I am a 25-year old woman and until I recently decided to help with a project for my father, I did not know what paranormal was. Sure, I have heard of strange phenomena happening and strange disappearances. But I never knew that there was a name for these strange occurrences. So, for the last 4 weeks, I have been learning more and more about the paranormal and decided that I wanted to share some of the basics. What is the definition of paranormal and who or what is included in the category of paranormal?
What is paranormal? www.wikipedia.com defines it as “an observed phenomenon for which there is no suitable explanation in the context of a specific body of scientific knowledge.” Webster defines it as “Beyond the range of normal experience or scientific explanation.” OK. Well, here’s my definition, “Paranormal is the unknown”. It is as simple as that. I’ll explain.
Who or what is paranormal? The word paranormal covers several hundred abnormal phenomena. Here are a few examples: Spontaneous Human Combustion, Unidentified Flying Objects, Aliens, abnormal human occurrences (out-of body experiences and strange deaths), Bigfoot, loch ness monster, telepathy, psychics ”¦ and there are many, many more. Anything that cannot be explained is placed in this category.
Its relevance, or the reason that I believe the word paranormal exists, is because the human mind has to give an explanation to everything. In our own minds nothing is unexplainable, that is, not if we can call it something, right? So, why not make up a new word and put the mind at ease. The word paranormal does not make cold chills go up your spine or cause loss of feeling in your legs or any of the other strange sensations that humans feel when they hear stories of big foot or ghostly apparitions or aliens. Such stories or experiences certainly cause the mind to feel different sensations when they are unknown or unexplainable. I don’t know about you, but I definitely feel better calling these phenomena paranormal instead of unexplainable.
However, the word unexplainable does make my mind go ballistic trying to think of any answer that could or might even make an ounce of sense. But, I will admit, this word makes me stay up at night, especially considering what I know now. I know many things about the paranormal that I didn’t know anything about prior to helping my father with this work.
If you are interested in theories and stories of strange occurrences, please read some of the articles on this site, such as Buckeye Bigfoot, The Loch Ness Monster, the Bermuda Triangle, JFK theory ”¦ and hundreds more. Take a look, these are quite interesting.
And after you are finished reading tonight, sleep peacefully with the knowledge that nothing is UNEXPLAINABLE, some things are just paranormal!
