pseudoparanormal

Book Report 

The book The Demon Haunted World-Science a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan, ultimately has a lot to offer. This book talked about several different topics all of which are trying to prove that science goes beyond what people commonly think about it and there is a lot that is to still be talked about that often isn't. Sagan appeared to be fascinated by the talk of aliens and UFO abductions which makes sense as to why he strongly believes that science needs to go beyond "planets" to discover what else is really out there. He explained in the novel that people who really do believe that they see aliens or feel that they have been abducted have underlying psychological issues, but there is a lot that scientists still need to discover. He also mentioned in the novel that its important to realize that a lot of the topics can be controversial so people tend to ignore them rather than coming together to truly discover them deeply. I believe the point of this novel was to discuss those topics. Sagan's writing was not extremely complex, as he appeared to make the novel very personable. While reading this, it was almost like he was talking directly to me, instead of writing a book. Sagan's ideas were all very well thought out and his overall goal appeared to have people look deeply into science and to begin to take interest into thins such as UFO abductions, aliens, and even paranormal activity with demons.
My favorite part of the novel was Chapter 7 which talked about demons in the church. Because I had gone to a catholic school, the idea of demons was discussed, but it was never allowed to be talked about beyond a certain extent. Sagan made a point to show that the church does often decline the idea of demons and make them almost unheard of. Sagan also made a point to show that demons can come in forms other than typical "devil" imagery. This was my favorite part because I was able to relate to the people that Sagan was talking about because it is very obvious that a lot of people don't want to talk about demons especially those who practice religion to where it is bad that they are even talked about. In the lecture about out of body experiences, some people connect those to people of the "other" side.
Aside from reading this book, I have looked up certain situations online where people have these experiences with demons. This can be rather terrifying and it would seem less scary if those who were having this experiences knew that others did too. Again, I think Sagan ultimately wanted to raise awareness for these topics that people are thinking about and are seeing, rather than just ignoring them because it isn't concrete science with facts.  I attached an article that explains further of how someone can have a demonic experience with OBE as we have discussed in the lecture as this also relates to chapter 7 of the novel. (https://www.livescience.com/61227-incubus-phenomenon.html)