• Thank you to Carol and Steve Bowman, the forum owners, for our new upgrade!

Imaginary friends

  • Thread starter Thread starter hanoha
  • Start date Start date
H

hanoha

Guest
I've been reading up on some infomation and other's thoughts about imaginary playmates. Some people think that it is guarding angels that help intergrate children in thier mental growth. Some entertain them and some protect them. some say it is to keep them safe.Others say it is to keep an only child company because they may not have siblings or real playmates and that it is their imgaination starting to manifest. Some say that it is other soul mates from their soul circle or families. My son had two of them when he was little, a good one and a bad one.
when I was little I had an imginary family- a husband and two children. My nephew has one who lives under their neighbors house and just intoduced us to his imginary friends little sister.
I wonder many things. For the most part, most of the children I know and my self included when the imaginary friends appeared or manifested, they are/were to ones who were only children. My husband and his brother never had any- they had an older sister, my daughter never had one, she had her brother, but she says she does talk to angels, (as seen in a previous post). So my thoughts are: Does anyone else have a child who is an only child talk of imaginary friends or do imaginary friends visit youger siblings. What makes is interesting is if they are visits from past/future soulmates of other siblings in waiting so to speak, why do they seem to only come to single children homes? If we all have soulmates then wouldn't the children who is the second or third child meet/interact with their imaginary friends just like those who are only children? Anyone else comtemplate this or able to help me out with this one?
 
Dear Hanoha,
My son is not an only child, and did have an imaginary friend shortly after his sister was born. We used to set the table for him and he had his own chair. The friend stayed for a couple of years,and then quite suddenly one day, Evan said that his friend was going to Greece with the neighbors' grampa and wasn't coming back. I think the friend helped him to adjust to the new baby. He didn't actually seem to have a problem with the baby, however. He adored her and still does. Hope this helps!-Laurel
 
Hi!

I'm not an only child, but when I was younger I did have an imaginary friend. But it was more someone I felt very secure with as he watched over me, and we talked while I was dreaming. And even though I always had many other children around me, I actually preferred, being "on my own" and with my friend in our own little world, than actually with "real" people. Kuka.
 
Thanks you two for your response, it does though bring up something else, I wonder if the possiblity being that some of these imaginary friends could be soul mates that don't come to us in the here and now, maybe they do in the forms of other family memebers. I wonder if that is the case, would we as children (or as Adults) be able to reconize or be familiar with thier "essence" when they do appear later as new memebers into our family cirlcle (siblings, cousins, friends, lovers, etc.) I loved my imaginary family, but can't say that I "know them" but my son said his one friend reminds him of his sister sometimes.Can anyone respond to this, or has had this type of experience?

Peace!
 
This is a very interesting thread. I've never really thought about it too much before, but over the past few hours I've been thinking about it frequently.

I am an only child, and when I was younger I had several imaginary friends, including an imaginary duck. The duck was my first, and my favourite. As a grew older, i seemed to grow out of them, though the duck continued to show up occasionally. I had an imaginary female friend, and an imaginary male friend too.They were normally ideals of how i'd like people to be since, i couldnt actually change people to be that way. I never actually formed thoughts of what they looked like or anything like that. They were always faceless creatures, and i always imagined them to simply be bodies with personalities that i wanted them to have. it was very idealistic, though it makes sense to me. I have never really been bothered with what people look like, just what their personalities and actions are. I used to have conversations with these friends, and though i don't remember that much about the conversations, i remember having an arguement with them. The duck though went everywhere with me and i use to get extremely distraught if the duck wasn't with me. i dont really understand it, but see if you can make any sense of my story... lol

~Lex~
 
Ducks are cool- I like feathered animals,
I know of several people that didn't have imaginary friends but they did have imginary pets, dogs and the like- It reminds me of stories like Puff the Magic Dragon and Harvy the invisible rabbit,
I am intrigued about what you said about the people being "faceless" and you could have them who you want them to be.,-kind of like putting your own recall system into play maybe. I wonder how far off Peter Pan really was when he had images of Tinker bell, and the whole saga, was it a story, or did some author have something happen about what we discuss here,?-just thoughts-who knows.
 
Both of my two oldest have "imaginary" friends. I put imaginary in quotes because I personally believe that these friends are spirits of some type. My son's friend brings others over to play all the time. Also, according to my son, his imaginary friend has an imaginary friend. I don't really know all that much about any of them, except that they are here a couple of times a week, and none of them seem to have names.
 
I wonder about the spirit thing sometimes too. I wonder if the spirt of my own imaginary family was actually the "waiting" souls of my children now. I don't know how that all would work out but then sometimes don't think I should and that i should just "go with it", and accept it for what it is, but the investigator in me wonders who else ponders this and could possible have proof, Since my nephew had introduced us to his friend Jake who lives under the nighbors house, he introduced us to Jake's sister Ba, he only talks about Ba now and he doesn't know where Jake went to but he is gone, The neighbors next door moved about the same time my nephews new little brother was born, so I wonder- which way did Jake go? with the family next door or is he now Little Patrick his brother, and is ba a waiting soul- that maybe may become his little sister? his parents are talking about still trying for a girl, or could this all be just wistful thinking and some sort of projection in the mind of a three yr old?
 
Hi
Im not an only child and although I dont remember myself my mum told me I had an imaginary friend from about the age of 2 to 4 and he was a boy called Ami. She said he started off as an only child but then after awhile I started saying he had millions of brothers and sisters. Something I found interesting was a little while back When I was looking to see if Ami was a boys name in any culture I found that it means friend in french. Does anyone think that my friend may have been french and I was calling him friend? or maybe I had been french in my last life or whatever else.
 
Dee, was Ami pronounced ahMEE or AHmee? The ahMEE pronunciation would be like the French word for Friend, but the AHmee pronunication is an Indian (or Arabic? not sure) boy's name.

y.
 
imaginary friend?

I have always been interested in imaginary friends. When i was younger (about 4) i made up an imaginary friend named teresa mcdugle. yes i even had a last name for her. We were so close and on the first day of kindergarden(there was a fake telephone booth) i called her and told her how much i missed her. we would cook together and everything. But this is were it starts to get weired. I don't remember telling my mom this but she said this is what i said. I said that one day when i was about 5 or 6 i told my mom that teresa got hit by a car and she was in the hospital. My mom thought this was very odd considering i was so young. I told her she was in a coma. Then she never came out of the hospital. Is it possible this "friend" could have been the spirit of a sister from a past life? Some people think that imaginary friends are angels. What do you think? any comment will help. later
 
I've never thought about imaginary friends being things kids still know from a past life or something but I think it could be possible. My grandma told me about an imaginary friend I'd have, that I'd see in a mirror. She said that the friend had an odd name that started with n, or something, but she couldn't remember it so my grandma would refer to them as no name. She'd say I was obsessed with this green mirror in my grandpa's bedroom. (This was when I was about three or fourish) She would say I would talk to the mirror then I'd be laughing at first, but then I'd go into histerics saying (I'll just call him blank) blank was mean to me or something, and she said I would just be absolutely hysterical. She said one time we were in the den watching tv on the chair then I was sitting on her lap. The den and my grandpa's room are where you can see into one from the other, across the hall, and she said I'd start waving my arms happily and yelling "Hi!" and stuff, and then I'd get really hysterical and say blank was being mean or something. Then the other time I heard about was when I would play with my My Little Ponies (My favorite toy at that time I'm not a kid now) at the top of the stairs, which is where I could see the mirror, and that was where I remember always playing, and I would go hysterical when there was nothing around to upset me and I was happy before then I would go hysterical. My grandma finally didn't know what to do anymore and I actually remember from a flashback her throwing the mirror out the back door, and I never mentioned it again. My grandma said she did that to make me think she had thrown it to where it wouldn't come back then threw it in the trash. I never remembered why I was scared of it, but I remember her getting rid of it. I'm not scared of mirrors, but when I go to sleep I'm still slightly uncomfortable when I turn on my back where I'm facing the mirror.
 
Interesting...

Is it possible there was a spirit attached to the mirror? That would explain why only the one had an effect on you...

Just a thought.

Twain bless,
Tatinne
 
imaginary friends

Hi all I am new to this list with a question maybe someone can help me with. When I was 3 or 4 I had two imaginary friends "Susie and Bobby" I remember playing with these children whom no one ever seen. When my son was 3 he also had an imaginary friend who's name was "Bobby" it really freaked me out, but I remember Bobby being a nice boy and just told my son to play nice with him. Bobby stayed around for only a year and has seemed to have left. Could it be possible that this is the same "Bobby"? And if so, I am curious to where "Susie" is. They were always together when they were with me. I also have a daughter now but she has no imaginary friends, she is almost three. I also feel an almost addiction to find out who I was in my past life. I feel constantly like I am being drawn somewhere but I am not clear to where.

Thanks,
Tina
 
Perhaps your son is the reincarnation of Susie and Bobby is staying with her.It's possible you saw them both as a kid because Susie was planning to reincarnate as your son and Bobby stayed with her until a year ago.Possibly Bobby has reincarnated now as well and will meet your son someday or maybe if you have more children one will be Bobby who just left because perhaps your son simply isn't receptive to his presence anymore.
 
Interesting. I had imaginary friends a child named Susan and Stephen. They were very real to me and I used to scream when people would sit on them. They were only around until shortly after my younger brother was born.

Interestingly enough, my boyfriend, who is 9 years younger than me is named Stephen, and I believe him to be the incarnation of my imaginary friend. We're all wondering where Susan is.

Rowanheart
 
Imaginary friends?

I'm not sure this is in the right forum because it's not about reincarnation exactly, but for the last few weeks my son, who is 2, has been seeing a man in our house. So I guess I wouldn't call it an imaginary friend because they don't play together, but my son is always telling me about what the man is doing.
Whenever he sees him he says "mommy, what's that guy doing?"and he'll point towards the wall usually a couple of feet in the air. I, of course, can see nothing. I ask him what does it look like he's doing and he usually answers me with all kinds of things. Yesterday he told me the man was putting gloves on and that he was sad. Then he pointed to his own stomach and said "man sad, tummy hurts". And then he went over to where he said the man was standing and started jumping in the air and reaching his hand up and saying "I can't reach him mommy he's too high. He's sad."

So am I handling this right? Do I talk to my son like I pretend I see him or do I tell him I don't see him but can he tell me about him? Is he really seeing something or is he just imagining. The way he reacts to him it's hard to believe it's just imagination. He also tells me when the man leaves. He just turned two in September but he is very verbal so I trust in his verbal ability to tell me things. But still, it's kind of freaky when you see this thing with your own child.
What do you guys think?

Lynn
p.s. (tell me if I should move this to another forum, wasn't sure which one to use. Thanks)

------------------
Lynn,
SAHM to Riley 9/24/00
 
Hey Lynn,

In my opinion I say be honest with him. Tell him you can't see him, but let him know that you do like to hear about the man when he is there.

So when he does let you know when he is there, ask a question, if it works, ask another. Ask your son "so what's the man's name?"...if your son tells you a name, write this down, unless you prefer to use your memory. Then go on asking questions that could later help identify the man through research or maybe he is connected to you somehow. Try to see if your son can find out where his house use to be, or maybe a simple how can I help you, will help this spirit move on. I assume the man is connecting with your son, since a bunch of children seem to be more open than a bunch of adults to the spirit world.

ok those are my thoughts....and obviously if your son is sayin or showin he isn't 100% comfortable, then maybe you can say "tell the man bu-bye" but I don't think this will happen, since the man told your son his tummy hurts, instead of showing a intense image of what made his stomach hurt which could upset your child...


[This message has been edited by Frosty_Mon (edited 11-13-2002).]
 
Hey guys! sorry it took me so long to get back but I usually only log on about once a week. Thanks for the replies. Deborah, those links were helpful. I'm going to do some more reading to see what I can find too. The blue light thing sounds interesting but he usually doesn't see him in his room. Usually in other parts of the house.

Frosty-mon~ good advice. I always try to be honest with him but sometimes I'm not sure how to phrase things. I liked your wording. I agree also that he's not trying to scare him. My son has never seemed upset or frightened, just curious and he never seems amazed that a man just suddenly appears to him out of nowhere.
Oh well, off to do more reading.
Thanks again1
 
I had to laugh a little at something that happened in our home. My daughter sees folks I can't see. She didn't realize I couldn't see them at first, until I told her. They seem to be friendly and interested in healing and helping, so I am not worried. But I am most curious! So, I made it very clear I wanted her to tell me what she saw, because she can see things that I can't.

So, we were driving in the car, and she started asking, "Mommy, can you see that house? Do you see that sign?" etc! LOL!

Marg
 
Now here's an interesting topic. Do you think imaginary friends are often not-so-imaginary, afterall?
 
I am an only child and apparently had an imaginary friend. They said I never had a name only called him/her "my friend."

Our oldest had Tom when he was 2. Tom showed up when the twins were born and stayed for a couple of years. Our son use to love construction and would work in the yard for hours just moving dirt and rocks around. Tom left abruptly one afternoon after our son fired him. Its been the joke in the family for years now.
One of the twins suprisingly had one. His name was donnay....it sounded like doe-nay. I was shocked that he had one because being twins they
had each other. However, this is also the twin that asks who's that and
points when no one is there, and I heard him ask his twin once do you remember a long time ago when we were in a really small place together and couldn't move and it was really black?? When I asked him what he meant
he got really quiet and shy quickly and wouldn't answer. I truly believe
that donnay was real not imaginary.

I've always wondered about imaginary friends.......great topic
 
My daughter wasnt an only child when she had hers. My middle daughter just turned one, and during the party my oldest asked if her friend Duncan could come to, i said sure not realizing he was imaginary. She got him a chair, plates, hats, etc. She had him around until she turned 5, then she said he had to go home his mommy wanted him. That was it. Nothing more on Duncan. My 2 soon to be 3 yr old has always giggled and talked to people that i couldnt see. She has done this since she could crawl around. Now its "tea time" friends she says. She has a tea set out all the time and one baby that she keeps with her at all times, she calls her "Angel". She has also seen a woman and talked to her a few times.
 
My mother said she remembers me having an imaginary friend for a very short time. Sadly, she can't recall what I ever said about him/her. She doesn't even remember their name......I wish my mother paid more attention to those things when I was a child....:/
 
I had two imaginary friends growing up, Suzy and Jeremy. Suzy was just somebody I made up to play with when I was bored. But Jeremy was another story. I don't remember anything about Jeremy, but my mom told me that when I was really young, I used to talk to somebody whenever I was alone in my room, of which I called Jeremy. They said it was really odd that I called him that, because the first time I ever actually knew anybody with that name was my friend Erica's brother, but he was born a couple years after that. But they said I talked to him like an old friend. I never actually told anybody about him, and the only time Jeremy seemed to exist was when I was alone. Maybe he was an old friend from a past life, perhaps. It's just so mysterious.
 
It really does sound like Jeremy was/is your friend from past or your guardian angel/spirit guide, Wonderingwhy.

Maybe you could still contact him if you want to try? :thumbsup:

Karoliina
 
i know this topic is long gone...but

I wanted to share on this subject as well.
I myself never had an imaginary friend, but, i have a couple of friends who did and have children who do.
But, the story i wanted to share is about my 2 yr old son who was not quite 2 at the time.We lived in an apartment complex and have only just recently moved.From the parkinglot to our door was a little bit of a walk and that is where my son started his friend.
One day while walking from our car to our apartment, my then 1 yr old looked over to a set of stairs to the right of us and said" HEY!!" he then walked over and sat at he bottom of the stairs and started talking to someone.he still speaks mostly jibberish, i couldn't understand what the conversation was about.i could only pick up things such as names.It sounded like this...blah blah Momma, blah blah ...Abby.lol and so on.I told my son to tell his friend bye because we needed to go in for lunch.I then walked over and took his hand and we started walking, the entire time my son was looking back and saying.."BYE,BYEEEEE"
Well, these talks on the stairs started to happen allot more.And one day when i told him we needed to go home,my son started telling his friend to come on..." mon! mon" he said as we walked away.An eerie feeling came over me and i said" no kiddo, your friend needs to stay outside" and when we got inside my son continued to conversate through the large window that was in the front of our apartment,laughing, giggling and such.My son never speaks to his friend inside the house(except through the window),but,he talks to his friend while playing outside,riding in the car and so on.Its very strange to me.I spoke with my sister about it and she thinks its an angel.But, my sister is also very religous.My husband was proud to hear the story because he feels that an IMAGINARY friend is quite advanced imaginary play for someone who just turned 2 this past december.Now that we have moved, i haven't seen him talking to his friend,but, we have only been here a month and allot of buisiness has been going on with the unpacking and such.So, i'll give it a little more time before i say his friend is gone.
 
Anna,
sure makes a case for the spirit, angel, soul group member train of thought doesn't it? Two year olds couldn't hold an imaginary conversation with that much animation for that long.
Have you ever asked him his friend's name?
Vicky
 
Imaginary friends

My imaginary friend was a Chinese girl. I don't really remember what I named her but I do remember playing with her for hours and "pretending" to speak
Chinese. The odd thing about this was that I had limited exposure to people of other race and origin. I live in the south in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and people here are still very predjudiced and at that time in the late 50's nobody around liked anyone that looked like Japanese. We had a black and white TV, 2 stations if you turned the antenna on the corner of the house the right way for them to pick up, and most all the people on the TV were white Anglo-Saxon Americans. The closest thing to ethnic groups on TV at that time were Hop Sing and Ricky Ricardo. And our television stayed broken more often than not. I love Hong Kong Cinema, and I love to watch them with English subtitles. It seems that I can close my eyes and understanding of the language is so very close.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top