I used to believe that there where dead people in the bases of bouncy castles.

Anon

Until I was about 12 years old or so, I thought Heaven was on the Moon. My grandfather had died when I was young and whenever I asked Granny where he was, she would point to the Moon. Needless to say, seeing Neil Armstrong step foot on "Heaven" was disconcerting.

Marty

When I was 5 I was really into Bruce Lee. I asked my dad how he died as clear the man was invicable. My Dad said that Bruce Lee was at a ceremony to meet the Queen and saluted, knocking himself on the forehead and killing himself outright. Needless to say, martial arts was obviously a dangerous skill to have. Not long after, I saw the Queen on TV laughing. I thought she was heartless, didn't she realise the part she'd played in the death of Bruce Lee?!?!

Barnaby

when i was little, i used to write letters to my grandmother who passed away. i tied the letters to a balloon
and let it fly away.

balloons

I was convinced that we each had a certain amount of air to breathe. This was contained in an invisible balloon. When it ran out you died...I would lie in bed and hold my breath for as long as I could. I am now 62 and my balloon is sagging badly

jim webster

When I was a kid and the other children on the playground would point their fingers at each other and say "Put your hands up or I'll shoot!", I never understood that this was to stop people from doing anything suspicious with their hands. I thought it was physically impossible for someone to die from a gun if they didn't have their hands up. So when people threatened to shoot only if they DIDN'T put their hands up, I thought this was a cunning trick to make them put their arms up so they COULD shoot them. You'd think eventually people would catch on and just keep their hands down, they can't die then!

Evilrabbit

Up until I was 14 (and I'm only 15 now!!), I used to believe that a widow was someone who had lost their husband and a widower was someone who had killed a husband. This was clarified for me one day when my mom and I met an older couple. "How nice, the widow and the widower" My mom said after they left. I freaked out yelling about why hadn't they put him in jail.

Samantha

When I was younger (perhaps 3, maybe?) I used to believe when a human died (I always imagined one of my sunday school teachers)they would go to heaven. God would put them in a suit (like a bunny suit, or a cat suit) and they would be reborn as that animal. I would always look through my cats' fur to see if I could find the zipper on their suit.

I would also ask my cats what it was like to be an adult... I never got a response. But I SWEAR I heard my Siamese say "Hello, James!" the other day.

Prince of elves

When I was in Grade 6, I prayed every night... "please don't spontaneously combust, please don't spontaneously combust"

Rebecca

When I was little, I heard my parents talk about SIDS where babies died. So I thought if you named a baby "Sid", he would die. I told a kid in my class named Sid that he should ask his parents to change his name because he could die any moment

superxam

When I learned that poet Slyvia Plath had killed herself by sticking her head into her oven I used to wonder how she could have done it. It seemed such a painful, drawn-out way to die. Of course, that's because I thought it was an electric oven (the only kind I'd ever used) as opposed to a gas oven.

k.e

My friend once told me that when people die, their bodies are buried on the street as speed bumps. Every time I drove my bike over a street bump, I'd wonder who was buried there...

nicole

When I was young, I saw a very tall gravestone and I asked my mom why it was so big. She replied "He must have had a lot of money" so for the longest time, I thought that when people died, all the money they had was kept inside the gravestone.

littleflower0624

When I was about 5, I heard some of my mother's friends talking about a man that had "bit the dust".I learned that phrase meant "to die". The thought scared me so horribly, I became an incredible neat freak at 6! I dusted my room everyday, in fear that one of my family members would "bite my dust"!

Chesney Parkker

I remember watching a TV programme where a guy was murdered by receiving 30 "blows" to the head. I thought this meant someone actually breathed on him heavily 30 times - so I tested it on my brother!!

BigSis

When I was little, I used to believe that people died from gun shots and deep wounds because the wound was just big enough for the person's soul to get out and fly away. Because of that belief, I had a phobia of getting hurt or cut since 5th grade in fear that my soul might fly away.

Eliza

When i was very very young, not even in kindergarten yet, I had a favorite uncle who for what ever reason faked his own death, except that the whole family new it was faked. He showed up at his own wake with his dark grey hair bleached white where family members shook his hand and congratulated him.
For years after that i thought that when you died you changed your hair color and your family told everyone that came looking for you that you were gone.

dragonfly183

When I was younger, I went to my mom's friend's brother's funeral. I was really hungry, and my mom kept saying that we were going to leave soon. My grandmother kept telling me that my mom's friend's brother was going to heaven. So I stood in front of the coffin staring at the dead body for about 2 hours, until my mom came up to me and said, "UH, what are you doing?" and I responded, "I'm waiting for him to go to heaven!" I honestly thought that a ladder or staircase would come out of a mass of clouds, and the dead guy would get up and out of the coffin, wave to us then climb up to heaven.

Rachel

after my aunt died, i was really sad because i couldn't talk to her anymore. I remembered that on Lion King, Rafiki the monkey let simba talk to mufasa by touching the lake with his magic stick. i didn't have a lake or a magic stick so i would sit by the bath tub poking it with a broom tryin to talk to my aunt.

briana

I used to believe that you would get a letter in the mail and that told you that it was your time to die. I thought you would enter the big gates of the cemetary and then soldiers would come out at shoot you. What also supported my idea was the large gates and fences which I thought were there to prevent you from running out without being shot.

Susan P.