Max Dessoir may have considered ghosts and monsters to be psychological phenomena. Maybe he would also have put alien spaceships in the same category. However, I think the definition of "parapsychology" may have moved a bit since the 1930s.
"maybe" and "think" are the operative words here. why don't you give me the new definition then? secondly, i only assert "
ghosts" are the province of parapsychology, not "
monsters". again, wiki's take on para....
Scope
Parapsychologists study a number of ostensible paranormal phenomena, including but not limited to:
* Telepathy: Transfer of information on thoughts or feelings between individuals by means other than the five classical senses.
* Precognition: Perception of information about future places or events before they occur.
* Clairvoyance: Obtaining information about places or events at remote locations, by means unknown to current science.
* Psychokinesis: The ability of the mind to influence matter, time, space, or energy by means unknown to current science.
* Near-death experiences: An experience reported by a person who nearly died, or who experienced clinical death and then revived.
* Reincarnation: The rebirth of a soul or other non-physical aspect of human consciousness in a new physical body after death.
* Apparitional experiences: Phenomena often attributed to ghosts and encountered in places a deceased individual is thought to have frequented, or in association with the person's former belongings.
The definitions for the terms above may not reflect their mainstream usage, nor the opinions of all parapsychologists and their critics.
According to the Parapsychological Association, parapsychologists do not study all paranormal phenomena, nor are they concerned with astrology, UFOs, Bigfoot, paganism, vampires, alchemy, or witchcraft.
pseudo still has some uses, james. i mean look at your desc....
If it doesn't fit in any of the other Fringe categories...
It makes sense to me that UFOs, ghosts and cryptozoology should share a section. All of them involve people seeing things that some other people either doubt the existence of or doubt the proferred explanations of.
now that it has been established that
"Ghosts" are already covered by Paraspsychology we are left with "
Monsters" and your attempt to give it credence by wrapping it up in an officious sounding term...cryptozoology...
The subfora are appropriately titled IMO- if people want to believe in spooks and monsters in the closet, more power to them, but these kinds of superstitions shouldn't be glorified with some technical-sounding title suggesting the evidence holds a candle to the mainstream scientific view.
to you, james, the sighting of an ufo, the confirmation thru various means, the innumerable official investigations, the existence of actual unexplained events by those bodies are equated with sighting terrestrial cryptids. if you are that eager and enthusistic about this field, take cryptozoology to the science forum. after all...
Cryptozoologists claim there have been cases where species now accepted by the scientific community were initially considered superstition, hoaxes, delusions or misidentifications. The popularly reported European discovery of the okapi in 1901, earlier hinted at but unseen by Henry Morton Stanley in his travelogue of exploring the Congo, later became the emblem for the now defunct International Society of Cryptozoology. The mountain gorilla, giant squid and Hoan Kiem Turtle are other examples of extant species that were brought to the attention of modern science but formerly thought to be cryptids.
The 2003 discovery of the fossil remains of Homo floresiensis was cited by paleontologist Henry Gee, editor of the journal Nature as possible evidence that humanoid cryptids like the Orang Pendek and yeti were "founded on grains of truth". "Cryptozoology", Gee said, "the study of such fabulous creatures, can come in from the cold."
Tiassa's point about the historical context of aliens vs. demons and so on is pertinent here, too.
i see. despite the the fact that we already have an example of a spacefaring civilization in this universe, (earthlings) speculating about the extraterrestial origins of
another by way of a ufo sighting is the same as postulating it comes from realms of angels and demons. some other worldly dimension. equal credence should be given to those archaic interpretations in the 21st century. yes, that is really rational and scientific
That would be unduly restrictive, I think. There isn't that must discussion of UFOs here - not enough to warrant an entire subforum devoted to the topic.
umm
you already created one. it is called
UFOs, Ghosts and Monsters.all i am saying is
"ghosts" is covered by para and
"monsters" is just utterly ludicrous. one would think a science site has hit rock bottom with forums like "para" and "ufos", but you hit a new low with the inclusion of ...
"monsters".that is the terminology of a goddamn child.
why do you not see this?
Are we not equally encouraging memebrs to create "I saw a UFO" thread? If you're going to have one, why not the other?
that's funny. ok, lets have dedicated vampire and werewolf forums
That would be unduly restrictive, I think. There isn't that must discussion of UFOs here - not enough to warrant an entire subforum devoted to the topic.
again, you just created one and all the inclusion of the disputed terms means is that you encourage topics that are even less discussed than ufos
go look for yourself. do a comparison of topic titles containing the relevant terms and see what you come up with. in para, esp is the focus,ghosts are a footnote at best, and pseudo has perhaps less than 10 cryptid discussion. now count the ufo threads. large orders of magnitude is what you will see.
so what is your objective again? make this place even more woo woo? equal time to the sasquatch proponents?
We already have a Health & Fitness forum that covers Sport..
i brought it up as a example of logical nesting. i am not here to propose the creation of new forums, i just want a few minor tweaks