Paranormal is an umbrella term used to describe a
wide variety of reported anomalous phenomena.
According to the Journal of Parapsychology, the
term paranormal describes "any phenomenon that in
one or more respects exceeds the limits of what is
deemed physically possible according to current
scientific assumptions." For this reason, the
scientific community often avoids research on the
paranormal, believing that it may not conform to the
standards required by the scientific method.

Paranormal describes subjects studied under
parapsychology, which deals with psychic phenomena
like telepathy, extra-sensory perception,
psychokinesis, and post-mortem survival studies like
reincarnation, ghosts, and hauntings. However, as a
broader category, the paranormal sometimes
describes subjects outside the scope of
parapsychology, including anomalous aspects of
UFOs, some creatures that fall under the scope of
cryptozoology, purported phenomena surrounding
the Bermuda Triangle, and many other non-psychical
subjects.