I. THE SUPERNATURAL
Aim: What is the Supernatural
Learning objective: To use critical thinking in explaining the concept of the supernatural
Many people talk about the supernatural world or supernatural events. We have prepared a chart with some situations. Read each story and decide whether this event is natural or supernatural, based on your experience. Use the right column of the chart to write the reasons that support your opinion
| Situation | Natural or supernatural? | Why? |
| 1. Your best friend was absent from school yesterday. Today she came back with a cast leg. She said she had a car accident, but she can't remember anything. | ||
| 2. This little kid is followed by a gang of classmates determined this time to catch him and beat him up well. The kid jumps some trash cans in the school yard. The others corner him. There's no escape. He jumps again and all of a sudden he realizes that he is on the rooftop. He later gets reprimanded by the principal for walking on the school roof. | ||
| 3. In my dream grandmother told me that 2,6, and 7 are my lucky numbers. I played the lottery the next day and I won 5,000 dollars! | ||
| 4. The leader saw the enemy approaching. His own people were weary and discouraged. They wouldn't last a minute the emperor's disciplined and well-armed troops. Just in front of him the sea was calm, deep, and endless. It prevented any escape from death and captivity. But he knew what to do. He stroke the land with his cane and all of a sudden the waters departed. There was now a path in the middle of the sea where his people could walk away from danger. | ||
| 5. His great-great-grandfather at the beginning of time was the prairie buffalo, the one that gives his tribe strength and courage to battle enemies and storms. Every Indian knows this fundamental fact and respects the buffalo and all living animals. |
Give examples of a natural event and another example of a supernatural event. What about an event you are not sure of? Use your own life and experience. Write at least an event and be prepared to motivate why you placed that event in one of these three categories.
| Natural event | Supernatural event | You are not sure? |
| Short description:
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Short description:
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Short description:
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| Rationale:
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Rationale:
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Rationale:
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Directions for the teacher: You can print these charts and use them as handouts. You can also ask the students to email you their answers, use one of the data gathering forms employed in this unit, or create an online discussion forum where students can post their answers.
Aim: How Do Some People Explain the Supernatural?
There are numerous ways of explaining the supernatural. Let us present one of them.
There are two different worlds that stay separated most of the time. Sometimes, not quite often, these two worlds come into contact. This is when supernatural creatures visit the natural world for a short time.
| Natural World | Supernatural World | |
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In the world of fairy tales and ancient myths, there is also the possibility that the most powerful heroes find a way to the supernatural world: they slay dragons, they battle monsters and witches, and they even visit the world of the dead. Gilgamesh, Hercules, and Orpheus went there to prove their power or to search for answers.
No wonder that Hercules's last and most difficult task was to capture Cerberus, the creature that guards the gates of the Underworld. Click here for more information.
You all saw Harry Potter, the movie, or you read the book. Remember Fluffy, the three-headed dog that guards the Sorcerer's Stone? Fluffy is in fact Cerberus, the monster whose only weakness is the sound of music. This is how Orpheus convinced him to let him into the Underworld to look for his dead wife, Eurydice.
Written Assignments:
1. Do you know of any other way of explaining the supernatural? Suggestion: Use this quote to draft another possible answer:
"The supernatural is the natural not yet understood"
2. Students will give examples of supernatural events that were presented to them or that happened one time in their existence. Again, use the Internet to create a testimonial-gathering device:
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If you noticed a supernatural event yourself, click HERE |
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If someone from your family was involved in a supernatural event, click HERE |