{"id":53,"date":"2023-12-14T12:32:20","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T20:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/normalizingtheparanormal\/?p=53"},"modified":"2024-05-21T15:31:19","modified_gmt":"2024-05-21T22:31:19","slug":"normalizing-the-paranormal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/normalizingtheparanormal\/2023\/12\/normalizing-the-paranormal\/","title":{"rendered":"Normalizing The Paranormal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Why your extraordinary spiritual experiences are important and valid.<\/h2>\r\n \u00a0<\/p>\r\n Photo by Mark Basarab<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n \ Have you ever had an extraordinary or numinous experience that you didn\u2019t have a context for\u2014like a precognitive dream, a waking vision, or contact with an extraordinary being like an ancestor or spirit? Perhaps it was something so strange or unusual from your regular way of experiencing the world that you dismissed it as something you imagined. Or worse, as something scary or dangerous. Well, you\u2019re not the only one.<\/p>\r\n \ But extraordinary, or paranormal, experiences are more normal than you might expect. These experiences can happen quite frequently. However, folks tend to be a bit cagey about when and with whom they share them. That is if they even pause long enough to contemplate them. Sadly, many extraordinary experiences are discounted outright because we just don\u2019t have a framework within which to understand or validate them.<\/p>\r\n \ It\u2019s not that surprising, really. Here in the West we prioritize measurable, quantitative metrics over deep, qualitative insight. \u201cIf something can\u2019t be scientifically proven\u2014reduced down to its bits and bytes\u2014then it must not be \u2018real\u2019,\u201d says most of our culture.<\/p>\r\n \ But here\u2019s the problem with that approach to life\u2014it leaves no room for the mystery!<\/p>\r\n \ You see here in the West, because we\u2019re so convinced that our way of perceiving the world is right\u2014namely through a scientific materialist lens, that when you start talking about extraordinary human experiences\u2014like the perception of and encounters with the paranormal\u2014you quickly get labeled as \u201cwoo-woo\u201d or \u201cairy fairy.\u201d Even practitioners within the esoteric and pagan communities will sometimes preface a paranormal statement by saying, \u201cThis may sound a little woo-woo, but\u2026\u201d<\/p>\r\n \ Here\u2019s why these terms are problematic. According to Dictionary.com woo-woo<\/em> is a derogatory term that means irrational and superstitious<\/em>. And airy fairy<\/em> isn\u2019t any better. Did you know that the Fairy Faith is an Earth-based spiritual tradition rooted primarily in Celtic folklore and folkmagic?\u00a0 I don\u2019t know about you, but I make it a point not to use other people\u2019s spiritual traditions derisively.<\/p>\r\n Paranormal or highly sensitive?<\/h2>\r\n Photo by pawel szvmanski<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n Here\u2019s a bit of data for you, a 2014 study on the highly sensitive brain<\/a> indicated that about 20% of the human population (and over 100 other species!) are what psychologist Elaine Aron and her colleagues describe as highly sensitive<\/em>. Highly Sensitive People (HSP) have qualities like expanded perception, heightened sensation, and awareness of subtle cues and changes in one\u2019s environment. That sure sounds like the precursors to paranormal perception to me. So if almost a quarter of the population is highly sensitive, with the potential for perceiving exceptional spiritual or psychic phenomena, then maybe it\u2019s not so abnormal after all?<\/p>\r\n In fact, there\u2019s a growing field of anthropology, led by Dr. Jack Hunter, called Paranthropology<\/a>. Paranthropology is focused on the promotion of social-scientific approaches to the study of paranormal experiences, beliefs, and phenomena in all of their varied guises. The Paranthropological approach is devoted to an open-minded and exploratory perspective on a wide range of experiences, beliefs, and phenomena often called paranormal, supernatural, or anomalous. In his book Engaging the Anomalous: Collected Essays on Anthropology, the Paranormal, Mediumship and Extraordinary Experience<\/em> Dr. Hunter says, \u201cThe ultimate aim \u2026. is to interpret religious, spiritual and paranormal beliefs and experiences from a perspective that does not, from the very outset, reduce the complexity of the phenomenon or ignore the significance of personal, subjective experience.\u201d<\/p>\r\n Religious strangeness<\/h2>\r\n***** ** Here\u2019s the deal\u2014pretty much all religions believe some strange things. Resurrection? Divine birth? Yogic siddhis (psychic powers)? Communication with angels or djinn? The ability to perform miracles? Most mainstream religions believe something that involves the paranormal or otherworldly. But I don\u2019t think anyone would call the Dali Lama or the Pope \u201cwoo-woo\u201d for talking about extraordinary religious experiences. We simply call it faith<\/em>.<\/p>\r\n ** Other terms that get thrown around to devalue non-traditional ways of being are \u201cfreak\u201d or \u201cweird.\u201d But one possible definition of the word freak<\/em> is something that is singular or unique<\/em>. And originally the word weird<\/em> meant something supernatural or otherworldly<\/em>. Sounds about right.<\/p>\r\n ** And who gets to define what is considered weird, anyway? \u00a0Performance artist and MacArthur Genius Grant recipient Taylor Mac says their drag mother, the Mother Flawless Superior, was fond of saying that, \u201cNormal is just a setting on the dryer,\u201d and, \u201cReality is a mass hunch.\u201d Certainly, one group of people, or even one part of the world, shouldn\u2019t get to set the standards of normalcy for everyone else!<\/p>\r\n ** In fact, feminist, queer, and indigenous scholarship criticizes the West for the reality chokehold it\u2019s traditionally held on the rest of the world. The West tends to police so-called \u201creality norms\u201d according to its own prioritization of male, heterosexual, gender-binary whiteness. But these standards are actually quite arbitrary, and don\u2019t really reflect the diversity of all of human life. So, let\u2019s reclaim these words\u2014freak<\/em> and weird<\/em>\u2014by unabashedly letting our paranormal freak flags fly!<\/p>\r\n ** Let\u2019s normalize the paranormal<\/h2>\r\n ** ** A walk in the woods<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n ** Paranormal perception\u2014which one could define as \u201cjust a little bit outside the typical way of seeing things\u201d\u2014is often rooted in multi-dimensional ways of perceiving the world. The good news is you don\u2019t have to be an HSP to foster your paranormal perception, everyone has access to it\u2014to varying degrees. Paranormal perception comes from the intuitive, numinous part of us\u2014what I like to call the weird self<\/em>. It\u2019s the part of us that is connected to our depths, our magic, our big Self.<\/p>\r\n ** Let\u2019s make a deal. As a scholar of esoteric spirituality and transpersonal psychology, I invite you to normalize the paranormal<\/em> with me. Let\u2019s acknowledge that there are mysteries inherent in life itself, and way more things \u201cout there\u201d than our science has been able to or may ever be able to prove, Horatio.<\/p>\r\n ** One simple way we can do this is to stop framing our conversations about the numinous or spiritual experiences we\u2019ve had as \u201cwoo-woo\u201d or \u201cairy fairy,\u201d or even \u201cnew age.\u201d Instead, try leading into a paranormal conversation with, \u201cThis may be a little different from your current frame of reference\u201d or \u201cThis might not live within your typical spiritual framework,\u201d or simply use the term \u201cesoteric.\u201d As pagans, it will make the work of taking our rightful seat at the table of serious religious dialog so much easier.<\/p>\r\n ** Get to know your weird self<\/em><\/h2>\r\n ** Finally, one way we can get to know and make friends with your weird, magical self is through building a relationship with it. And like any relationship, this takes time. We must devote<\/em> ourselves to the relationship\u2014like we would any serious relationship, develop the discernment<\/em> of its presence in our lives, and then foster a discipline<\/em> of regular practice. I call this the 3 D\u2019s<\/em> of spirit contact. And the best way to approach your weird self<\/em> is through slowing down and getting out into nature, rewilding<\/em> yourself. Out in nature we are taken beyond the frame of our carefully curated lives. There we can find the time and space to drop into our subtle, animal body, so that we can hear its wild, intuitive voice.<\/p>\r\n ** And what better time to do this than now? As we head into the in-between days of the year\u2019s end\u2014the liminal time that holds deep magic during the holiday season\u2014let\u2019s all give ourselves a little extra time and space outside to drop down and into our normal paranormal selves.<\/p>\r\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ** *****Why your extraordinary spiritual experiences are important and valid. \u00a0 Have you ever had an extraordinary or numinous experience that you didn\u2019t have a context for\u2014like a precognitive dream, a waking vision, or contact with an extraordinary being like an ancestor or spirit? Perhaps it was something so strange or unusual from your regular way […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5342,"featured_media":77,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6,12,15,18],"class_list":["post-53","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-paranormal","tag-spiritcommunication","tag-spiritspeak","tag-transpersonal"],"yoast_head":"\nNormalizing The Paranormal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Why your extraordinary spiritual experiences are important and valid.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/normalizingtheparanormal\/2023\/12\/normalizing-the-paranormal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Normalizing The Paranormal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Why your extraordinary spiritual experiences are important and valid.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/normalizingtheparanormal\/2023\/12\/normalizing-the-paranormal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Normalizing the Paranormal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-14T20:32:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-21T22:31:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/2063\/2023\/12\/mark-basarab-1OtUkD_8svc-unsplash-e1702584119913.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"780\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"520\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Megan Rose\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dr. Megan Rose\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/normalizingtheparanormal\/2023\/12\/normalizing-the-paranormal\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/normalizingtheparanormal\/2023\/12\/normalizing-the-paranormal\/\",\"name\":\"Normalizing The Paranormal\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/normalizingtheparanormal\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-14T20:32:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-21T22:31:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/normalizingtheparanormal\/#\/schema\/person\/c4f3e63f6d1a035af5ad3adf9dfd868f\"},\"description\":\"Why your extraordinary spiritual experiences are important and valid.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/normalizingtheparanormal\/2023\/12\/normalizing-the-paranormal\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/normalizingtheparanormal\/2023\/12\/normalizing-the-paranormal\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/normalizingtheparanormal\/2023\/12\/normalizing-the-paranormal\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/normalizingtheparanormal\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Normalizing The Paranormal\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/normalizingtheparanormal\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/normalizingtheparanormal\/\",\"name\":\"Normalizing the Paranormal\",\"description\":\"Grounded, insightful and validating musings on the intersection of pagan spirituality and transpersonal psychology.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/normalizingtheparanormal\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/normalizingtheparanormal\/#\/schema\/person\/c4f3e63f6d1a035af5ad3adf9dfd868f\",\"name\":\"Dr. Megan Rose\",\"description\":\"Dr. Megan Rose is a Ceremonial Magician, Faery Seer, Druid, and a Shakta Tantric practitioner. 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