Was my DDs imaginary friend a ghost?

[MrsDylanThomas]

The time of year for such a thread but anyway...!

My DD is now 6 but when she was just 2.5/under age 3 she had an imaginary friend called William. Very young to have an imaginary friend IMO. For a period of about 3 weeks she spoke to William, 'read' books to him and if we were in the park she would stop and say 'C'mon William! Hurry up' whereas she was talking to thin air.

All very normal imaginary friend behaviour.

But one evening around this time, I asked her where was William? I was kind of joking. I remember we were sitting together on the couch before bedtime and she said 'William has gone to college where he lives'.

Turns out my husband's grandfather was called William (they called him Billy) and he worked in the accounts department of a university.

I asked her about him the other day as was thinking about it and she said she often talks to him at bedtime of if she's worried about anything. She's a happy, sociable and clever child so don't think it's anything to worry about.

But I just think William is a name she didn't hear in crèche, or in stories and I didn't think she knew the word 'college' at that age.

Her other imaginary friend was called Alice. I thought it was from Alice in wonderland but (chillingly) my husband's granny was called Alice!

Sorry to spoke you out mumsnetters. Am I filling in gaps or AIBU? Love to hear your thoughts!

JellyDiamonds because memories are formed through neuron action in the brain. No other part of the body is involved in the actual memory-making

It's possible to inherit emotions though through hormone transfer - if a mother is highly stressed during pregnancy, the baby is more likely to have anxiety problems.

Are there memories in our DNA? Pretty sure inherited hair colour/eyes etc is because that is our genetic make up. Inheriting a memory would be like inheriting a bruise your mum had.

Here's an interesting thing and I'm not sure it's relevant, but it's something that's always baffled me. During her pregnancy with me my mum craved liver and gorged herself on it, she ate it everyday and would even cook it in the evening to eat cold the following day. I have always loathed liver with a passion and just looking at it is enough to make heave, it's my most hated food. The smell makes me nauseous.

Likewise during her pregnancy with DB she gorged herself with tomatoes, and he won't eat anything with tomatoes in it now. Which obviously limits his diet somewhat.

No, but there have been studies into inherited evolved memories in other species e.g. how salmon know how to migrate at a certain time when they have never been shown, how birds know how to flock - this probably involves inherited DNA somewhere along the line and gives them an instinct to do actions which will benefit them.

Much like we've inherited our maternal instinct, I guess, or our propensity to monogamy.

I think we want to believe in ghosts because it is comforting to believe in some sort of afterlife where we can be aware of our descendants. The fear of death as absolute nothingness is an intrinsic part of humanity and ghosts/spirits feature in most cultures.
Most of you know that I have seen a ghost and I was also aware of minor apparent 'poltergeist' activity in my childhood home. I remain on the fence about the nature of these phenomena.

Stampy, if you saw objects flying through the air and your child's imaginary friend chased you out of the house, I'm very worried that your Doctor wasn't concerned.

People rarely hallucinate for no reason.

I don't think it helped that he told me there was a ghost in his own childhood home.

But it did happen as two other rational people would testify for me.

I filed it under bonkers stuff I can't explain and moved on. Still live in the same house. It eventually calmed itself to nothing.

Completely weird and implausible sounding I agree.

I don't think it helped that he told me there was a ghost in his own childhood home.

I'd be changing GP! He is dangerous.

Some students in Ohio thought they had a ghost but they had a man secretly living in their house

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2424357/Ohio-State-students-stranger-living-secret-room-basement.html

www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/12/woman-finds-ex-boyfriend-living-attic-12-years-after-break-up-_n_1876759.html

And another one.

They are common names.
Ghosts don't exist.
It's a normal age for imaginary friends.
Your DD sounds very smart and her vivid imagination is a positive thing.

erm, just because you haven't seen a ghost doesn't mean they don't exist.

I didn't particularly believe they did either.

and then I saw one.

ghosts absolutely do exist.

god doesn't

nomorecrumbs I agree, that makes sense!
How else could I have know so much (as a small child) about my GDad, who had died years before I was born? He was never talked about (before this) at home!

Hissy

( god - except on facebook!)

No, it was just an imaginary friend. Your child was going through a perfectly ordinary developmental stage. If she had told you all about the conversation she had with the tooth fairy last night, I doubt that anyone would take it as proof of the tooth fairy's existence.

A young relative used to tell all sorts of stories about her previous life in a country called Banaria. She was not actually recounting her past lives or anything of the woo variety. She was just an imaginative child inventing stories.

There is no such thing as ghosts. If your son has discovered one, you win $1m! Awesome!

It's always odd when you're talking to someone who you know doesn't belive in ghosts or healing crystals and so on, but they look at you with horror when you mention that you don't believe in souls/God/angels.

Otherwise rational people have a real blind spot about religious-type woo.

I find it really pig headed when people say 'There is definitely no such thing as ghosts/God/Aliens/the Abominable Snowman'...anything really.

I mean, seriously, how do you know...not think, but actually know?

You don't. At all. No one does.

We are immune to hundreds of astounding, magical things that happen in our World every day. The very fact that we're here at all, in the form we are (whether you believe that God stuck us all here, or that we evolved from a single cell) is amazing. The human body is a magnificent thing and I doubt anyone will every truly know every inch of how it works, or why things happen to it.

If you think about the Universe for too long it's mind blowing, the fact that anything can go on forever (or stop somewhere...what's beyond the end?)

Personally, I believe that anything is possible. Anything - God, the Devil, Heaven, Hell, Ghosts, Aliens, Time Travel, psychics, healers, the Loch Ness Monster, Big Foot - all possible. How could it not be, when we are surrounded by wonderful, magical, unexplainable things every second of every day? When as a species we're still so clueless about so much, despite thinking ourselves so advanced?

You can never, ever have absolute proof and conviction that something does not exist.

And if you believe that due to your own superior mind you obviously 'know' the truth about such things, you're an idiot.

If you are willing to believe anything is possible, then you leave yourself open to bullshit and charlatans. A line has to be drawn somewhere. I am perfectly comfortable with saying that Father Christmas and the tooth fairy don't exist - if you won't even draw the line there, then you're an idiot.

Its not 'pig headed' to know there is no such thing as ghosts. It's a simple fact. . I wouldn't insult anyone for their beliefs but I find it very that people still believe in woo in this day and age.

NotMN - so you can provide proof then? Because that's what makes something a fact.

Or is your 'proof' that you have decided that there is no such thing? That's an opinion. And yes, it is pig headed to announce your own personal belief or opinion as 'fact'.

NobleGiraffe - I think that FC and the Tooth fairy are different to the types of things I suggested. Because millions of adults every year for years know that no magical gifts have appeared on Xmas morning, and that it's them that takes their dc's teeth - that's pretty good proof on those instances.

I find it very that people still believe in woo in this day and age.

Yes. Me too.

And yes, it is pig headed to announce your own personal belief or opinion as 'fact'.

Its not a personal belief. Yours is the personal belief that is being declared not fact. Onus is surely on you to provide proof that your belief is right rather than on someone who doesnt have a belief to prove that what they dont believe in doesnt exist!

Because millions of adults every year for years know that no magical gifts have appeared on Xmas morning, and that it's them that takes their dc's teeth - that's pretty good proof on those instances.

Saw an only fools episode where del boy led people to believe the statue of the virgin mary was crying. Was found to be a leak in the church rook. Does that mean all the people around the world who flock to other statues that apparently 'weep' should stop now because someone else, somewhere else made their claim up?