B

Ba

         Ancient Egyptian concept of a person's essence, believed to be be immortal. Cf. Ka. See also Soul.

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.

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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.

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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.

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Bilocation

Being (or appearing to be) in two different places at the same time. See also autoscopy.

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Biofeedback

A general term for techniques that involve giving a person information about their current physiological state (e.g., heart rate, EEG). Biofeedback is used to enable people to control consciously their physiological processes.

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Bio-PK

Psychokinetic effects on biological processes. See also DMILS.

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Black Art

Conjuring technique of concealing objects using black covers against a black background. Also used by fraudulent mediums.

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Black Magic

Magical spells or rituals practiced with the intention of harming others. Cf. white magic .

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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. See also double blind.

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Blind Matching (BM)

An identical procedure to open matching, except that the key cards are unseen by the subject.

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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.

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