Some people believe in the paranormal, and some don’t. A lot of times, nonbelievers do change sides once they experience a paranormal event. People say it’s all in your head. Others say that people manifest the paranormal. No matter what people believe, the paranormal is real.
Sure, not everyone experiences that type of stuff, but it is all real regardless.
The Paranormal
When people think of the paranormal, they think about ghosts. But, the paranormal is so much more than that. It means something that is not normal, like aliens, cryptids, deities, and angels. The paranormal can be described as events or phenomena, such as seeing shadows in the corner of your eyes, and are beyond the scope of scientific understanding.
The paranormal is generally used as an umbrella term for a range of beliefs, such as spirituality, witchcraft, Paganism, Wicca, and superstition.
There are also mediums: people who talk to the dead with some or all of the four clairs. These clairs are clairvoyance (seeing), clairaudience (hearing), clairsentience (feeling), and claircognizance (knowing). Clair is from the French word, meaning clear.
Working with Deities
Spirit work and deity work are the acts of forming relationships with spirits and deities. These terms are mostly used in pagan and polytheistic communities. Some forms of building relationships with deities are reading tarot cards, asking “yes” or “no” questions with a pendulum, and other divination practices. You don’t necessarily need an altar or a candle for deities, you can just devote the things you do to any deity you want to worship.
Laila Harline is a freshman at Oakmont High School who has been working with deities. Harline had something she wanted to improve on, such as self-love.
“… [I] found something I needed to improve on and I realized that Aphrodite is especially good for that type of stuff… self-love,” Harline said. “I reached out to her and I made her an altar …with a bunch of stuff.”
Harline’s altar to Aphrodite includes some of Aphrodite’s favorite things.
“She likes dark chocolate, raspberries, strawberries, and Valentine’s Day stuff,” Harline said. “Then I just started dedicating a bunch of stuff to her like; eating, showering, basic health.”
Harline started praying to Aphrodite and calling out to her and eventually, this worked.
“How I got her attention is gossip ‘cause she loves gossip. So I just started talking about gossip,… like in my room and in my head. It kinda got her attention… ,” Harline said. “[As a sign] I started seeing a bunch of pigeons and doves [in my backyard]. They come [by] a lot.”
Sleep Paralysis
Sleep paralysis refers to the phenomenon in which resumption of consciousness occurs while muscle atonia of REM (rapid eye movement) sleep is maintained, leading to intense fear and apprehension in the patient as they lay awake without the ability to use any part of their body.
Gavin White, an Oakmont senior, describes his experience with paranormal activity.
“I am in the kid’s room with my younger brother. [A hatch that had]… a white handle, white metal handle [that was] just attached to the carpet and I can see an outline of a square,” White said. “So I decided to take a look at it with my brother, open it up and see what’s in there. I take a little tiny peek, it is really really heavy and it is just nothing, but it is just black. You couldn’t see anything. [It was just dirt].”
White continues to describe his events with paranormal activity by going in-depth with his sleep paralysis and occurrences with shadow people. People aren’t sure what shadow people are, but some theories include that they are either demons, deceased relatives, or ghosts.
“Later that night after I go to sleep, I wake up in the middle of the night, and I find I can’t move. My covers are off of me. It’s cold and I see two lanky dark shadowy figures looming over me,” White said.
White thinks that the two shadow figures came from the hatch. This was the first and last time he had ever had this type of paranormal experience.
The paranormal is many things, but the one thing that it is not is normal. These were just two examples of Oakmont students experiencing paranormal events.
