The problem when writing in a neuroscience magazine and a newcomer to the journal starts reading an article, one has to tread on eggshells and not ‘frighten the horses’ when mentioning the supernatural. But even diehard atheists must accept the supernatural if they believe the Big Bang occurred 13.8 billion years ago (set off by Big Banger God).

This is no longer hypothetical, as the Second Law of Thermodynamics prove the universe is running out of energy and light, thus it couldn’t be eternal and had to have had a beginning.

But from Big Bangs to things that go bump in the night: Many years ago, when I was a teenager, a friend of mine lived for a while in a boys’ home for teens who faced problematic domestic lives.

He said that when he got up in the middle of the night to go to the toilets on the bottom floor, he felt he was being followed by the shadow of his imaginary friend called ‘Freddie’. He never saw Freddie’s face or body, but always felt his presence during quiet, night-time/early-morning moments. According to Marjorie Taylor and her colleagues at the University of Oregon:

By age 7, about 37 percent of children take imaginative play a step further and create an invisible friend, saying invisible friends can be human, animal, or fantasy creatures… Children with invisible friends can readily describe what these friends look like and how they behave. Many children even offer details about hearing or touching their invisible friends. Invisible friends can sometimes be a part of the life of a child—and a family—for years: Imaginary Friends | Psychology Today

In the movie/book, The Shining, the little boy Danny’s imaginary friend is called ‘Tony’, who helps Danny navigate some supernatural abilities; also, ‘Captain Howdy’ is the name used by the demon Pazuzu when it first communicates with demon possessed Regan MacNeil in the movie/book, The Exorcist.

Two other friends of mine, brothers, many years ago experienced a similar imaginary friend situation while lying in bed early one summer’s morning. But unlike an joint imaginary friend encounter, they experienced a shadow phantom like an imaginary fiend.

With both their beds side by side and the window behind them, they felt a terrifying presence of some entity standing behind them. One of their other brothers said that one night as he left the house to stroll into the town, he looked back at his home with a feeling of terror but could not make any sense of it.

The family had more than their share of bad luck, which I won’t get into, but the situation reminded me of a time when I spent in another friend’s house in a rural remote area. In bed at night after dinner, I had terrible nightmares and felt a powerful weight on my chest, holding me down, like a malevolent incubus.

Another friend of mine who spent the night in the same house said he saw a young child (a demonic angel?) in the hallway who disappeared during the early hours of the morning. The owner of the house had nothing but tragedy ever since he moved in, eventually resulting in the breakup of his marriage and him dying of brain cancer aged in his early 50s.

So, what to make of all this weirdness? We live in a world permeated with alcohol, drugs, food preservatives, fluoridated water, 5G pylons from cell phones, microwaves, satanic messaging in music and movies, gender dysphoria, etc. It’s possible that the above are contributory factors regarding ghostly encounters, imaginary friends, and other such strange phenomena.

What to do? To answer that I’ll put on my ‘agony uncle’ hat and point out the bleeding obvious: Moderation: Less time scrolling, less time on iPhones and internet activity, and more time reading hard-copy books, especially the classics. As for pornography: It’ll destroy your soul; quit it immediately.

Some other common-sense solutions: Spend more time with nature: Walking (preferably with a dog) in the park or woods and meeting friends face to face for coffee; avoiding drugs and processed food, and, most importantly, live a spiritual life and be kind to people (not to be confused with ‘being nice’).

I’m aware that all of the above is stating the bleeding obvious, but sometimes the bleeding obvious aint’ so obvious and needs repeating.

The moral mind is a lonely hunter in search of Truth and, in such a crazy fallen world, one must be on guard not to let the evils of this world hunt you down. I’ll leave you with an optimistic verse from the Bible:

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. – John 16:33