Hi, I’m John Green, and welcome  to Crash Course Religions.

Do you ever get the feeling something  — or someone — is watching you?

Maybe it’s a tingle on the back of your neck?

A perfume in the air?

Or a strange noise coming from your attic?

Your email getting inexplicably  hacked by a user called “FancyBear”?

PUTIN?!

It could be Vlad, of course,  but it could also be a ghost.

About four in ten Americans believe  the dead can communicate with us — despite religious affiliation  dropping over the last few decades.

So, how does the paranormal fit into  the bigger picture of religious beliefs?

Are “spirits” a part of “spirituality”?

[THEME MUSIC] The paranormal is a broad umbrella, encompassing everything from ghosts to telepathy, from aliens to Bigfoot – and a lot of weird, spooky stuff in between.

It’s often used interchangeably  with “the supernatural,” but usually “paranormal” describes something that’s both unexplained by science and not a generally accepted religious belief.

But of course that brings us back  to the Christianity-shaped box  that so much of religious analysis  has used to understand a religion.

So we might say that God is a supernatural concept and Hamlet’s Dead Father is a paranormal one, but then we get into issues  like, “paranormal to who?” And then we get into issues  like paranormal to whom?

Question mark, question mark, question mark?

I’ve never known, Stan, and more to the point, I’m not sure anybody knows.

All that acknowledged, take UFOs, a phenomenon that’s gained a lot of steam in recent years.

They’ve even got the U.S. Congress paying attention which, as we all know, is not easy.

Reports of UFOs stretch back decades—  and, in some cases, centuries.

One thing we won’t acknowledge  by the way is the term UAP.

It’s just… it’s not gonna happen, Space Force.

But when it comes to intelligent  extraterrestrials zipping about in flying saucers, they’re neither scientifically proven nor  accepted by a mainstream religious institution, so we would consider them paranormal.

Please don’t sue me, Church of Scientology.

As repeatedly established  in this series, I love you.

Specifically, I love when you don’t sue me.

But let’s compare UFOs to something like angels,  which are usually considered  supernatural, or religious, phenomena.

Roughly seventy percent of Americans  say they believe in angels.

And you’d think all those folks  would be “religious” themselves—  Christians, Jews, Muslims, and even Wiccans.

But thirty-three percent of those  who reported believing in angels  said they don’t identify with a religion.

Maybe they’re all just… fans  of “It’s a Wonderful Life”?

Myself I prefer a biblically accurate angel.

Put one of those on screen, Stan.

Yes!

Yes!

That’s what I’m talking about!

Put that in “It’s a Wonderful Life”!

Stan just informed me that  references to old black-and-white  movies are extremely not hip  with the kids.

My apologies.

But for context, It’s a Wonderful Life  is like that Muppets’ A Christmas Carol,  which is like Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, which is like Scrooged, which is like Elf.

Y'all saw Elf, right?

Are there even – do they make Christmas movies anymore?

So… what do we make of this?

What does it actually mean to “believe in  angels” if you aren’t also “religious”?

[phone vibrates] Oh no.

Is that who I think it is, Stan?

[JOHN GREEN] Hello [DEVIL’S ADVOCATE] I’m back,   baby!

And I got to say, I know a few angels.

Some of my best friends are angels.

In fact, you may not know this,  but my boss used to be an angel.

And they’d tell you that you can’t  believe in angels and not be religious.

That just doesn’t make sense.

[JOHN] Well, but there are  a lot of people who describe  themselves as “spiritual but not religious…” right?

Meaning they believe in some things typically associated with religions but don’t consider themselves members of a particular religion.

But, it’s funny…I don’t  think you’re completely off.

[DEVIL’S ADVOCATE] Okay, sure but what about… Wait, hold on, did you just agree with me?

[JOHN] I wouldn’t go that far.

What I’m saying is that the phrase  “spiritual but not religious” can imply a kind of binary where spirituality and religion are like, separate things.

But that’s not always the case.

[DEVIL’S ADVOCATE] So I’m right!

[JOHN] Again, that’s not  where I’m going with this.

“Spirituality” and “religion”  are subjective terms though, right?

Like, people can use “spiritual” to  refer to supernatural phenomena  —or themselves—whether they’re  within or outside of a religion.

But a lot of people who identify as spiritual but not religious see those concepts as separate and define them in moral and political terms.

Like, they want to have  spiritual connection outside  the confines of organized  religion precisely because they find that organized religion discourages the kind of connection they’re seeking.

[DEVIL’S ADVOCATE] What, so, like being “spiritual” means they have, like, an individual, authentic, direct experience with the divine or whatever?

[JOHN] Exactly.

Whereas to  some folks, being “religious”  is an institutional, inauthentic,  and moderated experience.

[DEVIL’S ADVOCATE] Wait, did I just agree with you?

[JOHN] I think you did.

This is awkward.

[DEVIL’S ADVOCATE] Yeah, I’m out, bro.

[JOHN] I think I’m getting through to him.

Anyway, the point is that this concept  of “spirituality” is very flexible.

And that flexibility has proven popular.

In 2023, seven out of ten adults in the U.S. described themselves as spiritual, and over twenty percent of those respondents identified as “spiritual but not religious.” Like I was telling the Devil’s Advocate, people who identify with this label often see themselves in opposition to religion.

Like, a Pew study found  that Americans who identify  as “spiritual but not  religious” are much more likely than religious Americans to believe that “religion causes division and intolerance” and that “religion does more harm than good.” Now these beliefs can be rooted in one’s politics, like objections to how organized religions can marginalize women and LGBTQ+ people.

But rather than swear off  anything with a whiff of religion,  these folks aim to extract  some elements of religion from what they may view as corrupt institutions.

That way, they can create their  own version of spirituality  outside of a specific religion’s  rules and regulations.

It’s sort of like putting Taco Bell  sauce on foods that… aren’t Taco Bell.

To get a better idea of what this looks like in practice, let’s consider Shintō.

Many non-Japanese practitioners of Shintō find themselves attracted to it because they see it as being in tune with nature.

Plus, it has no founder, doctrine,  or mandated sacred texts.

In a lot of ways, it embodies  the idea of spirituality  as an authentic, individual  connection to the divine.

And indeed, many global practitioners of Shintō identify as “spiritual but not religious,” enjoying the comfort of a religious framework, one that they can mold to their own standards, without the dogmatic adherence to tradition.

But of course, there are traditions  and institutions in Shintō.

And sometimes, when we pick and choose what parts of a religion we want to believe in, it can have unintended consequences.

For instance, many Americans and Europeans have adopted Chinese Daoist spiritual practices.

They might look for spiritual  insight through reading the  Daodejing or practice Daoist  techniques of meditation or tai chi to gain a sense of calm.

But they likely have little interest in venerating Daoist gods, worshiping at shrines, or other practices inherent in  traditional religious Daoism.

Many scholars view this  Western desire to participate  in non-Western religious practices  as a kind of religious exoticism, where a part of a religion  is pulled out of context,  rejecting important aspects of its original form.

In other words, they turn something  sacred to a big group of people into a buffet of take-it-or-leave-it options,  picking and choosing what might  fill their spiritual stomachs.

Back in episode one, we used  the secularization of yoga  as an example of why trying to  define religion can be so tricky.

Because while yoga has distinctly Hindu origins,  many Americans and Europeans have  extracted it from those roots, using it as a means of self-improvement  and personal soul-searching instead of a way to unite your soul with Brahman, the spiritual core of the universe in Hinduism.

While of course cultures  are fluid and not all Hindus  are against the de-religioning of yoga, others feel removing it from its spiritual context can lead to stereotyping, commodification, and the erasure of culture.

So, as usual, it’s complicated.

But that’s not to say that  everyone who identifies as  “spiritual but not religious” is guilty  of appropriating a particular religion.

Spirituality is eclectic and can evolve to include  all sorts of beliefs, and traditions,  and ideas, and technologies.

And also, all religions borrow and change when encountering new cultural contexts.

Like, meditation apps and  guided meditation workshops  —both in person and online— have exploded in popularity in recent years.

Or, the uber-popular corner  of TikTok known as “witchtok”  is home to videos explaining the  benefits of different crystals —which has translated into  profits for stores that sell them.

Spirituality, the paranormal,  religion, and culture are constantly  meeting and diverging, continually  influencing one another.

And that influence goes both ways.

While many people consider themselves  “spiritual but not religious,”  many others consider themselves  spiritual and religious.

And otherwise paranormal beliefs can find their place among religious ideas.

Like, take ghosts, for example.

Across the religious spectrum –  including atheists and agnostics – over eighty percent of U.S. adults  believe that humans have souls or spirits.

And if you were to ask if they  had ever seen a ghost or spiritt,  a whopping thirty percent  would tell you they have.

Belief in ghosts is cross-cultural,  with spirits playing a major role  in many religious traditions and  also many secular traditions.

Like, ghost stories are popular  parts of folklore across the world,  from hauntings by La Llorona,  the “Weeping Woman” of Mexico, to appearances of the Bengali Skondhokatas— the headless ghosts of train accident victims.

But ghost stories are also  popular in secular communities  –like I heard them a lot  growing up at summer camp.

And ghost stories also show up in religious texts, like the story from the  Hebrew Bible of the deceased  prophet Samuel appearing to  King Saul during a seance.

In Hindu Vedic texts, there  are bhuts—restless ghosts  of people who died violently  or without proper funerals.

Or the spirits of the Hungry  Ghost Festival in China.

No matter where you stand on the  existence and behavior of ghosts,  they’re a part of how humans  make sense of the world.

To think about it another way, a belief in ghosts – or indeed a belief in the paranormal – can be seen as a part of  a person’s lived religion, the everyday spiritual life they live outside of more formal religious settings.

People who identify as “spiritual  but not religious” aren’t the  only people who pick and choose their  religious beliefs and practices, after all.

Like, you’d be hard-pressed to find a person who practices Catholicism in the exact right way.

I mean, aside from maybe the Pope.

But only maybe!

Like, okay.

Let’s say you’re  Sikh, but you happen to experience  an unexplained light in a cornfield one evening.

To you, it looks like a UFO, even though you’ve never believed in UFOs before.

You might decide to add it to the list of things you do believe in after this encounter.

But, just because you decide you believe in UFOs, doesn’t mean you’re no longer Sikh, or that the belief is influenced by Sikh teaching.

In the same way, a Christian might practice yoga,  use crystals to find balance,  or cleanse their house with sage – all beliefs that aren’t  taught within Christianity,  and might even be frowned upon in some cases.

But engaging in these spiritual practices doesn’t mean that person isn’t Christian; it just means their lived version of Christianity might look different from mine, just like mine might look  different from my neighbors’.

Like, I believe there is a ghost in my barn.

Now, my Episcopal priest won’t  come over to exorcise it, but I’m still allowed to believe in that ghost while also being Episcopalian.

Each of us constructs our own eclectic  versions of our lived religions,  often drawing on ideas from the culture around us, be it the healing power of  crystals or belief in aliens.

In fact, most scholars see spirituality  not in opposition to religion, but as one of many ways people do religion, whether sanctioned by an institution or not.

Ultimately, there’s enough room within the ever-widening borders of religion for all kinds of practices and beliefs– supernatural, paranormal, or otherwise.

One can be spiritual but not  religious, spiritual and religious,  and even religious but not spiritual.

In the end, it’s the belief that  matters more than the label.

And I want to believe.

I think we can all agree that  this world is a better place  when we believe in each other  – well, each other and Bigfoot.

In our next episode, we’ll  leave the paranormal behind  and find out how religion and science may be more compatible than we tend to think.