Believing the Unbelievable

The Years When We Believe Everything

The first four or five years of life are the years when we accept information without negotiation.

Adults tell us things, and we believe them.

They say a fairy flies into bedrooms at night to buy teeth.

We accept that there is a tiny woman running a global dental collection service.

They say a large man in a red suit enters locked houses once a year through chimneys that most homes no longer have.

We accept that this man keeps a master spreadsheet of every child on Earth and travels faster than aviation technology.

They say a rabbit delivers chocolate eggs.

Not lays them.

Delivers them.

Like a seasonal courier with excellent organisational skills.

No one explains the logistics.

We are simply told, and we believe.

Adults hide coins under pillows and whisper about magic dust.

They leave half-eaten carrots on plates and say, “Look, the reindeer came.”

They scatter plastic eggs in gardens and act surprised when rabbits apparently work in confectionery distribution.

At this age our brains are still learning how truth works.

Authority equals accuracy.

If a grown-up says something confidently enough, the mind files it under “facts about the world.”

So we add goblins, fairies, elves, and magical rabbits to our developing understanding of reality.

We do not question it.

Because the same people telling us about mythical creatures are also the people who tie our shoelaces, cook dinner, and explain gravity.

From a child’s perspective, it is entirely reasonable to assume the adults know what they are talking about.

Years later, we discover something interesting.

The fairies never existed.

The rabbit was our parents.

The man in the red suit was a coordinated international performance involving millions of adults maintaining the same lie for years.

And then we are expected to grow up and immediately become sceptical thinkers.

But the brain remembers its first lesson:

People we trust tell us things.

And we believe them.

Which means the most impressive magic trick of childhood was never Santa, the Tooth Fairy, or the Easter Bunny.

It was the moment millions of adults convinced small children that a rabbit runs a chocolate logistics company.

And nobody questioned the business model.