Why was the older generation more spiritual (WITHOUT meditating)?

[Ariadne the Scribe]

Hello.
Recently, someone who is in their forties was telling me how in his village, the grandmothers (this account was when he was still a child, so we are talking about 2-3 generations back) had visions of the future, how there were accounts of fairies, spirits, etc.
The distant grandmothers (now gone) of my relatives were also the same: having visions, mostly.

It's not a unique incident.

All these grandmothers were also very, very, very religious (christians, since this is the major religion in my country).

Why were the people of that time that much more spiritual than they are today in spite of NOT meditating at all?
Does it have to do with the way we live right now? (stress, constant distractions, harmful technology), or were the spiritual powers of our ancestors (since before the Middle Ages) still present in these grandmothers? It doesn't really make sense, considering people didn't meditate for many years in my country (we were also under Turkey's occupation).

How could these powers be so strong in the grandmothers, and everything got lost in just 2-3 generations?

 

[Asra]

I believe the majority of these "occurrences" are hallucinations or delusions, in a Christian context (especially since you mention visions). There are hundreds of claims worldwide that X or Y saw a picture of Mary hung on the wall shedding real tears and talking to them. Also, that swimming in holy lakes helped people cure infertility or blindness, or that kissing saints' dead bodies gave them the good luck to get that promotion the next month or overcome an obstacle they'd been struggling with, etc.

Abrahamic religions are known for their diehard believers, who think God is the reason for everything that happens to them, even to the most minor things like finding their keys or not missing the bus. So when something more unusual happens, like a night hallucination, they think it's either evil spirits or angels visiting them, when their intuition crops up - it must be their "guardian angel" talking to them, and so on. Just like others attribute every bad mood or accident on aliens and "psychic attacks".

Besides, many stories are also inflated, and modified each time they're recounted.