Well tbh the church was and has been known to this day as the most powerful or well known paranormal institution everyone can trust. Whenever it came to issues in the past people ran to the priests or the church for protection, and any-all questions about the paranormal was meant to be answered only by the church atleast in Europe.Fireshadow wrote:hihi, the devil running away and never returning because someone throw Holy water at him? Pfft... so Merlins mother would have been saved from the conception by an incubus if someone just threw holy water at it, oh okay... :pServantofJustice wrote:
‘I was once in an oratory, and [the devil] appeared to me in an abominable form at my left side. Because he spoke to me, I looked particularly at his mouth — which was most frightening. It seemed that a great flame, all bright without shadow, came forth from his body. He told me in a terrifying way that I had really freed myself from his hands but that he would catch me with them again. I was struck with great fear and blessed myself as best I could; he disappeared, but returned right away. This happened to me twice. I didn’t know what to do. There was some holy water there, and I threw it in that direction; he never returned again … I often experience that there is nothing the devils flee from more — without returning — than holy water’.
I think we should ask ourselves as if those people truly were in touch with the paranormal, or just had some crazy hallucination. I mean, even if you encounter a lesser demon than the Devil Himself, would holy water really do the trick to scare them away? I don't think my spirits/entities have any problem with me going to church and making the cross on myself with holy water. Maybe they even like it to go and visit Church? You can light a lot of candles in there you know ;-)
I do not think that medieval humans were more connected to the paranormal? In medieval times, they burned over more than a million people, and for what exactly? Because all those millions of people were 'witches'?
My take on it, is that the most connected humans to the paranormal were living in the periods FOR Medieval times. The old Greeks and Romans were more connected to the paranormal no? I mean, the oracle of Delphi? And even, the beginning of the Bible... it happened way before the Medieval times.
And the story I got, is that in the Age of Atlantis people lived in harmony together with all supernatural beings. The library of Alexandrië held all secrets of the world, but it got destroyed and so all its knowledge.
And the story about Camelot & Avalon. So the Isle of Avalon was home to the religion who worsehipped the Godess right? And then the queen Quinevere was more into Christianity and called the druidism a false religion?...
with all those old religions going into hiding, a lot of the paranormal went into hiding as well, is my take on this. So in Medieval times, the paranormal was not the truth anymore... it became darkened by the teachings of the Church. I doubt any medieval person was more open or truly connected with the Paranormal than we are nowadays. Da Vinci, the Templars, maybe they were truly open or connected with the paranormal... but, on the other hand...
And the medieval times for us, are not exactly the same as for the Native Americans and the Native Australians. But well, I need to go with Caiyros his opinion on this, and that is that whenever Church came over, it destroyed a lot of things.
And nowadays, you have exactly the same amount of people who are open to the true paranormal, as back then. The others who worshipped false 'paranormal' became atheists.
Not sure what to say but my mother’s level of belief according to people can be very comparable to ‘old times’. She for example believes that black stray cats are evil(Malicious spirits and demons tend to attach to them), sun/day represents good, night or the dark and graveyards are evil places, plus that (A word of warning could be offensive) Muslims can bring misfortune or attract evil beings/spirits. Those kinds of beliefs.
From what I can say is that maybe from the point of average people, the paranormal would sound like something very powerful right? So therefore if something goes wrong it can be easy to blame it on black magick without forementioned knowledge. I used to be quite afraid of the paranormal myself or attribute many happenings maybe, until I got ‘science’ taught to me in high school and encountered ‘average people’ more. Wonder if this was for the better or worst sometimes.
If anybody today still does have this level of belief I would say it’s good to take the opportunity to see where ‘we’ got it wrong, to avoid making the same mistakes on the paranormal that people in the past did?
One more thing though, people in the Middle Ages were also more inclined to believe in the paranormal in general also? See William of Newburgh’s work again, or some reports from the crusaders of seeing angels manifest in the sky?
What about the power of whom you would call God also for example? I felt drawn to the church myself and also saw it as a protection against bad beings/spirits back when I didn’t have ‘science’. Today I still hold some of the view that it’s moral contributions plus teachings are somewhat important in protecting humanity from becoming too cruel/dark.