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Psychic Glossary
The Secret Doctrine by H P Blavatsky
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A
Absent
Healing
Healing that
takes place when the healer is not in direct contact with the person to be
healed.
Absent Sitter
A person, not
present during a sitting, on whose behalf readings are given. See also Proxy
Sitting.
Acupuncture
Traditional
Chinese medical practice that involves sticking needles into specific locations
on the body. See also healing.
Agent
(a) Person who attempts to communicate
information to another in an ESP experiment. Cf. percipient.
(b) The
subject in a psychokinesis experiment.
(c) Person
who is the focus of poltergeist activity.
Akashic
Records
"Memories"
of all experiences since the beginning of time, believed by some mystical
doctrines to be stored permanently in a spiritual substance (Akasha).
Alien
Abduction Experience
Reported
experiences of being abducted by alien creatures, often into spacecraft.
Abductees often experience lost time and suffer loss of memory. When memories
are recovered, often using hypnotic regression, abductees may report that
surgical
operations were performed on them. See also temporal lobe activity.
Alpha Rhythm
Electrical
activity in the brain (about 10 cycles per
second)
associated with a state of mental relaxation. See also EEG.
Altered State
of
A term used
to refer to any state of consciousness that is different from
"normal" states of waking or sleeping. ASCs include hypnosis, trance,
ecstasy, psychedelic and meditative experience. ASCs do not necessarily have
paranormal features.
Ancestor
Worship
Religious
practices involving the veneration of dead ancestors.
Angels
Benevolent
spiritual beings who help people in need. See also guardian angel.
Animal
Magnetism
A term coined
by F.A. Mesmer to refer to a putative force or fluid capable of being
transmitted from one person to another, producing healing effects. See also
Mesmerism.
Animal
Mutilation
Refers to
cases in which animal corpses (often cattle) have been found with bizarre
injuries that do not seem to have a normal explanation in terms of illness,
accident or action of predators. Cuts and injuries often appear to have been
carried out with surgical precision. Typically the corpse is drained of blood.
Certain body parts may be absent (e.g.,
genitals).
Animal Psi
Paranormal
abilities exhibited by animals. Also known as "Anpsi".
Animism
Religious
practices based on the belief that all living things and natural objects have
their individual spiritual essence or soul.
Announcing
Dream
A dream
believed to announce an individual's rebirth. See also reincarnation.
Anomalous
Experience
A general
term referring to unusual experiences that cannot be explained in terms of
current scientific knowledge. Cf. psi.
Anomalous
Phenomena
Natural
phenomena that cannot be explained in terms of current scientific knowledge.
See also Fortean phenomena.
Anoxia
See cerebral
anoxia.
Anpsi
See Animal
Psi
Apparition
A visual
appearance (cf. hallucination), often of a person or scene, generally experienced
in a waking or hypnagogic / hypnopompic state. See also crisis apparition,
ghost, haunting.
Apport
A physical
object which appears in a way that cannot be explained (seeming to come from
nowhere). Apports are often associated with the seance room and physical
mediumship. Cf.
deport. See
also materialization, teleportation.
Artefact
In
parapsychology, false evidence of paranormal phenomena, due to some extraneous
normal influence.
ASC
See altered
state of consciousness.
Astral Body
A term used
by occultists, spiritualists and Theosophists to refer to a "double"
of the person's physical body.
The astral
body is believed to be separable from the physical body during astral
projection (out of body experience) and at death. See also Ka.
Astral
Projection
A term used
by occultists, spiritualists and Theosophists for the out of body experience.
It is believed to result when the astral body separates from the physical body.
Astrology
A theory and
practice which attempts to identify the ways in which astronomical events are
correlated with events on earth (e.g., with an individual's personality and
biography, or with social and political trends). See also Astrology
Atavism
Re-emergence
of ancestral characteristics; a genetic throwback.
Augury
Divination.
Aura
A field of energy
believed by some to surround living creatures. Certain clairvoyants claim to be
able to see the aura (generally as a luminous, coloured halo). See also Kirlian
photography.
Automatic Art
See
automatism.
Automatic
Writing
The ability
to write intelligible messages without conscious control or knowledge of what
is being written. See also automatism, dissociation.
Automatism
Physical
activites (e.g., arm movements, writing, drawing, musical performance) that
occur without the automatist's conscious control or knowledge. Also known as
motor automatism. See also automatic writing, dissociation.
Autoscopy
(a) Seeing one's "double". See also
astral body.
(b) Looking
back at one's own body from a position outside of the body. See also out of
body experience.
B
Ba
Ancient
Egyptian concept of a person's essence, believed to be be immortal. Cf. Ka. See
also Soul.
Banshee
In Gaelic
belief, a female entity who heralds a death by groaning and screaming.
Bardo
In Tibetan
Buddhism, an intermediate state of existence, usually referring to the state between
life and rebirth.
Basic
Technique
Term used in
card-guessing tests of clairvoyance, in which the top card of the deck is
placed to one side after each guess.
Billet
Procedure in
which a question is secretly written on a piece of paper which is folded or
sealed in an envelope, and handed to the psychic who attempts to answer the
question. Various trickery can be employed by fraudulent psychics and
mentalists.
Bilocation
Being (or
appearing to be) in two different places at the same time. See also autoscopy.
Biofeedback
A general
term for techniques that involve giving a person information about their
current physiological state (e.g., heart rate, EEG). Biofeedback is used to
enable people to control consciously their physiological processes.
Bio-PK
Psychokinetic
effects on biological processes. See also DMILS.
Black Art
Conjuring
technique of concealing objects using black covers against a black background.
Also used by fraudulent mediums.
Black Magic
Magical
spells or rituals practiced with the intention of harming others. Cf. white
magic .
Blind
An
experimental control in which subjects are not informed of certain key features
of the experiment. Also used to refer to a procedure where a judge is asked to
compare targets and responses without knowing which responses were made to
which targets. See also double blind.
Blind
Matching (BM)
An identical
procedure to open matching, except that the key cards are unseen by the
subject.
Book Test
(a) A communication in which the sitter is
asked to look at a specific book and page in order to receive a significant
message.
(b) An effect
in which the psychic or mentalist divines the words written on a particular
page of a book.
C
Cabinet
A box or
curtained enclosure in which a physical medium is secured and from which
various phenomena may manifest (e.g., lights, objects moving, instruments
played). Certain stage
magicians can
simulate this procedure with great effect.
Call
Response made
by a subject in a card-guessing or other ESP test.
Candomble
A Brazilian
spiritist religion. See also Umbanda, Voodoo.
Card Guessing
An
experimental test for ESP in which subjects guess the identity of a set of
cards (e.g., playing cards or Zener cards).
Cartomancy
Fortune
telling using cards. See also tarot.
Cerebral
Anoxia
Lack of
oxygen to the brain, often causing sensory
distortions and
hallucinations. Sometimes used to explain features of the near-death
experience.
Chance
Random,
unpredictable influences on events.
Channeling
Receiving
messages and inspiration from discarnate entities. See also medium. See also
Medium Directory entry
Charm
A spell or
object possessing magic power.
Christian
Science
A religious
healing movement founded by Mary Baker Eddy. Rejects orthodox medical practice.
Cipher Test
A coded
message left by a person who intends to communicate the cipher after death.
Circle
A group of
people who hold seances. See also mediumship.
Clairaudience
The
paranormal obtaining of information by hearing sounds or voices. See also
clairvoyance, clairsentience.
Clairsentience
An archaic
term that refers to the paranormal obtaining of information using faculties
other than vision or hearing. Cf. clairaudience, clairvoyance, empathy,
intuition.
Clairvoyance
A general
term that refers to the paranormal obtaining of information about an object or
event. In modern usage, this does not necessarily refer to obtaining
information visually. Cf. clairaudience, clairsentience, ESP, psi. See Also
Clairvoyance Definition
Clairvoyant
See
clairvoyant medium.
Clairvoyant
Medium Or clairvoyant.
A person who
obtains information paranormally (often by spirit communication) without the
need to enter
into a trance state. Cf. trance medium.
Closed Deck
A set of
cards used in a card-guessing test where each card appears a fixed number of
times. Statistical analysis of research data using a closed deck differs from
statistical analysis of data using an open deck.
Coincidence
The
occurrence, within a short space of time, of two or more meaningfully related
events and without any apparent causal connection between them. Coincidences
are sometimes bizarre
and
extraordinarily improbable. See also synchronicity.
Cold
A reading
given with no prior knowledge of the sitter. Often a mixture of very general
statements which could apply to anyone, together with inferences made from cues
presented by
the sitter
(e.g., physical appearance, clothes, tone of
voice,
statements made). Cf. hot reading.
Collective
Apparition
An apparition
seen simultaneously by more than one person.
Collective
Unconscious
Concept put
forward by C.G. Jung to refer to a level of unconscious thought and experience
shared collectively by humans.
Communication
In
mediumship, a message purported to be from a discarnate entity.
Communicator
A discarnate
entity from whom the medium receives messages. See also drop-in communicator.
Confederate
A person who
secretly provides information to a fraudulent psychic or mentalist.
Conjuring
Using
trickery to simulate paranormal effects, generally for the purpose of
entertainment.
Contact Mind
Reading
A technique
simulating telepathy, in which the "mind reader" (who generally holds a hand or arm) responds
to slight muscle movements produced unconsciously by the person whose
mind is
apparently being read. Also known as muscle reading, Cumberlandism or
Hellstromism.
Control
(a) In experimental parapsychology a procedure
undertaken in order to ensure that the experiment is conducted in a standard
fashion and so that results are not unduly influenced by extraneous factors.
See also control group, artefact.
(b) In
spiritualism, a discarnate entity who communicates with a trance medium and who
generally controls the trance state.
Control Group
A group of
people whose performance is compared with that of experimental subjects. Cf.
experimental group.
Corn Circle
Circular (or
more elaborate) formations found in growing crops, most commonly in
meaning.
Despite several "confessions" made by various individuals and groups,
the crop circle mystery remains unsolved.
Correlation
An
association between two or more events or variables.
Correlation
Coefficient
A
mathematical of the degree of
association
between two or more measures.
Cosmic
Consciousness
A blissful experience
in which the person becomes aware of the whole universe as a living being. See
also altered state of consciousness, mystical experience.
Coven
A group of witches
A Group of
Witches
Crisis
Apparition
An apparition
in which a person is seen within a few hours of an important crisis such as
death, accident or sudden illness.
Cross-correspondence
(a) Separate
items of information, received independently by two or more mediums, which make
sense only when pieced together.
(b) THE
cross-correspondences is a classic case of highly complex cross-correspondences
which continued from 1901 to 1932 among a group of automatists associated with
the Society for Psychical Research.
Cryptomnesia
Knowledge
(acquired in normal ways) that may be revealed without the person remembering
its source. Such memories may falsely appear to be paranormal revelations.
Sometimes cryptomnesia is used as an explanation for apparently paranormal
experiences such as xenoglossy or past-life memories.
Crystal
Gazing
Staring into
a reflecting surface (e.g., mirror, glass,
crystal,
liquid) in order to obtain paranormal information. Also known as scrying. See
also divination.
Cumberlandism
See contact
mind reading.
Curse
Words spoken
or written in order to influence others paranormally, causing them harm. See
also spell, hex.
D
Daemon
(Daimon)
A guardian
spirit who communicates inspiration and advice. See also guardian angel.
Death
Generally
understood to be the extinction of an organism's life. Many doctrines assert
some form of mental or spiritual survival of physical death. See also deathbed
experience, haunting, mediumship, near-death experience, reincarnation.
Deathbed
Experience
A dying
person's awareness of the presence of dead friends or relatives. See also
near-death experience.
Decline
Effect
A decrease in
performance on a psi test when the test is repeated. Cf. incline effect.
Deja
Experience
See deja vu.
Deja Vu
A person's
feeling that current events have been experienced before.
Delta
A term used
to refer to any kind of anomalous experience.
Dematerialization
The
paranormal fading or disappearance of a physical object. See also deport.
Demonic
Possession
Possession by
evil spirits. See also exorcism.
Deport
The
paranormal movement of objects out of a secure enclosed space. Cf. apport. See also
dematerialization, teleportation.
Dice Test
Experimental
techniques for investigating psychokinesis, in which a subject attempts to
influence the fall of dice.
Direct Voice
A voice heard
in a seance which does not seem to emanate from any person. The voice may seem
to come out of thin air, or from a trumpet used specifically for this purpose.
Cf. indirect voice.
Discarnate
Entity
A spirit or
non-material entity. Often used to refer to the personality of a deceased
individual. See also channeling, communication, mediumship, possession,
survival.
Displacement
Responses on
a psi test that correspond systematically to targets other than the intended
one (e.g., those before or after).
Dissociation
Activity
performed outside of normal conscious awareness, or mental processes that
suggest the existence of separate centres of consciousness.
Divination
Practices
involving the interpretation of signs or symbols that seek to obtain oracular
knowledge of events. Examples of divinatory practices are geomancy, tarot, I
Ching, sortilege, and reading tea leaves.
Divining Rod
A forked rod
(or sometimes a pair of L-shaped rods) used in dowsing.
DMILS
"Direct
Mental Interaction with Living Systems".
Psychokinetic
influences on physiological processes. See also Bio-PK.
Doppelganger
A mirror image
or double of a person. See also astral body.
Double
A duplicate
of one's own body. See also astral body
Double Blind
An
experimental procedure in which neither the subject nor experimenter is aware
of key features of the experiment.
Down Through
Technique (DT)
An
experimental test for clairvoyance in which the person guesses the order of a
stacked series of target symbols (e.g., cards) from top to bottom. Cf. up
through technique.
Dowsing
The
paranormal detection of underground water or mineral deposits (or lost persons
and objects) using a divining rod or pendulum.
Dream
See
paranormal dream.
Drop-in
Communicator
An uninvited
communicator who 'drops in' at a sitting.
E
Earthquake
Effect
A phenomenon
produced by the physical medium D.D. Home, involving the room shaking as if
there was an earthquake.
Ecstasy
An altered
state of consciousness in which the person experiences great rapture and loss
of self-control. Cf. trance.
Ectoplasm
A semi-fluid
substance exuded by a physical medium from which materializations may form.
EG
(Electro-encephalography)
A method of
recording variations of electrical activity in the cortex of the brain.
Electronic
Voice Phenomena (EVP) See Raudive voices.
Elemental
Spirit
A spirit associated
with one of the classical four elements
(fire, earth, air and water). See also animism.
Elongation
Paranormal
extension of the physical body, reported in some mystics and physical mediums.
Empath
Someone who
shows considerable empathy, especially of the apparently psychic type.
Empathy
The ability
to understand the experience or emotional state of another person or animal.
Often used to refer to an apparently psychic ability to experience another
person's sensations, pain or emotions. Cf. clairsentience, intuition.
Entity
See
discarnate entity.
ESP
See
Extrasensory Perception.
ESP Cards
See Zener
Cards.
Etheric Body
Similar to
astral body.
Evil Eye
Alleged
ability of some people to harm others by looking at them.
EVP
Electronic
Voice Phenomena. See Raudive voices.
Evocation
The summoning
of (often evil) spirits using a magical incantation or ritual. Cf. invocation.
Exorcism
A religious
or quasi-religious rite to drive out evil
spirits. See
also possession.
Experiment
A test
carried out under controlled conditions.
Experimental
Group
A group of
subjects who undergo a specific experimental procedure. Often results from this
group are compared with those of a control group.
Experimental
Parapsychology
Parapsychological
research involving experimental methods rather than survey techniques or the
investigation of spontaneous cases.
Experimenter
The person
who conducts the experiment.
Experimenter
Effect
Influence that
the experimenter's personality or behaviour may have on the results of an
experiment.
Extradimensional
Originating
outside our normal space-time reality. Cf. extraterrestrial.
Extrasensory
Perception (ESP)
Paranormal
acquisition of information. Includes
clairvoyance,
telepathy and precognition. See also psi.
Extraterrestrial
Originating
beyond planet Earth. Not normally considered to be extradimensional.
F
Fairy
Small,
human-like mythical being. May be benevolent or malevolent.
Faith Healing
Healing that
is associated with prayer or belief in Divine power.
False
Awakening
An experience
in which a person believes he or she has woken up, but actually is still
dreaming.
Faraday Cage
A wire mesh
enclosure that provides a shield to radio waves.
Feedback
The giving of
information to subjects about their
performance on
a test. See also biofeedback.
Fire Walking
Walking on
red-hot coals, without pain or damage to the feet.
Flying Saucer
A term,
coined in 1947, to refer to unknown disk-like aerial objects, often believed to
be extraterrestrial spacecraft. The term has now been largely superseded by
"UFO".
Focal Person
Person who is
at the centre of poltergeist activity.
Forced-Choice
Test
An ESP test
in which the subject guesses from a
predetermined
list of alternative targets.
Fortean
Phenomena
Strange
phenomena, especially those which challenge conventional scientific knowledge.
Named after the American researcher and writer Charles Fort. Fortean phenomena
include those generally considered paranormal, but also
bizarre
non-paranormal events such as monsters and prodigies, extraordinary
coincidences, and unusual rains.
Fortune
Telling
Various
practices which aim to divine future events. See also divination.
Fraud
The
deliberate faking of paranormal phenomenena, generally for the purpose of
financial gain, psychological manipulation, or notoriety. Faking for the
purpose of entertainment (e.g., by stage magicians and mentalists) is
not normally
classed as fraud.
Free-Response
Test
An ESP test
in which the subject responds freely (does not choose from a fixed list of
targets). For example, the subject may write down or draw their impressions, or
may talk freely into a tape recorder. In order to assess the accuracy of the
responses, they are compared with various
targets
(including the actual target) by a judge. See also preferential matching.
G
Ganzfeld
A technique
for investigating ESP in which the person experiences an absence of patterned
stimulation. This generally involves the subject wearing halved table-tennis
balls over the eyes while listening to hiss (white noise) through headphones.
General
Extrasensory Perception (GESP)
ESP in which
it is unclear whether the results are due to clairvoyance, telepathy,
precognition or retrocognition.
Geomancy
A system of
divination involving the interpretation of lines or figures.
GESP
See general
extrasensory perception
Ghost
Popular term
for an experience believed to indicate the presence of the spirit of a deceased
person. See also apparition, haunting, poltergeist. Full definition
Gimmick
In conjuring,
any small concealed apparatus that is used to produce a magical effect. Also
used by fraudulent mediums.
Glossolalia
Unintelligible
speech generally uttered in a dissociated or trance state. Also known as
"speaking in tongues". See also xenoglossy.
"Goat"
Name given to
a subject in a psi test who does not believe in the phenomenon. See also
"sheep", sheep-goat effect.
Guardian
Angel
An angel
believed to protect the individual. See also guide.
Guide
A spirit who
is believed to assist a person's spiritual journey. See also angel, guardian
angel
H
Hallucination
A sensory
experience that does not correspond to physical reality. See also apparition.
Haunting
Paranormal
phenomena such as apparitions, unexplained sounds, smells or other sensations
that are associated over a lengthy period of time with a specific location. Cf.
poltergeist.
Healer
Someone who
claims the power of healing.
Healing
Generally
indicates cures that cannot be explained in terms of accepted medical
principles. See also faith healing, psychic healing, spirit cures.
Hellstromism
See contact
mind reading.
Hex
(a) An evil
spell or magical curse.
(b) To
practice witchcraft.
Hit
A response that
accurately matches the target. Cf. miss.
Hot
A reading
given in which prior knowledge of the sitter has been obtained, often using
devious or fraudulent means. Cf. cold reading.
Huna
An Hawaiian
religious practice involving clairvoyance, precognition, healing, miracles and
magic.
Hyperacuity
See
hyperaesthesia.
Hyperaesthesia
Exceptionally
acute sensory awareness.
Hypnagogic
Imagery
Imagery
occurring in the hypnagogic state (occuring while dropping off to sleep).
Hypnopompic
Imagery
Imagery
occurring in the hypnopompic state (occurring while waking up).
Hypnosis
An ASC
involving a heightened degree of suggestibility. See also Mesmerism.
Hypnotism
See hypnosis.
I
I Ching
Ancient
Chinese "Book of Changes". It describes 64 hexagrams (patterns of 6 broken
and unbroken lines) which are used in a divinatory practice involving the
throwing of yarrow stalks or coins.
Illusion
(a) An
appearance that leads the person to draw mistaken conclusions.
(b) In
conjuring, a perceptual trick.
Imagery
The ability
to perceive images in the mind. These may be visual, auditory, tactile, etc.
Immortality
Various
beliefs based on the assumption that some aspect of personal existence survives
death.
Incline
Effect
An increase
in performance on a psi test when the test is repeated. Cf. decline effect.
Incorruptibility
Inexplicable
lack of decay in a corpse.
Indirect Voice
Mediumistic
phenomenon in which the discarnate entity appears to speak using the vocal
apparatus of the medium. Often the voice will sound very different from the
medium's normal voice. Cf. direct voice.
Intuition
The
non-paranormal ability to grasp the elements of a situation or to draw
conclusions about complex events in ways that go beyond a purely rational or
intellectual analysis. Cf. clairsentience, empathy.
nvocation
Summoning benevolent
spiritual beings. Cf. evocation.
J
Judge
Person who
compares targets and responses in a psi experiment.
K
Ka
Ancient
Egyptian term for the double or astral body. See also Ba.
Karma
Hindu and
Buddhist ethical doctrine of "as one sows, so shall one reap". See
also reincarnation.
Key Cards
Reference
cards used to indicate each target alternative in a card-guessing test.
Kirlian
Photography
A
photographic method involving high frequency electric current, discovered by
S.D. & V. Kirlian in the
Kundalini
In Yogic
belief, a source of tremendous vital energy that may be stimulated by various
practices. Kundalini, or the "Serpent Power", is believed to provide
energy for paranormal phenomena.
L
Laying on of
Hands
A healing practice,
in which the healer's hands are placed on or near the body of the sick person.
Levitation
The
paranormal raising or suspension of an object or person.
Life after
Death
See survival.
Life Review
Flashback
memories of the whole of a person's life, often associated with the near-death
experience.
Lucid
Dreaming
Dreaming in
which the person is aware that the experience is a dream. Often associated with
feelings of aliveness and freedom, and with the ability to control dream
events.
Lucidity
(a) An early
term for clairvoyance.
(b) Lucid
dreaming.
Luminous
Phenomena
The
experience of strange lights or glows, often around objects or people. See also
aura.
Lycanthropy
The supposed
magical transformation of a person into the form of a wolf. See also
shape-shifting, therianthropy, werewolf.
M
Macro-PK
Psychokinetic
effects that can be directly observed rather than only inferred from
statistical analysis. Cf. micro-PK.
Magic
(a) Practices
that aim to use paranormal or spiritual means to influence events. See also
white magic, black magic.
(b) The art
of conjuring.
Magician
A person who
practices magic.
Majority Vote
Technique
An ESP
procedure in which several subjects guess a target (or one subject makes several guesses). The
most frequent guess is used as the response.
Mantra
A sacred
sound or sacred syllables used in meditation. See also transcendental
meditation.
Match
An
alternative term for hit.
Matching
See
preferential matching, matching tests.
Matching
Tests
Card guessing
tests in which the subject uses key cards when making guesses. See also blind
matching, open matching, screen touch matching.
Materialization
The formation
of a visible and tangible object or human shape during a seance. Cf. apport.
Mean Chance
Expectation (MCE)
The most
likely chance score in a psi test.
Medicine Man
/ Medicine Woman
A witchdoctor
or shaman.
Meditation
Mental or
physical-mental techniques which aim to produce spiritually desirable states of
consciousness. See also ASC, Yoga.
Medium
A person
believed to act as an intermediary between discarnate entities and the living.
See also clairvoyant medium, trance medium, mental mediumship, physical
mediumship.
Mediumship
Activity of a
medium.
Mentalism
A branch of
conjuring involving the simulation of psi.
Mental
Mediumship
The
paranormal obtaining of information by a medium. Cf. physical mediumship.
Mesmerism
A system of
healing developed by F.A. Mesmer, involving the induction of trance states and
the supposed transfer of animal magnetism. People in Mesmeric trance often
showed paranormal abilities such as clairvoyance.
Message
See
communication.
Metal Bending
Psychokinetic
ability to bend metal objects. A phenomenon popularised by Uri Geller.
Metamorphosis
See
shape-shifting.
Metempsychosis
Another term
for reincarnation.
Micro-PK
Psychokinetic
effects that cannot be directly observed, but only inferred from the
statistical analysis of data. Cf. macro-PK.
Mind Reading
See
telepathy.
Miracle
A beneficial
event attributed to supernatural or divine intervention.
Misdirection
Techniques
used by conjurers and mentalists to distract a person's attention or confuse
their thinking.
Miss
A mismatch
between the target and response. Cf. hit.
Mnemonist
A person who
has learned techniques that enable
extraordinary
feats of memory.
Morphic
Resonance
A term coined
by Rupert Sheldrake to refer to the way in which the "morphogenetic
field" (underlying form) of an object or organism may influence distant
fields.
Motor
Automatism
See
Automatism
Multiple
Personality
A psychiatric
condition in which the person manifests two or more distinct and separate
personalities at different times. Cf. possession.
Muscle
See contact
mind reading.
Mystic
(a) A person
who has mystical experiences.
(b) Used
loosely to refer to psychics, mediums or romantics.
Mystical
Experience
ASCs
involving experiences of ecstasy, unity, timelessness, loss of self, divine
revelation, etc.
Mysticism
Religious or
spiritual doctrines which argue that the human mind or soul can directly
experience the divine. See also mystical experience, transpersonal psychology.
N
NDE
See
near-death experience.
Near-Death
Experience (NDE)
Experiences
of people after they have been pronounced clinically dead, or been very close
to death. Typical features of the NDE are an OBE, life review, a tunnel
experience, light, coming to a boundary (marking death), seeing dead friends
and relatives, experiencing a loving or divine presence, and making a choice
(or being told) to return. Occasionally NDEs can be frightening and
distressing. NDEs often have profound effects on the person's later life. See
also cerebral anoxia, survival.
Necromancy
Black magic practices
involving communicating with the dead.
Newspaper
Test
(a) A communication in which the spirit
forecasts an item in a future day's newspaper.
(b) An
conjuring effect in which a magician or mentalist predicts a future newspaper
item.
Null
hypothesis
The
hypothesis that experimental results are due to chance.
Numerology
A system of
divination involving the interpretation of numbers.
O
OBE
See out of
body experience.
Object
See
psychometry.
Occam's Razor
The principle
that we should always prefer the simplest explanation of events.
Occultism
Esoteric
systems of belief and practice that assume the existence of mysterious forces
and entities.
Omen
A sign that
foretells events.
One-Ahead
Principle
In mentalism,
a procedure for sequentially revealing information where the revealing of one
item gives the mentalist the next answer. Also used by fraudulent clairvoyants.
OOBE
See out of
body experience.
Open Deck
A series of
cards used in a card guessing test where each card is chosen randomly and
independently. This enables each target to be selected any number of times.
Statistical analysis of research data using an open deck differs from
statistical analysis of data using a closed deck.
Open Matching
(
A card
guessing procedure in which key cards are placed face up on the table. The
subject then places the unseen target cards in piles in front of each key card,
according to their guesses. See also blind matching.
Oracle
(a) An answer
to a question, believed to come from the gods.
(b) a shrine at which these answers are given.
Orgone Energy
A term used
by Wilhelm Reich to refer to a universal life force, associated with sexuality.
Ouija Board
A board with
letters and numbers on which messages are spelled out by unconsciously moving
(with the fingers) a glass or planchette. See also automatism.
Out
In conjuring
and mentalism, a convincing explanation for an apparent failure, or a
convincing alternative ending to an effect that has not worked as planned. Also
used by fraudulent clairvoyants and mediums.
Out of Body
Experience (OBE, OOBE)
A fully conscious
experience in which the person's centre of awareness appears to be outside of
the physical body. See also autoscopy, near-death experience.
P
Palmistry
The art of
assessing a person's character and forecasting life events by examining
features of the hand. See also divination.
Paranormal
Beside or
beyond the normal. Inexplicable in terms of our ordinary understanding or
current scientific knowledge.
Paranormal
Dream
Dreams in which
the dream imagery provides paranormal knowledge (e.g., ESP or precognition).
See also announcing dream, lucid dreaming.
Parapsychology
Term coined
by J.B. Rhine to refer to the experimental and quantitative study of paranormal
phenomena. Now generally used instead of "psychical research" to
refer to all scientific investigation of the paranormal. Cf. transpersonal
psychology.
Past-Life
Memories
Mental images
that are believed to be memories of previous lives. See also reincarnation,
past-life regression.
Past-Life
Regression
A technique
of hypnosis involving regressing people to supposed previous lives. See also
reincarnation.
Pendulum
An object
suspended by a thread. Movements of a pendulum are often used by dowsers to
locate objects or answer questions.
Percipient
Person who
receives impressions in an ESP test. See also agent, subject.
Phantasm
An
apparition.
Phenomenology
An approach
to research that aims to describe and clarify a person's own experience and
understanding of an event or phenomenon.
Phrenology
The reading
of character and mental ability from the shape of a person's skull.
Physical
Mediumship
The
production of paranormal physical phenomena (lights, sounds, materialization,
elongation, levitation, etc.) by a medium. Physical mediumship often (but not
always) involves
a state of
trance. See also mental mediumship.
Picture
Drawing
A
free-response ESP test in which the subject attempts to draw impressions of the
target.
Pilot Study
A preliminary
study, generally of modest scale.
PK
See psychokinesis
Placebo
An inactive
treatment often given to a control group.
Placement
Test
A test for PK
in which the subject attempts to influence the place in which dice or other
objects land. See also dice test.
Planchette
A small
platform on casters generally used with a ouija board. Sometimes used with an
attached pencil to produce automatic writing.
Plant Psi
ESP exhibited
by plants.
PMIR
See
psi-mediated instrumental response.
Pocomania
A Jamaican
spiritist religion. See also Voodoo.
Poltergeist
German word
meaning "noisy or troublesome spirit". Poltergeist activity may
include unexplained noises, movements of objects, outbreaks of fire, floods,
pricks or scratches to a person's body. Unlike hauntings, which are
associated
with specific locations, poltergeists typically focus on a person (the focal
person or poltergeist agent) who is often a young child or adolescent. Many
physical mediums experienced poltergeist activity in their childhood.
Possession
Refers to
cases in which a person's body is apparently taken over by another personality
or entity. Cf. multiple personality. See also demonic possession, discarnate
entity.
Prayer
A sincere
attempt to communicate with a spiritual being or power.
Precognition
The
paranormal awareness of future events. See also prediction, premonition,
prophecy.
Prediction
A statement
that claims to foretell future events. Cf. premonition, precognition, prophecy.
Preexistence
Belief that
the personality or soul exists prior to birth. Cf. survival. See also
reincarnation.
Preferential
Matching
Technique in
which a judge ranks a subject's free responses in terms of their similarity to
various possible targets.
Premonition
An experience
believed to foretell future events. See also prediction, precognition,
prophecy.
Presence
A subjective
feeling that a person, animal or discarnate entity is present.
Probability
The
likelihood that results in a test were due to chance. See also significance.
Process
research
Research that
aims to investigate factors affecting psi. Cf. proof research.
Proof
research
Research that
aims to demonstrate the existence of psi. Cf. process research.
Prophecy
(a) A
prediction, usually resulting from a sense of
spiritual
revelation.
(b) The
ability to receive prophetic revelations.
Proxy Sitting
A seance in
which another person sits in on behalf of the person receiving a communication.
Pseudo-Random
Numbers
Numbers
generated by an electronic calculator or computer using a complex mathematical
algorithm that simulates a random process. Although the numbers generated are
essentially unpredictable, they are not strictly random. See also random
numbers, random event generator.
Psi
A term used
to encompass all paranormal abilities. Includes both ESP and PK abilities.
Psi-Hitting
Significantly
better than chance performance on a psi test.
Psi-Mediated
Instrumental Response (PMIR)
Theory put
forward by Rex Stanford that psi activity is used to serve an organism's needs.
Psi-Missing Significantly
worse than chance performance on a psi test. Psi-missing is also evidence for
psi, because a target can only be missed consistently if the person
"knows" what it
is.
Psyche
Generally
refers to the mind.
Psychedelic
Literally
"revealing mind". A class of plants and drugs (e.g., peyote, psilocybin, LSD) that can
produce florid ASCs.
Psychic
A person who
exhibits psi ability (also used as an
adjective).
Psychical
Research
Term coined
in the late 19th century to refer to the
scientific
study of the paranormal. Now largely superseded by "parapsychology".
Psychic
Healing
Forms of healing
using psychic powers. See also laying on of hands, psychic surgery.
Psychic
Photography
General term
used to refer to paranormal photographic images. See also Kirlian photography,
spirit photography, thoughtography.
Psychic
Surgery
Actual or
simulated surgical procedures carried out by healers.
Psychokinesis
(PK)
The
paranormal influence of the mind on physical events and processes.
Psychometry
Obtaining
paranormal knowledge using a physical object as a focus. Also known as object
reading.
Pyramid Power
Belief that
pyramid shapes can produce paranormal effects.
Q
Qualitative
Method
A research
method involving the collection of
non-quantitative
data (e.g., observations, interviews, subjective reports, case studies). Cf.
quantitative method.
Quantitative
Method
A research
method involving the collection and statistical analysis of numerical data. Cf.
qualitative method.
R
Radiesthesia
Theories
based on the assumption that living organisms emit some kind of radiation or
emanation that is capable of being detected using instruments or by dowsing.
See also aura,
radionics.
Radionics
Use of
instruments to detect radiation from living
organisms.
See also radiesthesia.
Random
Refers to
events that are, in principle, haphazard and unpredictable. See also chance.
Random Event
Generator (REG)
An electronic
device which uses a random physical process
(e.g., radioactive decay) to generate random events or random numbers.
Random Number
Generator (RNG)
See random
event generator.
Random
Numbers
Numbers
generated in an unpredictable, haphazard sequence.
Random Number
Tables
A printed
table of random numbers, usually made up of several rows and columns of
computer-generated numbers. To use the table a starting value is chosen by
randomly selecting a row and column (e.g., by throwing a dice). Successive
numbers are then chosen by working through the
table using
any previously chosen systematic rule. Suitable rules might be
(1) moving
horizontally to the right, skipping alternate numbers, or
(2) moving
vertically down, selecting every fifth number. The selected random numbers may
then be used, for example, to determine target sequences.
Raps
The name given
to unexplained knocking sounds associated with physical mediumship and
poltergeist activity.
Raudive
Voices
Intelligible
voices recorded on magnetic tape under conditions of silence or white noise
which are heard only when the tape is played. A phenomenon discovered by
Konstantin Raudive.
Information
given by a psychic or medium to a sitter. See also cold reading, hot reading.
Rebirth
In Buddhism,
the belief that there is some continuty of mind from one life to the next.
Buddhism, however, does not accept the existence of the individual soul and
therefore does not view rebirth as the soul's literal re-incarnation.
Cf.
reincarnation. See also bardo.
Receiver
See
percipient.
Recurrent
Spontaneous Psychokinesis (RSPK)
Term coined by William Roll.
Refers to the unconscious use of PK and APK talents as a release for
frustration and means of obtaining attention.
Regression
(a) a statistical technique that enables
predictions to be made from a set of data.
(b) a
technique used in hypnosis, involving suggesting to hypnotized persons that
they are returning to an earlier time. Sometimes the regression occurs
spontaneously, without
suggestion.
See also past-life regression.
Reincarnation
The belief
that some aspect of a person's being (e.g., consciousness, personality, or
soul) survives death and can be reborn in a new body at some future date.
Reincarnation is often seen as a repeating cycle of death and rebirth in which
future lives are influenced by past and present
actions
through the law of karma. Cf. rebirth.
Remote
Viewing (RV)
An ESP procedure
in which a percipient attempts to become aware psychically of the experience of
an agent who is at a distant, unknown target location.
Response
An action
made by a subject in an experiment.
Response Bias
Tendency of a
subject to prefer particular responses.
Retroactive
Psychokinesis
Paranormal
influence that an agent can have on an experiment after it has been completed.
Retrocognition
Paranormal
knowledge of past events.
Ritual Magic
Magical
activity involving rites and ceremonies.
RSPK
See recurrent
spontaneous psychokinesis.
Run
A set of
trials in a psi test.
S
Santeria
A Cuban
spiritist religion. See also Voodoo.
Sceptic
A person
inclined to discount the reality of the paranormal and to be critical of parapsychological
research. Generally seeks rational or scientific explanations for the phenomena
studied by parapsychologists.
Score
Number of
hits obtained by a subject in a psi test.
Scoring
The process
of determining a subject's score.
Screen Touch
Matching (STM)
A
card-guessing procedure in which the subject and experimenter sit on opposite
sides of a screen which has a small gap at the bottom. Key cards are hung on
the screen in front of the subject (the faces may be seen or unseen).
Underneath each key card is a blank card that can be seen by both subject and
experimenter. The experimenter holds the
target cards
and the subject indicates the guess on each trial by pointing to the corresponding
blank card. The experimenter then places the card in a pile on his or her side
of the screen in a position corresponding to that of the indicated blank card.
See also blind matching, open matching.
Scrying
See crystal
gazing.
Seance
A mediumistic
session.
Second Sight
Another name
for clairvoyance.
Sender
Another name
for agent.
Sensitive
Another name
for a psychic.
Sensory
deprivation
Conditions of
greatly restricted sensory input. See also ganzfeld.
Series
A sequence of
runs in a psi experiment.
Serpent Power
See
Kundalini.
Shaman
A witchdoctor
or medicine (wo)man who communicates with spirits while in trance and who has
the power of healing. May also show other paranormal abilities.
Shape-Shifting
Paranormal
ability to assume the form of another person, an animal or other entity. See
also lycanthropy, therianthropy, werewolf.
"Sheep"
Name given to
a subject in a psi test who believes in the phenomenon. See also
"goat", sheep-goat effect.
Sheep-Goat
Effect
Effect, discovered
by the parapsychologist Gertrude Schmeidler, in which "sheep" score
higher than mean chance expectation (MCE) on psi tests, while "goats"
score lower than MCE.
Siddhis
Name given to
paranormal powers associated with the practice of Yoga.
Significance
Results of an
experiment are said to be statistically
significant
when they are very unlikely to be due to chance (and hence, in a psi test, are
more likely to be due to psi). The chance probability is reported as the
"significance level". To be considered significant, the chance
probability must generally be less than 1 in 20 (5%, or 0.05).
Simultaneous
Dream
A dream whose
elements correspond closely with those in the dream of another person.
Sitter
A person who
has a session with a medium.
Sitting
A seance.
Sixth sense
Popular term
for ESP.
Skeptic
See sceptic.
Slate-Writing
Writing that
appears on a slate during a seance. Often produced by fraudulent mediums and
mentalists.
Sleep
Paralysis
An (often
frightening) state of seeming to being awake but
unable to
move. See also false awakening.
Somnambule
(a) a person
who performs physical activity while asleep
(e.g., sleep-walking).
(b) a person
in a deep hypnotic state.
Sorcery
Black magic
Sortilege
Divination by
lots.
Soul
The spiritual
element of a person, generally believed to be immortal. See also Ba, spirit,
survival.
Space
Brothers
Extraterrestrial
entities, channeled by some mediums. See also discarnate entity.
Speaking in
Tongues
See
glossolalia
SPE
See
subjective paranormal experience.
Spectre
A ghost or
apparition.
Spell
Written or
spoken words believed to have magical power.
Spirit
(a) a
discarnate entity.
(b) soul
(c) Divine
essence.
Spirit
Communication
See
communication.
Spirit Cure
Healing that
is believed to result from the intervention of spirits.
Spiritism
See
spiritualism.
Spirit
Photography
Photographs
of figures or faces, believed by some to be those of deceased persons. These
photographs are generally revealed as fraudulent.
Spiritualism
(Spiritism)
Religious
doctrines that advocate communication betwen the living and the spirits of the
dead using a medium as intermediary.
Spontaneous
Cases
Paranormal
phenomena that occur in everyday life, unsought and unexpected.
Spontaneous
Human Combustion (SHC)
Refers to
cases in which a badly burned human body has been discovered in circumstances
suggesting that the fire originated spontaneously in or on the body of the
victim.
Statistics
Mathematical
techniques for analysing and interpreting numerical data.
Stigmata
Unexplained
markings on a person's body that correspond to the wounds of Christ.
Stimulus
See target.
Subject
A person
whose psi ability is being investigated.
Subjective
Paranormal Experience (SPE)
Or Subjective
Psi Experience.
An experience
that the person who has it believes to be paranormal.
Subjective
Psi Experience (SPE)
See
subjective paranormal experience.
Subliminal
Perception
Perceiving
without conscious awareness.
Super-ESP
Hypothesis
The
suggestion that people are capable of unlimited ESP. The super-ESP hypothesis
is often presented as an alternative to the survival hypothesis in explaining
mediumistic phenomena
(the medium
is believed to obtain information using super-ESP powers and not directly from
the spirit of a deceased person).
Supernatural
Paranormal
Survey
A method of
data collection that involves interviewing (or giving questionnaires to) a
representative and often large group of people.
Survival
The belief
that some aspect of the person (e.g.,
consciousness,
mind, personality, soul) lives on after death of the body.
Synchronicity
A term used
by C.G. Jung to refer to coincidental events that are meaningfully but not
causally connected.
T
Table-Tilting
Mysterious
movements of a table, usually occurring in a seance when a group of people place
their hands on the surface of the table. Often the movements are interpreted as
spirit communications. Also known as table-turning or
table-tipping.
Table-Turning
See
table-tilting.
Target
The object or
event which the subject attempts to perceive (ESP tests) or influence (PK
tests).
Tarot
A special
deck of cards (usually 78) used in fortune
telling.
Telekinesis
Paranormal
movement of objects.
Telepathy
Paranormal
awareness of another person's experience (thoughts, feelings, etc.). In
practice it is difficult to distinguish between telepathy and clairvoyance. See
also ESP.
Teleportation
Paranormal
transportation of objects to a distant place. See also apport, deport.
Temporal Lobe
Activity
Electrical
activity in the temporal lobes of the brain. Often associated with strange
sensations, time distortions and hallucinations. Sometimes used as an explanation
for seemingly paranormal experiences such as apparitions and alien abduction
experiences.
Therianthropy
The supposed
ability to change from human to animal form and back. See also lycanthropy,
shape-shifting, werewolf.
Theurgy
Magical
practices which aim to contact and communicate with the gods.
Thoughtography
Paranormal
ability to produce images on photographic film (e.g., by concentrating on a
mental image). Most famously demonstrated by Ted Serios. See also psychic
photography.
Thought
Transference
See telepathy
Trance
A dissociated
state of consciousness, generally involving reduced awareness of surroundings
and external events.
Trance Medium
A person who
enters a state of trance in order to produce mediumistic phenomena.
Transcendental
Meditation
A technique
of meditation taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, involving the repetition of a sound
(mantra).
Transmigration
of Souls
See
reincarnation.
Transpersonal
Psychology
The study of
experiences, beliefs and practices that suggest that the sense of self can
extend beyond our personal or individual reality. The subject matter of
transpersonal psychology overlaps to some extent with parapsychology, but the
two disciplines tend to have different approaches and emphases. Parapsychology
is primarily concerned to investigate evidence for and against the reality of
paranormal
phenomena. Transpersonal psychology, on the other hand, is more interested in
investigating the transpersonal significance of such phenomena (i.e., the ways
in which they
may give
people a sense of connectedness with a larger, more universal or spiritual
reality). See also mysticism.
Travelling
Clairvoyance
(a) An early
term for the out of body experience.
(b)
Clairvoyance exhibited when a subject travels in imagination to another location.
Trial
In psi tests,
a single attempt to demonstrate paranormal ability (e.g., one attempt to guess
a card or one attempt to influence the fall of the dice).
Trumpet
A conical
tube (often luminous) used in seances to produce direct voice communication.
U
Ufology
The study of
UFOs.
Umbanda
A Brazilian
spiritist religion. See also Candomble, Voodoo.
Unidentified
Flying Object (UFO)
Unexplained
sightings of lights or objects in the sky, often taken to be evidence of
extraterrestrial visitations.
Up Through
Technique
An
experimental test for clairvoyance in which the subject guesses the order of a
stacked series of target symbols (e.g.,
cards) from bottom to top. Cf. down through technique.
V
Veridical
Information
or experience that is confirmed by facts and events.
Veridical
Dream
A dream that
corresponds to real events (past, present or future) that are unknown to the
dreamer.
Vision
A religious
apparition.
Voodoo
A spiritist
and ancestor religion, originating in
W
Werewolf
A person who
has been magically transformed into a wolf or other dangerous beast. See also
lycanthropy, therianthropy, shape-shifting.
White Magic
Magical
spells or rituals to produce beneficial effects. Cf. black magic.
White Noise
A hiss-like
sound, formed by combining all audible frequencies. See also ganzfeld.
Wicca
System of
witchcraft, especially as practiced today in western countries.
Witch
Someone who
practices witchcraft.
Witchcraft
Folk magic.
See also wicca.
Witchdoctor
A medicine
wo(man) or shaman.
X
Xenoglossy
The ability
to speak or write in a language that has not been learned. See also
glossolalia.
Y
Yoga
Religious
philosophy originating in
Z
Zener Cards
Set of 25
cards (5 each of circle, square, Greek cross, five-pointed star, three wavy
lines) designed by the perceptual psychologist Karl Zener for use in
card-guessing tests of ESP. Also known as ESP cards.
Zombie
A corpse that
has been partly brought back to (soul-less) life by magic. See also Voodoo.
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