“Everything you can imagine is real.

”
- Pablo Picasso
Submitted to:

Dr. Shafqat Bukhari

Submitted by:

Murtaza Asgher Ali SP08-

BB-0083
Wasif Khursheed SP08-BB-
0135
Yousuf Hatim SP08-BB-0137

2
 Acknowledgement

We hereby thank ALLAH who gave us the ability and

strength in completing this project. We also thank our
teacher Dr.Shafqat Bukhari whose kind words and
guidance helped us through out this report, the work
that have been put in this report would not have been
possible without her guidance and support. This has
been a thorough group effort and each group member
is thanked for putting his effort in this project.

3
Table of Contents

Paranormal and Supernatural.....................................................................5

Paranormal.......................................................................................................................5
Etymology....................................................................................................................5
Paranormal subjects.....................................................................................................6
Supernatural.....................................................................................................................6
Contrasting views.........................................................................................................6
Paranormal Research – Anecdotal Approach .................................................................8
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal 9
Name change - Committee for Skeptical Inquiry............................................................9
The formation of CSI.......................................................................................................9
Activities........................................................................................................................10
Media response..............................................................................................................10
Paranormal Subjects...................................................................................11
Ghosts and Hauntings....................................................................................................11
Spirits.............................................................................................................................11
Psychokinesis & Teleportation......................................................................................12
Measurement and observation...................................................................................13
Spontaneous effects...................................................................................................13
Stigmat...........................................................................................................................13
Description.................................................................................................................14
Specific case...............................................................................................................14
Crop Circles...................................................................................................................15
Extraterrestrial life & UFOs...........................................................................................15
Vampires and Werewolves............................................................................................17
Reincarnation & Past Lives...........................................................................................18
Chiromancy & Palm-Reading........................................................................................18
Science and criticism.................................................................................................19
Pyramid Power...............................................................................................................19
Origin of term............................................................................................................19
Time Slip .......................................................................................................................20
Cases..........................................................................................................................20
Paranormal – The Religious Viewpoint....................................................20
Belief in the Paranormal................................................................................................21
Paranormal and ’Perinormal’...................................................................22
'Pregnant man' gives birth to girl..............................................................22
Conclusion – Facts and Figures ................................................................25

4
Paranormal and Supernatural

Paranormal
Paranormal is a general term (coined ca.
1915–1920) that designates experiences
that lie outside "the range of normal
experience or scientific explanation" or that
indicates phenomena that are understood to
be outside of science's current ability to
explain or measure. Paranormal phenomena
are distinct from certain hypothetical
entities, such as dark matter and dark
energy, insofar as paranormal phenomena
are inconsistent with the world as already
understood through empirical observation
coupled with scientific methodology.

Thousands of stories relating to paranormal phenomena are found in popular

culture, folklore, and the recollections of individual subjects. In contrast, the
scientific community, as referenced in statements made by organizations
such as the United States National Science Foundation, maintains that
scientific evidence does not support a variety of beliefs that have been
characterized as paranormal.

Etymology

“Paranormal” has been in the English language since at least 1920. It

consists of two parts: para and normal. In most definitions of the word
paranormal, it is described as anything that is beyond or contrary to what is
deemed scientifically possible. The definition implies that the scientific
explanation of the world around us is the 'normal' part of the word and 'para'
makes up the above, beyond, beside, contrary, or against part of the
meaning.

Para has a Greek and Latin origin. Its most common meaning (the Greek
usage) is 'similar to' or 'near to', as in paragraph. In Latin, para means
'above,' 'against,' 'counter,' 'outside,' or 'beyond'. For example, parapluie in
French means 'counter-rain' – an umbrella. It can be construed, then, that the
term paranormal is derived from the Latin use of the prefix 'para', meaning
'against, counter, outside or beyond the norm.'

5
Paranormal subjects

Notable paranormal beliefs include those that pertain to ghosts,

extraterrestrial life and unidentified flying objects etc

Supernatural
The supernatural or supranatural (Latin: super, supra "above" + natura
"nature") is anything above or beyond what one holds to be natural and
exists outside natural law and the observable universe. Science limits its
explanations for phenomena to natural explanations, a process known as
methodological naturalism, and cannot consider supernatural explanations,
as they cannot be investigated empirically. Those who hold mystical or
theistic beliefs may have no conception of supernatural phenomena, but
might perceive the scientist's natural laws, on their own, as being subnatural.
[citation needed] To explain something using natural causes and excluding
supernatural causes is to naturalize it. To explain something as resulting from
supernatural causes is to supernaturalize it.

Supernatural themes are often associated with paranormal and occult ideas,
suggesting the possibility of interaction with the supernatural by means of
summoning or trance. In secular societies, religious miracles are typically
perceived as supernatural claims, as are spells and curses, divination, and
the afterlife. Characteristics for phenomena claimed as supernatural are
anomaly, uniqueness, and uncontrollability. Thus, the conditions in which
such phenomena are thought to manifest may not be reproducible for
scientific examination.

Contrasting views

Adherents to supernatural beliefs hold that such occurrences exist just as

surely as does the natural world. Opponents argue that there are natural,
scientific explanations for what they often perceive as the supernatural.

One complicating factor is that there is no universal agreement about what

the definition of “natural” is, and what the limits of naturalism might be.
Concepts in the supernatural domain are closely related to concepts in
religious spirituality and occultism or spiritualism. Additionally, by definition
anything that exists naturally is not supernatural.
The term "supernatural" is often used interchangeably with paranormal or
preternatural — the latter typically limited to an adjective for describing
abilities which appear to exceed the bounds of possibility (see the nature of
God in Western theology, anthropology of religion, and Biblical

6
cosmology).Likewise, legendary characters such as vampires and
leprechauns are not considered supernatural.

Many supporters of supernatural explanations believe that past, present, and

future complexities and mysteries of the universe cannot be explained solely
by naturalistic means and argue that it is reasonable to assume that a non-
natural entity or entities resolve the unexplained. Those who consider only
natural explanations to be acceptable in science would support such as
explanations as The Big Bang, abiogenesis, and evolution for the origin of the
universe and the origin and development of life. By its own definition, science
is incapable of examining or testing for the existence of things that have no
physical effects, because its methods rely on the observation of physical
effects. Proponents of supernaturalism say that their belief system is more
flexible, which allows more diversity in terms of intuition and epistemology.
Some opponents argue that many supernatural claims involve physical
phenomena that can be tested, but believe that scientific tests to date have
failed to uphold the validity of those claims.
Views on the "supernatural" include that it is:

Indistinct from nature: From this perspective, some events occur according to
physical laws, and others occur according to a separate set of principles
external to known physics. For example, those who believe in angels and
spirits generally think that they are naturally present in the cosmos. Some
religious people also believe that all things that humans see as natural act in
a systematic fashion only because God wills it so, and that natural laws are
an extension of divine will.

Incorrectly attributed to nature: Others believe that all events have natural
and only natural causes. They believe that human beings ascribe
supernatural attributes to purely natural events, such as lightning, rainbows,
floods, and the origin of life. Opponents of the idea of the supernatural say
that humanity's knowledge of the world is continuously increasing. Some
occurrences, once assumed supernatural, can today be explained by
scientific theories. Studies suggest supernatural phenomena are not
detectable in scientifically controlled conditions. There have been, for
example, various studies on astrology, most of them with negative results.

Part of a larger nature: This is a view largely held by monists and process
theorists. According to this view, the "supernatural" is just a term for parts of
nature that modern science and philosophy do not yet properly understand,
similar to how sound and lightning used to be mysterious forces to science.
Materialist monists believe that the "supernatural" consists of things in the
physical universe not yet understood by modern science, while idealist
monists reject the concept of "supernatural" on the grounds that they believe
"nature" is the non-material. Neutral monists maintain that "nature" and
"supernature" are artificial categories as they believe that the material and
non-material are both either equally real and simultaneously existent, or
illusions that stem from the human mind's interpretation of reality.

7
Paranormal Research – Anecdotal Approach

To the paranormal involves the collection of

anecdotal evidence consisting of informal accounts.
Anecdotal evidence, lacking the rigor of empirical
evidence, is not amenable to scientific
investigation. The anecdotal approach is not a
scientific approach to the paranormal because it
leaves verification dependent on the credibility of
the party presenting the evidence. It is also subject
to such logical fallacies as cognitive bias, inductive
reasoning, lack of falsifiability, and other fallacies
that may prevent the anecdote from having
meaningful information to impart. Nevertheless, it
is a common approach to paranormal phenomena.

Charles Fort (1874 – 1932) is perhaps the best known collector of paranormal
anecdotes. Fort is said to have compiled as many as 40,000 notes on
unexplained phenomena, though there were no doubt many more than these.
These notes came from what he called “the orthodox conventionality of
Science”, which were odd events originally reported in magazines, respected
newspapers such as The Times and respected mainstream scientific journals
such as Scientific American, Nature and Science. From these researches Fort
wrote seven books, though only four survive. These are: The Book of the
Damned (1919), New Lands (1923), Lo! (1931) and Wild Talents (1932); one
book was written between New Lands and Lo! But it was abandoned and
absorbed into Lo!

Reported events that he collected include teleportation (a term Fort is

generally credited with coining); poltergeist events, falls of frogs, fishes,
inorganic materials of an amazing range; crop circles; unaccountable noises
and explosions; spontaneous fires; levitation; ball lightning (a term explicitly
used by Fort); unidentified flying objects; mysterious appearances and
disappearances; giant wheels of light in the oceans; and animals found
outside their normal ranges (see phantom cat). He offered many reports of
OOP Arts, abbreviation for “out of place” artifacts: strange items found in
unlikely locations. He also is perhaps the first person to explain strange
human appearances and disappearances by the hypothesis of alien
abduction, and was an early proponent of the extraterrestrial hypothesis. Fort
is considered by many as the father of modern paranormalism, which is the
study of paranormal phenomena.

The magazine Fortean Times continues Charles Forte’s approach, regularly

reporting anecdotal accounts of anomalous phenomena.

8
Committee for the Scientific
Investigation of Claims of the
Paranormal

The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly

known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation
of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a U.S. non-
profit organization whose stated purpose is to
"encourage the critical investigation of paranormal and
fringe-science claims from a responsible, scientific point
of view and disseminate factual information about the
results of such inquiries to the scientific community and
the public." CSI was founded in 1976 by Paul Kurtz to counter what he
regarded as an uncritical acceptance of, and support for, paranormal claims
by both the media and society in general. Its philosophical position is one of
scientific skepticism. CSI's fellows have included many notable scientists,
Nobel laureates, philosophers, educators, authors, and celebrities.

Name change - Committee for Skeptical Inquiry

When the organization was formed in 1976, the

original name proposed was "Committee for the
Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
and Other Phenomena" which was shortened to "Committee for the Scientific
Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal." The initial acronym, "CSICP" was
difficult to pronounce and so was changed to "CSICOP." According to James
Alcock, it was never intended to be "Psi Cop", a nickname that has been
taken up and used frequently by the group's detractors.

On November 30, 2006, the organization further shortened its name to

"Committee for Skeptical Inquiry" ("CSI", pronounced C-S-I.) The reasons for
the change were to create a name that is shorter and more "media-friendly",
to remove "paranormal" from the name, and to reflect more accurately the
actual scope of the organization with its broader focus on critical thinking,
science, and rationality in general.

The formation of CSI

In the early 1970s, there was a significant upsurge of interest in the

paranormal in the United States. This generated concern in some quarters,
where it was seen as part of a growing tide of irrationalism. It was against

9
this backdrop that CSICOP, as it was to become known, was officially
launched by philosophy professor Paul Kurtz at a specially convened
conference of the American Humanist Association (AHA) at the Amherst
campus of the State University of New York at Buffalo on April 30 and May 1,
1976. In 1975 Kurtz had previously initiated a statement, "Objections to
Astrology," which was endorsed by 186 scientists and published in the AHA's
newsletter The Humanist, of which Kurtz was then editor. In addition,
according to Kurtz, the statement was sent to every newspaper in the United
States and Canada. The positive reaction to this statement encouraged Kurtz
to invite "as many sceptical researchers as [he] could locate" to the 1976
conference with the aim of establishing a new organisation dedicated to
critically examining a wide range of paranormal claims.Amongst those invited
were Martin Gardner, Ray Hyman, James Randi, and Marcello Truzzi, all
members of the Resources for the Scientific Evaluation of the Paranormal
(RSEP), a fledgling group with objectives similar to those CSI would
subsequently adopt. Kurtz was successful in his aims; RSEP disbanded and its
members, along with others such as Carl Sagan, Isaac Asimov, and Philip J.
Klass joined Kurtz to form CSICOP.

Activities

According to CSI's charter, in order to carry out its major objectives the
Committee:
maintains a network of people interested in critically examining paranormal,
fringe science, and other claims, and in contributing to consumer education;
prepares bibliographies of published materials that carefully examine such
claims;
encourages research by objective and impartial inquiry in areas where it is
needed;
convenes conferences and meetings;
publishes articles that examine claims of the paranormal;
does not reject claims on a priori grounds, antecedent to inquiry, but
examines them objectively and carefully.

CSI conducts and publishes investigations into Bigfoot and UFO sightings,
psychics, astrologers, alternative medicine, religious cults, and paranormal or
pseudoscientific claims.

Media response

Many of CSI's activities are oriented towards the media. As CSI's former
executive director Lee Nisbet wrote in the 25th-anniversary issue of the
group's journal, Skeptical Inquirer:

10
CSICOP originated in the spring of 1976 to fight mass-media exploitation of
supposedly "occult" and "paranormal" phenomena. The strategy was twofold:
First, to strengthen the hand of skeptics in the media by providing
information that "debunked" paranormal wonders. Second, to serve as a
"media-watchdog" group which would direct public and media attention to
egregious media exploitation of the supposed paranormal wonders.

An underlying principle of action was to use the mainline media's thirst for
public-attracting controversies to keep our activities in the media, hence
public eye.[9]
This involvement with mass media continues to the present day with, for
example, CSI founding the Council for Media Integrity in 1996, as well as co-
producing a TV documentary series Critical Eye hosted by William B. Davis
(the actor who played the Smoking Man in The X-Files)

Paranormal Subjects

Ghosts and Hauntings

According to traditional belief, a ghost is the soul or spirit of a deceased

person or animal, taken to be capable of appearing in visible form or
otherwise manifesting itself to the living. Descriptions of the apparition of
ghosts vary widely: The mode of manifestation can range from an invisible
presence to translucent or wispy shapes, to realistic, life-like visions. The
deliberate attempt to contact the spirit of a deceased person is known as
necromancy, or in spiritism as a séance.

The belief in manifestations of the spirits of the dead is widespread, dating

back to animism or ancestor worship in pre-literate cultures. Certain religious
practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and
ritual magic—are specifically designed to appease the spirits of the dead.
Ghosts are generally described as solitary essences which haunt particular
locations, objects, or people with which they were associated in life, though
stories of phantom armies, ghost trains, phantom ships, and even ghost
animals have also been recounted.

Spirits
The English word spirit (from Latin spiritus "breath") has many differing
meanings and connotations, all of them relating to a non-corporeal substance
contrasted with the material body. The spirit of a human being is thus the

11
animating, sensitive or vital principle in that individual, similar to the soul
taken to be the seat of the mental, intellectual and emotional powers. The
notions of a person's "spirit" and "soul" often also overlap, as both contrast
with body and both are imagined as surviving the bodily death in religion and
occultism, and "spirit" can also have the sense of "ghost", i.e. manifestations
of the spirit of a deceased person.

The term may also refer to any being imagined as incorporeal or immaterial,
such as demons or deities, in Christianity specifically the Holy Spirit
experienced by the disciples at Pentecost.

Psychokinesis & Teleportation

The term
psychokinesis
(from the Greek
ψυχή, "psyche",
meaning mind,
soul, heart, or
breath; and
κίνησις, "kinesis",
meaning motion,
movement; literally "mind-movement"), also
referred to as telekinesis (Greek τῆλε + κίνησις,
literally "distant-movement") with respect to
strictly describing movement of matter,
sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is
a term coined by publisher Henry Holt to refer to
the direct influence of mind on a physical system
that cannot be entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known physical
energy. Examples of psychokinesis could include distorting or moving an
object, and influencing the output of a random number generator.

The study of phenomena said to be psychokinetic is part of parapsychology.

Some psychokinesis researchers claim psychokinesis exists and deserves
further study, although the focus of research has shifted away from large-
scale phenomena to attempts to influence dice and then to random number
generators.

Most scientists believe that the existence of psychokinesis has not been
convincingly demonstrated. A meta-analysis of 380 studies in 2006 found a
"very small" effect which could be explained by publication bias. PK
experiments have historically been criticised for lack of proper controls and
repeatability.However, some experiments have created illusions of PK where

12
none exists, and these illusions depend to an extent on the subject's prior
belief in PK.

Measurement and observation

A spontaneous PK case featured on the cover of the French magazine La Vie

Mysterieuse in 1911.

Parapsychology researchers describe two basic types of measurable and

observable psychokinetic and telekinetic effects in experimental laboratory
research and in case reports occurring outside of the laboratory. Micro-PK
(also micro-TK) is a very small effect, such as the manipulation of molecules,
atoms, subatomic particles, etc., that can only be observed with scientific
equipment. The words are abbreviations for micro-psychokinesis,
micropsychokinesis and micro-telekinesis, microtelekinesis. Macro-PK (also
macro-TK) is a large-scale effect that can be seen with the unaided eye. The
adjective phrases "microscopic-scale," "macroscopic- scale," "small-scale,"
and "large-scale" may also be used; for example, "a small-scale PK effect."

Spontaneous effects
Spontaneous movements of objects and other unexplained effects have been
reported, and many parapsychologists believe these are possibly forms of
psychokinesis/telekinesis. Parapsychologist William G. Roll coined the term
"recurrent spontaneous psychokinesis" (RSPK) in 1958. The sudden
movement of objects without deliberate intention in the presence or vicinity
of one or more witnesses is thought by some to be related to as-yet-unknown
PK/TK processes of the subconscious mind Researchers use the term "PK
agent," especially in spontaneous cases, to describe someone who is
suspected of being the source of the PK action. Outbreaks of spontaneous
movements or other effects, such as in a private home, and especially those
involving violent or physiological effects, such as objects hitting people or
scratches or other marks on the body, are sometimes investigated as
poltergeist cases.

Stigmat
Stigmata are bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain
in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of
Jesus, such as the hands & feet. The term originates
from the line at the end of Saint Paul's Letter to the
Galatians where he says, "I bear on my body the
marks of Jesus." Stigmata is the plural of the Greek
word stigma, meaning a mark or brand such as might

13
have been used for identification of an animal or slave. An individual bearing
stigmata is referred to as a stigmatic.

The causes of stigmata may vary from case to case. Stigmata are primarily
associated with the Roman Catholic faith. Many reported stigmatics are
members of Catholic religious orders.

Description

A depiction of St. Francis receiving the Stigmata attributed to Giotto di

Bondone.
Reported cases of stigmata take various forms. Many show some or all of the
five Holy Wounds that were, according to the Bible, inflicted on Jesus during
his crucifixion: wounds in the hands and feet, from nails, and in the side, from
a lance. Some stigmatics display wounds to the forehead similar to those
caused by the Crown of Thorns. Other reported forms include tears of blood
or sweating blood, and wounds to the back as from scourging.

Some stigmatics claim to feel the pain of wounds with no external marks;
these are
referred to as invisible stigmata. In other claims, stigmata are accompanied
by extreme pain. Some stigmatics' wounds do not appear to clot, and stay
fresh and uninfected. The blood from the wounds is said, in some cases, to
have a pleasant, perfumed odor, known as the Odour of Sanctity.

Individuals who have obtained the stigmata are many times described as
ecstatics. At the time of receiving the stigmata they are overwhelmed with
emotions.
No case of stigmata is known to have occurred before the thirteenth century,
when the depiction of the crucified Jesus in Western Christendom emphasized
his humanity.
In his paper Hospitality and Pain, Christian theologian Ivan Illich states:
"Compassion with Christ... is faith so strong and so deeply incarnate that it
leads to the individual embodiment of the contemplated pain." His thesis is
that stigmata result from exceptional poignancy of religious faith and desire
to associate oneself with the suffering Messiah.

Specific case

St. Francis of Assisi

St. Francis of Assisi is the first recorded stigmatic in Christian history. In 1224,
two years before his death, he embarked on a journey to Mt. La Verna for a
forty day fast. One morning near the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, a six
winged angel allegedly appeared to Francis while he prayed. As the angel
approached, Francis could see that the angel was crucified. He was humbled
by the sight, and his heart was filled with elation joined by pain and suffering.
When the angel departed, Francis was purportedly left with wounds in his

14
hands, feet, and side as if caused by the same lance that pierced Christ’s
side. The image of nails immediately appeared in his hands and feet, and the
wound in his side often seeped blood.

Crop Circles
A crop circle is a sizable pattern
created by the flattening of a
crop such as wheat, barley, rye,
maize, or rapeseed.

In 1991, self-professed pranksters

Doug Bower and Dave Chorley
stated that they had started the
phenomenon in 1978 by making
actual circles on crops with the
use of simple tools.[3] However,
crop patterns not only persisted,
but became astonishingly
complex. Some even came to resemble stereotypical extraterrestrials as
portrayed by science fiction movies, fractals, and archaeological, religious, or
mythological symbols, thus leading to speculation and passionate debate.
Among others, paranormal enthusiasts, ufologists, and anomalistic
investigators have offered arousing yet hypothetical explanations that have
been criticized as seudoscientific by skeptical groups like the Committee for
Skeptical Inquiry.
Some of the observed patterns have been revealed to be products of
deception, artistic expression, and business or tourism interests. Some cases
have been examined by a few researchers via the scientific method.

Since appearing in the media in the 1970s, crop circles have become the
subject of speculation by various paranormal, ufological, and anomalistic
investigators ranging from proposals that they were created by bizarre
meteorological phenomena to messages from extraterrestrials.

The location of many crop circles near ancient sites such as Stonehenge,
barrows, and chalk horses has led many New Age belief systems to
incorporate crop circles, speculating their existence in relation to ley lines.

Extraterrestrial life & UFOs

15
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth. It is
unknown whether any such life exists or ever existed in the past. Various
claims have been made for evidence of extraterrestrial life, such as those
listed in a 2006 New Scientist article, which the magazine describes as
"hints" rather than proof. A less direct argument for the existence of
extraterrestrial life relies on the vast size of the observable Universe.
According to this argument, endorsed by Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking, it
would be improbable for life not to exist somewhere other than Earth.

The development and testing of theories about extraterrestrial life is known

as exobiology, xenobiology or astrobiology; the term astrobiology however
also covers the study of life on Earth, viewed in its astronomical context.

One possibility is that life has emerged independently at many places

throughout the Universe. Another possibility is panspermia or exogenesis, in
which life would have spread between habitable planets. These two
hypotheses are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Possible forms of
extraterrestrial life range from simple bacteria-like organisms to sapient
beings far more advanced than humans.

Suggested locations on which life might have developed, or which might

continue to host life today, include the planets Venus and Mars; moons of
Jupiter and Saturn such as Europa, Enceladus and Titan; and extrasolar
planets such as Gliese 581 c, g and d, recently discovered to be near Earth
mass and apparently located in their star's habitable zone, with the potential
to have liquid water.

Beliefs that some unidentified flying objects are of extraterrestrial origin (see
extraterrestrial hypothesis), along with claims of alien abduction, are
considered spurious by most scientists. Most UFO sightings are explained
either as sightings of Earth-based aircraft or known astronomical objects, or
as hoaxes. Some sightings have remained unexplained, in some cases having
been reported by trained professionals.

16
Vampires and Werewolves

Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the

life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures, regardless of
whether they are undead or a living person. Although vampiric entities have
been recorded in many cultures and in spite of speculation by literary
historian Brian Frost that the "belief in vampires and bloodsucking demons is
as old as man himself", and may go back to "prehistoric times", the term
vampire was not popularized until the early 18th century, after an influx of
vampire superstition into Western Europe from areas where vampire legends
were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe, although local
variants were also known by different names, such as vrykolakas in Greece
and strigoi in Romania. This increased level of vampire superstition in Europe
led to mass hysteria and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being
staked and people being accused of vampirism.

While even folkloric vampires of the Balkans and Eastern Europe had a wide
range of appearance ranging from nearly human to bloated rotting corpses, it
was the success of John Polidori's 1819 novella The Vampyre that established
the archetype of charismatic and sophisticated vampire; it is arguably the
most influential vampire work of the early 19th century, inspiring such works
as Varney the Vampire and eventually Dracula.
However, it is Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula that is remembered as the
quintessential vampire novel and which provided the basis of modern
vampire fiction. Dracula drew on earlier mythologies of werewolves and
similar legendary demons and "was to voice the anxieties of an age", and the
"fears of late Victorian patriarchy". The success of this book spawned a
distinctive vampire genre, still popular in the 21st century, with books, films,

17
video games, and television shows. The vampire is such a dominant figure in
the horror genre that literary historian Susan Sellers places the current
vampire myth in the "comparative safety of nightmare fantasy".[

Reincarnation & Past Lives

Reincarnation is believed to occur when the soul or spirit, after the death of
the body, comes back to life in a newborn body. This phenomenon is also
known as transmigration of the soul or metempsychosis.

This doctrine is a central tenet within the majority of Indian religious

traditions, such as Hinduism, Jainism, and Sikhism; the Buddhist concept of
rebirth is also often referred to as reincarnation.The idea was also
fundamental to some Greek philosophers and religions as well as other
religions, such as Druidism and later on, Spiritism, and Eckankar. It is also
found in many small-scale societies around the world, in places such as
Siberia, West Africa, North America, and Australia.

Although the majority of sects within Judaism, Christianity and Islam do not
believe that individuals reincarnate, particular groups within these religions
do refer to reincarnation; these groups include the mainstream historical and
contemporary followers of Kabbalah, the Cathars, the Druze and the
Rosicrucians. The historical relations between these sects and the beliefs
about reincarnation that were characteristic of the Neoplatonism,
Hermeticism, Manicheanism and Gnosticism of the Roman era, as well as the
Indian religions, is unclear.

Chiromancy & Palm-Reading

18
Palmistry or chiromency (also spelled cheiromancy, Greek cheir (χειρ),
“hand”; manteia (μαντεία), “divination”), is the art of characterization and
foretelling the future through the study of the palm, also known as palm
reading, or chirology. The practice is found all over the world, with numerous
cultural variations. Those who practice chiromancy are generally called
palmists, palm readers, hand readers, hand analysts,or chirologists.
The practice of chiromancy is generally regarded as a pseudoscience. The
information outlined below is briefly representative of modern palmistry;
there are many ― often conflicting ― interpretations of various lines and
palmar features across various schools of palmistry.

Science and criticism

Skeptics often include palmists on lists of alleged psychics who practice a

technique called cold reading. Cold reading is cited as the practice that
allows readers of all kinds, including palmists, to appear psychic.

There has been little widely accepted research verifying palmistry's accuracy
as a system of character analysis, and so far no conclusive evidence has
been provided to support a connection between the lines of the palm and a
person's character beyond what could be deduced from analyzing that the
person suffered from a chromosomal disorder or belonged to a certain
statistical group based on their digit ratio. No conclusive data have yet been
found to support the claims made by hand readers with respect to life
expectancy or personality type.

Pyramid Power
Pyramid power refers to alleged supernatural or paranormal properties of the
ancient Egyptian pyramids and objects of similar shape. With this power,
model pyramids are said to preserve foods, sharpen or maintain the
sharpness of razor blades, improve health (some people "were so energized
that they could not cope with the dynamo effects they experienced"),
function "as a thought-form incubator," trigger sexual urges, and cause other
dramatic effects.

Pyramid power is one of many pseudoscientific theories regarding pyramids.

Such theories are collectively referred to as pyramidology.

Origin of term

It's unclear who coined the term "pyramid power." Author Max Toth has
claimed he coined the phrase, as has Patrick Flanagan.[citation needed] In
the 1970s, both authors released books titled Pyramid Power. This led to a
lawsuit by Flanagan against Toth, according to Toth.

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The term may also have been coined in the late 1960s by Sheila Ostrander
and Lynn Schroeder, whose 1970 book Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron
Curtain contains a chapter entitled "Pyramid Power" on that same topic.

Time Slip
A time slip (also called a timeslip) is an alleged paranormal phenomenon in
which a person, or group of people, travel through time via unknown means.
As with all paranormal phenomena, the objective reality of such experiences
is disputed.

Cases

Ghosts of Versailles
Main article: Moberly-Jourdain incident
One of the best-known, and earliest, examples of a time slip was reported by
two English women, Charlotte Anne Moberly (16 September 1846 - 7 May
1937) and Eleanor Jourdain (1863–1924), the principal and vice-principal of St
Hugh's College, Oxford, who believed they slipped back in time in the
gardens of the Petit Trianon at Versailles from the summer of 1901 to the
period of the French Revolution.

The Vanishing Hotel

A widely-publicised case from October 1979, described in the ITV television
series Strange But True?, concerned the Simpsons and the Gisbys, two
English married couples driving through France en route to a holiday in Spain.
They claimed to have stayed overnight at a curiously old-fashioned hotel and
decided to break their return journey at the same hotel but were unable to
find it. Photographs taken during their stay, which were in the middle of a roll
of film, were missing, even from the negative strips, when the pictures were
developed.

Paranormal – The Religious Viewpoint

There have been a great number of reports of paranormal events occurring

within a religious context, from the scriptural parting of the Red Sea by Moses
to the visions of the Virgin Mary that have taken place at places like Lourdes,
Fatima, and Medjugorje. The paranormal takes a central part in shamanism,

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where shamans are often thought to possess the power of healing and the
ability to travel outside their body, and Hinduism, where paranormal abilities
are part of spiritual growth. While some religions such as the New Age
movement embrace the possibility of psi phenomena, the paranormal meets
with more resistance in more structured religions like Catholicism. Numerous
cases of weeping or bleeding statues and other such paranormal events have
been proven to be fraud, and therefore the Catholic Church puts such
phenomena through an extensive investigation process before certifying an
event as genuine.

While most religions contain a certain amount of belief in the paranormal, per
se, such beliefs are usually attributed to a higher power. Where
parapsychologists and other secular investigators may view the paranormal
as basically originating within humanity or an unseen part of the natural
world, religion tends to view paranormal phenomena as intentionally
performed by a higher power, often to benefit the spiritual lives of humanity.
Such events, like the visions and healings at Lourdes, are often called
"miracles" and are considered messages and blessings from God. In addition
to such God-given blessings, however, are also paranormal events attributed
to demons, Satan, or other such forces of evil. Possession by demons and
exorcism are two such examples of negative paranormal phenomena.

Belief in the Paranormal

While the validity of the existence of paranormal phenomena is controversial

and debated passionately by both proponents and by skeptics, surveys are
useful in determining the beliefs of people in regards to paranormal
phenomena. One such survey of the beliefs of the general United States
population regarding paranormal topics was conducted by the Gallup
Organization in 2005. This survey polled about one thousand people, and
found that nearly three quarters of them believed in at least one of ten listed
paranormal phenomena. Items included in the survey were as follows (the
percentage of respondents who indicated that they believed in the
phenomenon is in parentheses): Extrasensory perception (41 percent),
Haunted houses (37 percent), ghosts (32 percent), telepathy (31 percent),
clairvoyance (26 percent), astrology (25 percent), communication with the
dead (21 percent), witches (21 percent), reincarnation (20 percent), and
channeling spiritual entities (9 percent). Only one percent of those surveyed
believed in all ten items, and 27 percent did not believe in any.
A survey conducted in 2006 by researchers from Australia's Monash
University sought to determine what types of phenomena people claim to
have experienced and the effects these experiences have had on their lives.
The study was conducted as an online survey with over 2,000 respondents
from around the world participating. Seventy percent of respondents believed
an unexplained event changed their life, mostly in a positive way, 80 percent
reported having had a premonition, and almost 50 percent recalled a
previous life.

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While the paranormal seems to be accepted by the majority of the general
populace, scientific circles are generally more skeptical, and many scientists
are downright critical. Logical and scientific reasoning fails to support the
paranormal, especially when such a large portion of evidence is anecdotal in
nature, and the remaining evidence is often far from definitive. Additionally,
there is a long history of various types of fraud associated with the
paranormal, a fact which leads many to dismiss all paranormal phenomena
as fraud. Because of its very nature, the paranormal cannot be explained
through science; as new scientific developments and concepts emerge, there
may some day be scientific evidence to support some paranormal
phenomena. Despite the amount of skepticism and controversy that often
accompanies the paranormal, belief in paranormal phenomena has had some
acceptance in professional and official circles; police departments have used
psychics like Allison DuBois to ascertain information leading to the capture
and arrest of criminals.

Paranormal and ’Perinormal’

Paranormal phenomena, by definition, lacks scientific explanation. The word

"perinormal" ("in the vicinity of" normal) was coined to describe phenomena
that were once thought to be paranormal, but have since been explained by
science. One example of such a phenomenon is electromagnetic fields (EMF).
At one time EMF's existence was debatable from a scientific perspective but
was later proven real and is currently accepted by scientific and medical
communities.

Other examples of perinormal phenomena include medical oddities or

medical conditions which at first may baffle medical professionals, and later
turn out to have a mundane cause. An excellent example of a perinormal-
type medical oddity would be the "Pregnant Man" from Nagpur, India. When
doctors went to remove what they thought was a tumor causing the man to
look pregnant, they instead found a human being inside the man's abdominal
region. What could have been misconstrued as the paranormal case of a
pregnant man, was actually the perinormal case of fetus in fetu; the man's
twin brother had been growing inside his abdomen for 36 years.

'Pregnant man' gives birth to girl

Los Angeles, July 4: A US man who was born a woman before undergoing
gender realignment surgery has given birth to a baby girl, US media have
reported.

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Thomas Beatie, who is legally male but decided to keep his female sex
organs during chest reconstruction surgery and testosterone therapy,
attracted worldwide attention in April after revealing his pregnancy.

The 34-year-old gave birth to a baby girl at a hospital in Bend, Oregon, ABC
News reported, without providing further details.

Beatie, who sports a beard, was dubbed the 'pregnant man' after appearing
on Oprah Winfrey's television talkshow to discuss his pregnancy.

"I feel it's not a male or female desire to have a child. It's a human need. I'm
a person and I have the right to have a biological child," Beatie told the chat
show queen.

Beatie's unusual situation first became public when he wrote an article in the
leading US gay magazine The Advocate in March, entitled Labor of Love.

"To our neighbors, my wife, Nancy, and I don't appear in the least unusual,"
he wrote, explaining that his wife was unable to have a child after undergoing
a hysterectomy. So he chose to become pregnant by artificial insemination,
he said.

"Our situation sparks legal, political, and social unknowns," Beatie wrote,
adding the couple had experienced opposition from health care professionals,
friends and family.

One doctor refused to treat the couple, after consulting an ethics board.

"How does it feel to be a pregnant man? Incredible. Despite the fact that my
belly is growing with a new life inside me, I am stable and confident being the
man that I am," Beatie wrote.

Reference link:

http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Pregnant-man-gives-birth-to-
girl/331284/

A Pregnant Man

ABC News ^ | 23 August 2006 | ABC News

Posted on Thu Aug 24 2006 00:32:30 GMT+0500 (West Asia Standard Time)
by Alter Kaker

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Aug. 23, 2006 — Sanju Bhagat's stomach was once so swollen he looked nine
months pregnant and could barely breathe.

Living in the city of Nagpur, India, Bhagat said he'd felt self-conscious his
whole life about his big belly. But one night in June 1999, his problem erupted
into something much larger than cosmetic worry.

An ambulance rushed the 36-year-old farmer to the hospital. Doctors thought

he might have a giant tumor, so they decided to operate and remove the
source of the bulge in his belly.

"Basically, the tumor was so big that it was pressing on his diaphragm and
that's why he was very breathless," said Dr. Ajay Mehta of Tata Memorial
Hospital in Mumbai. "Because of the sheer size of the tumor, it makes it
difficult [to operate]. We anticipated a lot of problems."

Mehta said that he can usually spot a tumor just after he begins an operation.
But while operating on Bhagat, Mehta saw something he had never
encountered. As he cut deeper into Bhagat's stomach, gallons of fluid spilled
out — and then something extraordinary happened.

"To my surprise and horror, I could shake hands with somebody inside," he
said. "It was a bit shocking for me."

Removing the Mutated Body

One doctor recalled that day in the operating room.

"He just put his hand inside and he said there are a lot of bones inside," she
said. "First, one limb came out, then another limb came out. Then some part
of genitalia, then some part of hair, some limbs, jaws, limbs, hair."

Inside Bhagat's stomach was a strange, half-formed creature that had feet
and hands that were very developed. Its fingernails were quite long.

"We were horrified. We were confused and amazed," Mehta said.

A Mutated Body Within a Body

At first glance, it may look as if Bhagat had given birth. Actually, Mehta had
removed the mutated body of Bhagat's twin brother from his stomach.
Bhagat, they discovered, had one of the world's most bizarre medical
conditions — fetus in fetu. It is an extremely rare abnormality that occurs
when a fetus gets trapped inside its twin. The trapped fetus can survive as a
parasite even past birth by forming an umbilical cordlike structure that
leaches its twin's blood supply until it grows so large that it starts to harm the
host, at which point doctors usually intervene.

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According to Mehta, there are fewer than 90 cases of fetus in fetu recorded in
medical literature.

Fetus in fetu happens very early in a twin pregnancy, when one fetus wraps
around and envelops the other. The dominant fetus grows, while the fetus
that would have been its twin lives on throughout the pregnancy, feeding off
its host twin like a kind of parasite. Usually, both twins die before birth from
the strain of sharing a placenta.

Sometimes, however, as in Bhagat's case, the host twin survives and is

delivered. What makes his case so unusual is that no one suspected Bhagat
had a twin inside him for 36 years.

Bhagat said he was very much relieved after his operation. He was not
interested in knowing what Mehta did to him or seeing what he had removed
from his abdomen.

"He didn't want to see it because it was looking very ghastly," Mehta said.

Avoiding the Gory Details

There was no placenta inside Bhagat — the enveloped parasitic twin had
connected directly to Bhagat's blood supply. Right after the surgery, Bhagat's
pain and inability to breathe disappeared and he recovered immediately.

The case may have been a medical miracle to doctors, but to Bhagat his
condition had been a source of shame and misery. All his life, people in the
village where he lived had mercilessly teased him and told him he looked
pregnant. Ironically, they were right in a way.

Today Bhagat is in good health and leads a normal life, but he still gets
teased occasionally.

"They still ridicule him. What they say is, you went for an operation and you
had the baby," Mehta said.

Refernce Link:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1688789/posts

Conclusion – Facts and Figures

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While the validity of the existence of paranormal phenomena is controversial
and debated passionately by both proponents of the paranormal and by
skeptics, surveys are useful in determining the beliefs of people in regards to
paranormal phenomena. These opinions, while not constituting scientific
evidence for or against, may give an indication of the mindset of a certain
portion of the population (at least among those who answered the polls).

One survey of the beliefs of the general United States population regarding
paranormal topics was conducted by the Gallup Organization in 2005. The
survey found that 73 percent of those polled believed in at least one of the
ten paranormal items presented in the survey. The ten items included in the
survey were: extrasensory perception (41% held this belief), haunted houses
(37%), ghosts (32%), telepathy (31%), clairvoyance (26%), astrology (25%),
communication with the dead (21%), witches (21%), reincarnation (20%), and
channeling spiritual entities (9%). These items were selected as they "require
the belief that humans have more than the 'normal' five senses." Only one
percent of respondents believed in all ten items.

Another survey conducted in 2006 by researchers from Australia's Monash

University sought to determine what types of phenomena people claim to
have experienced and the effects these experiences have had on their lives.
The study was conducted as an online survey with over 2,000 respondents
from around the world participating. The results revealed that around 70% of
the respondents believe to have had an unexplained paranormal event that
changed their life, mostly in a positive way. About 70% also claimed to have
seen, heard, or been touched by an animal or person that they knew was not
there; 80% have reported having a premonition, and almost 50% stated they
recalled a previous life.

26