Absent Healing   

Healing that takes place when the healer is not in direct contact with the person to be healed.

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Absent Sitter   

A person, not present during a sitting, on whose behalf readings are given. See also Proxy Sitting.

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Acupuncture   

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

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Agent   

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

(b) The subject in a psycho kinesis experiment.

(c) Person who is the focus of poltergeist activity.

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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).  

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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. See also temporal lobe activity.

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Alpha Rhythm   

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

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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.

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Ancestor Worship   

Religious practices involving the veneration of dead ancestors.

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Angels   

Benevolent spiritual beings who help people in need. See also guardian angel.

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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. See also Mesmerism.

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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 (e.g., genitals).

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Animal Psi   

Paranormal abilities exhibited by animals. Also known as "Anpsi".

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Animism   

Religious practices based on the belief that all living things and natural objects have their individual spiritual essence or soul.

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Announcing Dream   

A dream believed to announce an individual's rebirth. See also reincarnation.

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Anomalous Experience   

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

 

Anomalous Phenomena   

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

 

Apparition   

 

A visual appearance (cf. hallucination), often of a person or scene, generally experienced in a waking or hypnagogic / hypnopompic state. See also crisis apparition, ghost, haunting.

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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. Cf. deport. See also materialization, teleportation.

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Artefact   

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

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ASC   

See altered state of consciousness.

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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. See also Ka.

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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.

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Astrology   

A theory and practice which attempts to identify the ways in which astronomical events are correlated with events on earth (e.g., with an individual's personality and biography, or with social and political trends).

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Atavism   

Re-emergence of ancestral characteristics; a genetic throwback.

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Augury   

Divination - the practice of finding answers to questions, through observing natural indicators or signs or through using a variety of techniques to contact natural or preternatural spirits.

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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). See also Kirlian photography.

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Automatic Art   

The ability to write messages or text without being consciously aware of what is being written. Often times automatic writing is done with the assistance of spirits, spirit guides, angels or other spirit beings. It is often done through chanelling a spirit or entity into yourself. This can be dangerous as you are opeing a doorway and not guarenteed it can be closed.

See automatism.

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Automatic Writing   

The ability to write intelligible messages without conscious control or knowledge of what is being written. See also automatism, dissociation.

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Automatism   

Physical activites (e.g., arm movements, writing, drawing, musical performance) that occur without the automatist's conscious control or knowledge. Also known as motor automatism. See also automatic writing, dissociation.

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Autoscopy   

(a) Seeing one's "double". See also astral body.

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