Paranatural is a term used by the Federal Bureau of Control to refer to elements which violate the known laws of nature and reality. The ostensible goal of the FBC is to contain, study, and ultimately gain control over these elements. Examples of paranatural phenomena include Altered Items, Objects of Power, Places of Power, other dimensions, and Altered World Events. Paranatural elements are studied in the Central Research Sector of the Oldest House.

The term "paranatural" is modern FBC terminology. Prior to the death of Director Theodore Ash, Sr. in 1964, the FBC employed the term "thaumaturgical" instead, which reflected the organization's origins in occultism.

Nature[]

Little is known about the true nature of paranatural phenomena as their interdimensional nature makes them impossible to be fully understood by the human mind. However a ball-park description of them would be events and elements that have been affected by other dimensions seeping into our world. One of the goals of the Federal Bureau of Control is to empirically study these elements in order to understand them; however, due to the physics and logic-defying behavior of these forces, a scientific understanding may be impossible. Unlike natural forces, paranatural forces do not obey strict rules and are instead fluid and illogical. One thing that is known, however, is that paranatural forces gravitate to the collective unconscious; they display an affinity for ordinary objects (thus resulting in Altered Items), and are affected by mental forces such as consciousness and perception. For example, the Service Weapon is said to have changed its form to meet the general perception of a "weapon" during any given era.

It is not known why paranatural forces are connected to the mind, though the FBC investigates these connections in studies such as parapsychology. One of the main goals of the FBC is to find methods of controlling paranatural elements; this has led to the development of rituals, processes which allow for "attuned" individuals to manipulate paranatural forces in certain ways. In accordance with the mental nature of the paranatural, these rituals are designed based on connections of meaning and metaphor rather than direct causality. Zachariah Trench stated that "dream logic" is a requirement for understanding the paranatural, alluding to the illogical and subjective nature of these forces.

Various in-game documents and character dialogues associate paranatural phenomena with the psychological theories of Carl Jung, particularly the concepts of collective unconscious, archetypes, and synchronicity. Hinting that a possible description is that these events are caused by the Astral Plane seeping into our dimension causing it to be susceptible to being influenced and even re written by the collective unconscious.

Paranatural ability users could be described as individuals with a connection to the Astral Plane that allows them wield some of it's power, acting as intermediaries between the Astral Plane and our world. These abilities also allow them to "Bind" Altered Items to themselves, creating a bond that allows them to use their powers such as telekinetically moving items. The greater the connection to the Astral Plane the stronger the user, a weak Paranatural user would only be able to move an item a few inches, Northmoore a particularly strong user hand picked by The Board could throw objects a few feet, while Jesse Faden who possessed a connection strong enough to house the Polaris resonance could throw multiple objects hundreds of feet with deadly force.

The Tennyson Report criticizes the use of scientific terminology by the Bureau referring to the paranatural, due to the innately spiritual and occult nature of paranatural phenomena, and calls for a return from contemporary Bureau orthodoxy to the organization's roots.

Trivia[]

• "Paranatural" is the FBC's official term for "paranormal" or "supernatural", and is a combination of the two terms

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