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.

Acupuncture

Traditional Chinese medical practice that involves sticking needles into specific locations on the body. 

Agent

(a) Person who attempts to communicate information to another in an ESP experiment.

(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

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.

 

Alpha Rhythm

Electrical activity in the brain (about 10 cycles per second) associated with a state of mental relaxation.

Altered State of Consciousness (ASC)

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. 

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. .

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.

Animal Psi

Paranormal abilities exhibited by animals. 

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.

Anomalous Experience

A general term referring to unusual experiences that cannot be explained in terms of current scientific knowledge.

Anomalous Phenomena

Natural phenomena that cannot be explained in terms of current scientific knowledge.

Apparition I

A visual appearance often of a person or scene, generally experienced in a waking or hypnagogic / hypnopompic state.

Apport

A physical object which appears in a way that cannot be explained. Apports are often associated with the seance room and physical mediumship.

Artefact

In parapsychology, false evidence of paranormal phenomena, due to some extraneous normal influence.

Astral Body

A term used by occultists, spiritualists and theosophists to refer to a supposed "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.

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

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). 

Automatic Writing

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

Automatism

Physical activites that occur without the automatist's conscious control or knowledge. Also known as motor automatism.

Autoscopy

(a) Seeing one's "double".

(b) Looking back at one's own body from a position outside of the body. 

Ba I

Ancient Egyptian concept of a person's essence, believed to be be immortal.

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 Reading

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  in two different places at the same time. 

Biofeedback

A general term for techniques that involve giving a person information about their current physiological state. Biofeedback is used to enable people to control consciously their physiological processes.

Bio-PK 

Psychokinetic effects on biological processes. 

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. 

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.

Blind Matching (BM) I

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.

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.

Card Guessing

An experimental test for ESP in which subjects guess the identity of a set of cards.

Cartomancy

Fortune telling using cards. 

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. 

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.

Clairaudience

The paranormal obtaining of information by hearing sounds or voices. 

Clairsentience 

An archaic term that refers to the paranormal obtaining of information using faculties other than vision or hearing.

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. 

Clairvoyant Medium

Or clairvoyant. A person who obtains information paranormally without the need to enter into a trance state. 

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. 

Cold Reading In

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 

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. 

Confederate

A person who secretly provides information to a fraudulent psychic or mentalist.

Conjuring Ind

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.

(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. 

Corn Circle

Circular  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 I

An association between two or more events or variables.

Correlation Coefficient

A mathematical index 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. 

Coven

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  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 in order to obtain paranormal information. Also known as scrying. 

Curse

Words spoken or written in order to influence others paranormally, causing them harm. 

Daemon (Daimon)

A guardian spirit who communicates inspiration and advice. 

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. 

Decline Effect

A decrease in performance on a psi test when the test is repeated.

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. 

Demonic Possession

Possession by evil spirits. 

Deport

The paranormal movement of objects out of a secure enclosed space. 

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.

Discarnate Entity 

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

Displacement

Responses on a psi test that correspond systematically to targets other than the intended one 

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 used in dowsing.

DMILS

"Direct Mental Interaction with Living Systems". Psychokinetic influences on physiological processes.

Doppelganger

A mirror image or double of a person. 

Double

A duplicate of one's own 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  from top to bottom.

Dowsing

The paranormal detection of underground water or mineral deposits using a divining rod or pendulum.

Drop-in Communicator

An uninvited communicator who 'drops in' at a sitting.

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. 

Ectoplasm

A semi-fluid substance exuded by a physical medium from which materializations may form.

EEG (Electro-encephalography)

A method of recording variations of electrical activity in the cortex of the brain.

Elemental Spirit 

A spirit associated with one of the classical four elements (fire, earth, air and water). 

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. 

Etheric Body

Similar to astral body.

Evil Eye

Alleged ability of some people to harm others by looking at them.

EVP

Electronic Voice Phenomena. 

Evocation

The summoning of spirits using a magical incantation or ritual.

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. 

Extrasensory Perception (ESP) 

Paranormal acquisition of information. Includes clairvoyance, telepathy and precognition. 

Extraterrestrial

Originating beyond planet Earth. Not normally considered to be extradimensional.

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. 

Fraud

The deliberate faking of paranormal phenomenena, generally for the purpose of financial gain, psychological manipulation, or notoriety. Faking for the purpose of entertainment  is not normally classed as fraud.

Free-Response Test

An ESP test in which the subject responds freely. 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 by a judge.

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  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.

Ghost

Popular term for an experience believed to indicate the presence of the spirit of a deceased person. 

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". 

"Goat"

Name given to a subject in a psi test who does not believe in the phenomenon. 

Guardian Angel

An angel believed to protect the individual.

Guide

A spirit who is believed to assist a person's spiritual journey.

Hallucination

A sensory experience that does not correspond to physical reality. 

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. 

Healer 

Someone who claims the power of healing.

Healing 

Generally indicates cures that cannot be explained in terms of accepted medical principles. 

Hex 

(a) An evil spell or magical curse.

(b) To practice witchcraft.

Hit

A response that accurately matches the target. 

Hot Reading 

A reading given in which prior knowledge of the sitter has been obtained, often using devious or fraudulent means. 

Huna

An Hawaiian religious practice involving clairvoyance, precognition, healing, miracles and magic.

Hyperaesthesia

Exceptionally acute sensory awareness.

Hypnagogic Imagery

Imagery occurring in the hypnagogic state

Hypnopompic Imagery

Imagery occurring in the hypnopompic state

Hypnosis

An ASC involving a heightened degree of suggestibility.

I Ching

Ancient Chinese "Book of Changes". It describes 64 hexagrams  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. 

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. 

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. 

Invocation

Summoning benevolent spiritual beings. 

Judge

Person who compares targets and responses in an psi experiment.

Ka 

Ancient Egyptian term for the double or astral body. .

Karma 

Hindu and Buddhist ethical doctrine of "as one sows, so shall one reap". 

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 Soviet Union. Kirlian photographs often show coloured halos or "auras" surrounding objects.

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.

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 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. .

Lycanthropy

The supposed magical transformation of a person into the form of a wolf. 

Macro-PK

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

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 Inde

A person who practices magic.

Majority Vote Technique

An ESP procedure in which several subjects guess a target. The most frequent guess is used as the response.

Mantra

A sacred sound or sacred syllables used in meditation. 

Match

An alternative term for hit.

Matching Tests

Card guessing tests in which the subject uses key cards when making guesses.

Materialization

The formation of a visible and tangible object or human shape during a seance. 

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. 

Medium

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

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. 

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.

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Metal Bending

Psychokinetic ability to bend metal objects. A phenomenon popularised by Uri Geller.

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Metempsychosis

Another term for reincarnation.

Micro-PK I

Psychokinetic effects that cannot be directly observed, but only inferred from the statistical analysis of data. .

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. 

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"  of an object or organism may influence distant fields.

Multiple Personality

A psychiatric condition in which the person manifests two or more distinct and separate personalities at different times.

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.

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 seeing dead friends and relatives, experiencing a loving or divine presence, and making a choice  to return. Occasionally NDEs can be frightening and distressing. NDEs often have profound effects on the person's later life.

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.

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.

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 (OM)

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.

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. 

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.

Palmistry

The art of assessing a person's character and forecasting life events by examining features of the hand. 

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

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.

Past-Life Memories

Mental images that are believed to be memories of previous lives. .

Past-Life Regression

A technique of hypnosis involving regressing people to supposed previous lives.

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. 

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 by a medium. Physical mediumship often (but not always) involves a state of trance. 

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.

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. 

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.

Pocomania

A Jamaican spiritist religion. 

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.  

Prayer

A sincere attempt to communicate with a spiritual being or power.

Precognition

The paranormal awareness of future events.

Prediction

A statement that claims to foretell future events. .

Preexistence

Belief that the personality or soul exists prior to birth. .

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. .

Presence

A subjective feeling that a person, animal or discarnate entity is present.

Probability In

The likelihood that results in a test were due to chance. .

Process research

Research that aims to investigate factors affecting psi. 

Proof research

Research that aims to demonstrate the existence of psi.

Prophecy 

(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. 

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 that can produce florid ASCs.

Psychic

A person who exhibits psi ability

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. 

Psychic Photography

General term used to refer to paranormal photographic images. 

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.

Qualitative Method

A research method involving the collection of non-quantitative data

Quantitative Method

A research method involving the collection and statistical analysis of numerical data.

Radiesthesia Ind

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. 

Radionics

Use of instruments to detect radiation from living organisms. 

Random

Refers to events that are, in principle, haphazard and unpredictable. 

Random Event Generator (REG)

An electronic device which uses a random physical process to generate random events or random numbers.

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. 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.

Reading

Information given by a psychic or medium to a sitter.

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.

Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis (RSPK) 

A technical term for poltergeist activity.

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.

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.

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.

Run

A set of trials in a psi test.

Santeria

A Cuban spiritist religion. 

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.

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.

Series

A sequence of runs in a psi experiment.

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. 

"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.

Slate-Writing

Writing that appears on a slate during a seance. Often produced by fraudulent mediums and mentalists.

Sleep Paralysis

An  state of seeming to being awake but unable to move.

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.

 

Space Brothers

Extraterrestrial entities, channeled by some mediums.

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 Cure

Healing that is believed to result from the intervention of spirits.

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.

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.

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

Supernatural 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  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.

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.

Target

The object or event which the subject attempts to perceive  or influence. 

Tarot

A special deck of cards  used in fortune telling.

Telekinesis

Paranormal movement of objects.

Telepathy

Paranormal awareness of another person's experience . In practice it is difficult to distinguish between telepathy and clairvoyance.

Teleportation

Paranormal transportation of objects to a distant place.

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.

Theosophy

Quasi-religious and philosophical system of the Theosophical Society, founded in 1875 by Madame Blavatsky. Its paranormal claims were controversially and damningly reported upon by the Society for Psychical Research in 1885.

Therianthropy

The supposed ability to change from human to animal form and back.

 

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.

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).

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.

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

Trumpet

A conical tube  used in seances to produce direct voice communication.

Ufology

The study of UFOs.

Umbanda

A Brazilian spiritist religion. 

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 from bottom to top. 

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 Africa, and now found predominantly in Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba. Magical rites, trance states and possession all play a major role in Voodoo.

Werewolf

A person who has been magically transformed into a wolf or other dangerous beast. 

White Magic

Magical spells or rituals to produce beneficial effects. 

White Noise

A hiss-like sound, formed by combining all audible frequencies. See Wicca

System of witchcraft, especially as practiced today in western countries.

Witch

Someone who practices witchcraft.

Witchcraft

Folk magic.

Witchdoctor

A medicine wo(man) or shaman.

Xenoglossy

The ability to speak or write in a language that has not been learned.

Yoga

Religious philosophy originating in India. It advocates the use of physical and psycho-spiritual techniques to lead the person to higher consciousness.

Zener Cards 

Set of 25 cards designed by the perceptual psychologist Karl Zener for use in card-guessing tests of ESP.

Zombie

A corpse that has been partly brought back to (soul-less) life by magic.