Att förklara det oförklarliga : En livsåskådningsstudie om människors tolkningar av paranormala fenomen i en vetenskaplig tidsålder
Sammanfattning: The purpose of the present thesis is to investigate the importance that paranormal phenomena has for the view of life of contemporary Swedes. It is my impression that science and scientific theories generally influence the person who tries to understand specific phenomena in the world. It is therefore my assumption that a "scientific worldview" constitutes the cultural background for people's interpretation of paranormal phenomena. By "paranormal phenomena" I mean phenomena related to the following fields: Parapsychology, Spiritism, Magic, Folk-traditional beliefs, and Astrology. Two kinds of materials were collected: A (structured) questionnaire distributed to a representative sample of the Swedish population, and 18 (longer unstructured) interviews. I combined the statistical data and interview material, because, the statistical data provided me with a general picture of the general spreading of the attitudes, while the interview material deepened and qualified the picture. Most of the Swedes do not believe in paranormal phenomena. However, the results indicate a considerable variation of attitudes toward different phenomena. In the present thesis I state that paranormal phenomena affect three levels of a person's life: the theoretical level, the experience level, and the functional level.The average Swede values science high. The most remarkable result of the investigation is that there is no correlation between belief in paranormal phenomena and appreciation of science. The respondents who claim to believe in paranormal phenomena express the same high appreciation of science as those who do not believe in such phenomena.
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