Name: English Tutor Nick P Lesson (285) The Difference Between Supernatural and Paranormal
Uploaded: 2019-04-29T13:51:40.000Z
Duration: 12 min 25 s
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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