So I've been thinking a lot about why people think that the paranormal is like ~impossible~. Frankly, I have decided it's a weird superiority complex. This gets wild ok?
Like, just because your little brain can't wrap your mind around the existence of things on a plane outside of your personal vision, it's absolutely impossible? NO sir, you are not that important. Sorry.
(If you want to argue religion, I'm really not here for that today but I will say that my parents taught me from childhood that it would be selfish to believe that a God so great as ours would only create one world worthy of life. So there's that.)
It just feels so much to me like the people in ancient times who felt threatened by healers or shamans or philosophers, even. Scientists, even!!! It is something outside of their understanding so it is absolutely impossible that another human could experience that.
Honestly, I think you can easily tie it back to internalized misogyny as well. Also, I feel that European colonialism has contributed heavily. Hang on for this one.
I think A LOT about the concept of the "hag" and the ugly witch in folklore- how often do you want to bet that those women were healers or even religious leaders, but history was written by men who were threatened by their knowledge and their power and wanted to undermine them rather than recognize them. This mindset has then been passed down through the generations, and have created this taboo around spirituality and the paranormal and magic because it's outside of the church-sanctioned narrative.
Further, the church-sanctioned narrative has probably been most prominent in England, but also in several other "established" European countries (think: Spain, France, Portugal) all of whom did the majority of the colonizing. (I'm not forgetting the Dutch, I just don't see the same connection here)
So these countries colonize. For example: The English overtake Scotland and colonize Ireland, both of which are the homes of the ancient Celts and lands of mysticism and power. Also, of women's rights (the Celts were bad ass). These people celebrate Samhain as a pagan holiday, they still pay homage to ancient deities and their mythology is strong in their daily narrative, they believe that the Fair Folk (or the Wee Folk) can easily steal their children or be the cause of that missing glass of milk. So, obviously, to undercut the strength of their culture and make them easier to overtake, the English have to create this air of superiority which begins with making their otherworldly beliefs examples of a lack of education, a lack of sophistication- they are savages, essentially, in need of the culture that being conquered can provide.
In case I lost you, let me summarize: long-held misogyny and a colonizer's mindset have contributed to the stigma that surrounds belief in the paranormal.
Anyway, that is what I've been thinking about this week. What about y'all?
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