I often times hear people balking at stories of Bigfoot in the woods, flying saucers, chupacabra, and ghostly hauntings. The focus of what we consider paranormal is not rigid, it’s dynamic. What was paranormal to man long ago becomes science to man in the future. Such is the dilemma with the phenomenon that we witness in our world and can’t explain. It’s not truly paranormal in the sense of being something not dictated by science but is, in fact, science not yet documented.
Thousands of years ago…
A man and woman would mate, nine months later a baby would be born, but how that baby got to be inside of her would remain a mystery to them both.
When the moon blocked the sun, the world had to be coming to an end.
When they gathered nuts and berries, they had no idea how they grew, they simply knew that when they no longer found more, they had to move on to a new location.
Burying a person in the right manner with the right items ensured their safe spiritual travel.
A thousand years ago…
Man farmed. He felt inclined to pray for crops. If it rained, he could thank his God(s) and if it didn’t, he would feel punished.
If someone spread germs, they died a slow death painful death, never knowing it was not Divine intervention but bacteria from unwashed hands that caused it.
When someone has a seizure, devils, witchcraft, and demons had taken him over.
The earth was flat and man would drop off it if he traveled in his ship too far.
A hundred years ago…
Man performed séances and used mediums to try and talk to dead loved ones.
Disease could be handled by leeches sucking the “bad” blood out of a patient.
When he gazed at the moon, man was certain there were little men living there gazing back.
A person born with a birthmark was marked by the Devil.
Present day…
Man sees silver disks moving strangely in the sky, he’s certain he’s being visited by beings with craft that’s better than his own.
Wandering into the woods, a hunter sees a tall man-like creature covered in black fur. It doesn’t fit a bear’s behavior, it must be a man-ape.
A book flies off the shelf while a man is reading a book. It has to be an angry ghost.
Having heard of recent animal killings and finding a hairless gray creature on a rancher’s property, the assumption is a creature that sucks blood, a chupacabra.
Today’s paranormal becomes tomorrow’s science.
Do you ever wonder just how far off the mark we’ll be in our assumptions in 2009 from what we find in, say, 2025?
I love how your mind works! I have often tried to explain that to people. I just don't have the words like you do. It is about the science of it. Not a religious thing, but why it is and how it is.
ReplyDeleteI have thought of it also. I strongly bgelieve that parapsychology is the psychology of the future. The abilities of our mind will be revealed and the world won't be as we know it. I just hope i live to see it.
ReplyDeleteHey Kimberly and Georgina;
ReplyDeleteYup. It's only paranormal when we don't understand the science of it, like eclipses. Yeah, I do believe we're going to see explanations for a heck of a lot of stuff within the next 15 years!
I have a hypothesis that the phenomenon which we call magic will one day be understood to be a process of quantum mechanics.
ReplyDeleteUh oh...you hit one of my nitpicking points. A thousand years ago, man was not afraid of falling off the edge of the earth. The idea that people thought the earth was flat was a myth started by Washington Irving when he erroneously stated that Christopher Columbus was trying to convince people the world was round and he could get to the East quicker by selling west. In reality, people already knew the world was round, Columbus was just trying to convince people that the earth wasn't as wide as people thought. He was actually wrong...the earth was wider than he thought it was...and there was another big continent in the way of getting to the East.
ReplyDeleteRoger Bacon pointed out the curvature of the Earth in the middle ages by observing that you can see farther when you get to a higher elevation. The earliest reference I've found to someone pointing out the earth was round is Aristotle, who observed that the earth casted a spherical shadow on the moon during an eclipse.
Looking back, what I find to be the biggest irony about this is how we're taught that people thought the earth was flat in school, yet evidence to the contrary stares us in the face. Ancient and medieval art depict the earth as round. We also learn about great seafaring civilizations such as the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, who were sailing the Mediterranean and around Africa thousands of years ago...obviously they weren't afraid of falling off the edge at the horizon! Ancient navigation techniques actually relied on the stars and curvature of the earth.
I actually have an article somewhat related to this topic on my blog: http://histmyst.blogspot.com/2009/06/discovering-americaagain-and-again.html
Sorry...this is just one of those points I always feel compelled to just jump in and correct any time I hear someone say it. :)
Bennu;
ReplyDeleteYou're right, quantam physics will be the umbrella under which we discover the scientific principles of phenomenon and take it from being paranormal to normal.
Jeff;
I'm sorry that your sticking point kept you from gathering the gist of the post. The expression about man thinking the world is flat is a commonly used way of describing his general lack of knowledge in the complexities of his world including the gravity that keeps him staying put. It's not meant to be an accurate description of his knowledge at that given time. Even with archaeology, we can't really know what man thought or knew thousands of years ago, we can only assume based on when a man claimed to have discovered a new reality such as Sir Isaac Newton or Benjamin Franklin. The idea of the post is to show that our limited knowledge makes our paranormal world greater. The less we know about the physics of our world, the more of it remains in the paranormal realm. Hope that helps to clarify it for you.
Sorry...I didn't mean to digress so far from the point of the post. I did get the gist of your post, it's just I always feel the need to point out the flat earth error to people.
ReplyDeleteBut yes, your main point in the post is a good point. It's interesting to ponder what new discoveries may be made in the future. I think one reason new discoveries take so long to pan out is many people past and present have a tendency to think they know it all. In 1903, physicist Albert Michelson said, "The most fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplemented in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote."
If we could learn to avoid that type of attitude, I think we as a people could learn a lot more a lot quicker.
Hey Jeff;
ReplyDeleteI thought you'd appreciate the subject of the post. It's amazing how often Man stops and thinks he knows it all, there's nothing left to learn, it's all been discovered...I work in the medical field and we're positively archaic when you consider the advancements being made through stem cell research. I heard the other day about a printable LED screen that can make it possible to show the highest resolution of video on a screen that's thin and flexible and able to be placed on anything, even around something rounded. The possibilities are amazing. I'm most excited about the green technology, but then I'm an eco-type. I personally think it's a great time to be around. Still, the amount of what constitutes paranormal is still huge for Man, so we have a long way to go and I suspect it's never a point of arrival, but an ongoing process.
That's always been my take on it. I define Paranormal and Supernatural as normal and natural that we haven't figured out yet.
ReplyDelete