Do you believe in magic and the paranormal?
Do you believe the ghost stories you’ve heard are true? Do you search for fairies? What about monsters? Do you believe in witches and sorcerers? Do you believe in powers like telepathy, prophecy, and others? Do you believe there is some other explanation for some events that science can never approach? Do you believe a kernel of truth lies at the heart of myth and legend?
Well, do you?
It’s a funny thing that when I’ve met “true believers,” they’re often labelled as flakes, a bit naive at best for not simply accepting the mundane, secular world we live in dominated by science and technology. Children are allowed to exercise their imagination and believe in all that the world has to offer, all it could offer. But when we enter adulthood we are expected to set aside these beliefs and naivety and understand that is it science, logic, and the mundane that provide our answers. Then you have those who throw themselves towards the other end, the self-proclaimed skeptics who don’t believe in anything, and will be sure to tell you so (doth the lady protest too much?).
I would like to believe, but I’m not sure if I do or not. While I have faith in other beliefs, I do not believe fairies inhabit my garden (if they did, I’d hope my gardens looked a heck of a lot better, and would a bit of weeding kill them?).
Surely where there is smoke there is at least a bit of kindling. How else do we have strangely similar legends of creatures like vampires and werewolves across great distances, on almost every continent, in every language? They have different names, but the similarities are there. Can coincidence correctly explain all of these myths? What truths lie beneath?
Do I believe that every ghost story I’ve ever heard is true? That every myth I read is based on complete and utter certainty, cold-hard fact? Certainly not – but then, I have a hearty skepticism whenever anyone purports to know the one and only “truth.”
And yet …
Shortly after my paternal grandmother passed away, and our family was gathered at her home for the funeral, there were a few rather odd things that happened. Each and every one of us grand-children won a stuffed animal at one of those claw-game things. Then there was the brick found in the washing machine (though seriously, I have no idea how that would be connected; it was just weird).
And then there are the places I have traveled, where the hairs on the back of my neck have whispered that I was not alone. There are rooms in houses I did not want to be alone in, and could never explain why. I have felt the weight of an animal against my feet while I sleep, but I look to find no animal there. I have heard footsteps on a basement floor in the concrete hallway outside my bedroom door. And the half-dim of an almost burned out light bulb always makes me shudder – it’s the lighting of my nightmares, when I finally open the door to investigate those footsteps.
Do I believe? Perhaps. Or perhaps I merely want to, and at times need to. Is it only the yearning for something more, something outside what we can see and define with our limited means?
What about you? Do you believe in magic and the paranormal? Are you a believer? Or, are you a skeptic?
Thanks for reading, and hope you have a magical week. 😉 Oh, and if you liked the post, why not sign up to follow the blog? Have a good one.