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  • 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.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is lesson 285. Today the title is the

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