Had a drama today... quite worried...

Ok, My Son (11), his friend and I were at the beach having a great time.

Well, my Son looks up at the sky and sees a ring around the Sun.
It can be explained as a Halo. I have seen one before but not as big and not as clear. It was in the sky for prolly 2 hours.

I took photos

i43.photobucket.com...

i43.photobucket.com...

Well, I told my Son what it was. He says "I want to go home now!"
So, we do. He is very upset and starts to repeat: "It is the end of the world, it is happening"!

He says as soon as he gets home, he is going to go straight to sleep so when the 'crush' happens, he will die in his sleep and won't know about it.

I am like OMG. So, I sit with him in his room and I am trying to find out why he thinks like this. He tells me about crush. I had never heard of it before, he says he had a dream where he saw a dark ring around the Sun and it got bigger and bigger until Earth and the other planets gets sucked up into the Sun. I say, did you watch something or learn about this at school? He says yes.

I tell him, oh NO, Sun Halos happen a lot and there is nothing to worry about. I say, surely if it meant something that serious, it would be on the news?

He says "NASA have no intention of telling us that is what it means"

Again I am like OMG

I try to calm him down, talk to him about what his dream might mean.
No use, he withdrew for nearly 3 hours.

So, I started to laugh it off...making a joke out of it which seemed to distract him. He eventually came out of his room and resumed play with his friend.

His friend was sharing to him about fears he had with stars which was really good.

My point is, should I make an appointment at a psychologist?

He doesn't hear end of world possibilities from me. Maybe it is TV? Stupid movies? Games etc?

I am worried to see my Son react like that.

I just wonder how many kids unconsciously feel the end of the world could happen? I don't feel this is a healthy thing for psyche of any child.

All the fear and wars on the news certainly doesn't help. When he is with me, no TV cos I just don't watch TV. But, he has times when he can watch TV, Fox etc.

Maybe a science class has created a fear?

I am not sure, but I am concerned.

Well that is the plot of a Sci-Fi show starring Peter Weller.

Odyssey 5

Maybe your son is psychic and this really -is- going to happen.

I mean it -is- true that this will occur a couple billion years from now.

Did you hear the story of the precocious child who was taken to a museum and saw murals and scenes of periods or eras on Earth and when he got to the point where it depicted the fall of the Roman Empire, he got all quiet.

Eventually he told his mom that he realized that our Civilization was doomed. Kid was about 5-6 years old.

Don't know if I'd be too quick to dismiss this, but it's probably just over active imagination (unless he's been watching the Odyssey 5 show - they do show the Earth blowing up at the start of every ep).

Good luck!

Kids are so sensitive. And they pick up on the energies of the society around them. I have a friend who grew up in the days of Duck & Cover. He was convinced (at about your son's age) that the world was going to end in a nuclear holocaust and had episodes and nightmares just like you describe.

I think that your son is probably showing stress from modern news techniques, and has a strong imagination.

I'm not saying this is right, and it's scary as hell for him and for you, but it's not unheard of. Kids who get dragged to evangelical churches have similar reactions to the hellfire crap they get fed.

Best thing you can do is educate him on this stuff. He may have heard about supernovae in class and it freaked him out. That's easy enough to stop -- our sun won't nova for millions of years yet.

I don't know if counseling is necessary, just support and education on the real science of the solar system. But if you're worried, counseling never hurts.

As an aside, isn't it ironic that he's freaking out about ATS topics?

Meh! Besides the halo around the Sun from your two photos, I would say your Son may be gifted, not necessarily psychic, but blessed in some small way.

If NASA is indeed holding out on data regarding the end of the world, I wouldn’t worry too much or have no fear. I’d definitely avoid those televised programmings (including the movies, games and internet) for there is too much information to discern what is real or not, even for children (genius or not). There is so much beyond the confines of the indoors and time spent playing with his friends (or you) outdoors is much better.

IMO only: I would avoid the psychologist as long as your Son is not doing any harm to himself or others. I would encourage an open discussion with him; find out more on how he obtained this data; and support him as much as you could without ‘laughing it off’. He could try entering his thoughts into a journal, say, and online blog under a penname, like I do.

Originally posted by Thurisaz
My point is, should I make an appointment at a psychologist?

To answer this question, I'd say no. As long as he's communicative with you and there's no persistent behavior that's disrupting his normal functioning, I don't think you need to take him to a psychologist.

I think you handled it perfectly. Gave him some down-time alone then talked through it with him. He'll likely take his cues from you. If you remain calm and don't freak out, he probably won't either.

Of course, if it becomes persistent and starts really affecting normal activities then yes, some counseling might make sense.

Just my layman's (and parent's) opinion.

Well, this morning we wake up and I say Goodmorning and exclaimed:

OMG "We are all still alive!! The sky didn't fall in!!"

We laughed and then I went on to tell him that the crush may happen in millions of years.

He seemed content with that.

Education is the key here and plenty of communication.

Had a thing with my niece a while back, creeped out my sis and me. We were at our house, and she grabbed our hands and said "Come on, I'll take you home."
She had a weird way of saying it as well. Same voice, but the tonality was odd. nothing came of it though.

reply to post by Thurisaz


Good to read that the boy is content for the time being.
I'm still curious as to the origin of his doomday fears. Perhaps it was just a little bit of news, sci-fi, internet, school mates all but together. Have you read through any of his school books lately? Working in a public school district for a time, I've seen science books that try to pass theories as facts, such as global warming, evolution, etc.

Evolution is a fact, for the record. "Theory" in science doesn't mean what a layperson means by it.

reply to post by MajorMalfunction


I was merely using those as rough examples to get my point across. Thank you non the less for pointing out the differences.