Mar 10 2009
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Normal or Not?
British cryptozoologist and good mate Jon Downes has a thought-provoking new post at his blog on the subject of “the paranormal” as it relates to unknown beasts. But, of course, his words could equally be applied to certain stranger aspects of the UFO field, too.
In his introduction, Jon says:
“I just want to set the record straight about something. Over the past few weeks I been receiving letters from friends, and strangers alike. They all asked me the same thing. How come, when you have made your life’s work the investigation of strange things, are you so resolutely against ‘the paranormal’. Well the answer is, that I’m not. After all my most famous book, The Owlman and Others is unquestionably set within the twilight realms. It is not the investigation of things unknown that irritates me, but the misuse, and indeed abuse of the term ‘the paranormal.’”
And here’s the rest of Jon’s post.
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March 10th, 2009 at 8:30 pm
Hi all!”..
well now, where do I start on this one?.Jon and I have been great mates for a long time now, and we see eye-to-eye on the majority of thigns. However, there is a feild of enquiry where Jon and I seem to disagree a lot….the paranormal! (and my habit of typing too many exclamation marks in my articles!!!!!!!HeHe!)
from my point of veiw there is a famious saying, the author of whom I should know, but it escapes me for the moment. It goes something like ” there is no such thing as the paranormal..just the normal we yet have to understand” This seems to sum it all up very nicely. Had I lived say,200 years ago, and had produced a disposable lighter from my pocket, and lit a bonfire or simular, I would have been prononced a witch, and most likey burnt at the stake!. The more we discover about the so-called “paranormal” the more real science we discover.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:06 am
‘Paranormal’ is a charged term.
Literally it means “beyond normal”. Ok, but what parameter of “normal” should we establish as a point of reference? To me—and a vast majority of the world— flying on an airplane would fit in the category of a paranormal event —i.e. something that’s outside my normal everyday life; as you can plainly tell, I’m really the quintessencial sedentary man
And yes, I’m aware that when people use the term, what they mean is that something is ‘outside of Nature’, but then again we fall into another trap: What model framework of Nature are we using to establish that, and are we so sure that such a framework won’t become obsolete or dated in the foreseeable future?
So yes, we should try to find another more adequate term to discuss some of the more fringe phenomena. Fortean is good, but since it’s not used by the mainstream culture, we might as well find or coin another.
BTW, John’s anecdote of her nun cousin reminded me of something I read in Strieber’s Communion; when discussing the Visitors with a priest friend of his, the priest response was something like “it doesn’t matter what they are or where they come from; they will only increase the majesty of God’s creation”. Maybe that’s a cop out too, but nevertheless I liked that answer very much.
March 11th, 2009 at 5:09 am
He seems like a cool dude- what I would consider the stereotypical English eccentric. But if I understand him right I disagree with him. For example, if there really are credible Bigfoot reports (and I happen to think there are) I don’t see anyway it can’t be anything other than something extremely weird, ie, paranormal, interdimensional, whatever. He talks about “rational investigation”- well common sense will quickly tell you that there cannot be a flesh and blood population of large two legged creatures wandering the East Coast- I don’t care how rural you think the area is. I guarantee you with all the hunters out there we would have a body by now. In a way he gives himself a huge out to any number of weird things by mentioning physics that we don’t yet fully understand.
March 11th, 2009 at 7:33 am
Guys:
Cheers for the replies and comments! I figured Jon’s post would stimulate some good responses, and it did.
March 11th, 2009 at 9:05 am
Yeah I’ve enjoyed Downes’ books. I just watched Cry of the Snow Lion, an amazing doc on Tibet. The snow lion. Hmm. The jist is that Buddhism teaches ignorance is not the ultimate reality and so evil is not in dualistic equality with good. I think maybe Downes has figured this out — that there’s a trend of using fear for its own titillating sake in the “paranormal” scene. Downes doesn’t stoop to that level (no pun intended).
March 13th, 2009 at 2:21 am
Hi all!…
I have really enjoyed all the comments posted here. Sorry if it sounded as if I don’t belive in any form of the paranormal, by stating that the paranormal is only the normal that we yet have to understand. Upon refection I can see that saying that as a final statment it does indeed that rule out any type of paranormal activty. It is a glaring gap in my logic, and one that I should have spotted years ago!. As for beliving in paranormal ativity as a real event, I have certanly encountered experences that I cannot explain with science, so in that sence I do belive. Indeed, my own home is haunted, having movement of objects,furniture etc. We still have so much to learn on this subject, and I remain trully fascinated by the whole subject matter.