make concessions for. To this day my Grandma kids me about the time I held up an American Airlines flight running to the front of the plane so that they wouldn't close the door on Lamby. Now I have the characters that I created while playing super-hero role-playing games. Even though I havent played with other players since 1997 I still run games in my mind write stories about them (including xxx stories :haloslip: ) and mentally interact with the characters, toss them in the plots of books and movies to see what I would have done with the same set of circumstances but my characters. These friends are imaginary. Unfortunately :pweeease:
On the other hand I am a Christian and I believe that God does send Spirit Messengers (Angels) to help us. They can be "Guardian Angels" or Intervening/Protecting/Instructing/Messenger Angels or whatever God feels we need right then and there.
Just my $2.02 worth (inflation donchaknow)

[Bonnie]

oh hell..

I'll play.

I have one 'friend' I created in my mind when I was a child. Yes, he was a creation of mine, but he took on a life of his own, and I swear I can't control what he does or says anymore.

Well, do you all remember Beauty, the Barbie dog? It was an Afgan hound. I had one given to me, and I played with it madly. It got left outside, trampled in mud, dried in the sun....repeatedly. One day I picked it up, looked at it, and suddenly, I knew it. His name was Shandor Morgan, and he was a privateer/ smuggler...always just this or that side of the law and morality. I blacked out an eye, painted a scar down his cheek, and made him a cloak. And the adventures began. I think I wrote a hundred stories about him and his shipmates. I talked to him, slept with him, cried on him, confided in him.

Do you remember the Velveteen Rabbit? He finally became real, right?

Shandor is my Velveteen Rabbit. He's as real to me as a memory of yesterday, as real as a dream of tomorrow, and as real as the pain of today. When I've moved, he's the last thing packed, and the first thing UNpacked....always monitoring things as a good captain should. Right now, he's sitting atop my computer desk, looking down at me, and knowing he's there makes me smile. My dog chewed him up once....it took almost $100 to do it, but he GOT repaired. He's good as ever he was in his prime...scruffy and tattered, but all in one piece.

Are imaginary friends real? Are they spirits? Yes to both.

[Pearl_Fox]

emalia said:
As far as fairies, I still believe in them. I guess that is what they would be called. These are the things that steal one sock per load of wash, hide your car keys only to put them right back in teh same spot that you looked in 10 minutes ago and they weren't there. They are the same things that magically put $ where you least expect it and when you need it most (like the discovery of a $20 in jeans pockets, or in the dry or when you clean out your purse.) Same little dudes that hide your favorite pair of slippers when you are the only person home and you had them on your feet when you plopped on teh could to snuggle withthe furchildren and aren't there when you get up 2 hours late because of the law of kitty on chest. But suddenly return after you walk accross the house looking for them on your way to the Bathroom.

I agree... I still believe in fairies and think of the above things as things that fairies or pixies (as my family calls the mischevious little rascals) are the ones that do them. Why else would what you are looking for turn up in the exact place you looked for it not too long after you stopped looking? To me the existance of fairies or pixies explains that.
And I am a Christian (with a few alternate beliefs mixed in) and I have been asked by mother to explain what a fairy is. To me they are just Angels, not good enough for heaven or bad enough for hell. I have always believed this but I have actually heard this theory stated in a ledgend/story at some point in time. I just can't remember the story because I would love to have it either on disk or paper.
Just my thoughts on the subject... :thinking:

[Tempest_Gypsy]

<snip>
To me they are just Angels, not good enough for heaven or bad enough for hell. I have always believed this but I have actually heard this theory stated in a ledgend/story at some point in time. I just can't remember the story because I would love to have it either on disk or paper.
Just my thoughts on the subject... :thinking:

That was what the Irish believed around the turn of the century (and likely still do!). I had to write a major thesis paper in high school before they would let me graduate (omg, that's sooo long ago) and we got to pick any topic we wanted. So, I picked Irish faeries. I'll see if I can't un-earth it from the pile of disks in my computer desk drawer, if you like.

[AllieSutherland]

My "imaginary friend" at ages 3-4 was a 7-8 ft. Ernie (from Sesame Street) at the local JC Penney store. My mom would let me stand in front of him as we shopped, and I'd jabber on and on at him, non-stop. About that time, we got a rubber tree plant, and I named him Ernie. I talked to him too! I know that some people think that talking to your plants make them grow well... must've worked in that case, because it lived for about twelve years! (although I only "conversed" with it for about a year. ;)

:lol!:

XOXOXOX
Allie

[Leela]

No imaginary friends, but a huge Imagi Nation.

[Maeve Ravensway]

I didn't really have Imaginary friends -- but my father did and used them to torment me!
One was Isobel McGoogan. When ever I wouldn't do something my father wanted, well Isobel McGoogan would. My father also took her places, like to the zoo or out for a drive. I pictured her there, living in her palm tree on a desert island, having tea and toast with my father. Grrrrr

Then there was Eric Von Stuben. He was one of Santa's elves and watched me ALL THE TIME! Talk about Big Brother.

Maevie, still fuming
Cunning Woman