GLOSSARY OF TERMS

A

 

Agent: 

A word for the person who is the focus of an occurrence. Usually associated with RSPK phenomena otherwise known as Poltergeist phenomena. 

 

Altered State of Consciousness:

A term used to refer to any state of consciousness that is different from normal state of waking or sleeping. ASCs include hypnosis, trance, ecstasy, psychedelic and meditative experiences. ASCs do not necessarily have paranormal features.

 

Anomalous experience: 

Unusual experience that cannot be explained in terms of current scientific knowledge.

 

Apparition:

A visual manifestation of  a person or animal that is no longer living. 

 

Automatic Writing:

The ability to write intelligible messages without conscious control or knowledge of what is being written.

 

 

C

 

Channeling:

Receiving messages and inspiration from discarnate entities. 

 

Clairaudience:

The ability to perceive sounds or words from outside sources in the spirit world. Psychics who are clairaudient hear voices, sounds or music that are not audible to the normal ear. They receive these messages mentally or within their ears.

 

Clairsentience: 

The ability to feel the present, past or future physical and emotional states of others, without the use of the normal five senses. Psychics who are clairsentient are able to retrieve information from houses, public buildings and outside areas.

 

Clairvoyance: 

A general term referring to the paranormal obtaining of information about an object or event. 

 

Cold Spot:

A place that is significantly colder than its surrounding areas. Many researchers believe that a sudden cold spot could be that of an unseen presence trying to manifest itself by drawing the energy from its surroundings. 

 

Collective Apparition: 

An apparition seen simultaneously by more than one person. 

 

Communicator: 

A discarnate entity from whom the medium receives messages from. 

 

Confirmation Bias:

In psychology and cognitive science, confirmation bias (or confirmatory bias) is a tendency to search for or interpret information in a way that confirms one's preconceptions, leading to statistical errors.

 

Conjuring: 

The performance of tricks that are seemingly magical, typically involving sleight of hand.

 

Control group: 

A group of people whose performance is compared with that of experimental subjects.

 

Correlation: 

A mutual relationship or connection between two or more things.

 

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. 

 

 

D

 

Deathbed Experience: 

A dying person's awareness of the presence of dead friends or relatives. 

 

Discarnate Entity: A spirit or non-material entity. Often used to refer to the personality of a deceased individual.

 

Disembodied Voice:

A human voice with no discernible origin heard in real time by the experiencer. This is different from Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) as you are able to hear it without the use of an electronic device.

 

Double Blind: 

An experimental procedure in which neither the subject nor experimenter is aware of key features of the experiment. 

 

 

E

 

Electromagnetic Field (EMF):

The rate at which energy is drawn from a source that produces a flow of electricity in a circuit expressed in volts. One cause of a high electromagnetic field can be caused by faulty wiring or unshielded wiring in a new or old building, another cause would be natural, do to weather ie: static electricity. It is theorized that when a ghost is present, you will see a flux in the electromagnetic field. The ghost will absorb the electrical energy from the surrounding area usually resulting in electrical malfunctions and rapid battery drains. These fields can be measured with tools called emf/elf detection meters.

 

Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP):

Intelligible voice recorded on magnetic tapes or digital format devices under conditions of silence or white noise which are heard only when the audio is played back. A phenomena discovered by Konstantin Raudive.

 

Empath: 

Empaths are highly sensitive, finely tuned instruments when it comes to emotions. They feel everything, sometimes to an extreme, and are less apt to intellectualize feelings. Intuition is the filter through which they experience the world.

 

ESP:

Extrasensory perception or ESP, also called sixth sense, includes reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses but sensed with the mind. The term was adopted by Duke University psychologist J. B.

 

Exorcism: 

The expulsion or attempted expulsion of an evil spirit from a person or place.

 

Experimenter Effect: 

Influence that the experimenter's personality or behavior may have on the results of an experiment. 

 

 

F

 

Faraday Cage: 

A wire mesh enclosure that provides a shield to radio waves. 

 

Focal Person:

Person who is at the center Poltergeist Activity. Also referred to as an Agent. 

 

Fraud: 

A person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities.

 

 

G

 

Ghost:

A form of apparition usually resembling that of a deceased person or animal.

 

 

H

 

Hallucination:

A sensory experience that does not correspond to physical reality.

 

Haunting:

A phenomena which plays out like a video or audio recording being played over and over again. A stored energy of a past event that for some reason continues to replay itself. These types of hauntings never seem to interact with the living.

 

Hypnagogic: 

Relating to the state immediately before falling asleep.

 

Hypnopompic: 

Relating to the state immediately preceding waking up.

 

 

I

 

Indirect Voice:

Mediumistic phenomena in which the discarnate entity appears to speak using the vocal apparatus of the medium. 

 

Inhuman Entity:

Usually a negative presence with the intent to harm the living. These disturbances are usually of a Demonic nature.

 

Intelligent Haunting:

Is a term cooked up by television shows. 

 

 

K

 

Kirlian Photography: 

A technique for recording photographic images of corona discharges and hence, supposedly, the auras of living creatures.

 

 

L

 

Lucid Dream:

A lucid dream is any dream during which the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming.

 

 

M

 

Macro PK:

Psychokinetic effects that can be directly observed rather than only inferred from statistical analysis. 

 

Medium: 

A person believed to act as an intermediary between entities and the living.

 

 

N

 

Near Death Experience: 

An unusual experience taking place on the brink of death and recounted by a person after recovery, typically an out-of-body experience or a vision of a tunnel of light.

 

 

O

 

Occam's Razor: 

a scientific and philosophic rule that entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily which is interpreted as requiring that the simplest of competing theories be preferred to the more complex or that explanations of unknown phenomena be sought first in terms of known quantities.

 

Occultism: 

Is the study of occult practices, including (but not limited to) magic, alchemy, extra-sensory perception, astrology, spiritualism, religion, and divination.

 

Ouija Board: 

A board printed with letters, numbers, and other signs, to which a planchette or movable indicator points, supposedly in answer to questions from people at a seance. Also commonly referred to as spirit boards and or talking boards.

 

 

P

 

Paranormal:

Is a term used to describe anything that has no scientific explanation.

 

Parapsychology: 

The study of mental phenomena that are excluded from or inexplicable by orthodox scientific psychology (such as hypnosis, telepathy, etc.).

 

Pareidolia: 

Is when the human brain tries to make sense of unexplained shadows, images or sounds by filling in the blanks. A good example would be looking at wood grain and seeing faces or seeing animals or shapes within cloud formations.

 

Phantom Smells:

Are usually the sudden aroma of cigars, cigarettes,  flowers or perfume with no known origin. Other scents could be that of rotting flesh or fecal matter which could be associated with a negative entity.

 

Poltergeist:

Is a manifestation of energy that is often associated with electrical disturbances, objects moving by themselves, the rearranging of furniture and scratching or banging on walls. 

 

Psychic: 

Relating to or denoting faculties or phenomena that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, especially involving telepathy or clairvoyance.

 

Psychokinesis (PK)

The paranormal influence of the mind on physical events and processes. 

 

Psychometry: 

The ability to discover facts about an event or person by touching inanimate objects associated with them.

 

 

R

 

Radioics: 

Use of instruments to detect radiation from living organisms. 

 

Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis: 

The Technical term for Poltergeist phenomena. 

 

Remote Viewing: 

Is the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen target using subjective means, in particular, extrasensory perception (ESP) or "sensing with mind".

 

Residual Haunting:

Is a bit of a redundancy and is also a term cooked up by television shows. 

 

 

S

 

Shadow Person:

Is exactly what it implies, a shadowy figure with no distinguishing features or characteristics.

 

Sleep Paralysis: 

Is a phenomenon in which a person either during falling asleep (hypnagogia) or awakening (hypnopompia), temporarily experiences an inability to move, speak, or react. It is a transitional state between wakefulness and sleep, characterized by muscle atonia (muscle weakness).