Conference hydra::dejavu

    I don't think of a two year old as a baby.  They don't always speak all 
    that well, but they already understand a lot, I believe.  
    
    I do think they have some idea that something significant is happening.
    They might get signals from the mother, even without being told 
    (mother-child telepathy has a *very* strong clinical anecdotal tradition), 
    or maybe directly from the baby, but I do think that they sometimes get 
    unique signals about what is happening in the mother.
    
    					todd

Yes, I'm convinced that they do know. Babies and young children are
extraordinarily sensitive creatures. They can sense not only subtle
physical stimuli, but they can sense emotion in others with scary
accuracy. How they do this -- whether they do it by perceiving and
understanding subtle behavioral cues, or by some other less
"conventional" mechanism -- is a total mystery to me. The fact that
they do it, I'm absolutely sure of. Animals seems to be good at it too.
Adults (some, anyway) seem to have a talent for it, too, but generally
to a lesser extent than young children.

My personal theory is that it has to do with "noise" in the mind: if
your mind is filled with preoccupations, and you can't manage to quiet
it, you tend to be less sensitive. I find that I'm rarely able to "turn
down the volume" -- in fact, I have little, if any, control over it at
all. But I can definitely sense brief periods during which the noise
level is lower, and during these periods, I can better understand
what's going on in and around me. It's a very pleasant feeling.

By the way, just a comment on the "brightness" of children: I have not
yet met a young child who was not astonishingly bright. In all cases
where a child was not specifically described as bright, I have found
that the child's talents were basically not recognized or understood by
adults. Different children excel at different things, but, to repeat, I
have not once observed a young child who didn't exhibit some incredible
ability at something positive (within an hour of observation). It is
very sad that many children will, as they grow up, not realize that
they have such talents, because they will have become discouraged in
one way or another by what they were told or not told.

Equally sad is the reverse: children who are told that they possess
talents that they don't actually have. These children will grow up
confused, because they will see for themselves that they can't do
certain things as well as they're expected to, and will blame
themselves, and fail to understand the criticism and praise of adults
(because it doesn't correspond to what the child actually knows).

So I think that to call a child "bright" or otherwise is not
necessarily good for the child, other children, or adults. To recognize
and not stifle genuine talent is one of the most important and
difficult jobs of a parent.

    
    My son who is 16 months old knows that something is up (I am 35 weeks
    pregnant). He is forever lifting my shirt to expose my belly so that he
    can either kiss it, pat it, or stick his finger in my belly button
    (something that hold tremendous interest for him).
    
    	As we seem to be a bit further along than you are, we constantly
    point out babies on TV, in the stores, and we have gotten him a "baby
    doll" that he has started to give a bottle to and feed cookies (he
    really is a sweet child).
    
    	He does not appear to be upset, or displeased with me and although
    we are fully expecting some sort of acting out once the nwe baby is
    here, I would really be surprised if it turns out to be a major problem
    with Spencer.
    
    				Wendy

    When my daughter was about 2 and my son was around 3, we were having a
    conversation about what kind of car they wanted when the got older.
    Rachel, my daughter, said she wanted a "big pink car with no top just
    like I used to have when I was bigger".  I asked her what her name was
    when she was "bigger" and she replied, "Rachel, my name has always been
    Rachel".  
    
    She also told my husband and I that she was happy she chose us for
    parents.  When I asked her what she meant by that she said, "All babies
    are in heaven with Jesus before we come here and he lets us pick who we
    want".
    
    My father-in-law and my son, Ryan, were very close before he died.  
    Grandpa even bought Ryan his own Detroit Tiger ball cap to match the
    one he had.  Ryan ONLY took this hat off to take a bath, he even slept
    with it on!!  One morning while wearing the hat, the little plastic
    adjustment device, gave away and the hat fell to the floor.  For some 
    reason at that moment I glanced at the clock which read 11:05am.  Ryan
    was very upset and I told him we would find a way to fix it or buy a
    new one.  He told me he didn't want it fixed or buy a new one, he just
    wanted to throw it away because "Me and Grandpa don't need it anymore"
    Well, about 15 minutes later I received a call to inform me that my
    father-in-law passed away at 11:05.
    
    I think when children are young like this their minds are open to
    everything.  And as they get older we are constantly telling them that
    these sorts of things are just their imagination, because we, as adults
    don't want to believe.
    
    Cheers,
    lv 
    
    

    
    Wow!
    
    And Absolutely!
    
    Cindy

I think we scare it out of them.  Because they are open, they can read a
great deal of what we think.  When they do something psychic, the learn 
from our own unease that this is inapproprate behavior and learn not to
do it.

80)

    Yep... they become conditioned.. some more than others.

    And it can often dull their abilities by not "exercising them"
    
    Yet here we are, a bunch of adults, discussing our own experiences.  We
    don't discourage each other from them, so why should any of us
    discourage our children?
    
    If all of us encouarged them, think about them in the next generation
    encouraging their children, and so on...
    
    With me, I got a lot of mixed responses for my psychic abilities as a
    child.  I learned to just keep them in.  I still acknowledged them, and
    do to this day, but I don't talk about them.  I find that even as an
    adult, when I tell people all the things that happen, they get
    frightened.
    
    Maybe it's because it's easy for us to discount what children say
    because "they are children" and it's "their imaginations" but as
    adullts, we believe other adults...
    
    

>    With me, I got a lot of mixed responses for my psychic abilities as a
>    child.  I learned to just keep them in.  I still acknowledged them, and
>    do to this day, but I don't talk about them.  I find that even as an
>    adult, when I tell people all the things that happen, they get
>    frightened.
    
Hm. This fear might arise from many sources. Usually, these experiences do
not fit into the frame of reference of the persons told to. So when the
persons who are listening, try to acknowledge them, they introduce
uncertainty for themselves at the same time. Reactions can be of many types:
- acceptance
- denial
- jealousy
- irony
- etc
I think we have seen all of them in this notesfile.... ;-)

I tell my son that I'm always open to discuss these things with him, yet he
might find negative reactions when discussing it with others. He should try,
though, to find out himself who are accepting it, and who are not. On the
other hand: talking too much about it might end up in 'boasting', eventually
losing it. So I think our environment provides us with just the right
conditions for growth.... :-)

Arie