Going Beyond The Normal

It that time of year again when we start thinking the about the npossibility of houses being haunted or occupied by ghosts. nHalloween is the time of year when conversation turn to talk of nthe “scary” world of supernatural phenomena. It is not surprising that we begin to hear stories of people who believe that they are being haunted or tormented by spirits, ghosts, demons or other elements of the beyond. A large number of people believe in ghosts, and generally they agree that ghosts are spirits or souls of deceased persons. nnOur every day mundane activities are considered normal. We usenthe five accepted senses (sight, taste, touch, hear and smell) to interact with our environment. Everything is find if nothing nunusual happens, but we seem to have problems when something occurs that does not fit into what we believe is normal. Paranormal is an umbrella term used to describe happenings or events that do not occur within the realm of the five senses. nnMost of us do not recognize a sixth sense, but many people believe that the human mind has the power to go beyond the realm of normal. Such abilities as telepathy, psycho kinesis and precognition are thought to be within the possibilities of each of us. In ancient times, the power of prophecy was considered normal, but people no longer believe that it happens to regular people. For whatever reason in modern times, prophecy has been added to the list of beyond the realm of normal. I do not know if it is fear or that the Clergy has simply convinced the public that God only talks to them. I do know that a large number of religious people have been taught to believe that they should fear God. Also, the Clergy are the only people that you hear about God talking to.nnBy definition, paranormal phenomena exist outside of what we consider normal. Paranormal research attempts to establish scientifically that the abilities mentioned above are actual capabilities of the human mind. Of course, they also study the weird occurrences in life (haunted houses, ghosts, communication with the dead…), but I personally have only been ninterested in the mind’s ability to go beyond the range of normal. I do not know if the people who try to debunk or disprove paranormal phenomena also consider themselves paranormal investigators, but obviously there are npeople working on both sides of the issues. Is either side winning? It may be too soon to tell, but I personally hope the side trying to prove that “we are only using one tenth of our brain” are correct. I think it would be pretty cool to easily take our minds beyond what is considered normal.nnHerman Wheeler