Abhijna:
This is a Sanskrit term used by Buddhists to refer to the supernormal
abilities and the knowledge attained through the practice of
meditation.
Abnormal
psychology: The scientific study the causes
and treatments of mental illness. Sufferers of psychological
disorders have unusual experiences
Amorphous: having
no definite form or shape
Amulet:
a charm worn around the neck that is supposed to ward off evil
Angel:
a spirit believed to be a messenger of God. One who can take
up a human form and can heal, watch over, and do other possitive
things
Animism:
the belief that everything in nature has a soul or form of consciousness
Anomaly: is frequent
to describe the content of an unusual experience. Lies out side
the normal range. Adjective forms “anomalous” and
“anomalistic”.
Apparition: is
a perception like experience of a person that is not physically
present
Apport: a solid
object, either animate or inanimate, that manifests during a
séance or a haunting by non-physical means
Asport:
a solid object that disappears during a séance
or a haunting and reappears elsewhere
Astral projection:
An occult term referring to the “Out of body experience”.
This type of experience is caused when the soul or spirit leaves
the physical body.
Aura:
a mystical radiance believed to surround some people and objects
Autokintetic effect: a kind of optical illusion
in which movement is falsely perceived in a stationary object
or source of light.
Automatic Writing:
a method of spirit communication by which a medium enters a
trance state and allows a spirit to control his or her hands
to write messages
Automatism:
the theory in which the subconscious communicates with the conscious
by means of a vehicle such as a Ouija board or pendulum
Autoscopy:
Literally self-seeing; a visual of one self.
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B
Banishing:
A procedure that is used to remove an unwanted spirit by rituals
or other forms of spiritualism.
Benign
Spirit: a spirit that is not harmful to man,
such as an elemental
Bigfoot:
The popular American name for a hairy humanoid occasionally
sighted in wooded area, mostly in the north west coast region
Bilocation: the presence of a person or object
in two places at once. It is a widely reported paranormal
experience.
Black Magic:
any form of magic used for evil purposes
Brocken spectre:
The Brocken is a mountain in Germany with a haunted reputation-
it is said to be the site of the Witches’ Sabbath during
the great witch-hunt
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Cabalistic:
having a hidden meaning
Cacodemonomania: The ancient Greeks referred
to a hostile spirit as a cacodiamon. Cacodemonomania is a
psychiatric term for the belief that one is possessed by the
devil. It is a subtype of demonomania, the conviction that
one is the victim of possession
Cartomancy: fortune telling using cards
Channeling:
is the communication of information to or through a human
being from a source that is said to exist on some other level
or dimension of reality than the physical as we know it.
Charisms: this
term in the Roman Catholic tradition refers to apparently
supernatural manifestations associated with the holy people
especially the saints.
Clairaudience:
The alleged ability to hear distant events or inaudible sounds
with out using the ordinary hearing sense
Clairsentience:the
ability to feel things not normally felt by most people
Clairvoyance:
the alleged ability to obtain information about events or
objects with out the use of any known senses.
Cleansing: A
simpler form of exorcism that is used to purify an area or
place. Can be done with the use of prayers or burning of different
herbs(depending on ones religion) as you move through out
an area
Collective Apparition:an
encounter with a ghost or spirit in which more than one person
sees the same thing
Conjure:to summon
a spirit
Corpse light:
A luminous form seen around dead bodies.
Cryptaesthesia:
“hidden sensation” this term refers to information
gathered by the senses that enters awareness in another form.
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Déjà
vu:
French term which means already seen. Its familiarity coupled
with an experience that one has never had before.
Dematerialization:
a term used by spiritualists and parapsychologists for the
sudden disappearance of an item
Demon: A spirit
that is usually hostile: possibly a fallen angel from heaven
Demonomania:
this term refers to the belief that one is possessed by a
spirit; mostly likely the devil.
Deport: the
movement of objects out of a secure enclosed space without
any physical means
Divination:
foretelling the future by supernatural means
Dowsing:the
art of locating water or other objects by the use of a divining
rod or other tool
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Eidolism:
the belief in disembodied
spirits, ghosts, or souls
Electronic visual phenomenon:
The screen of a television set displays a randomly flicking
light- often called “snow”-when tuned between
channels.
Electronic voice phenomenon
(EVP): Sounds of voices and other noises
that are picked up by an audio recorder that the normal
person cannot hear. Usually created by paranormal phenomenon.
Elementals:
nature spirits who watch over the four elements
Encounter prone personality:
This term was coined by Ring to describe the personality
type that seems most likely to have a near death experience
and UFO encounters. – A tendency to focus attention
on metal images and thought to the exclusion of events
in the out side world
Entity:
another word used for spirit or ghost
Exorcism:
An act of removing a spirit from a human being or from
a place. Usually performed by Catholic preists but not
always.
Extrasensory Perception
(ESP): Perception is the process buy which
the mind acquires information about the world. Such are
subsumed under ESP are a variety of phenomena such as
telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition, retro cognition.
Extra-terrestrials:
Life forms that originate from other
planets other than our own.
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Fata
Morgana: According to legend, Morgan Le Fay
was the fairy sister of King Arthur. She had the unpleasant
habit of conjuring visions of cities and Harbors in order to
entice sailors to crash to their ruin on jagged rocks. Her name
has been given to a remarkable type seen repeatedly in many
parts of the world.
Foo Fighters:
In 1944-1945 Allied pilots flying bomb runs over western Europe
began to report that their planes were being visited by strange
lights. The mysterious entities would follow the plane just
beyond or behind the wing. Also been reported all over the world.
Furor: A term
that usually refers to an agitated, noisy or uncontrollable
situation.
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Geophysical
influences: Unusual experiences that do not occur
at random, either in time or space. Sightings of strange phenomenon
cluster in certain locals. Some researchers believe that these
patterns are caused in part by the electrical and magnetic energies
of the earth.
Ghost: this word
was derived from the Saxon gaste, meaning: “spirit”.
The common definition of “ghost” is the soul of a
dead person that becomes visible to the living.
Ghost Light: Lights
that anomalous that are usually see at night. Most sightings have
been reported in mountainous regions.
Glossolalia: unintelligible
speech generally uttered in a dissociated or trance state
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Haunting:
Is an on going disturbance of paranormal origin that is associated
with a particular location.
Hesychasm: Is
the practice is the reciting of a prayer that raises awareness
beyond the realm of ordinary appearance in a spiritual sense.
Usually associated with the mystical experience of Eastern Orthodox
Christianity.
Humanoids, anomalous:
Beings that resemble members of our species, yet are unmistakably
different, and are found in every culture and time period.
Human
Spirit:
Self explanatory: A spirit that appears to be in human form
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Ignis
Fatuus:
A name for will-o-whisps, Coined by the Romans and still used
today. Unwary travelers assuming that flickering nocturnal lights
signaled the presence of a settlement, have been lured into
treacherous swamps to their deaths.
Incantation: the
utterance of a magical spell or charm
Incenduim Amoris:
are intense sensations of heat. Feverish skin, to the appearance
of blisters on the body and scorching of clothing and could
externally manifest. Some refer this to being possessed by a
spirit or such forms of a stigmata or another alleged phenomenon
called spontaneous human combustion.
Incubus nightmare:
Incubus, being an evil spirit, invades a woman’s bedroom
at night, mounts her chest, has sexual intercourse with her
and gives her nightmares. (Male spirit equivalent, Succubus)
Infestation: Can
be refered to as a haunting. Having re-occuring events of paranormal
behavior in one area or location
Inhuman
Spirit:
A spirit that is not of human nature usually referred to as
poltergeist, demon or devil
J
Jersey
Devil: In mainly northern
New Jersey and New York, there have been reports of a very
strange creature described as having a weird shaped head,
red eyes, Long claws, bat like wings and a pointed tail.There
have been reports of this mysterious creature for decades
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Levitation:
A belief that material bodies can hover or fly threw the air
with ordinary means of propulsion.
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Magic:
the use of means (as charms
or spells) believed to have supernatural power over natural
forces ;magic rites or incantations
Marian Apparition:
Appearances of the blessed virgin Mary in apparitional encounters
or in other strange manors.
Medium: A person
who is thought to meditate between two worlds of the living
and the dead communicating and transposing information between
the two worlds.
Metagnomy: variant
term for Extrasensory perception.
Metakinesis: Variant
term for Psychokinesis – the direct influence of the “mind
over matter”
Mkele Mbembe:
Is the name given to a swamp monster by the people of central
Africa. Sightings of this beast have been recorded since the
19th century
Mothman: Point
Pleasant, West Virginia was the center of a wave of strange
experiences during 1966. A winging, 6 foot tall, gray humanoid
that was frequently seen in flight: sometimes aerial light were
observed first.
Mysterium tremendum:
Latin term for awesome mystery; a term that refers to feelings
of humility and fear evoked by a numinous encounter with a supernatural
presence.
Mysticism: belief
in the spiritual world or other dimension that cannot be perceived
by the human eye
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Near
Death Experience:
People who come close to death and later revive sometimes having
weird encounter either in their own subconscious or with something
of paranormal origin.
Necromancy: divining
the future by communication with the dead
Night Terror:
Is an episode where one would sit up in bed and scream. The
victim may be perspiring have rapid heart beat and trouble breathing.
Some say this can be caused from something paranormal but not
in all cases.
Numinous experience:
The Latin word numen refers to the feeling of being in the presence
of an impersonal supernatural force
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Obsession:
the second stage of a haunting where an invading entity begins
to dominate the mind of and exert its power over its living victim
Occam's
Razor:
the principle that we should always prefer the simplest explanation
of events
Omen:
a sign of things to come
Oneiromancy:
divination of the future through the interpretation of dreams
Oppression:
the initial stage of a haunting in which the invading entity
attempts to gain access to the location or person targeted for
victimization
Orb:
a sphere of electromagnetic energy, usually only visible in
photographs, believed to be a visible representation of a spirit
Out-of-body-experience: The
feeling that one left the physical body in a spiritual state
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Paranormal:
Literally, “ Beside the normal”, a paranormal event
is one that violates the boundaries of space and time, or cause
and effect, as they are normally understood
Parapsychology:
Is the study of new means of communication or interaction of things
that have a paranormal attribute.
Parascopy: Another
variant term for Extrasensory perception
Pavor Nocturnus:
Variant term for Night terrors
Phantomania: a term
used to describe a type of paralysis that occurs when a person
is under attack by either preternatural or supernatural forces
Poltergeist: In
German, Polter means noise or uproar, and geist means “spirit”.
The term is used to describe an outbreak of unexplained events
that is commonly described to the actions of occult beings or
the devil.
Precognition:
Is the ability to know the future before events happen
Premonition: Variant
term for Precognition
Preternatural: Is
an event that seems to originate form a supernatural source. Ex:
apparent encounters with spirits, gods, ghosts, angels or devils.
As well as experiences that seem to involve a journey of the soul
through a spiritual realm.
Provocation: an
effort to provoke or command a spirit to reveal itself
Psychic: An individual
that can sat or know things that a normal human being can’t.
Such as ESP, reading auras, and communicating with spirits of
the dead.
Psychokinsis (PK):
the alleged power of the mind directly to influence outer events,
or “Mind over Matter”
Psychometry: the
ability to receive psychic impressions of a person, place, or
past event by holding or touching certain objects
Reincarnation: The
belief that one can return to earth after they are dead as another
human being or an animal.
Religiosity: It
is a form of spiritualism that is divine or have demonic influences
that effect human life.
Retro cognition:
the ability of the mind to obtain information directly from the
past with out the use of ordinary sources such as historical accounts.
RSPK (Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis):
a term used by some researchers to refer to a
poltergeist.
Revenant: one who
returns from the dead
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Sasquatch:
The name given by the Coast Salish Natives of British Columbia
to a hairy humanoid sometimes encountered in the forest.
Séance: an assembly at which
a medium calls to spirits to communicate with those in attendance
Sensitive:
a person who possesses a high degree of proficiency in extrasensory
perception
Shamanism: a Native
American and Asian practice or belief through which a skilled
medium communicates with the spiritual world and employs magic
to heal or to divine the future
Siddhi: Sanshrit
term meaning “perfect abilites”, traditions to refer
to supernormal powers acquired through meditation.
Skepticism: The
sckeptics were a school to philosophers in ancient Greece. They
argued that nothing could be known for certain. Since that time
the skeptical has ment absence of belief, coupled with a willingness
to question all assertions of truth and certainty
Somnambulism:
A traditional term for Hypnosis
Springheel Jack:
During 1837 and 1838 many residents of London reported encounters
with a mysterious humanoid. These meetings usually occurred
in alleyways or doorsteps and always at night.
Stigmata: The
phenomenon of stigmata is eruptions on that skin that symbolize
a belief held by the stigmatic. Most of the stigmatic's have
been Roman Catholics and the wounds that they receive are similar
to the ones that Jesus Christ received
Supernatural: The
supernatural realm beyond nature as it is ordinarily understood.
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Taboo:
forbidden to profane use
or contact because of what are held to be dangerous supernatural
powers
Telekinesis: variant term for Psychokinesis, the
direct influence of the mind on objects or events
Telepathy: Often
called “mind reading” ability to obtain information
directly from the mind of another person.
Telepsychosis: Another
variant term for telepathy
Theomania: Refers to the belief that one is possessed by a good
spirit
Therianthropy: the
belief that one can or has changed into an animal
Thorybism: Variant
term for a poltergeist: a series of disturbances, allegedly of
paranormal nature, that seem to center around a person.
Transvection: variant
term for levitation.
UFO
(unidentified flying object):
An object that is seen up in the sky that is usually referred
to as a spacecraft not from this planet
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Veridical:
information or experience that is confirmed by facts and events
Voodoo death: Term used by anthropologists to
designate a death in response to a nonphysical cause, such as
a curse or the violation of a taboo.
Vortex:
a powerful portal through time and space through which one can
travel to another dimension: also can be reffered to as away
an enity travels through an area.
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White Magic: magic employed for
good
White
Noise: a hiss-like sound formed by combining
all audible frequencies
Wraith:
Traditional term for an apparition of a person at the moment
of death
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Xenoglossy:
the ability to write or speak in a language that one would not
normally know: and have been often been advanced as evidence for
spirit contact, past life memory or ESP
Y
Yeti:
Traditional name for a hairy humanoid featured in Asian folklore
and occasionally reported walking the Himalayas
