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Psychic Glossary
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 Southern
Britain. Sometimes they are associated with UFO sightings. Many formations
appear to have been intelligently created and to have some symbolic
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.