Teens and the Supernatural

[Starlock]

In doing some random searches on another topic, per usual I got sidetracked by something else I saw and came upon the Barna Research group. In particular, they have done a study on Teens and the Supernatural. I'd heard some of the findings from this around on the grape vine but not with a verifiable source. While the article is not free, there is a summary of the findings available from The Christian Post. Some of what they state is a bit slanted, but their presentation of the raw data I presume to be genuine since I saw the same figures at other sites reporting the article. Here's what one section of this artile states:

New Barna Report Explores Teens and the Supernatural by Michelle Vu

The 47-page report revealed that most teens believe in the supernatural realm with seven million teens having encountered an angel, demon, or some other supernatural being. According to the Barna research, 30 percent of all teens claim they had supernatural encounters. More than 10 percent of teens say they have communicated with the dead and nearly 10 percent of youth claim they have psychic powers.

Studies by The Barna Group also showed that nearly three-quarters of America’s youth (73 percent) have engaged in at least one type of psychic or witchcraft-related activity beyond media exposure or horoscope usage. The most common named were using an Ouija board and reading a book about witchcraft or Wicca – each of these activities were done by more than one-third of teenagers.

I thought the figure would be high, but I didn't think it would be such a clear majority. After reading the whole article, here are some discussion questions for you all to ponder:

arrow What are some implications of the fact that nearly three-quarters of teens have engaged in occult activities?
--- How do you see this playing out from your personal experience?
--- How does it effect the New Age, Occult, and Neopagan communities?
--- How does it effect the Christian community?

There are many more questions that could be asked than that, but I'd rather leave this as an open discussion. Let it flow the direction it will!  

[Pelta]

Starlock

arrow What are some implications of the fact that nearly three-quarters of teens have engaged in occult activities?

Actually, I would question the validity of your sources. Your link says the study was conducted by one David Kinneman, who has

Quote:

"designed and analyzed more than 400 projects for a variety of clients, including the American Bible Society, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Campus Crusade for Christ, Christian Booksellers Association etc"

Source

So already we have the biased motive behind the report in the first place. Even the blurb for the report is biased.

Your source

"The 37 pages of text highlight what you should know about teen beliefs and behaviors related to Satan, demons, spirit-oriented media, Wicca, witchcraft, and much more."

Considering the tone of the piece I wouldn't say it's a very accurate representation of many of the more obscure pagan tendencies.

Companies and people often fund reports to find out what they want to know. This doesn't necessarily invalidate them, but starting off a report with a tangible bias does not speak well for its findings.

Starlock

--- How do you see this playing out from your personal experience?

Just for the matter of debate let's assume your source holds some grain of truth. I would see this playing out that several teenagers go through some sort of experimental phase that dies out after its novelty wears off. Perhaps a small percentage of those who dabble will continue to any sort of proficiency, but I would estimate a large number stopping, or never getting beyond the fluffy stage.

However, a small percentage of a growing number still means more pagans around than there was before. And it's likely to keep growing.

Quote:

--- How does it effect the New Age, Occult, and Neopagan communities?

Simple. They get bigger.

Quote:

--- How does it effect the Christian community?

I do not know. Perhaps some will become more fundamentally rightwing to combat it. Perhaps some will learn more tolerance. In fact, probably both will happen. It's a bit too general to state what's going to happen to a third of the world's population based on a dodgy report.  

[Starlock]

I had similar doubts about the source; however I don't think that it skews the study findings themselves, just the *interpretation* of those findings. A survey is a survey; based on what is reported of their methodology, it's done as soundly as most surveys are. I doubt if they would *want* to find out that so many kids are being tempted by what they consider inferior substututes for real spirituality; if I were them I'd want the opposite. It does beg the question of what precisely they classify as occult, but I don't have the report in front of me to be able to answer those questions, unfortuantely.

That aside, I suppose I find myself wondering if this is one ingriedent in the supposedly-existing explosion of followers in these alternative spiritual communities. The trend is of course caused by a variety of things, though this could be among the bigger ones. I wish the study went one step further to not just report on how many kids have dabbled in it, but really probed how *much* they've dabbled and what the trends are over a longer period of time. How many teens, for example, stay interested in this stuff for more than a year? Is it really just a novelty to most of them or does some aspect of it stay with them for years to come? If I were a Christian-based research group those are the questions I'd be most concerned with.  

[Pelta]

Starlock

I had similar doubts about the source; however I don't think that it skews the study findings themselves, just the *interpretation* of those findings. A survey is a survey; based on what is reported of their methodology, it's done as soundly as most surveys are.

You ever thought that people word questions to find out what they want to know? Single word changes can have a difference in how people answer questions.

Quote:

I doubt if they would *want* to find out that so many kids are being tempted by what they consider inferior substututes for real spirituality; if I were them I'd want the opposite.

Why would they? Ever seen the Jack Chick tracts? Some people WANT to see themselves surrounded by evil and want to see that the nation's children are being led astray so they can justify being stricter in their methods of conversion.

Example: Mother hears on radio that more children are being converted to satanism. Mother freaks and throws child's crystals out a window. Mother forces child to attend church more often because of her fear that the child will become like those in the survey (note: wording here is again very important. The pagan religions quoted in your survey were headed by satanism and those with negative connotations. Biased report much?). Church has more followers.

Being afraid of something is awful good at bonding people together.  

[Defenestrated23]

Yeah, I concur. The best way to bring awareness about something you want to change is to bring light to how rampant it is (this actually applies to any activism). But then you take the negative spin that it's drawing away believers, and you have a nearly rock solid piece of propaganda.

"The report also found that relationally isolated teenagers and those experiencing a significant amount of stress and frustration were more likely to experiment with supernatural activities. For instance, many teens try witchcraft or psychic activities based on a desire to control or influence their situation, according to The Barna Report. Teens with few friends or undergoing intense stress were more likely than average to turn to witchcraft or to psychic power to cope with their feelings of vulnerability and insignificance."

Obviously, if they were turning to God when they were stressed out, they wouldn't have this problem.

"On the other hand, possessing an evangelical faith was by far the most significant factor in keeping teenagers from unwanted exploration of the supernatural. Evangelical teens were nearly three times less likely than the norm to have engaged in witchcraft or psychic activities. While only 26 percent of evangelical have experimented, the next least-likely segment of teens – those who read the Bible at least weekly – showed an engagement rate of 54 percent."

Their point is proven: More Bible = Less supernatural activity. Ergo, the inverse is true. Supernatural activity leads to less evangelism, therefore, magick and mysticism are the root of all things improper.

I'm just glad they haven't started commercials....

"Do you know what your kids are doing with candles and incense in the basement?"

Oh, the horror! Thank Gods activist groups would make them eat it.  

[Starlock]

As default, whenever reading a study it's good to bear in mind that correlation does not equal causation. The commentor on the study makes some assertions that are little more than correlation yet may still have some merit to them. I've seen similar reports elsewhere that echo a similar note; that those involved in supernatural activities tend to be experiencing life stresses. Whether or not they experience this MORE than the average person and if this stress is causing them to take this path is the real question.

Some have hypothesized that since magic claims to be a means for attaining control over one's life, those who feel their lives are out of control are drawn to it. IS this kind of pathway healthy, as the reporter brings to question? As modern Pagans and occultists, we're a bit biased in our assesment of ourselves and are tempted to pass off such criticisms as nonsense or say "if they were turning to God... they wouldn't have this problem." While this is likely true, perhaps we should examine things a bit further? Is a person's individual reason for persuing the occult a healthy one?  

[Defenestrated23]

My friends were talking about this today, and one was like "that whole Wicca thing and the occult, I don't think that's healthy."

Yeah, granted, those people who don't know what they are doing and get into crazy evocations and doing dangerous things along those lives are being extremely reckless. And apparently this is what the general public thinks, not just magical studies, but *anything* to do with the metaphysical is like, and thus they make the correlation that it is ALL unhealthy.

Then again, this is the society that believes that because some Islamic extremists committed heinous crimes, that all people of Middle Eastern origin are to be cast suspicious upon.  

[Starlock]

Defenestrated23

Yeah, granted, those people who don't know what they are doing and get into crazy evocations and doing dangerous things along those lives are being extremely reckless. And apparently this is what the general public thinks, not just magical studies, but *anything* to do with the metaphysical is like, and thus they make the correlation that it is ALL unhealthy.

This does seem to be a pervasive opinion. How pervasive is it really? I've come across several indicators that these things are becoming much more acceptable now than they were in the past. A number of practitioners from a multitude of religions participate in things like astrology (even if it is only reading the horoscopes in the daily papers), or more esoteric practices ranging from yoga to herbal medicine. It would be great if a study like this broke down metaphysical and alternative spiritual practices by type more specifically. While things like herbal medicine might be in the forefront and accepted, I doubt if we'd see the same reaction to your average ritual spellwork that casts circles, calls quarters, etc. So many interesting questions to ask! whee