Terms used when referring to ghosts, seances and Ouijas(pronounced Wee'Ja not Wee'Gee)
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).
Animism
Religious practices based on the belief that all living things and natural objects have their individual spiritual essence or soul.
Apparition
A visual appearance (cf. hallucination), 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 (seeming to come from nowhere). Apports are often associated with the seance room and physical mediumship.
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.
Banshee
In Gaelic belief, a female entity who heralds a death by groaning and screaming.
Black Art
Conjuring technique of concealing objects using black covers against a black background. Also used by fraudulent mediums.
Cerebral Anoxia
Lack of oxygen to the brain, often causing sensory distortions and hallucinations. Sometimes used to explain features of the near-death experience.
Channeling
Receiving messages and inspiration from discarnate entities.
Circle
A group of people who hold seances.
Clairvoyant Medium
Or clairvoyant. A person who obtains information paranormally (often by spirit communication) without the need to enter into a trance state.
Collective Apparition
An apparition seen simultaneously by more than one person.
Conjuring
Using trickery to simulate paranormal effects, generally for the purpose of entertainment.
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.
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.
Deja Vu
A person's feeling that current events have been experienced before.
Demonic Possession
Possession by evil spirits.
Deport
The paranormal movement of objects out of a secure enclosed space.
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.
Dissociation
Activity performed outside of normal conscious awareness, or mental processes that suggest the existence of separate centres of consciousness.
Doppelganger
A mirror image or double of a person.
Drop-in Communicator
An uninvited communicator who 'drops in' at a sitting.
Ectoplasm
A semi-fluid substance exuded by a physical medium from which materializations may form.
Elemental Spirit
A spirit associated with one of the classical four elements (fire, earth, air and water).
Empath
Someone who shows considerable empathy, especially of the apparently psychic type.
Evil Eye
Alleged ability of some people to harm others by looking at them.
Evocation
The summoning of (often evil) spirits using a magical incantation or ritual.
Exorcism
A religious or quasi-religious rite to drive out evil spirits.
Extradimensional
Originating outside our normal space-time reality.
Extrasensory Perception (ESP)
Paranormal acquisition of information. Includes clairvoyance, telepathy and precognition.
Fairy
Small, human-like mythical being. May be benevolent or malevolent.
Focal Person
Person who is at the centre of poltergeist activity.
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.
Ghost
Popular term for an experience believed to indicate the presence of the spirit of a deceased person.
Glossolalia
Unintelligible speech generally uttered in a dissociated or trance state. Also known as "speaking in tongues".
Guide
A spirit who is believed to assist a person's spiritual journey
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.
Hex
(a) An evil spell or magical curse.
(b) To practice witchcraft.
I Ching
Ancient Chinese "Book of Changes". It describes 64 hexagrams (patterns of 6 broken and unbroken lines) which are used in a divinatory practice involving the throwing of yarrow stalks or coins.
Immortality
Various beliefs based on the assumption that some aspect of personal existence survives death.
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.
Invocation
Summoning benevolent spiritual beings.
Karma
Hindu and Buddhist ethical doctrine of "as one sows, so shall one reap".
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.
Levitation
The paranormal raising or suspension of an object or person.
Luminous Phenomena
The experience of strange lights or glows, often around objects or people.
Lycanthropy
The supposed magical transformation of a person, usually to a wolf.
Magic
(a) Practices that aim to use paranormal or spiritual means to influence events.
(b) The art of conjuring.
Mantra
A sacred sound or sacred syllables used in meditation.
Materialization
The formation of a visible and tangible object or human shape during a seance.
Medium
A person believed to act as an intermediary between discarnate entities and the living.
Mentalism
A branch of conjuring involving the simulation of psi.
Miracle
A beneficial event attributed to supernatural or divine intervention.
Mystic
(a) A person who has mystical experiences.
(b) Used loosely to refer to psychics, mediums or romantics.
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 (marking death), seeing dead friends and relatives, experiencing a loving or divine presence, and making a choice (or being told) 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.
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.
Oracle
(a) An answer to a question, believed to come from the gods.
(b) a shrine at which these answers are given.
Ouija Board (weeja)
A board with letters and numbers on which messages are spelled out by unconsciously moving (with the fingers) a glass or planchette.
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.
Paranormal
Beside or beyond the normal. Inexplicable in terms of our ordinary understanding or current scientific knowledge.
Phantasm
An apparition.
Planchette
A small platform on casters generally used with a ouija board. Sometimes used with an attached pencil to produce automatic writing.
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.
Premonition
An experience believed to foretell future events.
Presence
A subjective feeling that a person, animal or discarnate entity is present.
Psi
A term used to encompass all paranormal abilities. Includes both ESP and PK abilities.
Psychometry
Obtaining paranormal knowledge using a physical object as a focus. Also known as object reading.
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.
Ritual Magic
Magical activity involving rites and ceremonies.
Sceptic (Skeptic)
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
Seance
A mediumistic session.
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.
Siddhis
Name given to paranormal powers associated with the practice of Yoga.
Sitter
A person who has a session with a medium.
Slate-Writing
Writing that appears on a slate during a seance.
Soul
The spiritual element of a person, generally believed to be immortal.
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 Photography
Photographs of figures or faces, believed by some to be those of deceased persons.
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.
Subliminal Perception
Perceiving without conscious awareness.
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.
Tarot
A special deck of cards (usually 78) used in fortune telling.
Theurgy
Magical practices which aim to contact and communicate with the gods.
Transcendental Meditation
A technique of meditation taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, involving the repetition of a sound (mantra).
Trumpet
A conical tube (often luminous) used in seances to produce direct voice communication.
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 Noise
A hiss-like sound, formed by combining all audible frequencies.
Wicca
System of witchcraft, especially as practiced today in western countries.
Xenoglossy
The ability to speak or write in a language that has not been learned.
Zombie
A corpse that has been partly brought back to (soul-less) life by magic.
SOURCE: Glossary of Parapsychology