Supernatural &

Paranormal Phenomena

“Everything you can imagine is real.”

- Pablo Picasso
 What are we going to discuss?

• Introduction
• Paranormal research – Anecdotal
Approach
• Contrasting Views
• Committee for the Scientific
Investigation of Claims of the
Paranormal (CSICOP)
• Paranormal Subjects (Ghosts,
Stigmata, Crop-Circles etc.)
• The Paranormal in Religion
• Paranormal and ’Perinormal’
 What is Paranormal & Supernatural?
• Paranormal is a general term that
designates experiences that lie
outside the range of normal
experience or scientific explanation.

• The supernatural is anything above

or beyond what one holds to be
natural and exists outside natural law
and the observable universe.

• ‘Para’ and ‘Normal’ - it is described

as anything that is beyond or
contrary to what is deemed
scientifically possible
 Paranormal Research – Anecdotal Approach
• An anecdotal approach to the paranormal
involves the collection of stories told about
the paranormal.

• Charles Fort (1874–1932) is perhaps the best

known collector of paranormal anecdotes.

• Fort is said to have compiled as many as

40,000 notes on unexplained paranormal
experiences.

• He collected events include teleportation,,

inorganic materials of an amazing range, crop
circles, unaccountable noises and explosions
etc.
 Contrasting Views on Supernatural Phenomena
• Indistinct from Nature
Some events occur according to physical
laws, and others occur according to a separate
set of principles external to known physics.

• Incorrectly attributed to Nature

All events have natural and only natural
causes. Human beings ascribe supernatural
attributes to purely natural events.

• Part of a Larger Nature

According to this view, the supernatural is
just a term for parts of nature that modern
science and philosophy do not yet properly
understand.
 Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims
of the Paranormal 
• CSICOP is a U.S. non-profit
organization.

• It encourages the critical investigation of

paranormal and fringe-science claims
from a responsible, scientific point of
view.

• On November 30, 2006, the organization

further shortened its name to
"Committee for Skeptical Inquiry"
("CSI", pronounced C-S-I)
 Ghosts, Spirits and Hauntings

• A ghost is the soul or spirit of a

deceased person or animal.

• Spirits are the energies of deceased

loved ones and friends who have died
and gone into the Light.

• The ghost story is ubiquitous across all

cultures from oral folktales to works of
literature.

• A 2005 Gallup poll found that about 32

percent of Americans believe in ghosts.
 Psychokinesis & Teleportation

• Psychokinesis is a term coined by

publisher Henry Holt.

• Examples of psychokinesis could

include distorting or moving an object,
and influencing the output of a random
number generator.

• Teleportation is the transfer of matter

from one point to another, more or less
instantaneously.

• Teleportation has been widely utilized

in works of science fiction and fantasy.
 Crop Circles
• A crop circle is a sizable pattern
created by the flattening of a
crop such as wheat, barley, rye,
maize, or rapeseed.

• Crop circles have become the

subject of speculation by various
paranormal, ufological, and
anomalistic investigators ranging
from proposals that they were
created by bizarre
meteorological phenomena to
messages from extraterrestrials.
 Extraterrestrial life & UFOs

• Suggested locations on which life might

have developed include the planets Venus,
Mars and some moons of Jupiter and
Saturn.

• Many scientists are actively engaged in

the search for unicellular life within the
solar system, carrying out studies on the
surface of Mars and examining meteors.

• Unidentified flying object (UFO) is the

popular term for any apparent aerial
phenomenon whose cause cannot be
easily or immediately identified by the
observer.
 Vampires and Werewolves

• Vampires are mythological or

folkloric beings who subsist by
feeding on the life essence
(generally in the form of blood) of
living creatures.

• A werewolf, also known as a

lycanthrope is a mythological or
folkloric human with the ability to
shapeshift into an
anthropomorphic wolf-like
creature.
 Stigmata

• Stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or

sensations of pain in locations
corresponding to the crucifixion
wounds of Jesus Christ, such as the
hands & feet.

• The blood from the wounds is said to

have a pleasant, perfumed odor,
known as the Odor of Sanctity.

• Stigmata are primarily associated

with the Roman Catholic faith. Many
reported stigmatics are members of
Stigmata.flv
Catholic religious orders.
 Reincarnation & Past Lives

• Reincarnation is believed to occur when the

soul or spirit, after the death of the body,
comes back to life in a newborn body.

• This phenomenon is also known as

transmigration of the soul or
metempsychosis.

• This concept prevails in Hinduism, Jainism,

Sikhism and Buddhism.

• Judaism, Christianity and Islam do not

believe that individuals reincarnate.
 Chiromancy & Palm-Reading

• Palmistry or chiromancy is the art of

characterization and foretelling the future
through the study of the palm.

Significance of the Left and Right Hand

• The left hand is controlled by the right brain
reflects the inner person, the natural self and the
lateral thinking. It could even be considered to be
a part of a person spiritual and personal
development.

• The right hand reflects the outer person, objective

self, influence of social environment, education,
and experience. It represents linear thinking.
 Pyramid Power
• Pyramid power refers to alleged
supernatural or paranormal properties
of the ancient Egyptian pyramids and
objects of similar shape.

• Model pyramids are said to preserve

foods, sharpen or maintain the
sharpness of razor blades or improve
health.

• Some people thought that they

function as a ‘thought-form
incubator,’ trigger sexual urges, and
cause other dramatic effects.
 Time Slip – The ‘Disputed’ Time Travel

• A time slip is an alleged paranormal

phenomenon in which a person, or group
of people, travel through time via
unknown means.

• One of the best-known, and earliest,

example was reported by two English
women, Charlotte Anne Moberly (1846 -
1937) and Eleanor Jourdain (1863–1924).

• They believed they slipped back in time in

the gardens of the Petit Trianon at
Versailles from the summer of 1901 to the
period of the French Revolution.
 Paranormal – The Religious Viewpoint

• Religion tends to view paranormal

phenomena as intentionally performed
by a higher power, often to benefit the
spiritual lives of humanity.

• Examples include the scriptural parting

of the Red Sea by Moses to the visions
of the Virgin Mary.

• Shamans are often thought to possess

the power of healing and the ability to
travel outside their body.
 Paranormal and ’Perinormal’

• ‘perinormal’ describes a phenomena

that were once thought to be
paranormal, but have since been
explained by science.

• The "Pregnant Man“ - When

doctors went to remove what they
thought was a tumor found a human
being inside the man's abdominal
region.

• The man's twin brother had been

growing inside his abdomen for 36
years!
The End