Carl%20Sagan%20-%20The%20Demon%20Haunted%20World

Hallucinations
broken by a multi-coloured bird that flew in the window and
not because, contrary to family rules, a football was being
kicked inside the house - is he or she consciously lying? Surely
parents often act as if the child cannot fully distinguish between
fantasy and reality. Some children have active imaginations;
others are less well endowed in this department. Some families
may respect the ability to fantasize and encourage the child,
while at the same time saying something like 'Oh, that's not
real; that's just your imagination.' Other families may be
impatient about confabulating - it makes running the household
and adjudicating disputes at least marginally more difficult
- and discourage their children from fantasizing, perhaps even
teaching them to think it's something shameful. A few parents
may be unclear about the distinction between reality and
fantasy themselves, or may even seriously enter into the
fantasy. Out of all these contending propensities and childrearing
practices, some people emerge with an intact ability to
fantasize, and a history, extending well into adulthood, of
confabulation. Others grow up believing that anyone who
doesn't know the difference between reality and fantasy is
crazy. Most of us are somewhere in between.
Abductees frequently report having seen 'aliens' in their childhood
- coming in through the window or from under the bed or
out of the closet. But everywhere in the world children report
similar stories, with fairies, elves, brownies, ghosts, goblins,
witches, imps and a rich variety of imaginary 'friends'. Are we to
imagine two different groups of children, one that sees imaginary
earthly beings and the other that sees genuine extraterrestrials?
Isn't it more reasonable that both groups are seeing, or hallucinating,
the same thing?
Most of us recall being frightened at the age of two and older by
real-seeming but wholly imaginary 'monsters', especially at night
or in the dark. I can still remember occasions when I was
absolutely terrified, hiding under the bedclothes until I could
stand it no longer, and then bolting for the safety of my parents'
bedroom - if only I could get there before falling into the clutches
of . . . The Presence. The American cartoonist Gary Larson who
draws in the horror genre dedicates one of his books as follows:
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