The stigma of the paranormal

Just thought I'd beat Chris to the draw for once.   This link appeared on my Facebook news feed courtesy of the SPR.

Finnish research project probes stigma of the paranormal

I was somewhat surprised because I have this notion that Scandanavia is a bastion of materialism and orthodoxy. If so, this study bucks the trend somewhat.

Here's a taster.

Professor Marja-Liisa Honkasalo talked about a recent research project called Mind and the Other, funded by the country’s most prestigious academic body, the Academy of Finland. A medical doctor and anthropologist, Honkasalo led the four-year study, which ended in late 2017. It investigated what the researchers called “uncanny” experiences – ones that defy common sense and a mainstream modern worldview.

...

Honkasalo says that the main question posed in the study was why these experiences are excluded from proper research on human mind or psychiatry or psychology – in other words, why they are not taken seriously. 

"Such experiences are surprisingly common. Based on population research, more than half the people in the Western world have had at least one experience that might be called 'paranormal'."

...

Stigmatised by the uncanny


If such experiences are so common, why don’t we hear about them more in modern day Finland?

Honkasalo says that it was a bit astonishing to researchers in this study how strongly taboo they are.

...

“Because these authorities were not quite sure whether these are healthy or sane experiences, they always considered them to be on the sick side. They were categorised as sick people. After having tried to share these experiences, it caused a kind of itinerary of stigma for them and for their families. Also, quite tragic lives and fates.”

Some were given psychiatric diagnoses such as schizophrenia, and put on medication and even in mental institutions.

...

In their contribution to the study, folklorist Kaarina Koski of Helsinki University and historian Juuso Järvenpää of the University of Tampere note that compared to other cultures before and now, Western, and Nordic society in particular has a negative attitude towards phenomena seen as supernatural. These do not fit into the prevailing scientific worldview, nor do they sit with Lutheran doctrine that dominates the religious field in Finland.

Hell, I could have quoted the whole thing so, instead, I recommend reading the original article. Nice to see some academics confirming what some of us have been saying for years.

https://youtu.be/nNTF-zAL6Rs 

The above link is a video  of john of god preforming psycic surgery. 
Contains graphic material.

https://youtu.be/nNTF-zAL6Rs 
The above link is a video  of john of god preforming psycic surgery. 
Contains graphic material.

OK. Is there a connection to the OP? Or do you want to discuss John of God?

OK. Is there a connection to the OP? Or do you want to discuss John of God?

Either or. My alleged logic for putting the video here is that psycic surgery  is probably  the most stigmatized of psi events.

Oleo
Either or. My alleged logic for putting the video here is that psycic surgery  is probably  the most stigmatized of psi events.

Yes, one is the discussion of the other. I agree about the astigmatism, psychic surgery is often considered a gruesome ordeal, although it is not. It especially challenges those who have adopted very thin viewpoints which stems from their choice to see the possibilities in Creation through the eye of a needle.

Healers don't heal in the classical sense of the word, they utilize the belief systems of their patient/clients, match the energy and let vibrational physics play its course.

Healers don't heal in the classical sense of the word, they utilize the belief systems of their patient/clients, match the energy and let vibrational physics play its course.

Sounds like "The Secret"!

Sounds like "The Secret"!

To be fair to Pssst, anything that involves the process of attraction by belief will sound, on the surface, like "The Secret". Fact is that it was never a secret and the book/video cheapened the message. Attraction is basic create-your-reality stuff upon which much of spirituality, New Age or otherwise, is based whether the message comes from aliens, channelled entities or ancient wisdom schools.

To be fair to Pssst, anything that involves the process of attraction by belief will sound, on the surface, like "The Secret". Fact is that it was never a secret and the book/video cheapened the message. Attraction is basic create-your-reality stuff upon which much of spirituality, New Age or otherwise, is based whether the message comes from aliens, channelled entities or ancient wisdom schools.

Gotta love that basic create-your-reality stuff! So basic!

... I agree about the astigmatism, 

I might be a little ‘blurry’ on this, but is that the right word?

[Laird]

I might be a little ‘blurry’ on this, but is that the right word?

What a shortsighted question.