The Medium Newsletter for today ~ Does science fiction teach us how to feel?

[Julie]

In E.T., a boy learns to care for an alien. In Lilo & Stitch, a genetically engineered creature becomes part of a young girl’s family. Writer and illustrator Gabriel Quinteroargues these movies don’t just entertain — they teach children how to feel. Citing research by psychologist Paul L. Harris, he explains that kids use fiction to simulate unfamiliar perspectives. When a child imagines what it’s like to be scared, lonely, or far from home, they start building emotional templates for experiences they haven’t had. And when adults ask questions like “Why do you think the alien is sad?” they help sharpen that emotional awareness. The next time the child sees someone left out or afraid, they’re more likely to recognize it and care.

A 2024 study in Communication Research likewise investigates how science fiction cultivates emotional perspective in adults. The researchers found that people who regularly engaged with the genre felt a stronger sense of connection to humanity as a whole. The key driver was awe, a feeling associated with vastness, uncertainty, and the recognition of being part of something larger. Science fiction prompts readers and viewers to imagine planetary threats, distant futures, and forms of life beyond their own. In doing so, it encourages them to see themselves not just as individuals, but as members of a shared species. By placing human life in a broader context, science fiction makes it easier to care about people outside our orbit.

Both Quintero and the 2024 study show how fiction teaches us to care beyond ourselves. For a child, imagining the loneliness of a stranded alien builds the instinct to care for someone unfamiliar. For an adult, science fiction stories that explore distant futures or planetary threats evoke a deeper sense of connection to humanity as a whole. Both foster connection with others, even when they seem strange or far away.

— Anna Dorn

[ënagualí~ᏉLAᗪἇ ኔጡ።]

Interesting they used ET movie as an example,.. but I think anything in a movie can actually influence a child, as their minds are like a sponge, so everything in their reality or new it forms a notion, a emotion, a memory etc. They can basically form ones identity because they are so easily influenced.. this is why the parent must monitor what a child takes in while watching any movie or TV programme & online also now...The fact that their brains are more propelled by the reward system from anything they witness at this developmental stage and less likely to "put on the brakes" can absolutely have an evolutionary benefit to our species. This viewpoint can remind us as adults to appreciate this stage and put it into perspective while they continue to develop the prefrontal cortex.

[Julie]

Thanks Vlada, I agree, and even as adults we can appreciate views over and beyond the learned forms that parents and family shared with us whilst we were in our formative years. 

[ënagualí~ᏉLAᗪἇ ኔጡ።]

Well thats what we are actually doing now as adults, breaking down the old indoctrinated programming our parents pushed on us unknowingly and this ascends our consciousness above the 3D reality consciousness. or as some call it ascension.. but there is a load of folks online who are religious folk who actually think ascension is us gaining enough enlightenment to actually live in a 4-5D reality physically speaking and I'm afraid this just wont happen they are delusional. If people could move up in consciousness physically then people would not be here on this earth they would be gone fully... yet people dont understand this process especially the New Age Religions like GFL OMG Julie if you could read the crap that some of them write you would surely be thinking these folk have major mental illness and are living in a fantasy realm they make up themselves no ET phone home in their minds, its beam me up scotty to the mothership in the sky and so I can become a crew member of the ship...seriously they are delusional beyond delusional.. then you have the Realians who also believe the mothership holds the Elohim onboard and they too will take over the world, and everyone will be open to have sex with anyone including children its just total madness.

These beliefs are all made up garbage.. I hate to think what our next generation of children are going to be infused & indoctrinated with as all this alters their mind & consciousness so they will be believing in garbage as they believe what their parents tell & inform them...

[Tara]

Beautiful thanks for this quote.  I think it’s a little overboard to label people who are seeking higher consciousness as delusional. If they have seen ETs then they have.   I’m not even sure it’s right to tell people their delusions are not real just because you think they’re not. What makes you right and them wrong.  It’s quite different if they are harming someone like a child or brainwashing people. People need love and compassion. Probably they are hoping for a real friend who cares about them, and to be part of a group where they matter. I don’t have the answer for brainwashing and cruelty but there are many more good people than evil so if every9ne was just kind to their neighbor it would help a lot. 

[Tara]

I don’t much like visiting here myself. It’s almost always an arguement. I just don’t know what to do anymore. 

[Julie]

"Well thats what we are actually doing now as adults, breaking down the old indoctrinated programming our parents pushed on us unknowingly and this ascends our consciousness above the 3D reality consciousness. or as some call it ascension.."  Yes for sure Vlada

[Julie]

"there are many more good people than evil so if every9ne was just kind to their neighbor it would help a lot. "

Yes I agree Tara

Tara said:

Beautiful thanks for this quote.  I think it’s a little overboard to label people who are seeking higher consciousness as delusional. If they have seen ETs then they have.   I’m not even sure it’s right to tell people their delusions are not real just because you think they’re not. What makes you right and them wrong.  It’s quite different if they are harming someone like a child or brainwashing people. People need love and compassion. Probably they are hoping for a real friend who cares about them, and to be part of a group where they matter. I don’t have the answer for brainwashing and cruelty but there are many more good people than evil so if every9ne was just kind to their neighbor it would help a lot. 

[Tara]

So many children’s shows these days about the arrival of the ETs. 
it’s a commonplace idea now that they will arrive any day now

[Julie]

The thought of ET's has always fired the imagination and the possibility that they live amongst us or are even a part of us that we find hard to explain enables us to stretch to further possibilities of life on earth.

[RichardtheRaelian]

Hi! That is a good question and I wish I had answer for you.

[Julie]

Hi Richard, good to see you on discussion today, blessings to you