Problems with the Paranormal

There are two common terms related to both writing and investigating the paranormal that just drive me crazy to hear.  One stems from a public misconception so widespread that it’s unremarkable when it becomes itself a movie title.  The other stems from a personal perspective on the nature of the universe I think is so basic that the nature of this conceptual error should be obvious to just about anyone.  There are those who follow certain religious philosophies that wouldn’t see it this way, but I would think those who are not tied to such would be able to grasp what I’m saying.

The first term is the “Sixth Sense.”  This is based on the–quite mistaken–premise that we have only five typical senses.  Sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.  But, in fact, we have several others we tend to overlook.  Years ago, while leafing through a psychology textbook, I read a passage that suggested instead that we have 11 senses.  The other six are equilibrioception (balance), proprioception (the kinesthetic sense),  temperature, temporal, and pain.  So the use of the “sixth sense” to denote psychic gifts is, in my opinion, simply unacceptable.  Call it, instead, the “Twelfth Sense.”

The other term that makes me crazy is “supernatural.”  It is my contention that all things that exist are part of the universe and therefore are inherently “natural.”  Nothing can exist here, unless it somehow impinges upon our continuum from outside , that could in my mind truly be considered “supernatural.”  I believe that ghosts, for example, if they exist, are a form of energy we cannot easily detect or as yet understand, but would, however, exist within our universe.  “Supernatural” as a word, suggests something that might exist outside the natural order, but, to me, instead denotes the concept of existing outside of nature itself.  I do not believe this is possible within the bounds of the universe as we understand it.  Even mythical things–gods, ghosts, demons, vampires, faerie, etc… would not be so much “supernatural” as, perhaps, “supernormal” or (far preferable in my opinion) “paranormal.”

It’s a small thing, perhaps, but one of those things that eat at me.  It stems from a love of language, and a passion for clear thinking.  Or so I like to believe.