For the past week, my four-year old has had stomach troubles. No fever or other symtoms other than tummy aches and many trips to the bathroom. Obviously I am becoming concerned, due to the duration of the problem. Last night I was trying to pinpoint the cause by reviewing his diet and asking him what it feels like and where it hurts. He was convinced that "it feels just like when a skyscraper falls down". I asked him what made him think of that and he said he "just knows". I asked him if he has ever seen that on t.v. and he said no.

Now I know four-year-olds have very vivid imaginations but it is usually limited to expanding on their own experiences, a story they have been told or what they have seen on television. Also, given the timing (9/11), I was pretty amazed and curious because he knows nothing of the event. I would like to ask him more questions about it but I don't want to encourage any negative feelings or plant some sort of false memory. He has not had this specific issue on previous 9/11 anniversaries but, upon reflection, I remember he did have a very severe and extended bout of anger and temper-tantrums this time last year.

I am not one to view this forum often and I have not been too interested in the paranormal because I find it a little freaky and not very useful to my daily life. But this has really got me wondering. I assume it may relate to some sort of past life experience. I'm not sure how I feel about that or the topic of reincarnation. It all makes a very nice and hopeful tale but there is no hard evidence.

I would like to know if any ATS members have had experiences along this line. Also, how might I go about finding more info on this phenomenon as it relates to children?

Come on people...The ridiculous "Dinosaurs Don't Exist" thread even got some feedback and he didn't ask a question! I know this isn't as interesting as popping light bulbs or UFOs but help a mom out here.

It honestly is a very strange statement to make. It could be possible your son is physic and sensing an upcoming event. Has he made strange statements of any kind before?

I would have to say the most logical explanation would be that he saw it on TV a million times, because the anniversary is coming up and the media is trying to beat into people's heads how 'unsafe' we are.

The first thing I'd ask your 4 year old is not "How do you know what a 'skyscaper' feels like when it falls down?", but...


"What does a skyscraper feel like when it falls down?"


It might seem that the differnce is negligible, but as you've already suggested in your first posting, four year olds tend to relate from their own experience, they are little literalists. If, as you say, your child has had no experience of the Trade Center collapse in 2001, it would be very unlikely that he be would relating his physical symptoms to what was, for most of us, an emotional event.

I wonder, too, at the use of the term "skyscraper" by a four year old; "a big building" or "a really tall building" seems, to me, to be more in keeping with the semantic sophistication level of a pre-schooler.

But, perhaps he's just an intellectually precocious child.

At any rate, if he is experiencing physical symptoms, encourage him to describe those symptoms in physical terms: rumbling (gas), falling (dizziness, vertigo), etc.. These will be more helpful to his pediatrician in diagnosing the cause of the discomfort.

Assuming that your child is experiencing some sort of physical manifestation of a prescient awarenes, or maybe empathically picking up the troubled zeitgeist of a world on the eve of a sad anniversary, may easily lead you to overlook a serious physical threat to your child.

And of course...Seek medical attention for him immediately, if have not already done so.

Maybe he's been reincarnated from someone who was in one of the towers when they collapsed. I.E, Bad feeling in the belly being similar to the feeling of falling. Just throwing that out there, I have no particular belief in reincarnation.

I am just now remembering a conversation we had while back.

He made a comment about fishing with his grandpa. I was surprised because, to my knowledge, he had never been fishing.

I asked which grandpa and named off each one. He replied, "No my other grandpa". I asked him "You have another grandpa besides so and so, etc?" He said yes, but could not name him. I asked when he went fishing and he could not say other than "A long time ago".

I totally forgot about this conversation until just now because at the time I chalked it up to imagination.

Come on all you paranormal junkies, this might not be a creepy face in a door window but its real (no pixelation issues here! LOL lol and I need input. Maybe the title of the thread is just too 9/11 and everyone has burnout. This is way more important to me than that. I was just trying to get a response. Chalk it up to poor marketing or just my thread killing aura.

I understand your plight, and how some things seem to get more light than others with true feelings behind them so let me just offer this to you.

My neice, when she was 6 told me about her dreams she would have all the time.. She said she saw 2 large towers, and black smoke comming from then, in the center of the black smoke was a big red eye. She said it really scared her. This was 1 year before 911 attacks.. Threw out that year she kept having the same dreams, and telling us about the black smoke in her dreams, and 2 large buildings/towers sometimes..

Children can see things, and sense thing us adults have forgotten all about.
I remember as a child when I was sick, I would have dreams of dark clouds, and insects swarming over crops.. I grew up on a farm, so I thought thats where it came from..

I suggest taking him and getting an expert thought on this issue.. I love paranormal, but am in no postion to give you solid advice other than its a crazy world, children see things, adults are taught its only our dreams and thoughts.. We do the same to our children, until they "grow up".

But growing up is to forget all those things that made it so wonderful to be a child.. I really belive that you're son sensed something.. Dont push him to stop either I would say... I would if anything let him go down his path, and get him into Art, music! He could be someone very important someday.. We never know, but never supress those energies

I'm not an expert but maybe he can see future events through empathic means, and so he feels the event more than sees it. A bad event could easily manifest as a pain, but he knows what the pain feels like and in this case the pain feels like a building collapsing.


Not something that makes a lot of sense to us, but to him it makes perfectly good sense.

[edit on 8-9-2007 by Xtrozero]

Being more of a pragmatist, here's my immediate thought on this.

I believe that young children are very keen to conversations that happen in other rooms, even if they aren't trying to pay attention to them. In your son's four years, I'm sure he must have overheard various conversations that mentions 9-11.

The thing about that is that when people talk about the World Trade Center, they usually refer to them as "the twin towers" or "the towers", not as "skyscrapers".

Since your son knows the word "skyscraper", could it be that, somewhere among all the stories you must have read to him thus far, that there is a book that mentions cities and their tall buildings; the "skyscrapers"?

I can't really comment on your 4 year old but the last couple days I have had a strange "calm before the storm sensation" Now to a small degree I believe I may have experianced some sort of paranormal experiances in the past but have never worked on developing them fully. The feeling is a strange one and it is not yet that strong but it is none the less there. I have had similar experiances during other major events including 911. In the case of 911 I dismissed it too quickly because I did allow myself to focus on it. I would encourage you to probe your 4 year old for more information but only from a parental leadership rule asking and not injecting thoughts that could cloud his thoughts.

I can't explain this other than it is just in his vocabulary. He is very interested in everything and is very expressive. We read to him every day and talk about a lot of topics.

To me it is not unusual that he knows the word but you are the second person on the thread to think so.

I agree that children listen even when we don't think that they do. As such, it is possible that he could have heard something of 9/11 without directly discussing it or seeing it. I have no way to prove or disprove this other than my testimony that we are very conscious of what maybe considered "input", including news, conversations, etc., because he is so sensitive and perceptive.