The Supernatural: Real, Unreal or Really Unreal

A short look at the supernatural by Larry Cohen, c. 2026

One of my thoughtful, insightful readers wrote to me after reading some of my more recent pieces and asked whether I thought the Supernatural was real or not. And what was my reasoning, either way?

I thought about this seriously before I tried to craft a rational, reasonable, and equally insightful answer. Coincidentally, the radio program “On Point” out of Boston’s WBUR NPR affiliate examined this very topic last week (see https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2026/09/04/science-of-the-supernatural-paranormal)

Although I have never seen a ghost, there are many who claim that they have, some seeing the same ghost multiple times. I believe their claims are legitimate as to their belief that they saw a ghost…it’s just that I have doubts about what they actually saw and/or heard was really a ghost.

There is a tendency to focus on this topic around Halloween rather than in the latter part of Summer. But if ghosts are truly around, they should be around all of the time and not have to wait until the last day of October to appear.

Magicians don’t claim to do anything that is supernatural. They perform their tricks and illusions with no claim of any supernatural ability. Psychics, on the other hand, do make this claim, dubious as it might be, but there is one problem.

There is no verifiable proof that they have any ability to see into the future or speak to the dead, whatsoever. We are a society of science, of verifiable and repeatable experimental evidence, not one of make-believe and hocus-pocus.

Woody Allen, the humorist and filmmaker, once quipped that he firmly believed there was a World of the Beyond but “he wasn’t sure how far it is from Midtown and how late it’s open”

After World War One, there was a surge in those who claimed to be able to contact the dead as well as so-called “new” religions, especially in California, where their leaders made similar claims.

Generally, after fleecing their new converts out of their savings, the leaders disappeared. This was not supernatural, just very, very natural.

In David Jaher’s well written and annotated book, “The Witch of Lime Street”, Seance, Seduction, and Houdini in the Spirit World (Crown, 2015). Jaher goes to great lengths to point out how even the President of the Scientific American Society was almost taken in by a woman who claimed she could contact the dead. It took Houdini (Eric Weisz) to prove her claim false and her ability to perform old-fashioned trickery.

In summary, I can’t say there is no “spirit world”, but I can’t say there is. It is simply not provable. Unless someone, somewhere has proof to the contrary, I will always be an eternal skeptic.