by Mark Thrower the Fa Hu

Created on: January 31, 2010

What it means to study the paranormal?

The following definition was taken from Wikipedia:

“The word “paranormal” has been in the English language since at least 1920. It consists of two parts: normal. In most definitions of the word paranormal, it is described as anything that is beyond or contrary to what is deemed scientifically possible. The definition implies that the scientific explanation of the world around us is the normal part of the word and para makes up the above, beyond, beside, contrary, or against part of the meaning.

Para has a Greek and Latin origin, its most common meaning (the Greek usage) is similar to or near to, as in paragraph. In Latin it means, above, against, counter, outside, or beyond.  For example, parapluie in French means counter rain - an umbrella. It can be construed, then that the term paranormal is derived from the Latin use of the prefix para, meaning against, counter, outside or beyond the norm.

I think that this gives us a very good place to start with, what it means to study the paranormal?  So in order to more clearly define “what it means to study the paranormal” would be; what is being researched? I propose that there are four major divisions within the field.  These divisions are for the most part just a means of helping those outside the field to understand the field.

The first would be what the majority of people that I meet everyday think of when they are talking about paranormal research.  This is the study of ghosts and other spiritual beings.  This field of study focuses on the question; is there life after death?  Most researchers in this field are trying to give quantifiable evidence that show what happens upon the death of the body and whether or not we can come back in a form of energy that at least on some level is capable of interacting with the world they left behind.  This area of study would also include the study of spiritual beings such as angels, demons, fae and so on.

The second would be that of parapsychology which loosely would be defined as the study of the psychic abilities of the human mind.  Which would include in the short list; intuition, precognition, clairvoyance, out of body experiences, clairaudience, mediumship, telekinesis and telepathy to name a few. Parapsychology also deals with the life after death but it has been my experience that from a practical sense they focus on the psychic experience more than that of the disembodied spirit aspect and that is the only reason for the division between the first group and second.

The third would be the cryptozoologists; this would be the search for and subsequent study of mythological or otherwise nonexistent biological creatures.  The cryptozoologist searches for creatures such as phantom cats, Bigfoot, yeti, Loch Ness monster and so on.  Proponents of this field of study point to species such as the Mountain Gorilla and the Okapi as examples of creatures that were at one time thought to be local legends but are now known to be living species.

The forth would be the study of extraterrestrial phenomenon, many of which call themselves ufologists.  This is probably the most publicized branch of paranormal research and therefore the most widely known.

Learn more about this author, Mark Thrower the Fa Hu.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.