Paranormalism and Pseudoscience as Deviance
Paranormalism and Pseudoscience as Deviance
This chapter analyzes paranormalism as a “deviant discipline” violating the consensus of established science. It discusses the five types of pseudoscientific belief systems: beliefs that depend on a client–practitioner relationship; paranormal belief systems that begin within a religious tradition and are sustained by a religious institution; a form of pseudoscience that is kept alive by a core of researchers who practice what seems to be the form but not the content of science; paranormal belief systems that can be characterized as grassroots in nature; and paranormal beliefs originating from the mind of a social isolate, a single person with an unusual, implausible, scientifically unworkable vision of how nature works. The chapter then presents case studies on astrology and parapsychology.
Keywords: pseudoscience, paranormalism, science, paranormal beliefs, belief systems
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