Throughout its history, mankind continued to believe in supernatural forces and phenomena. It has always fascinated believers and annoyed skeptics. For millennia, the belief in the existence of supernatural forces has constantly changed, its objects have changed. Once they were considered a thunderstorm, thunder and lightning, ordinary natural phenomena were endowed with mythical properties, but as science develops, more and more new objects begin to be endowed with the same qualities.
Nowadays
Belief in supernatural powers is popular today. Daily news is published that somewhere appeared UFO, ghost, poltergeist. The television, where psychics charge water, demonstrate “miraculous abilities”, greatly contributed to the popularization of individual ideas. As a result, the belief in the supernatural powers of man among the mass of consumers has strengthened. At the moment, several areas are common that people still associate with the supernatural.
Monsters
Monsters from ancient times are called terrible creatures, the word from Latin is translated as "sign", "omen". Previously, people believed that the appearance of a hitherto unseen creature warns of unusual events that are about to happen.
Usually this word designates terrifying creatures. It should be noted that faith in supernatural forces of this kind is strong: since ancient times, people have become accustomed to seeing the threat in everything unidentified, everything, just to make it not reality.
For centuries, violent human imagination has created images of monsters, and legends have been passed down from generation to generation. This is easy to verify by reading medieval stories about unprecedented monsters that people saw in animals from other continents. Now that we know these animals and they are well studied, everyone understands that they do not have the supernatural powers that our ancestors endowed them with. But such is the nature of man - to fantasize in the absence of information.
Having studied this, it is easy to guess that a similar process is happening in our time. Not so long ago, a network of photos of the “Bigfoot” stirred up the network, at times Saskvachs emerge. However, in fact, they turn out to be a bear or a Mowgli child, and Saskvachi - ordinary monkeys. It cannot be denied that the seen Mowgli child can shock the unprepared human psyche, and in order to attract general attention to such an object, he can make an elephant out of a fly. Cases of Mowgli children have a place to be in the outback, they are unusual and look very wild. Naturally, such a spectacle is imprinted in the eyewitness imagination as something terrible, and the confusion confuses society.
Ghosts
For centuries, there is a tradition of believing in yet another manifestation of supernatural powers - ghosts. This is the name of the souls of the dead, who are seen alive. They are painted with pale images that pass freely through solid objects. Someone considers them evil. It is believed that only those who have a special gift can see them.
But upon close examination of stories of supernatural forces of this type, they cannot stand criticism. Psycho-researchers note that the events that people attribute to ghosts have a natural explanation. It is easy to guess why people attributed them to the action of supernatural forces - they did not have knowledge of the nature of phenomena. At present, eyewitnesses who learn that their “ghost” is just a gust of wind or flowing water are disappointed. It looks as if people want, in spite of everything, to continue to believe in miracles.
Poltergeist
A separate supernatural force of nature are poltergeists. Most often they are seen by adolescents aged 12-16 years. According to the theory of believers, the human brain at this age produces a special energy - it becomes a source for such a phenomenon.
But in fact, the poltergeists have nothing to do with it. This is only an effect of the psychokinetic activity of the brain, no more.
Psychics
Today in Russia there is a strong belief in psychics. They call themselves extraordinary people, they are shown on television, where they demonstrate "supernatural abilities." As practice shows, a person is easy to suggest, especially when he is happy to believe in something unbelievable. For the prediction of many things, a sufficiently developed emotional intelligence allows you to perfectly feel people and their emotions, as well as logic. The true nature of extrasensory abilities will be discussed below.
UFO
In mystical stories, there are many stories about unidentified flying objects - there are meetings with alien guests, and unexplored crop circles, and the birth of extraterrestrial children. But it cannot be argued that aliens exist.
Science has not put forward any evidence of this fact. Many billions of planets remain uncharted, but scientists are taking steps towards contact with an alien mind, sending special probes into faraway space that broadcast everywhere the coordinates of the Earth and information about our civilization. And so far, for many years, no answer came from anywhere. Probably we are the most developed civilization of the universe.
In fact
At the moment, there are official prizes in the world - for example, the James Randy Prize, which gives $ 1,000,000 to anyone who shows a supernatural ability or phenomenon without resorting to fraud or self-deception.
Back in 1922, a prize of $ 2,500 each was established in the United States. The first was awarded to anyone for a genuine ghost photo under test conditions, and the second “for demonstrating visible extrasensory manifestations”.
The first volunteer to participate was the medium, George Valentine, who claimed that the spirits would communicate through a pipe that would begin to move through the air in a dark room. When Valentine was placed in a room with extinguished lights, he did not know that he was replaced with a chair that gives a light signal to the next room when they get up from it. And the light signal worked, after which Valentine received no reward.
Needless to say, in the entire history as of 2018, neither the James Randy Prize, nor the other two, nor a hundred more like it were taken away by anyone. The total prize pool of all prizes in 2003 was $ 2,326,500.
About James Randy
James Randy is a former magician who, at age 54, became a whistleblower of magicians. He arranged shows in which he offered the most diverse psychics to show his abilities, performing simple tasks. As a result, all eminent psychics showed results that did not differ from random ones.
So, the once invited famous magician Uri Geller did not cope with his usual demonstration of supernormal abilities. The thing is that James Randy previously replaced the props like labeled spoons, and glued the cans on the table. Because it did not make it possible to carry out the trick, which had previously been presented as the presence of extrasensory abilities of Uri Geller. And Randy’s guesses turned out to be true: Uri Geller suddenly lost his “sense of strength”, failing to cope with elementary tasks.
Often exposed by James Randy and astrologers, asking them to sort people by zodiac signs. Those could not cope with the task. He exposed psychics, people who claimed that they could sense the instruments of murder, choosing them among hundreds of others, creators of incredible supernatural apparatuses that read minds. Over and over again, they all failed in an environment where fraud became impossible.
So, in the latter case, Randy talked with a person who claimed to have created an apparatus for fixing mental processes. But empirically, Randy finds out that the device works even when the signal “transmit thought” was not given.
In Russia
It should be noted that while such programs are being broadcast in the USA, in Russian reality television broadcasts a show about psychics, where supernormalities are glorified. After the release of TV shows, these people collect impressive amounts at personal receptions with believers.
At the same time, Russia also has the award of Harry Guddini, a student of James Randy, who offers 1 000 000 rubles to anyone who has proved in experimental conditions the presence of extrasensory abilities. And despite the attempts, the tests, consisting of the simplest tasks, no one passed.