How Visions Impact Religious Traditions

Children as Recipients of Mystical Supernatural Experiences

May 12, 2009

Every faith tradition has a history that includes visions, trances, and mystical dreams that seek to renew belief systems or introduce new faith expressions.

Visions have always been a part of religious experiences from ancient time. Yet throughout history, visions reflected common experiences.

In many cases, the visionaries were children. Frequently, they came during times of hardship, poverty, and uncertainty. Often, they galvanized faith traditions that had become sterile and lukewarm.

Visions and the Role of Children

In I Samuel 3 of the Old Testament, God called the boy Samuel at a time when “word from the Lord was rare…visions more infrequent.” It was a time of peril for Israel as the Philistines prepared to wage war.

Many Roman Catholic visions of Mary are associated with children, including the apparitions at LaSalette, Lourdes, Fatima, and most recently, Medjugorje. Bernadette Soubirous was only 14-years-old when a “beautiful, smiling child” appeared to her at Massabieille.

Non-Catholic traditions have similar stories. Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (or Mormons) was a teenage boy when he experienced visions near his Palmyra, New York home.

Shaker children in 1837 revitalized the United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing (Shakers) with visions tied to dreams and conversations with George Washington and the legendary Shawnee chief, Tecumseh, who himself possessed supernatural powers as well as prophetic abilities.

It is even possible to include the 1692 Salem Witch Trials that began with the wild accusations of two young girls ages 9 and 11. As further “victims” came forward, including a 12-year old, several innocent adults were executed on the basis of “spectral evidence.”

Community Conditions and the Physical Problems of Vision Recipients

Writing an objective account of Lourdes, Oxford historian Ruth Harris states that, “Astride the greatest medieval pilgrimage routes, Lourdes was steeped in miracle tales…” Most of the people, including the family of Bernadette, were poor and illiterate and predisposed to the miraculous.

Historian Judith Devlin argues that Bernadette was illiterate, suffered from asthma, and was generally a “backward” child. She concludes that the events at Massabieille might have served as an outlet for the growing poverty and popular unrest in mid-19th century rural France.

Sociology professor Michael Carroll attributes the visions to “hallucinations” in his extensive analysis of various Marian apparitions. Writing in the National Catholic Reporter, September 18, 1992, Michael Farrell comments that, “when things are bad on earth, signs and wonders from elsewhere do tend to be more commonplace.”

The same can be said of Joseph Smith. Known to be a teller of tall tales who, with his father, hunted for buried treasure, Smith matured in Palmyra, part of the so-called “burned-over” district of New York, a place of poverty and deep uncertainty.

Bernadette suffered from tuberculosis, succumbing to the disease as a nun in Nevers in 1879; the children initiating the Salem witchcraft accusations suffered from epileptic fits, prompting church leaders to suppose witchcraft was to blame.

Visions and Psychological Well-Being

Throughout church history, women and men had visions, whether real or imaginary. Joan of Arc and Teresa of Avila are identified by detached observers as possible sufferers of anorexia nervosa. Historian Rudolph Bell asserts that, “Their anorexia came to be seen as a wider pattern of heroic, ascetic mysticism…”

Even the great reformer Martin Luther, who blamed lack of sleep on four demons that kept him awake nights discoursing, probably suffered from depression as well as physical ailments.

For the believer in need of revival and spiritual rejuvenation, visions encouraged and strengthened faith. Often coming at times of extreme adversity, visions redirected the realities of everyday life to more sublime hopes and promises of a better future.

The copyright of the article How Visions Impact Religious Traditions in Paranormal is owned by Michael Streich. Permission to republish How Visions Impact Religious Traditions in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.