This week we’ll define our terms and begin thinking about what we really mean when we say something is “paranormal.” Is that different from “supernatural”? And where does “religion” fit into any of this?

In this lecture, students will learn about the history of Spiritualism and its impact on many of our popular ideas—both paranormal and otherwise—today. We’ll pay special attention to the role of “investigation” in Spiritualist spaces, and why so many thought Spiritualism could serve as the bridge between religion and science.

In week three, we look to accounts of alien abduction to think about the role of “experience” in paranormal communities. Lots of different sorts of people have advocated for the existence of beings from other worlds, but how and why have our interpretations of those beings changed over the years and how might those interpretations reflect contemporary anxieties?

In this lecture, we explore our contemporary fascination with ghosts. Why is paranormal investigation such a popular pastime, seemingly transcending any singular religious framework? We’ll pay special attention to the many ways that paranormal investigators and enthusiasts frame their practices: as science, as spirituality, and more.

This week, we’ll look at some of the ways that the paranormal has showed up in more familiar, explicitly religious contexts. We’ll discuss religious panic, as well as the role that pop culture has played in our understanding of many paranormal phenomena.

In this lecture, students will turn to the world of cryptozoology to think about the monstrous, as well as the construction and function of legends.

In week seven, we zoom out again to consider the make-up of paranormal communities. Far from existing on the fringe, paranormal believers, experiencers, investigators, and enthusiasts are everywhere. But who are they, really?

In this final week, students will turn again to big questions about the boundaries of religion and its relationship with science, with the paranormal as a case study. We’ll also explore what our beliefs about the haunted and the monstrous might say about us, whether we identify as believers or not.