Why is it that children are more susceptible to the paranormal than adults? It’s not unusual for someone’s child to claim to see a recently deceased loved one. You can find stories and reports of this phenomenon in every culture around the world. Why do children see these things while we as adults are so jaded as to not even sense any unusual feelings around us?

My father passed away a few years ago, he lost his battle to cancer. A very strong man, as this cancer spread through his spine and he fought it till the end.
After a few weeks of his passing, my brother Andrew and his then girlfriend were watching TV in my parents home. Her young son (from a previous relationship) was with them watching television as well. As they watched, my brother noticed that the child was flinching. As if an invisible fly was buzzing around his ear.
He noticed the child was becoming very uneasy and looking around his shoulder towards the door of the room where they were in. When they asked him what is going on with him, he said that he kept hearing a voice really close to his ear. Within minutes the child started saying “I see Victor’s dad standing in the door way” (he’s met my father once before). When my brother Victor asked him for more details, the child started to tell him that he sees my father standing in the doorway. That he was telling him that everything is ok. That he was not in pain anymore and that he could walk. Of course my brother and his girlfriend did not see or feel anything. After this, no one in my family has seen or experienced anything out of the usual around the house.

What intrigued me about this was the fact that there was no reason for this child to lie. As he was no more than 3 years old and was sitting quietly watching the television. The fact that he pointed out that he heard my dad say that he could walk again. Something I’m sure the child was not told about. What is the reason why only he saw this? Is it that only young children have a very open perception of life and external forces? how young must a child be to be considered prime candidates to witnessing paranormal events?

I remember another story that happened to My sister and her family.

My sister Monica and her husband Ramon had received ill news from Ramon’s family in Mexico. Ramon’s grandmother had passed away. They booked flights for them and their 2 kids as soon as they could to attend the funeral. In Mexico, they stay with Ramon’s family for the duration of the visit. One night as they all were falling asleep; my niece sat up and pointed to a corner in the room. She asked her mother who that person was that was standing in the corner of the dark room. My sister, confused, sat up and did not see anything. She told her daughter that there is nothing in the corner and to lay down and go back to sleep. My niece insisted that there was someone in the corner standing there silently watching them all. She described the person as being an older female with a lot of “red paint” on her lips. Turned out the Ramon’s grandmother used to wear heavy makeup. The pictures that I’ve seen of her depict an old woman of small stature, heavy makeup and a deep and distinctive red lipstick.

These are the stories that intrigued me a lot. Why? maybe because it can be argued that all humans, young or old, have the ability to see ghosts. I do remember seeing something weird as a kid. Something that to this day is the weirdest story I’ve ever heard.

I was a kid in Mexico in the mid to late 80s. We lived in a modest house in a poor city. What happened one night in that house has baffled and haunted my brother and I since. My brother and I used to share a bed and sleep in the same room with all my siblings in another bed. This particular night, I remember the moonlight being really bright. The Moon’s radiance came in through a window in the bathroom that was in that room. There was no door in that bathroom, but a curtain. So with the moonlight and darkness of the night,you could see some of the bathrooms fixtures through this curtain. Not being able to fall asleep, I was staring around the room and up for sometime. While scanning the room for my own paranoid reasons I noticed what seemed like a silhouette of a dwarf or really small child on the bathroom’s curtain. I thought I was seeing things and that it was just the light reflecting off something that made it appear to look like a child. After a few seconds, I noticed that this shadow started to move. It moved in a way where I knew it was not the curtain moving by wind, making it appear that the shadow had some motion. This shadow moved while the rest did not. Not only that I could see that it walked around the bathroom and moved it’s hands freely about. I was terrified. I could not believe that no one in the room was awake. I was paralyzed with fear and did not want to move. As I lay in bed for what seems like an eternity, the shadow’s movements became more and more erratic. This being was pacing back and forth in the bathroom and raising it’s arms. It was something that looked like either a fairytale elf or a small deformed child. Scary nonetheless
As the time crawled by I could sense my brother fidgeting about. I was being still as I possibly could through this ordeal. I felt my brother move more and more, I turned to check on him and I remember his face being very fear stricken. His eyes were wide open and he was staring into the bathroom as well. I automatically felt a sense of relief to know that I was not alone in a sense. With a whisper, I asked him, “hey, Johnny, do you see that?” to which he turned his head towards me surprised that I was awake and could see it as well. He answered “Yea, what is it?”. I don’t remember what else we said. It was really late at night and this event was playing out throughout all night. I was tired and getting really sleepy. I remember telling him to go to sleep. I saw him cover his head so he would not see it and just dozed off. After that, I think I dozed off my self as well.

In the morning, I remember waking up and checking the bathroom. I did not see anything out of the normal. I told that story to other family members.
My parents shrugged it off. My other siblings were intrigued and helped me investigate. We did not find anything. Nor did I see anything ever again in that house. To this day, I might ask my brother every now and then when we get together if he remembers that night. Him being a man of a few words just rolls his eyes up as if trying to remember and says “oh yeeeaaa….” very matteroffactly.

So what are we to think of all these stories of children seeing things? Could it be that since they are still in the stages, or I should say, final stages of development their brain’s chemical imbalance acts as a paranormal lightning rod? could be, but then again when I experienced this I was way past this point. I was around 9-10 years of age. So the next time you’re around a child that claims to see a person where there is none, or says he hears things or talks into thin air, don’t just shrug it off as an over-active imagination. There could really be someone there.