What's the difference between paranormal and supernatural?

Question

What's the difference between paranormal and supernatural?

Answer 1

Paranormal means above or beside the normal in this regard a ghost is paranormal if you regard the experience as unusual (it is not) and the explanation for the ghost was something like a hallucination that your mind created in order to process information that you acquired via ESP.

Ghosts and ESP do not yell out for a supernatural explanation.

Supernatural calls for something not above or beside the world of normal but for something outside the world of normal. God for instance would be supernatural since God can't be directly observed, measured, and no laws of nature apply to God. Saying a ghost is explained by the surviving spirit of a deceased person would be a supernatural explanation.

Answer 2

Pretty much the same thing.  Both under the umbrella category of metaphysical.

Answer 3

paranormal is wen u can do things different which others cant and supernatural is when b4 ur born x genes evolve more and u get a special power

Answer 4

Whatever the difference might be, neither are taken seriously by people with some experience in science because none of the phenomena described under either label have ever been observed under well defined and controlled repeatable conditions. And observer error (aka confusion about natural phenomena) is nothing that concerns the serious scientist UNLESS it is part of the painstaking theoretical error analysis of an experiment.

Answer 5

Essentially not much.  Paranormal means as the name implies, above or beyond normal... but this is relative to the person making the judgment, isn't it?

Supernatural means beyond "natural", but again this depends upon the person making the judgment.  Many individuals are born with some psychic access [which means that in a previous life this individual has raised his/her Apapsyche [my name for the Operational Energy of the Soul... and an alternative to the use of the term consciousness which is mostly misunderstood] a bit and is therefore capable of accessing his/her MIND realm, or Spiritual realm.

There is nothing unnatural about being able to access higher levels of understanding, except that it happens so rarely that it appears to those lacking this naturally occurring ability to be unnatural.  It is also frightening to those within whom a substantial fear of the "Unknown" exists.  This means most people are of a less developed level of Apapsyche, and for these people there is a fear of people who seem to know things that they do not know.

For your question, the only difference between these two terms is which one is most familiar to you.

Peace

Answer 6

Supernatural is necessarily magical or divine in some way. Paranormal covers everything that doesn't fit with the expected guidelines of reality. For example, a ghost or a demon are both supernatural and paranormal because they defy the laws of physics. On the other hand, an alien flying saucer is not supernatural, because it lies within the laws of physics, but it is paranormal, because it is extremely improbable and lies far outside our normal understanding of the world we live in.

Answer 7

Supernatural can refer to both unexplained phenomena and natual wonders, whereas paranormal can only refer to unexplained phenomena.

Answer 8

Paranormal is something which can exist, but is unlikely to, whereas supernatural is something which cannot exist within the natural laws of the universe.

Given these definitions, nothing may be supernatural.  If something exists, it must exist within the laws of the universe.  If the natural laws that we are aware of seem to contradict a phenomenon, then it is our perception of natural laws that is amiss, not the observed phenomenon.

Paranormal = Unusual, may exist.

Supernatural = does not exist.

Answer 9

Supernatural, by definition, is admittedly beyond that which is naturally possible.  Paranormal is the same thing, but in denial.