The Universe Revealed

What is paranormal?

What is paranormal?

The term 'paranormal' is bantered about without any real definition. It's mostly a label for phenomena we don't understand. The word means beyond normal experience or scientific explanation. In other words it's not scientific because it cannot be verified or experimented on. It's not natural, which is also described as supernatural. Many paranormal subjects involve spiritual concepts. The word covers a lot of ground, so to speak.

Basically, we call ghosts, spiritual entities, extraterrestrials, UFO's, psychic abilities, and extrasensory powers as being paranormal. Another subject that's lumped into the paranormal is cryptozoology or an animal that's considered to be extinct, like the Loch Ness Monster, for example.

Surprisingly, many of these paranormal fields have been studied scientifically. This is especially true of extrasensory powers. Duke University studied this branch of psychology for many years and published many journal papers on this interesting subject. I know about this because I wrote a paper about it in college.

Several governments have studied UFO's and extraterrestrial life extensively, but none of these research efforts has revealed any proof that aliens have visited us. However, I would not necessarily classify UFO's or the search for extraterrestrial intelligent life as being paranormal. It's not beyond nature. It is nature. There's intelligent life out there and aliens have visited us. All it needs is proof.

Where we get into trouble is in the subject of spiritual entities like spirits, ghosts, angels, demons and devils. These are in the spiritual realm and considered religious. The main problem is that supernatural entities cannot be studied using science. They're not natural things, but they can be sensed. We just have to trust our senses. Spirits are real, but only people who are sensitive to them can see these spiritual entities. Despite this, ghosts have been scientifically examined but the results of the experiments have been ambiguous.

The problem I have with the label of paranormal is that it implies a certain element of fiction, possibly because of the fact that paranormal is a genre of literature. I don't think that these paranormal subjects are necessarily made up or imagined. There are just too many accounts of these encounters to dismiss them all. It's possible that what we see when a ghost makes an appearance is the aura of the person manifested in a spiritual manner. Many of these things could be forms of energy. Every living creature has an energy signature.
Another possible explanation involves the quantum entanglement. The particles that make us up could be entangled with particles that are part of matter out in space. In other words, we don't go away. Our consciousness with our memories and thoughts never go away when we die. They are part of the cosmos. Who knows what's really happening, but it could explain how our thoughts continue.

I realize that this sounds like new age nonsense, but I truly believe that our souls never die. They will exist forever. More on this later.

Thanks for reading.