As David Hufford said, in Beings Without Bodies, much of folk belief about spirits is found to be reasonable. This account is reported under his experience-centered theory. Hufford said much of the belief of spirits is reasonable as it is established on logical understanding from a person’s own experience. However, Hufford said not all beliefs are backed up by experience or even evidence. Some beliefs are made purely on faith. (Hufford p.11) As I interviewed Annie Filban about her personal experience with spirits, I found to my judgment that it seemed she based a lot of her belief in her story upon faith. Even though she believed something was in fact out of the norm, and was making peculiar movements and noise in her home, she was still skeptical with some of her statements. Filban responded on different occasions to “I don’t know” and “I guess,” which lead me to believe her belief is not based upon evidence as much as it relies on her faith. Annie Filban was 12-years-old when her and her family moved into an old house in Wendell, North Carolina. Her parents found this house for a very reasonable price, but it wasn’t just because the house was old. It was soon discovered that her parents had purchased a home that was part of the Underground Railroad. Not only did it have a deep history, but also the last tenant had recently died in the home. So, her family moved into their new home. Filban said the home had a yard that was overgrown. “The trees and bushes were overgrown, and the house was dark,” Filban said. “And the windows were covered.” She and her sister slept in the front bedroom of the house. She remembers the bedroom having a large, floor-to-ceiling window. She said you could look out and see the wra... ... middle of paper ... ... Filban’s experience is true or not. It might not be believable in some perspectives, but there is one thing that is true. This experience is unexplained, so it can be described as supernatural. Until proven different, Filban did have a supernatural experience. Just because the evidence is not apparent, and no one else witnessed it, the story can still be deemed supernatural. I can’t prove her wrong, or right, but Filban believes her encounter was paranormal. Her belief is that a spirit was present in her home, nothing threatening, possibly an angel. It could be that this angel was the previous owner as thought by Filban. One thing is clear, that her belief is based on spirituality, and faith of a higher power. Works Cited 1. Hufford, David J. “Beings Without Bodies: An Experience-Centered Theory of the Belief in Spirits.” 11-19. Print.
Sagan said “more than a third of American adults believe that on some level they’ve made contact with the dead” (151). This figure is not hard to believe when one thinks about our need to believe in something greater than ourselves. People believe in superstitions and horoscopes because they want to believe in that something that is greater than themselves is
In Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad, we see a piece of history being slightly rewritten. Whitehead was able to give the reader a visual of how mentally and physically the slaves were affected. We are given a glimpse of what they call freedom and the reality of freedom in the 1800s through eyes of the protagonist Cora.
As people live to this day’s constant demands, they often mention how their lives are ‘horrible’, but no life can be more horrific than just one day in the groove of Wanda Bridgeforth’s life growing up during the 1930’s. Wanda Bridgeforth was a survivor of The Great Depression, and she has quite a story to tell. Surely, she can relate to someone like Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, although her skin is a different shade. Wanda would had never known what it was like to grow up as an African American if she didn’t primarily reside in what was known as the ‘Black Metropolis’, if she didn’t have major money shortages in her family, if she didn’t live in a constantly cramped housing space, or if she wasn’t transported away to live with a whole different group of people.
No matter which philosophy on exorcism is most believable, it remains to have difficult concepts that are hard to trust. Belief is dependent upon one’s beliefs, customs, and expectations of society. Fear of the unknown may be the reason that drives this real belief. But, it also could be a reality or just a way to rationalize an uncontrollable behavior. “Civilized people lose their religion easily, but rarely their superstition about evil,” said Karl Goldmark (Wolpe). Religion gives society a way to accept and to believe “out of this world” behaviors through demons and encourages people to be afraid of devil-like creatures.
[There is a great possibility that ghosts do exist and nobody should be so quick to deny the idea. Simply because it hasn't been proven to every skeptic's liking is no good reason to say it isn't true. Open minds are the key to discovery. So, just as long as we remember that, nothing is impossible.]
“Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves” Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States and credited for ending slavery for African Americans. On Friday, September 23rd, we set off for Cincinnati, Ohio. The goal of this trip was to view the Underground Railroad and Freedom Center and apply it to what we have studied in class so far. The mission of the Underground Railroad and Freedom Center is to “reveal stories of freedom’s heroes, from the era of the Underground Railroad to contemporary times, challenging and inspiring everyone to take courageous steps of freedom today.” The Center had many exhibits to view and all were impactful in different ways, however I will discuss the three that had the most effect on
Schmitz, R. M. "Leo Frank and Mary Phagan." The Journal of American Folklore 60.235 (1947): 59-61. JSTOR. Web. 13 Apr. 2014.
When first introduced to Tossie, one learns that she is a firm believer in Spiritualism, which is a religious movement where the core belief is that spirits of the deceased can be contacted directly by living people (Rutter). Tossie informs Ned that the previous day, the spirits had rapped out “beware” and “the letter C” during a séance with Madame Iritosky, which led her mother to conclude that something awful had happened to Princess Arjumand (Willis 98). Madame Iritosky indoctrinates Mrs. Mering and Tossie with her Spiritualist ideals, informing them that “spirits often hover near [a] portal” which is the reason she cannot leave her home to perform seances (108). When Ned and the others finally make it to the Merings’ home, they burst in on a séance which leads to Mrs. Mering fainting. She is overcome with emotion at the sight of “the spirits” who were “draped…in seaweed” and “shining with an ethereal light” (178). Mrs. Mering assigns every strange thing that happens a reason that is ultimately related to Spiritualism. Cyril’s snoring is the “ethereal moan” of the spirits, she has premonition upon premonition that presumably predict the death of Professor Peddick, and we later learn that every prediction made under the guise of Spiritism is false (246). The skepticism revolving around Spiritualism is mirrored by the reactions given by Verity and Ned to Madame Iritosky. When Madame Iritosky and Count de Vecchio arrive at the Merings’ house due to “a message from the Other Side,” Ned and Verity discuss Madame Iritosky’s validity (288). Verity informs Ned that mediums “collect information to convince the gullible” which is a sign that people in the future have found ways to think critically about what they observe (292). Verity and Ned have different ways of
The third school of thought is mostly exposed by Reginald Scot the author of ” discoverie of witchcraft”, who considers and believes in the presence of abnormal apparitions, yet holds that ghosts cannot take the form of normal human beings. Thus these apparitions are
The Underground Railroad despite occurring centuries ago continues to be an “enduring and popular thread in the fabric of America’s national historical memory” as Bright puts it. Throughout history, thousands of slaves managed to escape the clutches of slavery by using a system meant to liberate. In Colson Whitehead’s novel, The Underground Railroad, he manages to blend slave narrative and history creating a book that goes beyond literary or historical fiction. Whitehead based his book off a question, “what if the Underground Railroad was a real railroad?” The story follows two runaway slaves, Cora and Caesar, who are pursued by the relentless slave catcher Ridgeway. Their journey on the railroad takes them to new and unfamiliar locations,
As long as one can remember, paranormal beliefs have always existed in human society. They are living in every man’s childhood and in every corner of human’s life. From the burning belief about Santa Claus’s gifts under a Christmas’s tree in the morning to a scary game about Bloody Mary and her coming back from the dead, it seems that people cannot help but draw themselves to these stories. Even when these beliefs fade, there would be a new one that eventually shows up. No matter how much science has progressed, the belief in paranormal phenomena still remains in society. Eventually, the question about paranormal phenomena seems pale in comparison to the human’s undying belief about such things. It is really hard to pinpoint an exact cause for human’s belief in the paranormal for only one cause is not enough; however, it is sure that psychological, sociological, and biological factors play an enormous role that contributes to this belief.
In today’s rational and scientifically explainable world, it would be hard for us to believe in supernatural intervention in our every day lives unlike during the times of the Shakespearean plays. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, there are three examples of this kind of thing: one with the witches, one with a ghost of a best friend, and one with the a few apparitions.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines "supernatural" as "That which is above nature; belonging to a higher realm or system than that of nature; transcending the powers or the ordinary course of nature." Through the duration of mankind’s existence, humans have been fascinated with a higher power that defies the laws of nature. Supernatural themes have stimulated literature and the arts, both ancient and modern. Many parallels can be connected between stories involving the paranormal. The setting of "The Jolly Corner" and The Devil’s Advocate evokes the preternatural.
The term "supernatural" is often used interchangeably with paranormal or preternatural the latter typically limited to an adjective for describing
Psychological susceptibility to various faiths in the fact that human life is exposed to supernatural forces that affect a person's fate, and often prejudge its outcome, always existed in all human societies and cultures. One of the major determinants of this psychological susceptibility is superstitions that appear as the main engines of believe in the intervention of supernatural forces in human’s life. According to Encyclopaedia Britannica (2010) ‘superstition’ could be defined as ‘belief, half-belief or practice’, which does not have any rational explanation or basis. Despite this fact, according to Behringer (2004) the amount of believers in witchcraft and superstitions are significantly higher than in XVII century.