Many people are interested in metaphysical occurrences, supernatural, and paranormal phenomena. But the process for interpreting spirits and entities in folklore isn’t straightforward. Come and learn to understand metaphysical realm events.
Do you believe in angels, aliens, demons, or ghosts? Do you think creatures like Bigfoot or the Loch Ness monster are real, and we have not yet found absolutely undisputable proof?
A belief is an expectation that something exists. Beliefs are strongly held expectations about reality. So, we need to define terms the terms we use to delve into the subject.
When we believe something, the mind looks for ways to validate our beliefs. It creates a typology for our worldview to identify anything that fits the definition of our expectations. If something doesn’t align with our worldview, we discard it; otherwise, it will cause a dilemma.
How to Understand Metaphysical Realm Events
Para means apart from, alongside, or next to. It is from Latin, to ward off. Normal is something that is accepted and conforms to a standard, so paranormal means something apart from or outside the norm. Super means something extraordinary. So, the supernatural is something above and beyond what is natural.
The term metaphysical refers to concepts that are beyond the physical or material world. It often involves the study of fundamental questions about our existence, reality, and the nature of the universe. Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy that explores topics like these:
1. Being and existence. What does it mean to exist? What is the nature of being?
2. Reality and non-ordinary reality. What is the nature of reality? How do ordinary and non-ordinary reality differ?
3. Time and space. What are time and space? How do they relate to each other?
4. Causality. What causes events to happen? How do cause-and-effect work?
5. Exploring Supernatural and paranormal phenomena. How do we investigate and verify metaphysical occurrences. What do we do with those that defy current scientific validation and understanding? How do we handle subjects like magic, miracles, spirits, and entities in folklore?
6. To understand metaphysical realm events, we must look past the labels and misconceptions. Everyone has a unique way of perceiving these events. So, we must understand the worldview of the observer. Most paranormal investigations only consider the the phenomena. They do not consider how the beliefs of the observer may shape their experience.
7. Western thought links the supernatural with the spirit world. It is where we get the concepts of angels, devils, and demons. They link the paranormal with phenomena like UFOs, aliens, and cryptozoology creatures. It includes various things from popular culture, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, zombies, and vampires.
The Facts About Metaphysical Occurrences
If you believe in aliens and see a strange object in the sky, you will likely think it is a UFO. If you believe in spiritual entities, the same event is an angel. So, interpreting spirits and entities in folklore depends upon your beliefs about the experience.
The truth is that most people have many experiences that do not fit within the norm; they just learn to ignore them. Paranormal and supernatural activity in real life is often unexpected. If it does not fit within our worldview, we have two choices: ignore it or try to resolve the unexplained event.
Are you seeing a shadow person in the corner of your eye? This Spector is a dark figure with glowing eyes that can linger and move around. It is one of the most common unexplained experiences. Most people ignore it because it is scary and unsettling.
The reason they forget it is simple. It doesn’t fit with anything else in their worldview, so they don’t even recall it unless they are asked about it. This kind of experience is unexpected, and it differs from the kind of experience we find in religious services.
Those who attend a charismatic Christian service know what role-playing or acting is expected. When the preacher touches you, you must fall on the floor. This kind of role-play is important. It makes the participant an accepted member of the sect and bolsters the preacher’s credibility.
The Belief in Spirits and Entities, Supernatural and Paranormal
Chapman University (1) does an annual survey on what people in the USA fear. In 2017, a survey showed almost 75% of Americans fear the paranormal. This survey helps us discover the truth about paranormal experiences. What do you think about the data?
It is also surprising that nearly one in five Americans believe in Bigfoot. More than half believe that Atlantis once existed.
A 2019 Gallup poll (2) shows some interesting trends in the belief in God. They asked respondents three questions.
1. Do you believe in God? 87% answered yes. Those who answered yes were asked two follow-up questions below.
2. When asked if they were sure God exists, 75% still answered yes. That means 25% of those who believe in God aren’t sure their beliefs about their imaginary friend are correct, but cling to them, anyway.
3. They were asked which comes closest to describing you:
— I am convinced that God exists.
— There is a high probability that God exists.
— I think God exists, but I have doubts.
— God does not exist; this is just a religious concept
Interestingly, 64% of those in the survey say they have no doubts and are absolutely convinced God exists. Of those who believed in the existence of God, we asked what the reasons for their beliefs were. They could check more than one:
— Family tradition, 90%
— Cultural requirement 50%
— Holy texts 70%
— Because of a personal crisis, 30%
— Making an informed decision after reviewing the facts for or against this concept 0%
Traditions Focused on Interpreting Spirits and Entities
Our blended learning process starts with a readiness-to-learn assessment. This helps both the learner and teacher spot potential roadblocks to learning. This process includes a poll of beliefs. Our research shows there is a wide range of beliefs about the subject of a higher power.
Our poll shows that about 60% of participants believe in a higher power. Most people who have an imaginary friend also believe in angels, aliens, and demons.
Belief in God does not extend to the belief in ghosts or other unknown supernatural and paranormal phenomena. People who believe in God, angels, and devils may not believe in haunted places, UFOs, and cryptozoological creatures.
1. The Religious. This group believes in spirits like gods, angels, demons, and ghosts.
2. Supernatural believers. believe in the existence of aliens, UFOs, and Cryptozoology.
3. Freethinkers use science, facts, and evidence to reach conclusions.
4). Fringe Believers/Thinkers. These people can share some elements of all four groups. As strange as this seems, there are several people in this group. They typically come from highly religious family backgrounds. So, they are fringe believers who maintain their religion to keep family and social ties intact.
Why should we care about what people believe? Simple. Because what people believe shapes our world. A subculture creates a set of beliefs. What’s important is that interpreting spirits and entities in folklore requires some kind of framework. This framework can be based on facts or unfounded superstition.
How Religion Defines Paranormal Phenomena for a Culture
If religion can control the cultural narrative, it can program its values into the culture and dictate what is acceptable and what is not. It can do this directly by making its values law, or it can force it indirectly through social dominance. So, the cultural narrative is a barometer of the health of our society.
People report more paranormal events during times of stress, as we saw with the pandemic. Perhaps there are more unknown phenomena, but the increase in stress is also a factor.
Does a rise in anxiety enable us to see more? Or, are e paranormal experiences a symptom of stress? Is this a way for the mind to cope with the stress of the pandemic?
We must examine how our beliefs affect the mind to discover the truth about paranormal beliefs. We know delusional thinking is not healthy. Many see religion as the major cause of delusional thinking. So, religion is the cause of an acceptable form of mental illness.
Religion is capable of driving people to such dangerous folly that faith seems to me to qualify as a kind of mental illness. — Richard Dawkins
The line between religious superstition and pseudoscience is hazy. Some feel that angels and demons also fall into the category of pseudoscience. Aren’t spirits living things? What about you? Do you believe in both spirit entities or just one? What about the reality of other entities, like fairies or ghosts? How do these differ from beliefs in other things like aliens, the Loch Ness Monster, or Bigfoot?
Supernatural events are often unexpected. We are forced to make an immediate assessment when we encounter these situations. We must decide if or how it fits within our worldview.
There is a sizable group of people who don’t have firm beliefs about metaphysical realm events. So, they often rely on others for interpreting spirits and entities in folklore. Common beliefs about the supernatural and paranormal vary considerably.
The belief in UFOs and aliens is widespread. What does the belief in UFOs have in common with the belief in spirit apparitions? What do angels, aliens, and demons have in common? On the surface, they seem like different things. Could these simply be different ways to describe metaphysical realm events?
How we identify and categorize an experience depends upon our worldview. Our worldview acts like a filter. It tells how to classify things we encounter. These judgments are not reality. They are just labels we use to categorize our perceptions. We automatically filter the experience to fit our worldview. When things don’t fit, we have a dilemma. Most people learn to ignore those things which don’t fit. That way, there isn’t a problem. When the event is too large to ignore, it causes us to engage in our fight, flight or freeze reaction. This is the response to fear. We fear what doesn’t fit within our worldview.
Everyone has a unique worldview. It reflects our interpretation of a particular subculture. Even people within the same subculture have slightly different beliefs. The person sitting next to you in Church does not have the same beliefs. You likely agree on the main points, which creates a bond with that community. It is why religious leaders repeat the fundamental points of the religion in different ways. It reinforces the main points of the belief system. The more extreme the beliefs, the more reinforcement is needed.
Science Versus Spirits and Entities in Folklore
Folklore or science? These are the two primary sources that can control cultural narrative. Whichever can dominate the cultural narrative can also dictate the values of the culture.
1) Science is a systematic approach to finding facts. Science uses logic and rational thinking processes to find answers and solve problems.
2) Folklore is a body of stories based on myth and superstition. It is where the beliefs about angels, aliens, and demons come from. Folklore contains stories that explain these paranormal and supernatural beings. Beliefs in folklore can have more authority in a subculture than facts based on scientific evidence.
Paranormal activity runs on a spectrum. It goes from superstition on one side to verifiable evidence on the other. Most encounters with the unknown cannot be verified. Some legends are proven to be true. Can you see how the beliefs of spirits and entities in folklore affect your worldview?
In the 1930s, sightings of a prehistoric fish called Coelacanth were reported. These reports were discounted as pseudoscience. The fossil record places these fish in the Late Cretaceous period, 60 million years ago. Everything changed in 1938 when one of these living fossils was caught. This event turned legend into fact. Many people are waiting for this discovery of Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. Until we have verifiable evidence, their existence remains folklore.
Facts can become part of folklore. It happens when the cultural narrative mixes superstitions with facts. The factual element adds validity to the substance of the superstition. Some cultures used their knowledge of the sun’s eclipse to validate their mythology. An eclipse is a factual celestial event that can be tracked and predicted. Ancient calendars accurately predicted when these events would occur. So, they combined their knowledge of these events with folklore. It gave them the power to use these events to manipulate.
If you believe in angels or spirits, you will see them if you encounter supernatural and paranormal phenomena. The same with any other metaphysical occurrences. If you believe in UFOs, the same light becomes an alien spacecraft. Both interpretations of the same event are accurate in the eyes of the beholder. The problem is, neither could be correct. These two elements become traditions that shape our cultural narrative. There is tension between these two opposing sources. The values of these superstitions are often illogical and promote bias and prejudice. For instance, believing that a black cat crossing your path brings bad luck is a superstition. In turn, this superstition becomes the justification for killing black cats.
A freethinker understands their cultural narrative but is not controlled by it. They care about the difference between folklore and facts. This distinction helps them see beyond the bias and prejudice of folklore and superstition. Understanding the source of our beliefs allows us to examine them and decide whether they make sense. Let’s look at an example.
Paranormal Beliefs in Angels, Aliens, and Demons
Belief in spirits is one of the key aspects of Western religion. We can trace these beliefs directly to the ancient mystery religions of the Mediterranean (circa 1 BCE). These religions come from Persia, Egypt, Babylon, and Assyria. Here, you find all the doctrines that are the backbone of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
The truth about their doctrines came to light thanks to the discovery of The Rosetta stones in Egypt in 1799. The engravings enabled us to read ancient Akkadian and Sumerian cuneiform languages. By the 1850s, the mythology of the Abrahamic faiths came to light, and this revelation could not be discounted. So they explained it away:
The Church has borrowed without hesitation from the common stock of significant actions known to all periods and to all nations. In such matters as these, Christianity claims no monopoly or originality. (3)
Angel, from the root meaning, one sent: messenger. The Hebrew word used to denote indifferently either divine or human messenger. But the Septuagint renders it with both significations. The Latin version, however, distinguishes the divine spirit from the human. Angels in the Bible generally appear in the role of God’s messengers to mankind. Whereas, the Semitic belief in genii and in spirits that cause good or evil is well known. They have both good and bad Angels.. (3)
The above quote shows the concept of Angels pre-dates Christianity. It is a roundabout way of admitting the folklore of angels existed in the cultural narrative. They simply adopted them (Genii and Spirits). It also shows how they (try to) explain the apparent conflict between the two God systems in the mystery religions. The argument is that the lesser God is assumed to be inferior and does the superior’s bidding. The angels and demons are agents of the superior God and carry out both good and evil.
Interestingly, the Church talks about the Septuagint as a document that needs translating when they created it as a version of the Tanak. The Church presents the Septuagint as their version of the Tanakh. The Septuagint is not a translation. It is a collection of works based on the Tanakh, with many additions and changes. The Septuagint contains entire chapters that are not in the Hebrew source text. It also omits complete sections. It mistranslates areas that tie and provide textual authority to the New Testament.
The Danger of Folklore
What people believe matters. Folklore becomes dangerous when it takes the place of facts and logic. It becomes even more dangerous when folklore is used as a basis for public policy and laws. When mythology is given preference over facts and reason, people suffer. They must maintain this paradox to justify prejudice, bias, and discrimination.
Magical thinking is the tool that gives folklore the power to overcome logic and facts. This downward spiral begins with the belief in an imaginary friend. The concept of God seems innocent enough. What does it matter if you give credence to the existence of Odin or Jesus? The problem is magical thinking is a slippery slope. It makes people susceptible to extremist ideologies.
Supernatural activity forces us to make decisions about perception and reality. The experience can inspire greater freethinking or promote more tunnel vision into mythology. The direction you take depends on what dominates your worldview.
When fairy tales are written in the west, they’re known as folklore. In the east, fairy tales are called religions. — Paul Henderson
When knowledge is scant or conflicting, folklore takes over. — Paul Smith
The amount of exposure you have will affect your susceptibility to the programming. The more you expose yourself to the source of the propaganda, the greater its influence will be. You can determine your level of indoctrination by identifying which group you identify with the most.
Different Categories of Western Religion Devotees
1. Those on the fringe of the belief system have less contact with harmful programming. Fringe believers attend fewer meetings than other levels. So, they retain a higher level of personal autonomy and are the most likely to leave the cult. Strangely enough, they have the hardest time categorizing metaphysical occurrences. Why? Because they have few preconceived ideas about reality.
They retain their membership in the religion because of family ties or cultural necessity. They see the inconsistencies. However, because of peer pressure, they still support harmful social initiatives. If given the right tools, they can become freethinkers and leave the cult.
There are ways to help people think for themselves. If you have a relationship with a fringe believer, you can help them with a process we call the unconventional approach to saving a believer. It will take a significant investment in time. Another process, Comparative Analysis, can help you see how your beliefs are not original. It’s a structured form of comparative religious study.
2. Moderate believers are the backbone of the religion. They attend meetings weekly, sometimes daily. It exposes them to heavy doses of propaganda. Even if they know the facts contradict their beliefs, they have learned to ignore them.
They have few personal or business connections outside of the religion. Their contacts cement them into the belief system. They have a high level of exposure to mind control tactics. This makes them more susceptible to extreme beliefs. Religious media occupy much of their time, reinforcing harmful programming.
Because of their enthusiasm, they can be powerful advocates for the truth if you can get them to see the facts. This takes an investment of time, but it is possible. We use a process called an unconventional approach to save the believer.
3. Hardline Devotees Attend more than one meeting weekly and take advanced courses in the sect. They identify strongly with the belief system and are fused with the religious sect.
4. Extremists often become leaders if they are charismatic. These people lead or inspire others to commit violence in the name of their God.
It is common for extremists to promote conspiracies and lies daily. They study and listen to radio and TV programs, reinforcing their beliefs. The cult becomes their identity. People like Jim Jones, Jim, and Tammy Baker exemplify religious extremists.
The need to believe is more powerful than any argument. The need to believe rejects any facts that threatens their worldview. This is all a part of their religious indoctrination.
Religious people claim that it’s just the fundamentalists of each religion that cause problems. But there’s got to be something wrong with the religion itself if those who strictly adhere to its most fundamental principles are violent bigots and sexists. — David G. Mcafee
In Conclusion
Interpreting spirits and entities in folklore supernatural and paranormal phenomena is a process. It forces you to analyze your worldview. Culture’s beliefs are ever-changing. Sometimes, our beliefs are changed based on scientific evidence. In many cases, other things influence these beliefs, such as conspiracy theories and superstition.
You need to question the dominant cultural narrative. If you study it, you will find it contains many harmful ideas. It is the source of many things that are enemies of progress. It justifies gender preference and systemic racial stereotyping and discrimination. This narrative also taints our ability to assess the facts about metaphysical occurrences. You may be surrounded by supernatural messages from the universe, but you do not see them because they fall outside of your worldview. What are you missing?
References
(1) The Chapman University Survey of American Fears Wave 4 (2017)
(2) How Many Americans Believe in God?
(3) The Catholic Encyclopedia and International Work, 14 Volume Set (1907)