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LEVITATION
The raising or
suspension of persons or objects into the air without any apparent
agency as required by known physical laws of motion and gravity.
LUCID DREAM
A dream in
which the dreamer is conscious of the fact that they are dreaming.
LUMINOUS PHENOMENA
The
paranormal production of light phenomena, generally in the
presence of certain physical mediums.
MACRO-PK
See under Psychokinesis.
MEDITATION
A broad
term embracing a number of techniques for achieving various altered
states of awareness, with some of these altered states resulting in
the ecstatic qualities of so-called “peak experience;” most meditative
techniques are ways of learning to still the agitation of the mind so
that more subtle and valuable aspects of self and reality may be
perceived; some techniques involve concentration, in which attention is
focused on a particular object and restrained from wandering, while
others involve giving one’s total attention to whatever spontaneously
happens, with no attempt to control or focus attention.
MENTALISM
The practice
of simulating telepathy, performed for the purpose of
entertainment.
METAL-BENDING
See
Psychokinetic Metal-bending.
MICRO-PK
See under
Psychokinesis.
MINI-GELLER
A child or
young person who can to some extent duplicate by paranormal means
the metal-bending feats of Uri Geller. See also Geller
Effect.
MUSCLE-READING
A
phenomena which mimics telepathy, in which a person is able, for
example, to find a hidden object by means of physical contact with the
person who knows its whereabouts, probably due to subtle muscular cues
that the latter provides unconsciously; also known as “Cumberlandism,”
after Stuart Cumberland, a nineteenth century practitioner of this
art.
MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE
An
experience which, according to Michael A. Thalbourne (1991a, 1991b),
consists of a majority of the following features: it tends to be sudden
in onset, joyful, and difficult to verbalize; it involves a sense of
perceiving the purpose of existence; an insight into “the harmony of
things;” a perception of an ultimate unity — of oneness; transcendence
of the ego; an utter conviction of immortality; and it tends to be
temporary, authoritative and to be attributed supreme value. Some people
interpret the mystical experience as an experience of unity with
God.
NDE
See
Near-Death Experience.
NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE
(NDE)
Term applied to experiences undergone by persons who
either seem to be at the point of death (or who are even formally
declared dead) but then recover, or who narrowly escape death (as in a
motor car accident) without being seriously injured; it has been
suggested that there is, upon coming close to death, a “core” NDE made
up of certain common elements, such as a feeling of indescribable peace,
a sense of being out of one’ s body, a movement into a dark void or down
a tunnel, seeing a brilliant light, and entering that light; there may
also be reported the experience of so-called “panoramic memory” (the
“life review”), the encountering of an “unseen presence,” or being
greeted by deceased relatives or religious figures.
OBE
See
Out-of-[the]-Body Experience.
OCCULT
Term referring
to certain reputed sciences and practices such as magic, astrology,
witchcraft, sorcery, and so on, involving esoteric knowledge or the
employment of mysterious agencies; not to be confused with scientific
parapsychology. [From the Latin occultus, “covered over,
concealed”]
OUT-OF-[THE]-BODY EXPERIENCE (OBE,
or OOBE)
An experience, either spontaneous or induced, in
which one’s center of consciousness seems to be in a spatial location
outside of one’s physical body; Celia Green distinguishes two types of
such “ecsomatic” [From the Greek ek, “out of,” + soma,
“body”] experiences: the “parasomatic” [From the Greek para,
“along side of”] in which the person appears to themselves to possess a
duplicate body, sometimes connected to the physical body by a “silver
cord;” and the “asomatic” [From the Greek a-, “without”] in
which they feel themselves to be entirely bodiless; in either case, many
experients claim to perceive their physical bodies lying inert, to see
and hear people while remaining unperceived themselves, and to perceive
objects and events normally beyond the range of their physical senses;
of special interest to parapsychologists on account of its alleged
connection with clairvoyance, and to students of survival
as providing an example of what disembodied existence could be like. The
term “OBE” is preferred by parapsychologists for the phenomena also
known as “astral projection,” “traveling clairvoyance.” See also
Astral Body. [Dale & White, 1977]
ESP PROJECTION
Term coined by Hornell
Hart to refer to a type of OBE in which the person “projecting”
their consciousness out of their body actually feels that they are out
of their body, may be seen by other people at a distant point, and
afterwards reports a veridical description of what he or she observed
at that point.
PARANORMAL
Term applied to any phenomenon which
in one or more respects exceeds the limits of what is deemed physically
possible on current scientific assumptions; often used as a synonym for
“psychic,” “parapsychological,” “attibutable to psi,” or
even “miraculous” (although shorn of religious overtones). [From the
Greek para, “beside, beyond,” + normal]
PARAPSYCHOLOGICAL
Involving or
pertaining to parapsychology or paranormal
processes.
PARAPSYCHOLOGY
Term
coined in German by Max Dessoir (1889) and adopted by J. B. Rhine in
English to refer to the scientific study of paranormal or
ostensibly paranormal phenomena, that is, psi; except in Britain, the
term has largely superseded the older expression “psychical
research;” used by some to refer to the experimental approach to the
field. [From the Greek para, “beside, beyond,” + psychology,
derived from the Greek psyche, “soul, mind,” + logos
“rational discussion”]
PAST-LIFE REGRESSION
A
process in which a hypnotized person is mentally “taken back” (or
“regressed”) by the hypnotist to one or more apparent previous
life-times, thus suggesting reincarnation.
PERCIPIENT
Broadly
speaking, someone who perceives or who has a perception-like experience,
in particular, the person who experiences or “receives” an extrasensory
influence or impression; also one who is tested for ESP ability.
Compare Agent. [From the Latin percipiens
(percipientis), derived from percipere, “to receive,
understand”]
PHOTOGRAPHY,
PARANORMAL
The paranormal production of images on
photographic film; also known as “thoughtography,” a term used to
describe the experiments of Tomokichi Fukurai (1931) but adopted by Jule
Eisenbud to describe the phenomena produced by Ted Serios, as if mental
images were “projected” onto the film. See also Thoughtography;
Spirit Photography.
PK
See
Psychokinesis.
POLTERGEIST
A
disturbance characterized by bizarre physical effects of
paranormal origin, suggesting mischievous or destructive intent:
these phenomena include the unexplained movement or breakage of objects,
loud raps, the lighting of fires, and occasionally personal injury to
people; in contrast to a haunting, the phenomena often seem to
depend upon the presence of a particular living individual, called the
“focus,” frequently an adolescent or child; and apparitions are
rarely seen. [German: literally, “noisy ghost”]
PRECOGNITION
A form of
extrasensory perception in which the target is some future event
that cannot be deduced from normally known data in the present. Compare
Retrocognition. [From the Latin præ-, “prior to,” +
cognitio, “a getting to know”]
PREMONITION
A feeling
or impression that something is about to happen, especially something
ominous or dire, yet about which no normal information is available. See
Precognition. [From the Latin præ, “prior to,” +
monitio, “warning”]
PSI (Ψ)
A general
blanket term, proposed by B. P. Wiesner and seconded by R. H. Thouless
(1942), and used either as a noun or adjective to identify
paranormal processes and paranormal causation; the two main
categories of psi are psi-gamma (paranormal cognition; extrasensory
perception) and psi-kappa (paranormal action; psychokinesis),
although the purpose of the term “psi” is to suggest that they might
simply be different aspects of a single process, rather than
distinct
and essentially different processes. Strictly speaking “psi” also
applies to survival of death. Some thinkers prefer to use “psi”
as a purely descriptive term for anomalous outcomes, as suggested
by Palmer (1986, p. l39), who defines it as “a correspondence between
the cognitive or physiological activity of an organism and events in its
external environment that is anomalous with respect to generally
accepted basic limiting principles of nature such as those articulated
by C. D. Broad.” [From the Greek, psi, twenty-third letter of
the Greek alphabet; from the Greek psyche, “mind, soul”]
PSI-CONDUCIVE
Favorable to, or
facilitative of, the occurrence of psi, whether it be manifested as
psi-hitting or psi-missing.
PSI-HITTING
The use of
psi in such a way that the target at which the subject is aiming is
“hit” (that is, correctly responded to, in a test of extrasensory
perception; or influenced, in a test of psychokinesis), more
frequently than would be expected if only chance were operating;
the term is also sometimes used, misleadingly, to refer merely to
nonsignificant positive scoring. Hence, “psi-hitter,” a subject who
exhibits a tendency to psi-hit. Compare Psi-Missing. [Abbreviated to Ψ H
by James Carpenter]
PSI-MISSING
The use of
psi in such a way that the target at which the subject is aiming is
“missed” (that is, responded to incorrectly, in a test of
extrasensory perception; or influenced in a direction contrary to
aim, in a test of psychokinesis) more frequently than would be
expected if only chance were operating; the term is also
sometimes used, misleadingly, to refer simply to nonsignificant negative
scoring. Hence, “psi-misser,” a subject who displays a tendency to
psi-miss. Compare Psi-Hitting. [Abbreviated to Ψ M by James
Carpenter]
PSI PHENOMENON
Any
event which results from, or is an instance of, the operation of
psi; examples are the forms of extrasensory perception and
psychokinesis.
PSYCHIC(AL)
As a noun,
“psychic” refers to an individual who possesses psi ability of some kind
and to a relatively high degree; as an adjective, it is nowadays applied
to paranormal events, abilities, research, and so on, and thus
means “concerning or involving psi,” or “parapsychological.”
[From the Greek psychikos, “of the soul, mental,”
derived
from psyche, “soul, mind”]
PSYCHICAL RESEARCH
The
original term for “parapsychology,” still widely used, especially
in Britain.
PSYCHIC
ARCHEOLOGY
Archeological research which is pursued with the
assistance of a sensitive or other source of paranormal
information.
PSYCHIC HEALING
See
Healing, Psychic.
PSYCHIC
PHOTOGRAPHY
See Photography, Paranormal.
PSYCHIC SURGERY
A form
of psychic healing practiced particularly in the Philippines, in
which diseased tissue are said to be removed without the use of surgical
instruments, and bleeding, infection, and the like, are inhibited
paranormally. The term is also used of surgery in which the
surgeon operates while in a trance, as performed by J. Arigo and other
Brazilian exponents of this practice, usually using unsterilized knives
as scalpels.
PSYCHOKINESIS
Paranormal
action; term coined by Henry Holt and adopted by J. B. Rhine to refer to
the direct influence of mind on a physical system that cannot be
entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known physical energy.
See also Psi-Kappa under Psi; Retroactive PK;
Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis. [From the Greek
psyche, “mind, soul,” + kinesis, “a moving,
disturbance,” derived from kinein, “to set in motion”]
PSYCHOKINETIC METAL-BENDING
(PK-MB)
A psychokinetic effect in which metallic
objects such as keys, cutlery and so on are subjected to more or less
permanent deformation or other structural change.
PSYCHOMETRY
Term
coined by Joseph Rodes Buchanan (1893) to refer to the practice in which
sensitives hold an object in their hands and obtain paranormal
information about the object or its owner; owing to the confusion with a
psychological term, “psychometry” has in recent years been superseded by
“token-object reading.” [From the Greek psyche, “soul, mind,” +
metrein, “to measure”]
PSYCHOTRONICS
Czech
term for “parapsychology” (excluding the study of survival), but
embracing certain phenomena that are not now generally accepted as
parapsychological. According to (the late) Larissa Vilenskaya (1983, p.
107), the term was first pro-posed with the analogy of “bionics” in
mind, to refer to “the field dealing with the construction of devices
capable of enhancing and/or reproducing certain psi phenomena (such as
psychokinesis in the case of ‘psychotronic generators’ developed by
Robert Pavlita) and later embraced some other phenomena.” [Dale &
White, 1977]
QUALITATIVE
EXPERIMENT
(i) Any test for extrasensory perception
which uses target material and forms of response which do not allow a
definite probability-value to be attached to the response items made;
examples are most free-response tests, tests of psychometry,
mediumistic utterances, and so on; statistical evaluation of such
data must therefore proceed in an indirect fashion, by assigning a
probability-value to the matching-performance of a judge; (ii) Any
attempt to demonstrate qualitative phenomena. Compare Quantitative
Experiment. [Ultimately derived from the Latin qualis,
“what kind of?”]
QUANTITATIVE
EXPERIMENT
Any test for psi which uses targets
each of which has a specific prescribed value for the probability of its
occurrence; such a test therefore allows for direct statistical
evaluation of the results obtained. Compare Qualitative
Experiment. [Ultimately derived from the Latin quantus,
“how great,how much?”]
RANDOM NUMBER
GENERATOR (RNG)
An apparatus (typically electronic)
incorporating an element (based on such processes as radioactive decay
or random “noise”) and capable of generating a random sequence of
outputs; used in tests of psi for generating target
sequences, and in tests of psychokinesis may itself be the target
system which the subject is required to influence, that is, by “biasing”
the particular number or event output; a binary RNG has two
equally-probable outputs; the term “RNG” is increasingly being used to
refer to any system which produces naturally random outputs, such as
bouncing dice, radioactive decay, or even, perhaps, the brain.
READING
The statements
made by a sensitive (or as a result of the process of
divination) in the course of an attempt to obtain
paranormal information or “messages.”
RECEIVER
An expression
which is less technical than “percipient,” used to indicate the
subject designated as the “recipient” of telepathic information.
Compare Sender.
RECURRENT SPONTANEOUS
PSYCHOKINESIS (RSPK)
Expression coined by William G. Roll to
refer to paranormal physical effects which occur repeatedly over
a period of time, especially used as a neutral description of
poltergeist disturbances. See also Psychokinesis.
REINCARNATION
A form
of survival in which the human soul, or some aspects of self, is, after
the death of the body, reborn into a new body, this process being
repeated throughout many lives. From the Latin re-, “again,” +
in-, “into,” + caro (carnis), “flesh”]
REMOTE VIEWING
A
neutral term for general extrasensory perception introduced
Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff (1974), especially in the context of an
experimental design in which a percipient attempts to describe
the surroundings of a geographically distant agent.
ASSOCIATIONAL REMOTE VIEWING (ARV)
As
described by Targ (1983), a form of remote viewing in which the
area where a desired item might be located is divided up into a finite
number of discrete locations; each of the possible locations, or
addresses, is associated or linked with a laboratory-based token
object or picture (such as of the Golden Gate Bridge); the viewer is
then asked to describe the associated target-object, thereby
indirectly choosing a particular target-location or address.
RETROACTIVE
PK
Psychokinesis occurring in such a way as to be an
instance of retroactive causation; to say that event A was caused by
retroactive PK is to say that A would not have happened in the way that
it did had it not been for a later PK effort exerted so as to influence
it. Sometimes abbreviated to “retro-PK;” also referred to as “backward
PK” or “time-displaced PK.”
RETROCOGNITION
Term
coined by Frederic Myers to refer to a form of extrasensory
perception in which the target is some past event which could not
have been learned or inferred by normal means. Compare
Precognition [From the Latin retro, “backward, behind,”
+ cognitio, “a getting to know”]
RSPK
See Recurrent
Spontaneous Psychokinesis. |
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