Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is lesson 285. Today the title is the
difference between supernatural and paranormal. Yeah. I've had students in the
past a number of times ask me this what's the difference between these two
and then this one's really difficult. It's really difficult even for native
speakers because I think the average native speaker. It's hard for them to
clearly distinguish because there is a little crossover between the two. So
sometimes they are used interchangeably, but I'm going to try to distinguish as much
as possible some clear differences between the two and when you're more
likely to hear one than the other. Okay. So let's take a look at the note here. We
are more likely to use the term supernatural with things that are
focused on magic, religion, superstition, etc. All usually based on beliefs. So you
have to believe that they really exist. Things that are supernatural are usually
attributed to a power that goes beyond beyond this planet. Beyond nature
especially to God or a type of god. spirits, demons, angels, supernatural
strength etc. Yeah. So again you have to believe that they they all do exist. The
supernatural strength. Well that could also be related back to like comic books
to you know, super heroes having super power. That , that's kind of in the
supernatural range. Supernatural also can be related to old mythologies to like
Roman mythology, Greek mythology, Norse mythology. You know from the northern
Europe they're like you know, if Thor and Odin. If you believed in you know, the
power of Thor's hammer. This would all go under supernatural. Definitely if you
think there's any truth to that. Even though nowadays we call them myths.
So we sometimes think that maybe they were just stories made up at that time,
but if you anyone thinks that there might have been some truth to that. That
would definitely go under supernatural. All right. Let's continue here.
Things that are supernatural are nearly impossible to try to study in a
laboratory, prove their existence, or prove their existence through science,
Yeah. You can't study God. You can't put God in a laboratory and prove his
existence or and the same thing with with demons.
You really can't prove their existence. Now once in a while , we might get
somebody that we believe is possessed by an evil demon and many priests might
really believe that they are possessed by an evil spirit you know, and this evil
spirit. This evil spirit might have been you know connected to the idea of you
know, going back to God, the Fallen Angels like supposedly there was a war in
heaven between God and Lucifer and I think 2/3 of the Angels stayed with God
and 1/3 went with Lucifer and there's fallen angels and maybe some of those
demons are some of the ones that might possess people. But here of course you
know, if you brought a person in that you thought was possessed by an evil spirit
and you brought them into a scientist, Scientists would probably say they're
not. They would probably say that they have a psychological problem. So it's,
it's a matter of whether you really believe an evil spirit was in that
person. So if you believe that. Then that's definitely falls under the
supernatural. All right. Let's continue here. The same thing with angels. You really
can't put angels in a laboratory. Although there have been some images
caught on tape of what appears to be like angels. You know, because now we have
all these videos that go 24 hours a day and there, there is some definitely
strange phenomenon that sometimes appeared like angels. You know, who knows ?
Okay. Let's continue. So now the paranormal claims to be studies of
reported phenomenon that so far are unexplained by science. So , so the
paranormal actually does try to be a science. I remember
in that the old movie 'Ghostbusters' which is really a comedy and supposed to be a
joke. But the point was I remember there that supposably they were teaching at a
university and in the university it was supposed to be a real science that they
were supposedly you know studying like you know the existence of ghosts and
things like that. So the paranormal does try to actually study it. You know,
especially ghosts. Something like ghosts we're going to get into that. That would
be under the paranormal. There's many claims of ghosts, not only
throughout the world but throughout history. And we do see on tapes and even
now they have like these ghost hunters and they have a lot of high-tech
equipment. And they could detect things like you know temperature change, like
usually whether it might be a presence of a ghost or a spirit that might get a
lot colder. You know you've seen images of ghosts sometimes it might be what the
poltergeist. Where you might see things move, like a ghost. Where things just move
on their own but you don't see any image. So the paranormal tries to study that.
There does seem to be some evidence out there. So the paranormal claims to be a
science that's trying to study these things. Okay but at least, at least you do
you can, try to set up some kind of experiments. You know to see the
existence or the presence of this paranormal activity. That's the way they
would call it. All right. Reported. I'll explain . Para in Latin means
beyond, means beyond . So it really means like beyond nature. It
literally means beyond the natural or beyond nature. But not explained yet. So
the paranormal would usually include ghosts. Yeah just like I said there's a
lot of people who have claimed to have some sort of experience with ghosts and
like I said it's everywhere. It's a , there's nowhere in the world where
somebody didn't say that they had ghosts. And throughout history, we can have many
stories of it too. And nowadays there like I say there are some images that
are actually caught on video. Sometimes it's even caught in a photo. So there,
there's something weird going on there. And there is a presence
which can be detected. But it's definitely unexplainable. So that would
be in paranormal. Witches, well again if the you know those that actually study
we don't witchcraft and if they could make something happen
maybe. All right again. This is why sometimes it feels like there's a little
bit of a crossover because technically when people think of ghosts, they often
think of ghosts. Ghosts technically are in the category of spirits, but they're
not really. Most of what we think of ghosts would
probably be humans that were alive on earth and they died and there's the
presence of their spirit on earth still lingers. But if you were talking about
supernatural those might have been spirits that were never alive or never
human beings. Okay or demons or angels. Like angels maybe never had a
human form. So they would be in the supernatural. But ghosts would be people
they were actually alive they died and if you think the presence of their
spirit that lingered that afterwards was still detected on earth. That would go
under the paranormal. Unexplained mysteries. Now unexplained mysteries
definitely would fall and paranormal and not in Supernatural. Things like
telekinesis. We again a lot of these things are very, very rare but there is
some evidence of their existence. There is some people that do have the power
they use the power their mind to actually move objects. Again it's usually
not like in the movies. Where they can have things flying all around the room,
but maybe they can make some objects fall down or roll a little bit. Some of
this has been actually proven. Again very very rare to find. But they did find some
existence of this. And,and even more rare would be pyrokinesis. Wheree somebody
could actually use the power of their mind to start a fire. Okay. So if you
remember the old Stephen King , a book 'Firestarter' that was based on that bat
thinking. Extrasensory perception, ESP all right. hey have definitely studied ESP,
and even people who you think have it are usually not right one
percent of the time. Well we still might think of somebody having some ESP
ability, if they seem to be able to be right
far more than average. You know, far more than what would be considered in the
just luck range. So there are some people that you know, seem to be able to predict
maybe some things. A future or you know say they could see things or contact
with ghosts or things like that. Mediums you know we might actually study these
people. Again there seems to be some evidence but it's still not explainable
by science so this would go in the paranoia the paranormal. Spontaneous
combustion. Again extremely rare. I think there's only an average of maybe one a
year. But that would be if somebody just suddenly just blew up. Well this is one,
that maybe one day, there are some theories about why this happens but as
of yet they know 100% proof that it can be explained. But there been many
documented cases of people that just actually blew up. With no explanation.
Their blew up out of nowhere.. That's spontaneous combustion this would
definitely go under the paranormal. Yes um
okay so let's continue. The paranormal usually covers what can be studied, but
like I said. So that does seem to be some evidence of it. And there is some
evidence of its existence. But as of yet cannot be explained by
science. Perhaps some things in the area of paranormal one day may be explained
by science. It's possible there are things in the past that we might have
thought of as being you know unexplainable that one day we did learn
to explain it. So maybe some things in paranormal could fall in this area. But
again if you again if you're talking about supernatural, you know if you
believe a lot of the stories from the Bible with Moses separating the water
that would definitely be supernatural. I remember recently when what Pope
Benedict was the 16th when he retired on that like same day or something. There
was a lightning strike that hit the top of the Vatican and now you know
if some people might think that there might have been some supernatural power
that had something to do with it. That might have been a warning sign, but some
other scientists might not believe that at all and they might just say that it
was coincidence or chance. Even though the odds of something like a lightning
strike hitting the exact tip of the dome of the Vatican that the odds are almost
impossible. Think your odds of winning the lottery every day for thousands of
years would probably be would probably be better than that happening at that
exact moment. So that would definitely fall under the supernatural . If you believe
that maybe that came from some from God or some you know supernatural power. Or
if you think that there is such a thing as divine intervention. That maybe
God comes down and makes things happen. That would go under the supernatural.
Okay. Anyway I hope you got a better feel of it . I hope it's a, I hope it's clearer
that you might see some differences of when you're more likely to use
supernatural than paranormal. Okay well thank you for your time. I hope it was
informative . Bye-bye.