paranormal (adj.)

beyond the scope of normal objective investigation or explanation.

The Oxford English Reference Dictionary, © Oxford University Press 1996

'para', Greek, 'beyond'; 'normal', Latin, 'conforming to a standard; regular, usual, typical'. It's an odd word all round, to be sure, half Greek and half Latin in etymology, an adjective on its way to becoming a noun - just as a word it is already crossing boundaries, defying attempts to nail it down.

'Beyond conforming to a standard' - sounds like an awkward teenager - but it contains an implicit question: 'What is normal?' - and the answer - normality is conforming to the 'standard' of reality. Normal is what we say it is - the commonly accepted vision of the universe.

The paranormal is therefore that which is unacceptable, the nonconformist, what doesn't 'fit'.

Take another look at that first definition. Again the word normal crops up, but this time as a definition of the scientific approach - 'normal objective investigation or explanation' - the methods of 'investigation and explanation' that society finds acceptable - perhaps one might even say: comfortable and comforting.

But now we have the word 'scope', too - this implies that the paranormal is what lies beyond what the conventional, scientific approach sees as its domain - it is not interested in it, it is more than its job's worth.

It might further imply, however, that it is literally beyond those tools and methods that the scientific approach employs. That this is beyond understanding, beyond intellect, that investigation and explanation are entirely the wrong approaches to the paranormal - by definition.

This might be made clearer by looking at what we mean by the 'paranormal' - invariably we mean psychic activity and the supernatural - ghosts, poltergeists, telepathy, psycho-kinesis and so on. It is worth noting that all of these are to do with perception - they rely on the individual experiencing them to define them.

But then, isn't normality also purely about perception - about the standard vision of the normal - the central problem of the exploration of both the normal and the paranormal is that we are straying into the realms of belief, of knowledge without understanding (it is possible to know that things fall without understanding gravity), of the unconscious itself, whether individual (You have seen a ghost) or social (It is normal to drive cars).

Faith is notoriously proof to scientific enquiry - the actions of the conscious mind that escape literal biological enquiry also escape the theoretical tools of the scientific method - as Mr Spock could tell us, they are illogical.

So what else is the paranormal, then, than a different world view - perhaps no better or no worse - just different. After all how many people have had their lives changed by an experience of the paranormal - their worlds turned upside down?

And if this is a new world, is not our duty, indeed some would say our the inherent instinct of our species, to explore it and to discover its riches and it may well be that, as with so many other discoveries, in doing so we have to reinvent ourselves.