Mystical experiences of the young people according to the internet narratives

Straipsnio objektas – internetu plintantys naratyvai, kuriuose jaunimas dalijasi savo arba kitų patirtimi apie susidūrimą su anapusybe ar kitais antgamtiniais reiškiniais. Pamėginsime aptarti jaunimo internetinio folkloro, kuriame vienokiu ar kitokiu aspektu paliečiama kito pasaulio egzistavimo, antgamtiškumo tema, specifiką, paanalizuoti, kaip pasakojimuose apie mistines anapusybės patirtis atsiskleidžia jaunimo požiūris į pomirtinį gyvenimą, nustatyti, ar tokie šiuolaikiniai siužetai turi sąsajų su tradicinėmis sakmėmis. Bus nagrinėjami sakmiškų elementų turintys pasakojimai, o jiems artimi folkloro žanrai, tokie, kaip šiurpės ir burtai, aptariami tik fragmentiškai, nes daugiau ar mažiau yra nagrinėti kitų mokslininkų straipsniuose. Kadangi virtuali interneto terpė apriboja galimybes nustatyti tikslų kūrinių skleidėjų amžių, žodžiai „jaunimas“, „jaunuoliai“ čia vartojami sąlygiškai, turint omenyje ir vaikus, ir jau ūgtelėjusius paauglius (spėjamas amžius – maždaug 7–18 m.). Tyrimo metodai – lyginamasis, aprašomasis, analizėsThe article is focused on the stories spread in the internet by the young people describing their encounters with the otherworldly reality. The somewhat naïve interpretation of the events and the manner of speaking typical to these stories allows us to assume that narrators of them are rather young people. When investigating the internet folklore, one is confronted with a variety of genres. The legend-like narratives about the supernatural beings are closely related to the horror stories and the children’s magic. In this article, those stories that aim at transmitting one’s own or someone else’s personal experiences related to extraordinary mystical events, are classified as the legend-like narratives. The public discussion of such experiences is supposed to validate the uniqueness of the experience in question and to prove the extreme courage of the young person. According to the internet stories, the children and teenagers are apt to attribute supernatural, unreal characteristics to the phenomena that could be rationally explained, moreover, subsequently interpreting the whole experience as an encounter with the supernatural world and its inhabitants. This leads the author to conclude that children and teenagers are much more than adults inclined to mythologize their daily surroundings, e.g. being much more ready to assume the opened door or a misplaced object to be the doings of a ghost or of some other supernatural being. Just like in the traditional folk legends, in these narratives the mystical events are considered to be real. Another indicator of the mythical thinking prevailing in the internet stories is the traditionally typical time and circumstances of appearance of the otherworldly beings. Places related to somebody’s death are avoided, while the existence of a special connection between the dead and the living is firmly believed in. [...]Kultūrų studijų katedraVytauto Didžiojo universiteta