Leprechauns

Ahnimus

I had a philosophy student over the other day. We had a great debate on everything from free-will to God. He's a Catholic and absolutely believes in free-will.

Anyway, the leprechaun. At some point he tells me that he saw a leprechaun. He said he knows now that it wasn't real. At first I thought he meant he was high, but I've heard of this before where kids see things like leprechauns, fairies, goblins and so on. I think that these fantasies cause reactions in the brain that attempt to incorporate the concepts into reality. The brain is doing a lot of pattern recognition, if it sees a blob of black shadow it might match it up with a nightshade demon from some video game. Likewise something else might look like a leprechaun. It's called Pareidolia when you match a pattern that doesn't match. For example the man on the moon, the devil on the old canadian dollars, the grilled cheese or jesus on the sheet metal. I think, especially with kids, sometimes the brain can just fill in the pattern, making the image clearer. The encouragement of fantasy and imagination on children may also encourage this kind of pareidolia. Maybe we should really encourage more life skills. I mean, parents sometimes criticize school for not providing life skills. But maybe parents should handle the development of their kids differently to cut down on some of the illusions and align the child's view with reality. I don't think you can just tell a developing brain that demons do not exist, then show them a dozen horror movies about demons, and expect the statement to stick. What might happen if you told them fairies, elfs, leprechauns, Santa Clause and God exist. I mean, when I was a kid, I had a personal relationship with Santa, Santa even knew what I was thinking, he knew when I was bad and when I was good. I didn't really mean to make this religious in any way, but when I think about it Santa is a lot like God.

Do leprechauns exist? If not, how can anyone see them?

RolandTD20Kdrummer

http://www.jonco48.com/blog/dogbuttjesus.gif

The Doc

Did you ever hear the one about the guy who turns 21 and sees a leprechaun in the head?

It's his 21st birthday, he's been drinking.
He goes to take a leak and lets the steam loose. He notices something small standing at the urinal next to him, also taking a leak. By golly, it's a damned leprechaun. And he appears to have a humongous member.

The guy turns to the leprechaun and says, "That's an impressive pipe you've got there. How'd you get it?"

"All it takes is a good ass-humping," the leprechaun says, zipping up his little green pants. "Anyone can have one of these if they get humped in the arse."

"I'll be damned," the guy says.

"Tell you what," the leprechaun says. "You can walk out of here hung like a lynching victim if I just stick this here hose in your tiny bum hole."

"Um," the guy says.

"Serious," says the leprechaun. "It will be painless. It won't last an Irish minute."

"Well," the guy says. "Okay. My woman would really dig it if I had one of those."

So he pulls down the shades and the leprechaun starts going to work on him. He's humping, grinding, all that nasty shit. Moaning, whatever. In Irish.

So then the leprechaun, while he's grunting and what-have-you, says, "So, laddy, what brings you to the bar tonight?"

"It's...OUCH...My 21st birthday...Aaah!"

"21, eh?" asks the leprechaun, still plugging away. "You're 21 and you still believe in leprechauns?"

/Seacrest Out.

baraka

Ha ha. Interesting thread. I think I agree with your take on Pareidolia. Certainly, our experiences or what we are focusing on will influence how our mind 'connects the dots'. I think of the 'ink-blot' test. I see your point about children & their minds 'playing tricks on them'.

I'm not sure where your point is going, however. I think you need to define 'Life Skills'. And I don't think stifling a child's imagination is a good idea. Sure kids will have nightmares after watching scary movies, but hey, that's part of growing up. I think nurturing a creative mind is very important. Creativity and imagination lead to success, as well as other factors. I mean, come on, what a bore life would be without fantasy, in books, films, etc. Didn't you have fun believing in Santa, Ahnimus?

Ahnimus

baraka wrote:

Ha ha. Interesting thread. I think I agree with your take on Pareidolia. Certainly, our experiences or what we are focusing on will influence how our mind 'connects the dots'. I think of the 'ink-blot' test. I see your point about children & their minds 'playing tricks on them'.

I'm not sure where your point is going, however. I think you need to define 'Life Skills'. And I don't think stifling a child's imagination is a good idea. Sure kids will have nightmares after watching scary movies, but hey, that's part of growing up. I think nurturing a creative mind is very important. Creativity and imagination lead to success, as well as other factors. I mean, come on, what a bore life would be without fantasy, in books, films, etc. Didn't you have fun believing in Santa, Ahnimus?

Sure, imagination is great. I don't think we are really bolstering imagination though. What we are doing is integrating someone else's ideas. A fairy or a demon is not the creation of a child's imagination, it's taught the ideas.

Ahnimus

Life Skills

What I meant by life skills is looking at things as they really are and taking the appropriate action. For example, you have bills that need to be paid, you need a job. Your car is broken, gotta take it to the shop. We encourage a child's lifestyle to not worry about things, to live in a fantasy realm with no cares. Then expect them to just become grounded in reality at some point when they are teenagers. We all know what that's like. If you think it was easy to start 9-5 as a young adult and give up all that precious time ignoring responsibility.

baraka

Ahnimus wrote:

Sure, imagination is great. I don't think we are really bolstering imagination though. What we are doing is integrating someone else's ideas. A fairy or a demon is not the creation of a child's imagination, it's taught the ideas.

When we listen to our favorite music, read a good book, see a good film, it's all from 'someone else's' imagination. Which, in turn, can influence our imagination.

El_Kabong

Ahnimus wrote:

Sure, imagination is great. I don't think we are really bolstering imagination though. What we are doing is integrating someone else's ideas. A fairy or a demon is not the creation of a child's imagination, it's taught the ideas.

but not everyone sees or thinks of things in the same way...when i think of fairy might be different than what abook thinks of when she hears 'fairy' which may be different from the image baraka gets when she hears it which may be different than what you think of....the basic concept is there but there's plenty of room for imagination

look at stephen king's 'it', if you read it the clown can be imagined pretty scary...when you see the shitty tv movie you are left disappointed by how lame it looks, it looked better in my head b/c of my imagination

baraka

Ahnimus wrote:

Life Skills

What I meant by life skills is looking at things as they really are and taking the appropriate action. For example, you have bills that need to be paid, you need a job. Your car is broken, gotta take it to the shop. We encourage a child's lifestyle to not worry about things, to live in a fantasy realm with no cares. Then expect them to just become grounded in reality at some point when they are teenagers. We all know what that's like. If you think it was easy to start 9-5 as a young adult and give up all that precious time ignoring responsibility.

So you are talking about common sense & responsibilities? Personally, I learned these things through my parents. Others might learn through experience, sadly other's never seem to learn. It's important to allow kids to be kids. And this is coming from someone who spends a lot of time trying to teach my 2 1/2 year old math & reading. I've been told I'm too aggressive with this. But, I allow her to be silly and watch her fantasy movies & play 'pretend' with her stuffed animals. Imagination is important and will help in learning those 'life lessons'.

El_Kabong

baraka wrote:

So you are talking about common sense & responsibilities? Personally, I learned these things through my parents. Others might learn through experience, sadly other's never seem to learn. It's important to allow kids to be kids. And this is coming from someone who spends a lot of time trying to teach my 2 1/2 year old math & reading. I've been told I'm too aggressive with this. But, I allow her to be silly and watch her fantasy movies & play 'pretend' with her stuffed animals. Imagination is important and will help in learning those 'life lessons'.

MrBrian

Ahnimus wrote:

Do leprechauns exist?

Yes they do exist and they write speeding tickets.
----

Serioulsy, I think all these kinds of things really exist, I say this because while in South Africa I came across a tokoloshe. It was a tiny creature. All my zulu friends would put books under their beds to raise the beds up so the tokoloshe would not be able to jump onto them. Some people say it was a myth, others say it's real. But of course you could only see them after you drink a special zulu mix made by the witch doctors.

Of course you also have the Chupacabra

http://www.elchupacabra.com/whatis.html

Commy

so here's something i've always wondered...since we're on the subject of leprechauns


are there female leprechauns? I mean there has to be right? how can there only be one sex? has anyone ever heard of a female leprechaun? It's just something that has really been bothering me for some time...

redrock

Ahnimus wrote:

What might happen if you told them fairies, elfs, leprechauns, Santa Clause and God exist. I mean, when I was a kid, I had a personal relationship with Santa...

"All you need is faith and trust... and a little bit of pixie dust!"

That is the whole magic of childhood... Who says these 'other beings' are just a figment of the imagination? Children are open to anything and everything, until society (school, parents, etc) put a stop to that.

"If we opened our minds to enjoyment, we might find tranquil pleasures spread about us on every side. We might live with the angels that visit us on every sunbeam, and sit with the fairies who wait on every flower. " ~Samuel Smiles


Are the children seeing and believing in these little people any different to adults believing in God and seeing saints or Mary (miraculous apparitions)? Is believing in their magic any different to believing in, say, the power of voodoo?

As Lennon said "I believe in everything until it's disproved. So I believe in fairies, the myths, dragons." BTW.. we still have our 'fairy world' in a mysterious little corner at the back of our garden.... It's been there since my daughter discovered it when she was very little.....

Heineken Helen

Oh dear, is this REALLY a thread full of Americans asking if leprechauns exist? :eek:



*runs to tell everyone*

dunkman

Heineken Helen wrote:

Oh dear, is this REALLY a thread full of Americans asking if leprechauns exist? :eek:



*runs to tell everyone*

*gives Nessie another sugar cube and strokes her head*

i know... dumb tourist fuckers!!

Heineken Helen

dunkman wrote:

*gives Nessie another sugar cube and strokes her head*

i know... dumb tourist fuckers!!

Need to find some red headed kids and give them green outfits and big hats and make them dance around in circles... quite far away!

They used to do that at the cliffs of Moher apparently! Americans fell for it every time

even flow?

You mean people don't eat and sleep in bear's houses when they are away? You can't spin hair into gold? But I forgot you don't believe that a human can make up their own mind. Or change their predecided course in life. So imagination is probably out of the discussion. Maybe these things like leprechauns and imps and elves really do exist but only show themselves to young kids, knowing that older people would want to kill, capture or put them on show. Nothing like the honesty and imagination of a young developing brain.

baraka

Ahnumus, look into imagination and how it works with memory and learning. There appears to be a link between the two.

Also, look into commy's question........where are all the female leprechauns?

redrock

baraka wrote:

Also, look into commy's question........where are all the female leprechauns?

There are no female leprechauns...

All you ever wanted to know about leprechauns but never dared to ask --> http://www.holidayinsights.com/stpat/leprechaun.htm

Ahnimus

baraka wrote:

Ahnumus, look into imagination and how it works with memory and learning. There appears to be a link between the two.

Also, look into commy's question........where are all the female leprechauns?

So their imaginations could be about faries and leprechauns or it could be about cosmology or nature. I'd rather my kids imagine things that might be real.

I don't think that really quantifies imagination. When I think about imagination it's a result of neurocomputation based on collected information. When I think leprechaun, I have a clear picture of a traditional leprechaun, he isn't wearing pink with a tutu and dancing to rap music. That would be imagination at work, but no I think of a short irish guy with a beard and a pipe, wearing greed, with little elf shoes. Something I've seen somewhere else before.

hippiemom

Ahnimus wrote:

So their imaginations could be about faries and leprechauns or it could be about cosmology or nature. I'd rather my kids imagine things that might be real.

I hate to think of all the fantastic literature, plays, ballets, movies, music that the world would have been deprived of if everyone thought this way.

I'd encourage you, if and when you have kids, to accept them as they are and nurture their talents, whatever they might be.