Investigating the Paranormal for 2,000 Years

**Jimmy Akin** (0:00)
Hi there, folks! Did you know that Christianity has a long history of investigating the paranormal? In fact, the word poltergeist was coined by Martin Luther. Two Catholic priests once captured a voice from beyond the grave on tape and took it straight to the Pope. And the Vatican even has skeptical atheist scientists help investigate miracles.
This August, I'm teaching a four-week course for the Rhein Research Center called Psi in Christianity. A lot of folks assume that Christianity and the paranormal are enemies, that the church thinks everything psychic is either fake or demonic, but that's not the whole story. For 2,000 years, Christians have been wrestling with the very phenomena that parapsychologists study today, things like telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, mind over matter, and the survival of the soul after death. In this course, we'll explore that hidden history together. We'll look at saints who reportedly levitated, like Joseph Cupertino and Teresa of Avila. We'll meet priests and bishops who were practicing dowsers. We'll look at theologians like Thomas Aquinas, who worked out how telepathy might operate. And we'll look at a Swedish mystic who saw a fire burn in 300 miles away while it was happening.
We'll also dig into near-death experiences, going back to St. Jerome, into deathbed visions and after-death communications, and the surprisingly rigorous way the Catholic Church investigates miracles, apparitions, and cases of demonic possession with real criteria, medical experts, and a healthy dose of caution.
And you don't have to be a Christian to take this course. You don't have to believe in Psy either. Wherever you're coming from, you're welcome. My goal is to build bridges, such as to help Christians better understand parapsychology, and to help parapsychologists better understand Christians. The course happens live on Monday evenings in August from 7 to 9 p.m. Eastern. It's entirely online, so you can join from anywhere in the world, and every session is recorded in case you can't make it live. You can watch it at your convenience. Tuition is just $119 or $109 if you're a Rhyme member.
This is a perfect course for those who listen to Jimmy Akin's Mysterious World. So if any of this sparks your curiosity, come join me. Head over to rhynedu.org to sign up. That's rhineedu.org, and we'll start exploring together. I look forward to seeing you in class.