When we talk about science we usually think of something expainable, something physical that can be measured and studied and/or recreated in a laboratory. When we think of the supernatural we think of something unexplainable, something metaphysical that moves and operates in a realm beyond our senses and beyond anything that can be detected and measured up with mere tools or machines.
And generally that is the way we like to have it. But I personally do get fascinated when science DO try to explain and approach the supernatural, and may even have the mehods and tools to do so. The most clear example of this in fiction that comes to my mind is Ghostbusters. Three scientists are conducting scientific investigations on paranormal activity and in the process they invent scientific tools and methods to approach, track and even apprehend and contain friggin’ ghosts.
Sure, caring around, and firing from, an unlicensed, backpack-sized nuclear accelerator, aka the proton pack, isn’t the most ethical nor the safest way to go around it (did they ever get those licensed?), but hey, it worked! I especially love the Psychokinetic Energy meter, aka the P.K.E meter, a tool that Egon, Ray and Venkman used even before they formed the Ghostbusters, back when they were employed by Columbia University. How it’s able to measure psychokinetic energy I still don’t know, but I like it.
In its secondary canon the P.K.E meter apparantly has three colors that it displays depending on what it detects. Red for ghosts or other spectral beings. Green for paranormal substances, such as ectoplasma. And blue for a cursed artifact. Apparantly it also has a built in copy of Tobins Spiritual Guide, scanning and identifying what is approached, which kind of sounds like a Pokedex but for paranormal things.
The last tool I just like to mention are the Ecto-goggles. The Nightvision headgear, also used to detect ghosts, that we see Ray carry around in the first movie. Again, no idea how it’s able to detect ghosts but I like it. A lot of this stuff may not be entirely, factually correct even within the Ghostbusters universe. But it is progress. It is a succesful attempt by science to understand and engage with the supernatural in that universe. And that is how science do things.
Even if it is something that should be impossible to measure and fully engage with it doesn’t stop science from trying to do so. Heck, even in the real world attempts are made by science to understand and explain paranormal phenomenons. For example, I know this blog article about the Quantum Theory of Ghosts which you can read for yourselfs HERE. Really fascinating stuff I think.
Which is why it feels kind of off to me when you have a setting where there is modern, or perhaps even futuristic tech and scientific theory, that also has magic and other supernatural elements, and science isn’t making any attempt to demystify those elements. Which is what science I feel is supposed to do. It is supposed to demystify the mystical. To make it explainable, factual and as understandable as can be.
That’s how we now understand that thunder and lightning did not come from Thor riding his charriot pulled by two goats, named Tanngrisnir and Tanngnjóstr, across the clouds, but from a flow of energy that heats the air to around 50 000 degrees Farenheit, causing the air to explode outwards in the form of bolts of lightning. This is why I just can’t feel offended by Qui Gon Jinn talking about the Midi-Chlorians in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.
I feel like in a sci-fi universe there should be something like that. And hey, what says that the mystical and the scientific cannot go together. The mystical may not be all that mystical anymore in that case, but it still is what it is and does what it does. The ghosts in Ghostbusters still are what they are and do what they do, only now we can understand how they work after getting proparly Egon’d so to speak.
And hey, I can understand if people rather keep the mystery going because they find it more intriguing, and in a lot of cases I do too. But I do find it just as intriguing when science can make a solid attempt to take the un out of the unknown, the unexplainable, the unmeasurable, and the cool and unique ways and methods it will come up with to do so.
So what are your thoughts then? Do you too like it when science tries to factualize the mystical or do you object to that concept? Have you tried anything like it in your own creative works? Have you invented a P.K.E meter of your own perhaps?
Let me know in the comments. I ain’t afraid of no comments^^
Helixfinger out!
Supernatural Science
Andreas_Helixfinger at 12:00AM, March 13, 2022
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cdmalcolm1 at 1:31AM, March 18, 2022
@Andreas_Helixfinger: EssayBee might be talking about StarWars; the creeds that give all life the force… (I know I didn’t get that right. I have no real info about them or how they work. )
Andreas_Helixfinger at 12:47PM, March 16, 2022
@EssayBee - Already given my take on the midi-chlorians. Don't know about the Whillies, unless your referring to the textbook "willies" meaning "a strong feeling of nervous discomfort". Which could maybe be decoded into something awesome by mathemagic:P
Andreas_Helixfinger at 12:41PM, March 16, 2022
@cdmalcolm1 - I agree. Magic in of itself may be this vast, cosmic thing and/or inner cerebral thing that we can only really understand a fraction of. But like you said, the practice and the know-how that goes into magic for those harnessing it and working with it, there is a kind of science going on. I like to consider Alchemy, as a concept, to be a form of magical science, which I think I'll talk more about in the next article.
EssayBee at 3:42PM, March 15, 2022
And who can forget perhaps the most-controversial concept in this category: the Whills and midichlorians.
cdmalcolm1 at 2:12PM, March 15, 2022
Don’t get me wrong, I love the thought of magic and it being mysterious. When magic vs magic comes into play, viewers are caught up into the wonders of power level or control over another. Tricks, tips and cheats are eye candy when it is an epic battle. Masters of the universe so to speak. Ghosts 👻 spirits, might just be out of phase with our universe by a small fraction. Somehow bought together by different types of forces that at times coexist at the same times, space, energy and interaction. The tools we have are based on our human senses. An animal with a different type of sense maybe able to see, smell, hear, touch or even sense with their mind if these do exist. Some ppl might call such creatures magical. They are in tone with nature’s hidden secrets not shared with every form of life. Just like we see Color while others don’t. Hell, we could be seen as magical to our pets and other animals looking at us.
cdmalcolm1 at 1:43PM, March 15, 2022
Mathemagic, dark magic, white magic, dimensional magic, god like magic, what ever it is, it has some kind of structure to it. Either said, preformed, or by thought, they too have to follow a rule, a base or standard even if we don’t understand it or can’t comprehend it. No matter which version of magic you see, there is a right way and a wrong way to do said magic just like anything else. From students and understudies to masters and gods, they understand either energy of magic or know how to harness that energy. Due to those presets it is a “science” onto itself. Basically eye candy with perks. Now, todays tech can look like magic to those in the past. I can’t remember which Merlin story it was, but Merlin said he saw the future and built and made things that could do extraordinary things. Now, as for how far into the future he saw, he never said. Very interesting topic I must say. I have a story about a witch that uses tech from her planet and charms it with witchcraft.
Andreas_Helixfinger at 11:57AM, March 15, 2022
@EssayBee - Now that's what I'm talking about. Treating the supernatural as this cerebral dimension that the mind can barely grasp and science may be the only tool to do so, though it may only be able to scratch the surface of understanding it at best. Lovecraft, as you mentioned, gives us cool concepts of this. Talking about his weird angles mathemagic brings me the Hound of Tindalos to mind. This horrifying otherdimensional monster that is believed to live inside the angled time dimension as opposed to human beings who live in the curved time dimension. They materialize in any sharp corner that is about 120 degrees, or lower, angle to hunt and devour anyone who happens to be there. That's wiiiild! That's the wild, mathemagic supernatural science I'm talking about8) And yeah, some mathematical nut out there should totally write a science fantasy story about mathemagic^^
Andreas_Helixfinger at 11:24AM, March 15, 2022
@PaulEberhardt - I hear ya'. I too believe that it much depends on the setting and the way you play all of your pieces in that setting. Like everything else there are good ways to do it and there are bad ways to do it. My way of doing science+magic is seperating it into two perspectives, one being that of the observing humans, who's use and awareness of the supernatural is somewhat stunted and science is being used to fill in the gaps, using a different more science-ish terminology and theory crafting. The other being that of the deeply involved fairy-species called the Imsies who lives and breaths magic powers and treats everything like weird, whimsical magic, even when they do try to be scientific about it, though they don't call it magic they have their own local, whimsical little terminology for it.
EssayBee at 7:26AM, March 15, 2022
Shirley Jackson's "Haunting of Hill House" (and to a lesser degree, Richard Matheson's "Hell House") has an interesting premise of investigating a haunted house. It has some cool ideas to explain randomly closing and opening doors (architecture at slight angles that are unnoticeable to the eye but let gravity do its thing), cold spots, and such. Of course, scientific observation can't account for everything, but it also has a psychological angle so you can read the supernatural as a psychological issue as well. You also can't forget H.P. Lovecraft's "bad math" magic (e.g., angles that don't add up opening gateways to other places).
PaulEberhardt at 6:55AM, March 15, 2022
This said, I enjoy a good technobabble when it's in the right setting and the writers did enough research to know what the words actually mean. It can be as nonsensical as all get out for all I care (the more the better, actually), but it should show that it is supposed to be that way. There's the parallel to jokes again, because it's the same difference as between readers laughing about a well-timed gag and readers laughing about the ineptitude of the storyteller.
PaulEberhardt at 6:40AM, March 15, 2022
Realism is totally overrated - and as it stands, real-life science even supports this notion in a way, since it has no pretensions to being any more than our current best guess about everything. Humanities add that anything that influences people's behaviour is real for all intents and purposes, even if it's not. Take that, realism nerds! But I'm drifting off topic: I usually like it better if things stay unexplained unless it's REALLY necessary for the story. That way, both the reader and yourself as the author have that much more elbowroom for letting your imagination and sense of wonder run wild. It's a bit like explaining a joke: once you have to do that it isn't really funny any more, and if you explain magic, it ceases to be magical and becomes sufficiently advanced RPG rules.
Andreas_Helixfinger at 9:11PM, March 14, 2022
@Amelius - No worries. I wasn't trying to defense or anything like that. I've just made it sort of an obligation to always give a hollar back to any comments on these newsposts. And I just sort of took the liberty to clarify things that may have come out wrong in the newspost itself for anyone reading it. But, yeah, those fans you mentioned sounds very much like the slasher fans. Fans in general who insist on "realism" in their fantasy. And to those people I like to say "You want realism? Take a trip to Ukraine and witness the realism happening there. You people will probably BEG for some imagination and wonder when, or even if, you come back!"
Amelius at 12:06PM, March 14, 2022
Haha, oh no I totally get what you're saying, I just went off on a tangent XD Yes, it's sorta in the vein of the sufficiently advanced technology seeming like magic, I don't hate it IN fiction where magi-science is a thing (Guild Wars 2 has this theme for one of their races using scientific language to describe magic) it's more the superiority complex a lot of materialist-minded fans have against magic even just being magic. Don't mind me, I just forgot to scrape my shoes after reading the horror movie post in the forum! XD
Andreas_Helixfinger at 5:19AM, March 14, 2022
Final conclusion: The supernatural will always be a wild, magnificent and barely coherent picture. What Science can do is to serve as its innovative, equally magnificent and progressively measured frame.
Andreas_Helixfinger at 5:19AM, March 14, 2022
@usedbooks - It's really cool that you mention that, Usedbooks:) Cuz I was thinking about making my next article about the opposite of what I was talking about here. I'm thinking the title of that article will be Scientific Magic, or somesuch:P
Andreas_Helixfinger at 5:19AM, March 14, 2022
@cdmalcolm1 - I think you and I look at it all in a very similar way, cdmalcolm1. You basically mean that if nature is the physical side of the enviroment and the anatomy, then magic is the metaphysical side of the enviroment and anatomy, both interacting and exchanging information with one another. Like through a semiperbeal skin, going both ways, translating physical spells and rituals into metaphysical magic and metaphysical mana into physical atomics and flows of energy, much like how computer coding translates into colors, shapes and text on a computer screen and vice versa. Yes. And I do honestly believe the mundane and the magic of the world thus work in ways like that. 50 000 degrees Farenheit in the sky could be nature's coding for supernature's Tanngrisnir and Tangnjóstr pulling Thor in his chariot across the clouds:) Science demystifying it was simply decoding supernature's Thor into nature's 50 000 degrees Farenheit here on the other end8)
Andreas_Helixfinger at 4:10AM, March 14, 2022
@Amelius - I agree with you that people who insist that all magic must be turned into strict mathematics in every way are on the wrong track and don't really understand magic or science in my opinion. The point I was trying to make is that in a world where science, as we know it, and magic both exists, it is to me believable that science would at least make an attempt to demistify it, to see if it can be demystified. But wether science succeeds in doing this or not, doesn't really matter to me, nor does it really matter to science. Because either success or failure is an answer. That's the cool thing about science. Both yes or no is an answer and science will accept either one. My case for the midi-chlorians is that, similar to how a purified chakra may enhance the physical condition as well as the spiritual, so may the force take physical form within a Jedi's anatomy in the form of midi-chlorians. The physical and the spiritual can go together in many ways like that.
usedbooks at 10:17PM, March 13, 2022
Nearly every JRPG is set in a world with "magitech" which is sort of the opposite of what you are talking about? Like they have modern sorts of lighting and vehicles and computers. But they are powered by some sort of spirit force.
cdmalcolm1 at 7:24PM, March 13, 2022
The way I see it, magic is like the first software for controlling the elements. Nature has it own programming to which we only begin to understand. The “Sorcerer’s Apprentice” kind of explains why the kid has an acute ability to understanding science through magic he inherited from his family bloodline. (I might be explaining it wrong. Have to watch the movie to see what I mean.) I kind of run my universe based on what they were saying. The use of how one can control the micro-verse. Starting from molecules to Chemical bonds; or from atoms to particles; or Quarks, Leptons, Bosons or Baryons. Maybe even super stings. Magic could mean an understanding of nature in it entirely like time, dimensions, space and the objects that are governed in them. Merging science with magic or Vice versa is very much like programming or charming an object. Spells are written or spoken to control very much like programming an object with a different language.
Amelius at 12:19PM, March 13, 2022
Ghostbusters aside (it works because the mudanity of ghosts being like roaches is the point) I actually get really annoyed with attempts to "science" up magic, sure magic needs logical rules or else you end up with garbage do-whatever magic systems like Harry Potter, but I find people who insist on taking the magic out of magic to be insecure nerds and "no fun" police. It stops being fantasy/supernatural and becomes science fiction. I love scifi, but I really don't like the insistence that it encroach on fantasy/supernatural works just because some people lack imagination and a sense of wonder. I don't mind a hard magic system, but reducing everything to strict materialism is just not my vibe. Things like Midichlorians are pedantic and unnecessary, and bungle more than they explain, and ruins the tone. Jedi were cooler when they didn't just have a Space STD.
Andreas_Helixfinger at 4:30AM, March 13, 2022
@MOrgan - And the Star Trek's tricorder is just a purely scientific version of the PKE^^
MOrgan at 4:16AM, March 13, 2022
The PKE is just a supernatural version of Star Trek's tricorder. ;-)
Andreas_Helixfinger at 4:14AM, March 13, 2022
@Ozoneocean - Yeah! I mean, look at all the cool stuff and thinky-fluff that can be produced mixing the world of science with the world of magic. You can get some wiiiild weirdness out of that I tell ya'8)
Andreas_Helixfinger at 4:05AM, March 13, 2022
@bravo1102 - You explained it a lot better then I did, Bravo, and I'm glad you did:) Science can show us how these strange and mysterious things works, and yet they still remain strange and mysterious. That's how I really like it, and what I was really trying to get at^^
Andreas_Helixfinger at 4:01AM, March 13, 2022
@davidxoluga - I think it counts. I haven't proparly read the Hellboy comics, but I am considering maybe getting into that universe someday.