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Youth and the paranormal.


Jbear

Paranormal Novice
I would like to start this out by saying that I am fairly new to the paracast and that I am brand new to the forums.

I am 21 years old and have noticed that most of my friends and peers are very dismissive anything that is paranormal in general. Growing up I enjoyed reading, videogames, sports and music. I consider myself a pretty typical young adult, and I have to wonder why I think this subject is so fastinating while many of my peers do not. There seems to be lots of speculation on these forums from older people, so I thought I would look at this from a younger persons perspective.

As far as I can see, there are two major factors that contribute to peoples interest in these subjects.

#1 Experience. We all think we see or hear things when we are small. It takes a significant experience, perhaps a little later into childhood or teenhood to really open someones eyes. The experience can happen to you or somebody close to you.

#2 Parenting. This is where I feel I am seperated from my peers. Talking about ghosts or other paranormal phenomenon is not taboo in my house. If something strange happens, we discuss it. Not everything has to lead to a paranormal explanation. It is just the fact that we can discuss this so openly without worrying what others think.

The odd time I do bring up the paranormal with my friends, I was quite shocked to discover that many of them seem to have had experiences that seemed pretty "interesting." When they go to say something to thier parents it is immeadiately dismissed as "you must have been dreaming," or some other similar thing.

Maybe families were more open to this sort of thing in previous generations. I am only 21, I was not there so I can not say. Maybe the reason that older people seem more interested is because they have had more experiences in there longer life time.

This is just the perspective of one youth on why there seems to be less interest from my generation.
 
thanks for that...i wish my folks were more caring to discuss the weird stuff I went through as a child....they just sent me to a shrink and said it was the devil...
 
I myself am 21 and i can relate to your post very much. I'm into music, sport, video games you name it. I can safely say i struggle to meet anyone who has any kind of curiosity, open-mindedness, willingness to obtain knowledge on anything paranormal, ufo's, you name it over here in Aus.

It's almost as if the "truth seeking" part of the mind has been effectively weeded out of newer generations and if anything is placed upon an entertainment factor though i know this not to be true.

I like to relate it to this analogy, given that we are all beings living on a planet "in the middle of nowhere" and not having any true knowledge of our true purpose and existance in the universe we occupy;

Having lived a happy life for 20-30 years suddenly one morning you find yourself waking up to a room completely unbeknown to you. There's no windows, no doors, all that you have is a couch and a tv that is programmed to one specific channel. Instead of wanting to know where the f**k you are, why the hell you are there and how exactly you got there, you just happily sit on the couch and watch the tv. Not having one ounce of curiosity about what exactly is going on.

This applys to the fact we are suddenly born and existing somewhere where we dont know what the hell is going on, yet, we choose to conform and pay attention to what is given to us rather then what is actually out there.

Seems to apply to most of the population -_-'
 
Parent of two kids -- 16 and 18. We talk about a lot of strange experiences and they know I am an open-minded skeptic. They know I think the "idea" of paranormal, anomalous stuff is incredibly cool -- but that I am going to try to be critical and discerning about anything I hear about. We were big fans of the X-files, which I thought was as much about drama and characterization as the paranormal. One of my daughters has been subject to a lot of strange experiences herself. They both thought it would be cool to go camping near Sedona and see if we come across any strange lights or craft in the sky, or any other anomalous phenomena.

I'm not sure about young people in general. My kids aren't exactly typical. It seems to me, though, that the special effects in movies have become so seamless with "real" photography -- and so thrilling and like, you know, COOL -- that paranormal stories and maybe a crappy image or video pale in comparison.

It seems trite to blame anything about the "youth of today" on whatever the pop culture is at the moment, but given a choice of seeing *Transformers* (or even the smarter, more compelling *District 9*) or listening to The Paracast, what would your average young person want to do. Actually what would your average person of *any* age want to do.
 
Actually what would your average person of *any* age want to do.

All of it man! All of it. Life is tremendously addictive, and the stuff out there in it is all exciting and new...depending upon how one looks at it.

Quick anecdote to explain that: I went back to school after my stint in the USMC. I have always been a heavy reader and upon entering classes I *thought* I knew a great deal about the subject matter being taught-no matter the subject. This led to me becoming complacent and bored during class, considering only my specific viewpoint. One day I decided to try something new: act like I didn't know anything about the particular subject that was being taught; ask questions, become intrigued, figure out what the teacher is teaching, not just what he/she is saying is relevant to the test material. Once I changed my viewpoint, I realized that I actually learned, not just memorized.

I think that the problem today is that people don't treat life as something exciting and new and addictive. They eat the food on the table, or on the TV tray and they drink the Koolaid...because that's what they're expected to do. They believe in global warming and terrorism because that's what they're told to believe- they're not given any other viewpoints in order to make up their own minds.

The paranormal is no different. Depending upon what the various viewpoints of, as the OP stated, family has to offer, the youth may or may not believe it's worth investigation, belief or disbelief. It seems that these days though, if a child is having problems concentrating, or sitting still, we as a society see fit to medicate them, enroll them in psychiatric counseling and mold them through chemistry into accepting a generalized, sterlized societal view of the world. The paranormal is relegated to fantasy movies and television shows....
 
I was lucky in that both of my parents were very open to the paranormal, etc. (yet neither of them were 'into' anything).

I encouraged my own kids (who are now grown) to explore such issues (if they were so interested, which neither of them are at this time). But I'd like to think I planted the seed in them.
 
Hi jbear,
I think you are absolutely right. My 3 kids (23-27) all consider paranormal experiences normal. They are less afraid of discussing things than I am. I felt it was more of a taboo in my generation. I was very open with my own kids. I know that they have all had interesting things happen and kind of take it for granted but I can't imagine them posting on this type of forum. I don't really understand that. They seem to see it as a kind of intellectual pursuit, I think, and they just want to be entertained when they aren't working. So, they watch tv, get together with friends, go out or go camping or something. I don't see them having the interest I do.
Thanks for the insights,
Diana
 
I would like to start this out by saying that I am fairly new to the paracast and that I am brand new to the forums.

I am 21 years old and have noticed that most of my friends and peers are very dismissive anything that is paranormal in general. Growing up I enjoyed reading, videogames, sports and music. I consider myself a pretty typical young adult, and I have to wonder why I think this subject is so fastinating while many of my peers do not. There seems to be lots of speculation on these forums from older people, so I thought I would look at this from a younger persons perspective.

As far as I can see, there are two major factors that contribute to peoples interest in these subjects.

#1 Experience. We all think we see or hear things when we are small. It takes a significant experience, perhaps a little later into childhood or teenhood to really open someones eyes. The experience can happen to you or somebody close to you.

#2 Parenting. This is where I feel I am seperated from my peers. Talking about ghosts or other paranormal phenomenon is not taboo in my house. If something strange happens, we discuss it. Not everything has to lead to a paranormal explanation. It is just the fact that we can discuss this so openly without worrying what others think.

The odd time I do bring up the paranormal with my friends, I was quite shocked to discover that many of them seem to have had experiences that seemed pretty "interesting." When they go to say something to thier parents it is immeadiately dismissed as "you must have been dreaming," or some other similar thing.

Maybe families were more open to this sort of thing in previous generations. I am only 21, I was not there so I can not say. Maybe the reason that older people seem more interested is because they have had more experiences in there longer life time.

This is just the perspective of one youth on why there seems to be less interest from my generation.


Who knows., maybe your' generation will figure it out. Uhah., ha.,heh.,ha hahe.....killingjoker..jpg
 
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