Two Paranormalisms or Two and a Half? An Empirical Exploration

Most researchers have found an inverse or negative correlation between religious traditionalism and paranormal beliefs. It is possible that the two dimensions share a great deal more in common than previous surveys suggest. A new study supports that view.

Accepted wisdom among expert observers has it that a disjunction exists between two distinct realms or dimensions of paranormal belief: that which is based on traditional, fundamentalist religious dogma, and that which represents the sorts of parapsychological, occult, and supernatural beliefs that are routinely and most often referred to as the classic forms of paranormalism. The first dimension includes belief in the physical reality of heaven, the real-world influence of angels, the devil as a materially existent being, and the validity of special or biblical creation. The second dimension includes belief in extrasensory perception (ESP), PK (psychokinesis), prophecies, astrology; UFOs as alien space ships, crystal power, pyramid power, lucky numbers, the special significance of synchronicity, King Tut's "curse," and so on. So much has this separatist claim become a fixture in the study of paranormalism and religious belief that it may be referred to as the "two paranormalisms" thesis.

Bainbridge and Stark (1980) hypothesize that New Age beliefs tend to be strong specifically in regions of the country where traditional Christianity tends to be weak, and vice versa. When and where traditional religion fails to inspire and hold its adherents, belief in conventional science does not become correspondingly strong. In fact, New Age thinking, largely a variety of paranormalism, represents a substitute for traditional religion, and emerges where persons with a religious background lose their faith and seek a plausible alternative. Far from finding acceptance among the most strongly and traditionally religious, paranormal beliefs tend to be most enthusiastically embraced among persons who proclaim to hold no religion.

In addition, a survey by Bainbridge and Stark among University of Washington undergraduates found that the "no religion" respondents were strikingly more likely than born again Christians to agree that UFOs are spaceships from another planet; that Eastern religious practices probably have "great value"; that ESP "definitely exists"; and to say that they have personally experienced ESP themselves. In addition, the "no religions" were less likely to say that they strongly dislike "occult literature" and their local paper's horoscope column (Bainbridge and Stark 1980, 24). Clearly, these authors see paranormalism and traditional religion as separate and distinct. Where one is strong, the other tends to be weak, and vice versa. Paranormal beliefs serve as a kind of functional alternative to religious belief, substituting for it when it fails to satisfy. One displaces rather than complements the other. They are mutually exclusive; they compete, they do not commingle. There are "two paranormalisms" running along s eparate tracks. Traditional religion is the "old" superstition, paranormalism is the "new."

Following Feder (1987), Eve and Harrold (Harrold and Eve 1986; Taylor, Eve, and Harrold 1995) distinguished two dimensions of paranormalism: fantastic archaeology (belief in the reality of UFOs, psychic powers, and scientifically unverified creatures, such as Bigfoot), and creationism. They argue that the two dimensions of belief constitute mutually exclusive domains which serve different functions and have different origins and that the adherents hold to different rules of evidence or epistemologies. The two thought systems, say Taylor, Eve, and Harrold, are "not just independent of one another, but largely antagonistic" (27).

At first glance, the "two paranormalisms" thesis makes a certain amount of sense. Many paranormal and New Age beliefs are specifically rejected by organized religions, especially traditional Christianity. For example, the validity of astrology, Tarot cards, pagan or pre-Christian forms of worship, non-Christian prophecy, pyramid power, and crystal power are widely regarded as occult and distinctly contrary to the teachings of Christianity. And many fundamentalist Christians argue that Satan has genuine powers, which must be resisted; embracing those occult, diabolical powers is itself a type of paranormal belief which is, again, emphatically rejected by Christianity. (Still, both fundamentalists and many paranormalists believe in the reality of the devil, though the former rejects his moral or theological righteousness.) Clearly, disjunctions exist between these two systems of belief.

On the other hand, we can place adherents of both fundamentalist Christianity and many forms of paranormalism in roughly the same camp with respect to the material-spiritual dimension. Both reject raw empiricism, the idea that there is no reality outside what the senses tell us exist. Both see a plane of existence above and beyond the material dimension, a plane on which happenings cannot be discerned, measured, or tested with the crudely physical tools of science. Both see science as an inadequate guide to human existence; both, in fact, wish to deny a certain measure of legitimacy and credibility to mainstream, conventional science. It would be surprising if there were not more overlap between traditional religion and paranormal thinking than the "two paranormalisms" thesis suggests.