Metaphysics
is the branch of philosophy concerned with explaining
the nature of the world. It is the study of being or
reality.[1] It addresses questions such as: What is
the nature of reality? Is there a God? What is man's
place in the universe? A central branch of metaphysics
is ontology, the investigation into what categories
of things are in the world and what relations these
things bear to one another. The metaphysician also attempts
to clarify the notions by which people understand the
world, including existence, objecthood, property, space,
time, causality, and possibility.
To call one a metaphysician in this traditional, philosophical
sense indicates nothing more than his or her interest
in attempting to discover what underlies everything.
Old materialists, who said that there is nothing but
matter in motion, and current naturalists, who say that
everything is made of lifeless, non-experiencing energy,
are just as much to be classified as metaphysicians
as are idealists, who maintain that there is nothing
but ideas, or mind, or spirit.
A commonly employed, secondary, popular, usage of metaphysics
includes a wide range of controversial phenomena believed
by many people to exist beyond the physical. Popular
metaphysics relates to two traditionally contrasted,
if not completely separable, areas, (1) mysticism, referring
to experiences of unity with the ultimate, commonly
interpreted as the God who is love, and (2) occultism,
referring to the extension of knowing (extrasensory
perception, including telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition,
retrocognition, and mediumship) and doing (psychokinesis)
beyond the usually recognized fields of human activity.
The academic study of the occult (literally hidden)
has been known as psychical research and, more recently,
parapsychology. Both New Age and New Thought emphasize
mysticism and its practical, pragmatic application in
daily living, but New Thought discourages involvement
in occultism.
