NG SPECIAL ISSUE
SECRETS OF THE SUPERNATURAL
 
In its modern understanding, the idea of “the supernatural” is a product of secularism. It emerged in Europe at a time when nature was beginning to be understood less as an expression of the wondrous and unfathomable mind of God, and more as a realm that could be known, cataloged, and mastered for human use. This new, empirically apprehended, utilitarian idea of nature independent of a creator produced its opposite: the supernatural, a place that did not obey the laws of nature. European colonizers often had the idea that people whose land they invaded and conquered were especially prone to thinking of the world as animated by spirits or other numinous powers. The colonizers’ manner of thinking created or emphasized various binaries: material versus spiritual, rational versus irrational, religion versus superstition, civilized versus uncivilized.