What does Paranormal mean?

The word paranormal means above or beyond nature. It has become a general term for anything that we cannot explain rationally or logically. Things like the supernatural. Many subjects fall under this category. Some of the more familiar ones are disembodied entities, such as ghosts, dark spirits, hauntings, angels, apparitions, or poltergeists; unusual abilities, like telepathy, telekinesis, psychic energy, prophesies, or ESP; unnatural powers. For instance, magick spells, healing prayers, magick, sorcery, witchcraft, or voodoo.

As with most controversial subjects, the paranormal has its believers and its skeptics. The most popular argument by supporters for believing in the paranormal is that the scientific techniques are somehow lacking when faced with questions concerning subjects like the existence of an afterlife or the ability to employ extrasensory perception. Believers feel that their way of discerning what we currently call the paranormal is sometimes a gift or a curse that works in spite of how they feel about the situation.

Many clairvoyants claim that they were born with the special ability of Sight. Like the magical heroine of WITCHY WICKEDNESS, Shiloh Trudell. Which means they can see and communicate with the dead…and other supernatural entities.

Other believers in the paranormal consider themselves lacking any special innate ability and simply employ whatever scientific tools are available for investigating the paranormal.

Which brings us to the world of professional ghost hunters. Like Evans in my novel, who befriends Shiloh and teaches HER about the supernatural. And paranormals that can stalk and haunt us. (Evans is like a Whitelighter or a Watcher, like Buffy, the Vampire Slayer had. A sort of mentor for Shiloh.)

Curiously enough, the argument usually turns out to be a semantic one. Because if any subject related to the paranormal were proven to actually exist, the skeptics would then claim victory on the grounds that the subject was never paranormal at all; it was natural.

Of course, the believers would claim victory on the grounds that their perceptions were correct all along. History is full of instances where modern day science failed and scientists had to wait for technological advances before the truth could be known: cases in point are the earth revolving around the sun, the spheroid shape of the earth, the existence of microscopic organisms, or even the existence of dinosaurs.

Unfortunately, until science makes some serious advancements, then we won't be able to know definitively which, if any, paranormal phenomena are real.

So are you a believer or a skeptic?

Which supernatural creature would you like to see more of in books, movies, or TV shows?