Stephen T-B
Stephen T-B
One of the articles I wrote during my career as a journalist was about the Cottingley Fairies (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottingley_Fairies) and how James Randi had identified some of the "fairy" images as being based on illustrations in Princess Mary's Gift Book (published 1914) of which I happen to have a copy - hence my interest.
Our photographic department then tried to produce similar images as had been taken by Frances Griffiths on a borrowed camera, using cut-outs on wire and stuck into the ground.
The results weren't very good, but it was suggested that Frances, an artistic 16-year old who worked for a greetings card print company, might have used an air spray gun (almost certainly a tool she'd have been familiar with) to paint the images on plates of glass which she'd have propped up close to the camera, and thanks to that camera's depth of focus, they'd have been as sharp as the figures in the background.
My account of Randi's discovery and our experiments, with accompanying photos, was duly published, and to my astonishment provoked a furious reaction from several readers who insisted that Frances and Elsie had indeed seen fairies, and what right had I to question it?
So...there are people - adults - who believe in fairies (or "nature spirits" as Theosophists refer to them).
But unlike God/gods. fairies are not worshipped; they do not demand obedience and supplication and sacrifice. They are not the cause of wars, nor give do they give rise to punishment. They do not dominate people's thoughts and actions as God/gods can do. So while they are certainly the product of wishful thinking combined with the power of imagination (which may or may not be stimulated by stories and images) they are qualitatively different.
We give to God/gods something which is uniquely theirs, and I suppose the reason why lies deep within our psyche.
Our photographic department then tried to produce similar images as had been taken by Frances Griffiths on a borrowed camera, using cut-outs on wire and stuck into the ground.
The results weren't very good, but it was suggested that Frances, an artistic 16-year old who worked for a greetings card print company, might have used an air spray gun (almost certainly a tool she'd have been familiar with) to paint the images on plates of glass which she'd have propped up close to the camera, and thanks to that camera's depth of focus, they'd have been as sharp as the figures in the background.
My account of Randi's discovery and our experiments, with accompanying photos, was duly published, and to my astonishment provoked a furious reaction from several readers who insisted that Frances and Elsie had indeed seen fairies, and what right had I to question it?
So...there are people - adults - who believe in fairies (or "nature spirits" as Theosophists refer to them).
But unlike God/gods. fairies are not worshipped; they do not demand obedience and supplication and sacrifice. They are not the cause of wars, nor give do they give rise to punishment. They do not dominate people's thoughts and actions as God/gods can do. So while they are certainly the product of wishful thinking combined with the power of imagination (which may or may not be stimulated by stories and images) they are qualitatively different.
We give to God/gods something which is uniquely theirs, and I suppose the reason why lies deep within our psyche.