However, one gets the sense that this book could have been much shorter had Routledge not Googled for all of the Pew Research Statistics, personal anecdotes, well-known news stories, and common knowledge about religion and spirituality in order to stretch his argument to the length of a book. However, at the core of supernatural thinking is the promise that there is more to existence than our brief time on this planet, and there is more to being human than being an animal.Ī fascinating thesis, no doubt. They provided explanations for otherwise seemingly unexplainable phenomena by invoking controlling supernatural agents. They helped turn an often chaotic and unpredictable world into a world of design and order by offering creation stories that proclaim that everything happens for a reason. ![]() These beliefs served a number of functions for our ancestors. Belief in the supernatural, especially in a cosmic drama-God versus Satan, for instance-or in an afterlife, are especially powerful ways of doing this. In short, the knowledge of death is what makes humans so motivated to find meaning in life. The anxiety-or terror, if you will-that this causes leads humans to find ways of feeling “more than mortal,” as Routledge likes to put it: methods of finding some path to convincing themselves that they can attain immortality. However, unlike any other species, humans have developed such advanced intelligence that they have grown aware of the fact that their struggle in this life is ultimately futile and that they will one day die and be forgotten. According to TMT, humans, like all other animals, have an innate desire to survive and pass on their genes. This argument stems from terror management theory, or TMT. Thus, people believe in the supernatural not because they are unintelligent or misguided, but because of an evolutionarily-ingrained need to create meaning, and this is true of the religious and nonreligious alike. According to Routledge, humans have an ingrained need to perceive meaning in the world, and supernatural forces-gods, ghosts, Heaven-help to imbue the world with meaning. It will be a foolish task because it will be a war between you and your ego to do so.Clay Routledge, professor of psychology at North Dakota State University, argues in his new book, Supernatural: Death, Meaning, and the Power of the Invisible World, that belief in phenomena that transcend the physical realm is not only not confined to those who are deeply religious but is an inherent human impulse, even among atheists. Hence, it is really suggestable not to run after the desire of achieving some supernatural power and practice some spiritual things on that basis. These powers were the by-products in the way of achieving the eternal Moksha. An important point that needs to be highlighted here is that none of them did their yoga and meditation practice in order to achieve those superpowers. They acquired such powers through rigorous and strenuous transcendental meditation without having body consciousness. These transcendental powers were supernatural such as ![]() The ancient sages of India are mystic and are used to follow many dharmas and spiritual ways to achieve the soul consciousness which led them to achieve the transcendental powers. ![]() However, some of these supernatural powers can also be achieved by some transcendental techniques such as Yoga and Meditation. Such supernatural powers include many weird things which normal people will be unable to do, such as the power to withstand poison, to attract things or to do some mysterious things like a superhero from cartoons or fictional stories. It is heard every now and then from some corner of the world about this mysterious power which cannot be construed by any of the known theories. The force or power which is understood to be attributed beyond the scope of natural laws and scientific understanding can be termed as Supernatural Power.
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