Imaginary Friends

My post the other day about ‘The Holographic Universe’ got me to thinking about imaginary or invisible friends.

Or rather, reading that book got me to thinking about imaginary/invisible friends…

Back when I was a kid, up until I was about five I used to have an invisible friend named ‘Casper’. Casper was my constant companion much to the amusment and to some degree, consternation of my parents. My parents couldn’t see this companion of mine but I could and I would have conversations with him and I would play with him. And then one day, Casper just went away. I don’t recall the details about his exit from my life but I suspect that at some point I stopped believing that Casper actually existed. Another way to put it is that ‘I grew up’.

Now, the other day when I was thinking about all of this, it occurred, not for the first time mind you, that at that point in my life, we didn’t have a TV and so I never saw a Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoon. I also didn’t have any comic books — period. It wasn’t until I was about 10 that I read a Casper comic book. And lastly, I’d like to note that when I was a kid, it wasn’t until I was in kindergarten that I had any other children to play with. So, I had no contact with a cartoon character named Casper.

One of my nephews also had a notable invisible friend — Dobby. If you’re a Harry Potter fan you’ll know that Dobby is a house-elf. Oddly enough, my nephew’s friend Dobby was around a few years before Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published. Naturally, no one else could see my nephew’s pal Dobby but he was real enough for my nephew. Although, I shouldn’t really call him a pal, because this Dobby was a tad mischievous and a little on the creepy side as I recall; more so than JK Rowling’s Dobby.

So, how does this all tie in with what I read in ‘The Holographic Universe’? Well, there was a little anecdote in the book that dealt with fairies. Basically, quite some time ago, this guy went around the UK and collected stories and legends of fairies from the old folk, before the legends died out and were lost forever. (I’ll have to get the name of the person who was collecting these stories later; I don’t have the book on hand.) The story collector asked this old timer why people couldn’t see fairies anymore. And the man answered that it was because people were becoming more educated. The fairy folk were still around he said, but educated and sophisticated folk just don’t believe in that kind of thing. Couldn’t possibly be true…

So, once again I started to ponder this: Do ‘invisible friends’ really exist? And if so, who or what are they? Fairie folk? Spirits of some sort? Perhaps childhood invisible friends aren’t really imaginary friends at all; we’re just too educated and sophisticated to believe that they exist.

Related Link: Wikipedia: Casper the Friendly Ghost

September 18, 2008 | Filed Under Strange Stuff |