Stewart Rivers
Supernatural
THE SUPERNATURAL
Aim: What is the Supernatural?
Learning objective: To use critical thinking in explaining the concept of the
supernatural
Many people talk about the supernatural world or supernatural events. We have prepared
a chart with some situations. Read each story and decide whether this event is natural or
supernatural, based on your experience. Use the right column of the chart to write the
reasons that support your opinion
Situation
Natural or
Why?
supernatural?
1. Your best friend was absent from
school yesterday. Today she came
back with a cast leg. She said she had Natural
a car accident, but she can't
remember anything.
Many people who suffer
trauma have trouble
remembering the incident.
This is a perfectly normal
situation.
2. This little kid is followed by a
gang of classmates determined this
time to catch him and beat him up
well. The kid jumps some trash cans
in the school yard. The others corner
“Supernatural”
him. There's no escape. He jumps
again and all of a sudden he realizes
that he is on the rooftop. He later gets
reprimanded by the principal for
walking on the school roof.
It’s not everyday that a kid
jumps on top of a building.
I do not believe that this
could happen, but if it did,
it would definitely require
another force. Kids can’t
jump up to roof tops…
without a little help,
anyway…
3. In my dream grandmother told me
that 2,6, and 7 are my lucky numbers.
Natural
I played the lottery the next day and I
won 5,000 dollars!
Lottery is pure luck. If your
grandmother had told you
the winning numbers, it
would merely be
coincidence.
4. The leader saw the enemy
approaching. His own people were
weary and discouraged. They
wouldn't last a minute the emperor's
disciplined and well-armed troops.
“Supernatural”
Just in front of him the sea was calm,
deep, and endless. It prevented any
escape from death and captivity. But
he knew what to do. He struck the
land with his cane and all of a sudden
This is tricky. I would say
it is supernatural, but if it is
truly speaking of Moses
parting the Red Sea, I know
it was done with the help of
God, not some other
“Supernatural” force. If
this exercise considers God
a “supernatural” force, then
the event is Supernatural. It
Stewart Rivers
Supernatural
the waters departed. There was now a
path in the middle of the sea where
his people could walk away from
danger.
is impossible to part an
ocean without divine
assistance.
5. His great-great-grandfather at the
beginning of time was the prairie
buffalo, the one that gives his tribe
strength and courage to battle
enemies and storms. Every Indian
knows this fundamental fact and
respects the buffalo and all living
animals.
This is a natural Indian
religion. All Indians
respected animals, and only
used what was necessary
for their survival. His
great-great-grandfather at
the beginning of time was
not a buffalo; it is a legend.
Natural
Give examples of a natural event and another example of a supernatural event. What
about an event you are not sure of? Use your own life and experience. Write at least an
event and be prepared to motivate why you placed that event in one of these three
categories.
Natural event
Supernatural event
You are not sure?
Short description:
Short description:
I was walking through
the woods in a Michigan
forest. I saw a man
standing a few hundred
A man walks across the yards away, looking at
street. He does not see
me. I rubbed my eyes
the truck coming at full
and looked again, but the
speed. At the last minute, man was gone. I turned
the driver looks up and
and headed for my
swerves, avoiding the
cottage, and a few miles
man.
later, I saw the man again,
this time at least six miles
from where I first saw
him, walking the other
way.
Rationale:
There are plenty of good
Rationale:
The man couldn’t have
Short description:
We were driving in the car
late at night. As we went
down a country road, I saw a
green blob sort of thing float
across the road. It was
glowing, and it sort of
disappeared after passing us.
My dad saw it too.
Rationale:
I’m not sure what it could
Stewart Rivers
Supernatural
drivers. The odds of the
truck driver seeing the
man and avoiding him are
fairly good ones and this
would not be an
unordinary event.
just disappeared into the
woods like that. I would
have heard him run off, or
at least seen him go into
the bushes. Besides that,
he ended up coming back
the other way six miles
through the woods. He
couldn’t have gotten that
far ahead of me if he
drove. I can’t explain this
event.
have been. It was late, and I
was tired, so it might have
been a mirage of some sort,
but my dad saw it too! I
suppose it could’ve been a
light refraction of the head
lights, but I don’t know…
Aim: How Do Some People Explain the Supernatural?
There are numerous ways of explaining the supernatural. Let us present one of them.
There are two different worlds that stay separated most of the time. Sometimes, not quite
often, these two worlds come into contact. This is when supernatural creatures visit the
natural world for a short time.
Stewart Rivers
Supernatural
Natural World
Supernatural World
In the world of fairy tales and ancient myths, there is also the possibility that the most
powerful heroes find a way to the supernatural world: they slay dragons, they battle
monsters and witches, and they even visit the world of the dead. Gilgamesh, Hercules,
and Orpheus went there to prove their power or to search for answers.
Some of you saw Harry Potter, the movie, or you read the book. Remember Fluffy, the
three-headed dog that guards the Sorcerer's Stone? Fluffy is in fact Cerberus, the monster
whose only weakness is the sound of music. This is how Orpheus convinced him to let
him into the Underworld to look for his dead wife, Eurydice.
Written Assignment:
1. Do you know of any other way of explaining the supernatural? Suggestion: Use this
quote to draft another possible answer:
"The supernatural is the natural not yet understood"
We don’t understand everything, obviously. Anything supernatural is just some
part of the natural world that we don’t get just yet. For example, many people long ago
thought that disease and illness were curses. We know today that these are caused by
bacteria and viruses. Most everything has an explanation. I will make an exception
however. Just like Moses parting the Red Sea, and Jesus curing illness and cripples, the
only explanation is faith…I won’t get into that too much, as this topic creates much
controversy. As far as random ‘supernatural’ acts goes, we just need to understand it for
it to become real
Copied from Internet January 4, 2009: http://www.teachnetlab.org/fklane/dracula/dracula/I.%20The%20supernatural.htm