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The Truth About Imaginary Friends


Still Waters

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Imaginary companions are much more common than people might think. Up to two-thirds of children have them, typically between the ages of 3 and 8 (although there are accounts of teenagers who retain them from childhood or who first develop them as teens).

Historically, many researchers and parents thought that imaginary companions were harmful or evil, and were a sign of a social deficit, demonic possession, or mental illness.

“Certainly, it scares many parents today when they have children who are talking to people who are not there,” Gilpin says. Kids who notice that concern might be afraid to admit that they have an imaginary friend, she says.

http://www.sciencefriday.com/articles/the-truth-about-imaginary-friends/

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So what conclusion are we supposed to walk away with that we don't already have? These things are imaginary. Period.

If it bothers a parent to have their kid prattle on about imaginary things then limit their diet of tv, video games and fantasy then proceed to get them involved in real life stuff like playing with real kids, doing real activities such as minor chores or playing games with real people.

All a parent has to do is act totally indifferent/uninterested when their child talks about imaginary friends and it will quickly come to a screeching halt. Guaranteed.

On the other hand if there is family strife then sometimes kids use these imaginary things to cope. Once the problems are cleared up so will the issue of imaginary "friends".

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My youngest daughter had a few imaginary friends that were nice and not so nice and she also talked to some family members who passed long before she was born.. I believed everything she said as a 3 year old and still do now that she is in her 30's...

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I had an imaginary friend when I was a kid, but he didn't like me either. That's a joke. As a kid, I thought I'd like a friend who was another me. That way we'd have the same interests, but I never seriously imagined him.

As adults, when we talk or think to ourselves, that's a sort of having an imaginary friend. I remember a poem by some 19th century poet. He's walking through a graveyard and sees 2 children playing around a grave.

The little boy say they're playing a game, him, Mary and Johnny. The man says but there's only two of you. The boy insists, no, there's three of us. Me, Mary and Johnny. The man looks at the grave marker and the name is Johnny age 6, died that month, evidently their brother.

It's a profound poem, wish I could remember the author.

 

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I had an imaginary friend, I remember him in detail. He was a cowboy.  My eldest had one, he was a member of the family until he started getting into a lot of trouble.  I told my son he seem to be more trouble than he was worth as a friend. He disappeared shortly after that.

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On 28/05/2016 at 11:05 PM, XenoFish said:

What about adults with imaginary friends?

There's plenty of adults with imaginary friends, and like many children they are also deceived, yet in a different way. In many cases it's spirits that are their imaginary friends.

Edited by Hudds
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54 minutes ago, Hudds said:

There's plenty of adults with imaginary friends, and like many children they are also deceived, yet in a different way. In many cases it's spirits that are their imaginary friends.

Or they are mere figments of the imagination and nothing more. Why does it always have to be spooks or demons or even gods and angels. Why can't it be what it is?

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56 minutes ago, XenoFish said:

Or they are mere figments of the imagination and nothing more. Why does it always have to be spooks or demons or even gods and angels. Why can't it be what it is?

There is so much a human mind is capable of doing, but there's a limit which it can not exceed.
Many imaginary friends/ people shown signs, and in some cases activity, which had been far beyond a mere imagination of a person.

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7 minutes ago, Hudds said:

There is so much a human mind is capable of doing, but there's a limit which it can not exceed.
Many imaginary friends/ people shown signs, and in some cases activity, which had been far beyond a mere imagination of a person.

If you say so. 

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I really wished for a dragon when I was a kid. 

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Oh who am I kidding...

 

I still want one.

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Just conjure it up through your imagination. Make it the embodiment of all those not so pleasant urges.

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I never had any imaginary friends because as a kid I did not desire companionship, and always wanted to be left alone. My sister, on the other hand...hooooo boy. She had a whole passel of imagination-fuelled delusions. They got so developed that she had to speak to a councilor that eventually persuaded her that they were not real.

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  • 2 months later...

As I said in another post, I had an imaginary friend named Mr. Bones...a skeleton.  It's somewhere in the attic, but when I was a kid, I had a book about a family of skeletons who went outside at night to play, and would go to sleep when the sun was coming up.  I thought he'd be like that.  He wasn't.

My niece had a couple too, and would sit there and talk to them like they were in the flesh.  As she's an only child, it seems like she wanted the companionship of other kids.  I dunno if she's seen them of late, but school starts soon, so I'd imagine they won't be around as much.

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I had an imaginary girlfriend once upon a time... her name was Kate Winslet.  :wub:

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1 hour ago, XenoFish said:

What if I didn't have an imaginary friend but I was his imaginary friend instead?

This can relate to some situations where a child's apparent imaginary friend/being is actually a Spirit.

A child did not either want a imaginary or considered "it" as his/hers "friend", but however the Spirit related to a child as if he/she was it's somewhat friend.

Some claims have been where a child is communicating yet is often petrified with a so called imaginary friend/being, which had befriended the child at some point during early stages.

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Sometimes I think many of my real friends just might have been imaginary.  But I never had an imaginary friend when I was a kid.  There was enough of us running around the neighborhood, no need to make up friends.

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I lived in a trailer park full of kids. We were too busy climbing trees, riding bikes, and playing in the sprinklers during the summer. 

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4 hours ago, XenoFish said:

It was meant as a joke. <_<

I got that, however it gave me an opportunity to share something in relation to your comment. :)

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On 6/2/2016 at 3:53 PM, Podo said:

I never had any imaginary friends because as a kid I did not desire companionship, and always wanted to be left alone. My sister, on the other hand...hooooo boy. She had a whole passel of imagination-fuelled delusions. They got so developed that she had to speak to a councilor that eventually persuaded her that they were not real.

I felt left out when I was a kid, my neighbor had imaginery friends even when we were playing with others.

The only time my parents would hear me talking to myself was when I was playing with a Broadway playhouse set. I made my own characters and plays with the props and players. Then I made my own parking lots and roads. I would voice the policeman arresting speeders and car crashes.  I had no imaginary friends even when I asked other kids, how do you get one? I felt like  a weird child since I didn't see their imaginary friends like they did!

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On 5/29/2016 at 8:05 AM, XenoFish said:

What about adults with imaginary friends?

Excellent question !  

What usually happens is this :    we unconsciously perceive a need and a want generated by  concepts of what our psyche should be like, often these become 'personified' and projected , also often on to others we would like to consider, or already are partners, lovers, spouses, etc . 

Its not that the person is imaginary , just our expectations  of them that we formed or thought we detected in them during our 'infatuation period'. Liz Greene has an excellent chapter in this in one of her books he she dissipates the 'soul mate ' myth . 

 

Her advice is to keep these 'people' imaginary, or if they do exist   (perhaps in  one's favorite character or, nowadays,  fav  movie star ), to admire them from afar . To even emulate or aspire to be like them ....  but whatever you do dont meet with them - you will either ; find out they leave the toilet seat up too, and up being 'normal', annoying and not conforming to your expectations  ... or you will get done for 'stalking ' . 

Edited by back to earth
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