What is our fascination with the paranormal?
Paranormal. Other than normal. And no, I’m not talking about the weather.
Okay, well, what is normal? What do we perceive on a daily basis? What others tell us or show us? Why is it we seem to accept more and more things as paranormal, that we once, as children, may have accepted as normal? In the first example: Love.
You laugh, but overall, we may as well locate that word in the supernatural. Especially a long-lasting, humane, enriching bond to which we are unswervingly loyal. If you were to pull aside a random person off the street and ask them if they believe in love, they would most likely be skeptical about your mental capacity, but also of the emotion’s existence. Children, on the other hand, believe in love without pause. Why is that? Is it the ever-increasing separation between yourself and others as you grow older? Or simply the ever-increasing realization of the existence of that separation? (say that five times fast)
Is that why we gravitate towards fairy tales, happily-ever-afters, and romance? If you think about it, most of our adult lives, when not spent enslaved to the almighty dollar for eight or more hours a day, is all about rekindling that connection between us and our acquaintances. Sports, hobbies, cotillions, they all bring us together in a common bond, and for that brief moment, we’re connected to someone.
In my mind, that’s paranormal.
In the second example: Religion. Now, hold on, I’m using that word in the loosest of ways, meaning a belief that is unfounded in physical logic. Something you can’t touch, but have to believe in, purely through the greatness of your heart and/or mind. Children will believe anything you say, as long as they trust you. Adults are generally skeptical about anything that’s not proven through science and the O’Reilly Factor (or CNN, depending on their political bent).
What’s really amazing about these two particular paranormalities is that despite this separation and skepticism, Religion and Love still exist, and are alive and living in nearly every family.
Saying that, does it prove these notions to be Normal? If everyone does it, does that make it normal?
So if men started having babies, would that soon become normal? Being beyond the paranormal, now?
If Athena descended upon Oz and kicked the wizard to Landover, Dorothy booted Toto to Terabithia, Ariel decided she liked Paul Bunyon for his brawny muscles and threw Eric to the side so he could take up with Snow White (show of hands, who else has “Ultimate Showdown” by Lemon Demon going through their heads right now?)… if it happened enough would it be normal?
Thank God stories are just stories…
They are just stories, right?
Because living in the paranormal pothole that is Savannah, I don’t always believe that those stories are just stories. There’s always a grain of truth in every tale.
So when I read and hear about those things that are generally accepted as the normal definition of paranormal (ghosts and witches, especially) I get a chill down my spine because I see way too much of it to give much credence to the “para” part.
What about you? What do you see as something paranormal that is generally yawned at nowadays or among a certain group? I might see publication as paranormal, but I guarantee you that is something that will soon change. Or maybe you see something as normal that most people might be afraid to acknowledge as real?
I guess what I’m getting at is this: Paranormal is what you make of it.
