A child is most probably not going to ask "Mommy, why are your eyes wet?" when they see their mother crying. They've cried themselves since the day they were born; they know full well that tears mean distress. They might be confused the first time they encounter someone crying tears of happiness, since a person is showing all the signs of distress and yet there's clearly nothing to be distressed about.
Likewise, a child is not going to see an adult in pain and ask, "Daddy, why are you acting funny?" Aside from the fact that children are freaked out by things that start acting in strange and erratic ways (ESPECIALLY things they've generally come to trust as safe), even the youngest child knows pain and how people act when they're in it- they have, after all, been in pain themselves.
— Springhole article on children.
"It’s often been noted that the alleged signs of being an indigo child or starseed are very much in line with those of autism and ADHD. And as someone who has both, I find the idea that my sole purpose in life is to help the rest of the world get its act together so it can spiritually ascend to be highly offensive. I’m a human being. I have physical and mental disabilities. I have physical, psychological, and emotional needs that this society is not set up to meet. It shouldn’t be my job to make the rest of the world get its act together. I am not your sparkly space messiah."
— Syera Miktayee, “Sketchy Spiritualities & Shady Pseudohistories: What People Need To Know”
In Twilight, vampires can go approximately 1-2 weeks between meals. Now, for 3.5 books the Cullen clan comprises of seven members. So that adds up to 175-350 exsanguinated animal bodies left behind per year- something which the US forest service would find highly alarming. Similarly, the Volturi with its seven members would be leaving behind that many human bodies. While the locals of Volterra may not necessarily notice that tourists were going missing, the friends and families of the tourists certainly would, and it wouldn't be long before Volterra developed a reputation as a literal tourist trap. "Okay, but that's Twilight," you might say, "Surely other books are better?"
Take Eragon for example. It's like the hideous mutated offspring of Star Wars and Lord of the rings set atop a dragon. The fact that there's a dragon that the hero gets to ride tends to distract people from the fact that the story is a gibbering monster.
Spirituality can be a good and healthy thing for people, but we have to be mindful that it's not closing us off from reality and from each other, and warping our worldview toward something extremely sinister. While most people associate fascism with gritty brutality, there is another side to it: a fascination with wide-eyed, innocent idealism. Fascists practically worship innocence and purity (as evidenced by them carrying on about protecting the precious white women and children from the evil hordes, plus the whole tradwife movement). New Age spirituality is chock full of this kind of thing. Brimming with feather-winged angels and doe-eyed extraterrestrials, promises of paradise in the near future, and reassurances that positive thinking will make all your dreams come true, New Age spirituality effectively turns many people into lotus eaters; unthreatening and unchallenging to those who would instate and maintain oppressive systems for their own benefit. And that's kind of the point.
—Why New Age Spirituality Even Is Creepier Than You Thought
, discussing the New Age movement's links to fascism.
, discussing the New Age movement's links to fascism.