The Study of Psychic Phenomena
Dubbed parapsychology, the study of psychic phenomena is often misunderstood.
And though the field itself is hardly popular, it is common that once mentioned, for people to conjure up ideas of things they’d call supernatural. But the word supernatural is entirely self defeating as I’ll show you.
Nature or reality, exists always in its natural state be it strange or mundane. To say something is supernatural is to say it exists outside of reality. But think about it: if said thing exists at all then it must exist in reality, otherwise it doesn’t exist!
Parapsychology is not about attempting to understand anything supernatural or otherwise magical. It is about trying to understand the natural, if abnormal, phenomena of life.
Do ghosts exist? Do humans exhibit true psychic behavior? Is shamanism real? What about religious experiences?
These questions should not be shrugged off as superstition. No true scientist makes a subjective, opinion based judgment on something without the correct research, testing and data.
Enter Redefine God’s celebrity member, Dr. Stanley Krippner Phd.
Dr. Krippner’s work is centered on the objective study of such mysterious questions. The fact is, there are answers. And we can only determine them with science.
A great compendium of parapsychological research is Varieties of Anomalous Experience: Examining the Scientific Evidence.
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Sidian’s comments are on target. Serious parapsychologists (members of the Parapsychological Association, or the Society for Scientific Exploration) do not use the term “supernatural.” They assume that the anomalies they are studying are part of the “natural” world, even if mainstream science’s concept of the natural world needs to be expanded to accomodate parapsychological phenomena.
Sid has admonished me on the use of supernatural before, and I found his position quite sound.
As a Christian I believe we are created in perfection, and since de-evoled. In that perfection it would seem more likely then not that we had phychic abilities and post “fall” have lost most of the abilities we were created with.
With regard to ghosts, if we survey a chair after someone has stood up with a thermal imager, we see the residual image of their having sat there. Isn’t it as likely that there is a residual signature when our life terminates, especially if the demise is tramatic. Could that residual be visible to people for quite some time afterwards.
Of course all this requires the ability to measure either the presence or absence of those energies, but time will tell.
Decided to wander around and see what there is to read. For me personally, and most members of my family (mom, siblings), psi experience is/was common, fairly frequent, and openly discussed (w/in family, somehow even as little kids we knew not to tell others). No question as to whether or not parapsychology is real. It is. Perhaps some folks are not open enough, adequately talented, tuned in, or genetically endowed w/ psi abilities, so if they don’t experience, no-one else does either. Nonetheless, it is. I have no doubts whatsoever.
I also believe that though there are things we cannot explain presently, they are not necessarily “supernatural.” Only thousands of years ago, people found ways to explain phenomena, such as lightning and birth, that we more clearly understand today.
the supernatural is simply beyond our understanding. Just as something *lasting forever* is beyond our understanding; our society is revolving around time…all the time! 60 seconds in a minute. BOOM. your born, then you die . BOOM. ill meet you in 30 minutes. BOOM. so because we dont understand this; eternity, we try to find other explanations for it; saying that the after life dosent exist. Jesus died for you.