CHILDREN AND THE PARANORMAL

From the works of JO-ANNE CHRISTENSEN, Ghost Stories Of British Columbia




     A woman was asked by her nine-year-old daughter what an aura was.  She tried to explain the halos, colour, and energy that are believed to emanate from each living thing, and the girl casually replied, "Oh those.  Everybody had those until grade one."

     Among people who believe in the existence of ghosts, it is generally accepted that children tend to be more sensitive to the phenomena than are adults.  The commonly held theory is that a young child's innocence and lack of conditioning allows him/her to accept what they see.  "Children...are less skeptical," writes Some Canadian Ghosts (1973), author Sheila Harvey; "less apt to criticize the evidence of their own senses."

     According to University of Regina parapsychologist Dr. Buddy Wynn, "Children do not yet hold socialized beliefs of what is and isn't possible.  They don't have the blinders on."

     It makes one wonder how many 'invisible friends,' are perhaps more than the product of a child's active imagination...


     KUKIN AND FRINDON


     Children with few playmates are often creative enough to invent their own.  When little Chris Dixon was only two years old, this is exactly what his parents thought he was doing.

     "He one day announced that he had two new friends," Chris's father, Dave Dixon recalled.  "He called them Kukin and Frindon."

     Dave and his wife, Patricia, thought nothing of it at the time, but years later, would view the arrival of Kukin and Frindon as the beginning of one of the strangest experiences of their lives.

     The Dixons had rented the same, small, two-bedroom bungalow on the outskirts of North Burnaby since before Chris was born.  It was, according  to Dave Dixon, "so old that a friend of my mother's who had lived in Burnaby all of her life could remember a woman who lived in the house giving birth to her fourteenth child.  This was in the 1930"s, and the house was old then."

     Like most homes its age, the Dixon residence was poorly insulated and could be a bit chilly in the winter months.  Still, there was no explaining how the smaller of the two bedrooms, which opened directly off the living room, was always colder than the rest of the house.  This odd difference in temperature and the eerie sensation of being watched - a feeling so strong that Patricia would often rouse Dave in the middle of the night, insisting that someone must have broken in - were the only indications of unusual events to come.

     Chris Dixon was born soon after his parents moved into the Burnaby house and, once he was old enough, the small bedroom became his.  This is where Kukin and Frindon, his invisible playmates, came to visit.

     As the months passed, Chris's account of these visits became increasingly detailed.  The stories soon seemed too sophisticated for a toddler to invent, and the Dixons began to wonder if their son's imaginary friends were really so imaginary.

     According to Chris, Kukin and Frindon only appeared at night, when everyone else was asleep.  They would arrive, he said, by walking through the wall.

     "Bear in mind," wrote Dave Dixon, "that Chris had no access to older children or Sci-Fi television programs."

     Concerned, Dave and Patricia began to question Chris more closely.  They asked their son where Kukin and Frindon came from.  Chris replied, "From the other side."

     "The other side of what?"  The Dixons pressed.

     "The river," he answered.  There was no river where the family lived.

     What alarmed Dave and Patricia most, however, was Chris's comment that Kukin and Frindon often wanted him to return with them, when they left.

     "At this point," wrote Patricia, "we felt that Chris might be in some danger and advised him never to go with them.  We repeated this warning time and again."
 
     The visits continued, three or four nights a week.  They ended only when Chris was three years old and the Dixons moved away.

     "After the first night at or new house, we asked Chris what his friends thought of his new bedroom.  Chris told us that his friends had to stay at the old house, they couldn't leave.  Chris never spoke of them again.  Which is not to say the Dixons never heard of them again.

     When Dave and Patricia moved out of the Burnaby house, two young men, who were their friends, took over the lease.  The arrangement lasted only two months.  The fellow who moved into Chris's old bedroom found sleeping there nearly impossible.  He would awaken at night, certain that he was being watched.  The feeling was so powerful that he began avoiding the room altogether, and slept on a recliner in the living room.  But, according to Dave Dixon, this didn't solve the problem.

     "One night he awoke with a stronger premonition than usual, and he looked across the darkened room to the doorway leading to the small bedroom.  In that instant, he believed he saw two shadowy figures standing just inside the bedroom.  He came fully awake and dashed into the bedroom, thinking kids had maybe come in through the window.  He found no signs of any intrusion."

     The next day, he and his room-mate decided to move out.  Apparently, they felt no need for the imaginary playmates that entertained Chris for a year.

     It is interesting to note that they young man could not have been influenced by the Dixon's own story.  According to Dave, they never told anyone of their son's experience.

     To this day, however, the Dixons are curious about the old bungalow and its shadowy inhabitants, Kukin and Frindon.  They speculate that perhaps there was a connection to the story of the woman with fourteen children, but cannot be sure.

     "Who the two children were, or why they continue to haunt the little house in Burnaby, we will never know," wrote Dave.

     What they do know is this:  the house still stands, and someone lives there today.  And very likely, Kukin and Frindon continue to make their night-time visits.