Imaginary Friends - What Are They?

reply to post by xFloggingMaryx


Most certainly.
It takes a bit of getting use to, that's for sure.

if this would have been asked at any time before I heard an audible voice say He was Jesus when I had just started to open a Gideon NT, the response would have been typical "for weak minded, crazy shizo, etc." even after and though a friend and I had seen an angel as kids..but after much pondering and study not only are the odds too great from the scriptures witness (specifically regarding the details of that one night and sentence spoken) as well as alot of other things from history but also it just makes sense for all humanity in general and eternity.. now if someone could pass the heart medicine I might just make it :lol

admit this verse in Daniel chapter ten throws me for a loop since it was just one voice

His body was like beryl, his face like the appearance of lightning, his eyes like torches of fire, his arms and feet like burnished bronze in color, and the sound of his words like the voice of a multitude.

I'm not trying to venture "off topic" or stray from the thread. I've read the whole thread so far and different "spin-offs" have been coming to mind. I'll begin with "imagination", as the thread title demands it!

An Axiom is a statement accepted as true without proof. A theorem is a statement proved to be true.

Here is a quote from an Edgar Cayce reading.

"For anyone with great imagination, of course, is intuitive; though oft may be called by others only imagination"

Taking the statement as a card on this table and an idea, which is it, an axiom or a theorem?

What strikes me is the tendency of many to consider BOTH imagination and intuition the same. Could that be why the phenomena is often ONLY thought of ( and labeled ) as "Imaginary Friends"? What of the "idea" on the table, that I have offered?

Ideas are another aspect to this thread, as are "thoughts". How big is an idea? Where does it come from and where does it go? What does it smell like or what color is it? Are thoughts things? What dimension is an idea in or what dimension do they come from? Do they come from "imagination or intuition"? Are they "real" or "Imagination"?

Imagination has an interesting thread in etymology....

imagination "faculty of the mind which forms and manipulates images," mid-14c., ymaginacion, from O.Fr. imagination, from L. imaginationem (nom. imaginatio) "imagination," from pp. of imaginari

This is simple and basic etymology, but it does mention "forms" and "manipulates" images.... Are these images real? are the ideas real? For example: A book. Is the actual printed material i.e. book, real? what of the ideas in the book, are they real? or BOTH are real and the physical book is a manifestation of the "ideas"? If the books are burned ( as have happened en mass! ), has the "book" really been affected? as the ideas in the book ( what the book really IS ) hasn't been touched.

One may wonder that is why it's a war of "ideas"... destroy the "ideas" in the book. I guess another method is to claim imagination, intuition and ideas ( let alone thoughts ) are not REAL! They are Imagination!

Another example is the chair, bed or floor any of us may be resting on at this moment. That chair was a need, a desire, FIRST, then an "idea" formed ( shape, design etc ) and "manifested" ( constructed ) in the physical. You might say the ground is already there... and so it usually is, in one form or another, but the "idea" to use it as a place to rest comes from the realm of ideas, not the realm of the physical.

Much of the world is made up of these manifested ideas, ALL manifested ( or not ) in the physical and the "physical" is NOT a manifestation of people, it is already in existence. Any ideas "we" manifest in it are through manipulating the physical which "already" exists. We never create the physical, we merely play in it.

This is why top theories in Physics deal with "Matter cannot be created or destroyed, only changed" as if it is a law... or an Axiom. see?

I hope I haven't strayed too far from the thread, but I'm trying to present imagination and perceptions, as well as the topic, on a table. How many of us, even eventually, find ourselves associating the "manifested" as "real" yet the "ideas and imaginations" that formed them NOT REAL?

That might be what "I'll believe it when I see it" means... lol Then again I remember a great one ... "I see" said the blind man.

Seeing the light is key to my thoughts here.... The visible spectrum of light is a tiny segment of "Light"... think infrared.. ultraviolet... microwaves etc.... This also is manifested through "sound"... the sonic range for humans is one thing, but there's also infrasonic and ultrasonic. A whole world of sound is all around us and we don't perceive it, or SEEM to perceive it.

Elephants use infrasonic communication, speaking on a level "below" what humans usually hear... Bats use ultrasonics that fill the world with "sound" that we usually require a "device" to "hear", such as speeding up or slowing down the audio etc... Dolphins... "talking" in a range we DON'T Usually Perceive. The same applies to "Light" and Perception.

OK! back to the topic!

Seeing faeries or friends or forms usually not seen is a matter of perception. There's sonic frequencies that young people can hear, yet elders can't. Yes some might claim "We know WHY." But it's merely an example of changing perceptions. the very young or babies may have perceptions they eventually "lose". Not to say that elders don't experience the same thing... seeing faeries etc etc, but when a very young baby has that light in the eyes.. that smile.. that look and action, as if being entertained by angels?

Where does that come from? Yes I know some might "imagine" it's inner physical reactions and processes etc.. but WHAT OF the "mental"? What of the realm of ideas... thoughts.. imagination and INTUITION we looked at earlier? From where has a baby received THAT? Some might claim babies DON'T have that faculty. They may know better, but a mother knows that look.

Some experiences may be physical related as in diet, unbalance, drugs etc etc.. That does not apply to all examples. Most examples are actually a phenomena of "natural" childhood or life. I wonder that's why many deal with it by virtue of "imagination" and "NOT REAL".

It also reminds me of people that DREAMED the future and had it proved to their own experience that they DID dream it.... and they STILL return to the "that card is not on the table world".

I wonder that the very young ( and we once were ) and children have faculties and abilities, perceptions, that are eventually "lost"... as they grow, by the age of 6, they are absorbing the "external" world and processing it internally, till years later they are filled with this "real" external world to such an extent that what they have been mimicking from the "real world", behaviors, etc has BECOME THEM, and the inner world they once "experienced" has become IMAGINATION and for many people it's become NOT REAL.

Identifying with the external world as real and not perceiving that the man-made world is a manifestation of the Imagination/Mental and ideas, REALITY, seems to be an issue here. An invisible ( to some ) entity or faerie etc may not "Seem Real" but hey! Show me an idea!

Well I've got a few "abilities" I know when ghosts are around... I've had several experiences with them... I can sense them and I can get impressions from them...

But my imaginary friend as a child wasn't a ghost... It was Bugs Bunny... he was cool as hell... but when I turned about 8yrs old (I think 8yrs old) ...I "killed" him off... don't know why but I can still see him laying in his lil coffin makes me sad... I miss old bugs...

hmmmm...I just remembered when I killed off Bugs.... I got another friend... it was my right hand... hahaha, no no you perverts... mind out of gutter... I would make a "sock puppet" type gesture, without the sock with my hand... it had a personality of it own... and it was evil... and it would talk to me... and when it "came to visit" I would be all dramatic... that certainly was an odd period of my childhood...

guess I grew up some and killed the "innocent" Bugs Bunny and replaced him with the "Evil" side of my sub-conscience... odd

I MISS YOU BUGS!!!!

reply to post by Serafine


First off, Serafine, thanks so much for the uber detailed response! I really appreciate it when people actually read and consider the things that I’ve typed.

When I was a little kid, I had an imaginary flying, talking dog. She was a cobalt blue cocker spaniel named Dee Dee, and she always flew around behind me, following me wherever I went. I knew she wasn't real, that I had imagined her out of boredom, but it was a fantasy I enjoyed a lot, and she was somebody to talk to. I remember other kids at daycare had imaginary friends, but they got really mad when I called their made-up friends imaginary and wouldn't play along...kind of a playground taboo, I guess. I quit imagining that she was there when I got a real dog.

I knew for sure that I was making it up. When I came up with Dee Dee, I wanted a dog so badly. My mom tried to compromise with a gerbil, which was a cool pet and I loved my gerbils, but I wanted a creature that I could relate to and walk around with and be friends with. So one day when I was out playing in the yard, and being very mad at my mom for telling me "NO!" about a dog again, I just kind of layed down on the grass and started imagining what the best dog in the world would be like. And so, Dee Dee came to be, and took on a life of her own, in my head.

As someone who does write novels with the intention of eventually getting published... it really is like that. One of my characters in one of my novels... it's like he's there in my head waiting on me to shut up and listen to what he's got to say, so that he can tell his story and I can write it down, even though I know I'm making it up, even though I plotted and outlined the story before I came up with him and thusly know what he's going to "say". I've never been under the impression that he, Dee Dee, or anyone else I've invented in my head are real folks.

I wished Dee Dee was real, and there are a few characters I've come up with who I wish were real folks, but they're not. It's just a part of the creative mind. Pre-school children I think are more apt to create. Unless the kid's parents are Adolf and Eva, the kid will be very creative until his individuality has been ripped away from him by the system for easier processing.

reply to post by EvolEric



That's one of the weirdest things I've ever heard. Not about Bugs Bunny, but about the evil right hand. Are you being serious? The right hand actually spoke to you and had a mind of it's own. That reminds me of that movie 'Idle hands'. Haha that was pretty funny...

reply to post by solargeddon


Your story gave me the creeps because it reminded me of a story I read. Lol just the name... but yea

www.trueghosttales.com...

reply to post by xFloggingMaryx


Hello xFloggingMaryx

Originally posted by Serafine

Here is a quote from an Edgar Cayce reading.

"For anyone with great imagination, of course, is intuitive; though oft may be called by others only imagination"

Have you heard of Edgar Cayce, or studied his work and "Readings"? He was born March 18th, 1877 and died in 1945. He had imaginary playmates for most of his childhood as well as seeing faeries... From the beginning he saw "Auras" and that ability was for his whole life. An interesting point to the Auras is that for the longest time while growing up, he thought everyone saw them. It was a surprise to him when finding that was not the case.

Much of what I was posting was from Cayce Readings ( he would talk in his sleep, giving "readings" ) and Gurdjieff and Ouspensky work. Academic Western Philosophy is one thing.. lol But hey! Majoring in Kierkegaard or Descartes can perchance bring someone to "I think, hence I am" or "Either you marry Or you don't marry, either way you suffer"!!!

What of "I am, hence I think"?

Western and academic philosophy, with Rationalism and Empiricism and Realists and on and on, ists and isms, is ONLY part of philosophy. I remember academia trying to scoff at many "philosophies" outright, such as Martin Gardner's "Fads and Fallacies In The Name Of Science" etc... Even B F Skinner for freshmen amounted to the same academic offering of philosophy, which was limited.

Meanwhile.. Martin Gardner used fallacies and lack of knowledge ( along with academic credibility ) to portray Cayce, Gurdjieff etc as "false".

Some Gurdjieff and Ouspensky books ( free online )

Gurdjieff and Ouspensky Books

I would suggest... Meetings with
Remarkable Men... Life is Real Only Then,
When 'I am'.... In Search of The
Miraculous... in that order.

Sorry. lol... Not trying to give some grrrrr assignment lol... It's not something learned in a semester or year... So take your time, if interested.

For Edgar Cayce, "There Is A River" by Thomas Sugrue is a brilliant start. There's so much material from "readings" and a myriad of topics covered in many books, papers etc, that Sugrue's book will provide a background and understanding of WHO this all came from. There is a river is about Cayces life and his work.

You'll find it easy to come across "Skeptic" groups etc giving their critique of course. But I've found virtually all of them have no idea of Gurdjieff, or Cayce's Life and material ( over 14,000 readings ), Many outright use logical fallacies to maintain their opposition to ANY psychic phenomena.

Of Course... The best method to have an opinion of our own is to do the work ourselves.

**************************************

You described

Originally posted by xFloggingMaryx

I can see myself as if I’m outside of my body and looking from above. Every detail of it: just from a different viewpoint. I consider this to be part of my imagination. There is no way that I will ever physically be able to see myself as a moving picture from that angle (without a video camera, of course)… but my imagination can create the image almost as well as if I had used a video camera.

Gurdjieff spoke of "Self Observation" and people being asleep. The ancient Greek Mysteries with their "Know Thyself To Be Thyself" rings in here. The ability to "see" yourself involves more than imagination. Try watching yourself sometime.... When you "forget" to watch, kindly wake yourself up and "Watch" again...

You mentioned "consciouness" and this helps reveal your consciousness, as most of us are not cognitive of these things. When you find your self that is behaving / acting.... there is also your self OBSERVING.

One important thing. Don't change anything based on your self observation.. ONLY observe. Once you try to change something of your self that you are observing you change the observation... One might liken it to our intellect wanting to change something..... stick to the consciousness. Change comes in time, with a sense of "Identifying" with the observer in us... more then the observed.

whew! sorry lol...... This is basic Gurdjieff 101 stuff... but it's NOT. It's not something learned in a course or without "Application"... I'd bet you understand that.

Another thing I noticed is you declared...

"There is no way that I will ever physically be able to see myself as a moving picture from that angle (without a video camera, of course)"

Well if you cut yourself off at the pass... of course there is NO WAY? And what if you DO experience such perceptions? I haven't responded quickly to your response ( to my post ) because I wanted to consider things like this in your post.

It reminds me of exactly what your thread is here Imaginary Friends - What Are They?

How many people declare the exact same thing regarding "invisible friends"... .... There is NO WAY ( that they are real, thus call it imaginary.. )

See?

You can find plenty of support to reinforce your NO WAY !!! lol Would be easy to find many who will support.. Dreamed The Future ... NO WAY! Can't be done... I saw a ghost... NO WAY... I saw a UFO metal craft!... NO WAY... I died and was still alive!.... NO WAY! on and on! Does that leave a WAY at all? Whose way, what way? lol

Your way.... you thought and stated NO WAY. How many people say the exact same thing about imaginary friends.. faeries and elves... ghosts? And they say it for the EXACT SAME reasoning as in your example? So when I read your response and post... I had to think about it ... lol Thanks!!!

With some research, even asking friends, we can find material of people with the YES WAY ! lol... having experienced such perceptions.... Likewise we can and will find people with "imaginary friends"... seeing faeries... seeing ghosts... hearing ghosts? spirits?.... We will find Phenomena

What are they? Some might be imaginary, some might be hallucinations etc... But what are any friends? Are ALL friends imaginary? The Image of any friend I have is one thing, but what and who manifests that image is another. What good a dead friend? The Image ( body ), is still there eh? The friend isn't in the image anymore. But then again... people have been known to see their friend AFTER they died, or checked out, or kicked a rusty bucket.....

I wonder Imaginary Friends and Ghosts are very similar, in many cases. Faeries a different phenomena, but I would insist these cards be on the table, if we were doing a project on this eh? Ghost, could just as well be phrased, discarnate entity. Someone not incarnated. As well Ghost = Spirit and Psychic = Pertaining To Soul.


Notice... Cayce was born March 18th.. the OL' Fish!

I did have quite an imagination growing up, and I was an "only" child. My sister got married when I was 2 and moved away, so I basically grew up as an only child. My first recollection of my imaginary friend, who I later called Junior, came about the age of 2-3 years old. I remember talking to him sometimes while playing. My mom found out about him, and kind of unlike her, she supported my dalliances. I wish I could recall my first encounters with Junior, but I don't remember much about them. I do remember that every time my parents and I would go out to a restaurant for dinner, we'd have the waiter keep the other place setting at the table for Junior! lol The waiters usually were quite fun about it and played along!

I don't remember when Junior left me, it was probably around the start of school. I do recall that I had an idea of what Junior looked like. He was a little younger, and shorter than me, he had sandy brown hair, and wore clothes that maybe existed around the depression times. I don't know why I made him look this way, other than it could have been from pictures of my dad's childhood that sparked this visage.

Also, interestingly enough, I didn't know of any other children at the time that had imaginary friends. So, respectively I came up with this idea on my own.

And, yeah, I'm still creative, and a writer like a few other people on here! Haha! I guess we've always been this way, right?

I'll have to talk to Junior again sometime, just to catch up on old times and reminisce. lol

i think they are just Imaginary thats it but on the other hand i dont know how a five year old kid just make a friend up like that

One day I started to have memories of a little boy I used to play with, in a yellow room. I asked my mom about it one day and she said i never played with any boy but i thought i had an imaginary friend named Alex. After that I started remembering certain things about him. I distinctly remember him saying "follow my foot-steps" obviously being a naive 4 year old i did as he said. Somehow i dont remember how we got there but we were outside and he was there laying on the ground in the middle of the woods. He was also standing there talking to me he said " follow me". The last thing I remember is a sharp pain and the word "forever" then there is a gap in my memory between the age of 7-10 i remember nothing but none of my memories from 6 and below seem to be false. . . (back to my point) I believe "imaginary" friends are our guidance as a child to prevent us from doing something or killing us even (hopfully not) for our own good..... what do you think???

I thought everybody on ATS had imaginary friends that leave bread crumbs in the astral to follow?
If they aren't visible to everybody then they must just be imaginary to some.
Its the same thing with UFO and conspiracy evidence, some of us see it as a evidence while others are sure it is just coincidence.

I had a friend and her name was pam, I used to go over and give her my toys(at night only) they used to drop one at a time, most night. I scared my parents so much with it as they had no idea what I was doing. I do not remember this now other than from what my parents have said.

reply to post by xFloggingMaryx


in my experience it was very vivid. i could see, hear, and sometimes even touch my "friends." and they were never the same, each time, i had a different playmate. sometimes i still have them, even if i'm already 18.

my roommates freak out sometimes because apparently, i suddenly wake up at night to push one of my "friends" away and yell at them to let me sleep, but i never remember.

maybe i just have a really good imagination, though. ^^

I'll start off with this quote:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” --Albert Einstein

Imagination gets a pretty bad rap yet most everything that we've created came through imagination first. Imagination is the way to tap the field of all possibilities. The OP asked if imaginary friends are coping mechanisms..maybe in a sense. I don't recall having one when I was a child --I wish I did because I wonder what that experience would have been like. But I do think when children have them that they are called imaginary friends. When adults have them, often they are called spirit guides. Do they exist in an alternate reality? Probably.

Originally posted by solargeddon
Interesting post, I have two kids, and my first born had immaginary friends at 18 months old, they we three little monsters Coey, Donchette, and fross, so I really hope they are not form a parralell world allowise that would mean monsters exsisted lol, but seriously he came up with this all on his own, names included, which although he is a smart kid (could read numbers at 17 months for a kick off), the names are very unusual, and not normal language, so perhaps, there could be some truth in it.

Second kid, my youngest began her immaginary friend career a little later in life, at about 2/2 and a half, and her friends name was Lucy, this friend would be more credible, because not only was the name not one she ever came into contact with up to that point as far as I am aware, but the longevity of this friendship has been interesting, as over time Lucy barely got a mention, but from time to time and less infrequently as she got older, until December I thought Lucy was well and truely gone, as she had not been around for at least six months maybe longer, plus my daughter goes to nursery, so has real friends now. But back in december, my daughter turned round and mention one of the boys in her nursery likes to play with the girls, in a very mock sarcastic fashion, she then followed up very quickly by saying "My friend, my immaginary friend Lucy, says boys don't play with girls, only girls play with girls, and boys play with boys !"

Now I am totally aware of children at this age do come to the conclusion that this is the way things are, and even use a friend from nursery to say that this concept is the case, but I have never heard a child use an immaginary friend to relay this concept, and it is all the more strange to me as I beleived Lucy to be missing presumed dead for the longest time.

So to summerise perhaps Lucy is real in some way, as I am at a loss to explain it.

Just a wild guess, but did your daughter listen to any Beatles songs when she was young?
Whatever it is intended to convey (and there are many a wild theory on that subject), for a young child who just takes it literally on a subconscious level...

[VERSE 1] Picture yourself in a boat on a river, With tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly, A girl with kaleidoscope eyes. Cellophane flowers of yellow and green, Towering over your head. Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes, And she's gone. [CHORUS] Lucy in the sky with diamonds, Lucy in the sky with diamonds, Lucy in the sky with diamonds, Ah... Ah... [VERSE 2] Follow her down to a bridge by a fountain, Where rocking horse people eat marshmallow pies. Everyone smiles as you drift past the flowers, That grow so incredibly high. Newspaper taxis appear on the shore, Waiting to take you away. Climb in the back with your head in the clouds, And you're gone. [CHORUS] Picture yourself on a train in a station, With plasticine porters with looking glass ties. Suddenly someone is there at the turnstile, The girl with kaleidoscope eyes. [CHORUS] [CHORUS FADEING]