Why Occult has nothing to do with faith at all: Common perception of the supernatural suggests
folk belief creates an illusory representation of experience. That it is
constructed and self-fulfilling. A mirage of the senses interpreted afterwards
as a real event. In other words, a leap of faith. But there are voices of
dissent that suggest these events are grounded in empirical evidence. Many of
these experiences occur regardless of somebody’s past belief or previous
knowledge. Folklorist David Hufford gives an excellent example of this with a
hummingbird. He states that, “One who has never heard of a hummingbird, and
therefore lacks the concept, can still perceive a hummingbird if it flies into
the garden. Although not experiencing the percept “of a hummingbird”, one will
still have a perceptual experience.” Supernatural experiences work the same
way. We may have no concept of a goetic demon or inter-dimensional
extraterrestrial craft but we can experience this numinous event without prior
knowledge or belief. There’s no faith needed in this circumstance. Moreover,
truth doesn’t necessarily have to be addressed. In its pure, unaltered, and raw
state, the supernatural is not self-evidently false but experiential. Often, it
defies logic or rationality and remains numinous- i.e. mysterious connection
with the godhead. Whether it can be comprehended accurately or understood at
all is a whole other topic but what is clear is that at no time does it depend
on self-fulfilling belief or knowledge. It’s a sovereign and autonomous state
of being that makes use of the same empirical attributes that other folk
traditions employ.
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