Outcast Earth: Paranormal Phenomenon

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A: ALCHEMY THRU ASTROLOGY

ALCHEMY:

Part pseudo-science, part magic, alchemists attempted to unlock the secrets of transmutation," the ability to change one element into another. Alchemists had three major goals: to prolong human life indefinitely, to create artificial life and to transform base metals into gold. Considering the latter goal, alchemists were highly sought after during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, when the superstitious aristocracy was looking for additional ways to fill their coffers. Most alchemists, of course, were charlatans with little or no success in any of their alleged areas of expertise. Some, like Albertus Magnus (1205-1280) and Nicolas Flamel (1330-1418) were reported have been successful in creating what we would describe today as an "android" and in transmuting other metals into gold, respectively. After several centuries of general failure, however, alchemists ceased to be popular and generally disappeared from sight. Today, their work may be seen as a rudimentary form of chemistry.

ANIMA MUNDI :

See Animal Magnetism

ANIMAL MAGNETISM:

This term was originally coined by Anton Mesmer (1734-1815) to explain the life-force that radiates from and connects all living things. Similar beliefs are founded throughout the world by different names, including anima mundi, qi and élan vital. In Star Wars, this is called "The Force."

APPARITION:

A non-corporeal version of a living being, a ghost or spirit. There are four versions of an apparition:

EXPERIMENTAL APPARITION: Although rare, these types of apparitional experiences are the result of a deliberate attempt on the part of a living person to make their apparition appear somewhere else. They are similar to an out of body experience (OBE) or astral projection and are generally induced when the person is in a deep sleep or trancelike state.

CRISIS APPARITION: These more common apparitional experiences generally take place when the person represented is undergoing some kind of profound crisis, such as intense emotional turmoil, injury, sickness or death. In many of these cases, the apparition will appear within a 12 to 24 hour period either before or after the crisis and may attempt to pass along meaningful information to the percipient.

POSTMORTEM APPARITION: According to one source, this type of apparition accounts for about two-thirds of reported apparitional experiences. This form of apparition is certainly the most-commonly recognized in terms of which the general public would describe as a "ghost." In cases of this kind, the ghost will appear within approximately twelve hours after the death of a person.

APPARITIONS OF THE LIVING: Also referred to as bilocation, this form differs slightly from the experimental form in that apparition may not be a deliberate construct, but rather an unintentional phenomenon. Like the crisis apparition, this form is often associated to a person under intense stress who is usually unaware of their bilocation. See also: Haunting.

ASTRAL BODY:

An exact but ephemeral imitation of a living person, the astral body could be more simply classified as the "spirit" or "consciousness." According to many mystical traditions going as far back as the ancient Egyptians, the astral body can separate from the psychical body and roam about at will. It can experience sensations and gather knowledge, but cannot be damaged as the physical body can. Modern parapsychologists often refer to the astral body in context of an out-of-body experience (OBE). Because the astral body frequently departs its physical host as the result of trauma, it may also be the source of crisis apparitions or apparitions of the living.

ASTRAL PLANE:

According to some mystical belief, this is a parallel but separate universe that is inhabited by all the various supernatural beings, including angels, spirits and demons.

ASTROLOGY:

This may very well be the oldest of the mystical traditions, even predating the oldest civilizations on earth like the Babylonians and Egyptians. At its essence, astrology is the belief that all aspects of life on earth are somehow connected to the position of heavenly bodies, including the sun, moon, planets and stars. Astrologers were common and invaluable fixtures in most ancient societies, able to foretell the coming of floods, famine, war and riches for their noble leaders. They could also divine more personal information for a client, including the future of a love affair, success or failure in business, or a variety of health issues. This more common form of astrology is still in practice today and is classified as judiciary astrology. The second, lesser-known form is called horary astrology and dealt with the observation, movements and measurements of celestial bodies. This latter form eventually became modern astronomy.

B: BIDIRECTIONALITY OF ESP THRU BILOCATION

BIDIRECTIONALITY OF ESP:

See Psi Missing

BILOCATION:

The ability of a person to project his astral body, thereby appearing to be in two or more locations at once. Several Christian saints and a variety of conjurors have claimed to possess this skill.

C: CLAIRAUDIENCE THRU "CURSE OF KING TUTANKHAMUN"

CLAIRAUDIENCE:

Meaning "clear hearing." The ability to hear voices from the spirit world. Joan of Arc is a good example of someone who experienced clairaudience.

CLAIRVOYANCE:

Meaning "clear seeing." The ability to see or otherwise perceive information transmitted through a means other than the usual senses.

CRYPTOMNESIA:

During reincarnation investigations, sometimes information obtained by the experient about the past life was actually obtained from an everyday source, but was forgotten by the experient. For example, an individual who claimed to have died on a World War I battlefield may have seen a television documentary on that subject years before, and is only now recalling that information as an experience rather than a simple memory.

CURSE:

A solemn utterance meant to invoke supernatural harm against another human being, usually as a means of punishment.

"CURSE OF KING TUTANKHAMUN:"

King Tut mask A curse is said to have brought about the early demise of many of the principle members of the excavation party that uncovered the tomb of King Tutankhamum in 1923. According to legend, there was a tablet set into the rock above the tomb's entrance which read “Death will slay with his wings whoever disturbs the Pharaoh's sleep.” This was the beginning of the curse legend. Additional “proof” included:

Days after the tomb was unsealed, a cobra ate a yellow canary owned by Howard Carter, the archaeologist who was excavating the tomb. Carter bought the bird to celebrate the refinancing of the of the excavation by Lord Carnarvon.

Only weeks after the tomb was opened, Carter's patron, Lord Carnarvon, fell ill from a mosquito bite and died. He died in Cairo.

At the moment of his passing, it is said that Carnarvon's pet fox terrier let out a moan and suddenly died. The dog was in England at the time.

Many others associated with Carter or the excavation were have said to have died prematurely after a visit to the tomb. Among them were George Jay Gould, an American millionaire; a university professors and friend of Carter's; and two of Carter's personal assistants.

In more recent times, statistical analysis of those associated with the excavation and their manner and time of death have been completed. One of the most famous of completed by James Randi, a magician and famous debunker of paranormal hoaxes. All of the studies showed no statistical oddity related to the deaths of those early visitors to the king's tomb. In 1980, a British documentary contained an interview with a former security guard at the tomb who said that Carter himself had invented the curse rumors to stoke interest in the excavation. Even so, to this day, there are individuals who claim that the curse effected them after they came into contact with something from the tomb.

D: DACTYLOMANCY THRU DREAMS, UNREALISTIC

DACTYLOMANCY:

Divination by means of finger motions.

DOWSING:

An ancient method that can presumably be used to locate underground supplies of water, minerals, oil, etc. It was first described in a 1540 book on mining called De re Metallica. The usual method for dowsing is to obtain a green Y-shaped stick, preferably from a hazel or willow tree. The dowser will hold the rod parallel to the ground by the short ends of the Y. As the dowser moves across the land, the deposits of water and mineral will cause the rod to rotate either straight up or straight down. There are a variety of dowsing devices, including pendulums, wands, and rods of various shapes and sizes.

DREAMS, REALISTIC:

Parapsychologists categorized extremely vivid or realistic dreams as being those most likely to convey a psychic message, an assertion that appears to be confirmed by research. This term may also apply to waking imagery (a "vision") which is not projected onto the environment (a "hallucination").

DREAMS, UNREALISTIC:

Psychic information can sometimes be conveyed through fanciful or unrealistic dream imagery. This category of dream does not usually include waking imagery or are the psychic images as easily confirmed as they are with realistic dreams.

E: ECTOPLASM THRU EXTRA-SENSORY PERCEPTION

ECTOPLASM:

An amorphous substance that is excreted from the body of a human medium during an encounter with a paranormal force. Often this substance will take the form of a human hand, face or other meaningful image.

ELECTRONIC VOICE PHENOMENON (EVP):

A phenomenon when voicelike sounds are produced on a magnetic tape but were not present on the occasion of the original recording.

EXTRA-SENSORY PERCEPTION: (ESP)

A term created by Dr. J.B. Rhine, it describes a variety of innate human abilities to obtain knowledge or information without the use of traditional senses. Telepathy, precognition, retrocognition and related phenomenon are generally listed under the ESP definition.

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G: GHOST THRU GLOSSOLALIA

GHOST:

See Apparition.

GLOSSOLALIA:

A phenomenon most closely associated with evangelical Christians, this is the ability to "speak in tongues," or recite an unknown language while is an ecstatic religious state. The faithful believe that these recitations are the languages of angels and other supernatural beings.

H: HAUNTING

HAUNTING (or RECURRENT LOCALIZED APPARITIONS / RLA):

In order to qualify as a true haunting, the apparition must be witnessed by multiple percipients in the same locality over a period of time. Often, these types of ghosts are seen performing very repetitive activities, such as walking down a hallway. They seem to have less awareness and little interaction with the living experients, and instead are simply repeating some aspect of their lives as though caught in a loop of time.

I: INHERITED MEMORY THRU INTUITIVE IMPRESSIONS

INHERITED MEMORY:

The theory that individuals will receive information about past events, family members or lives through their genetic material transferred to them at conception by their parents. Parapsychologists look to inherited memory as one of the possible explanations for reincarnation experiences.

INTUITIVE IMPRESSIONS:

Extrasensory experiences that consist simply of an impression or "hunch" for which the psychic has no reasonable explanation, but ultimately proves factual.

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M: MATERIALIZATIONS THRU MISSING TIME

MATERIALIZATIONS:

According to spiritualists, a materialization is when a substance or item is spontaneously created by a medium during a séance. The item can be either an apport or can be formed out of ectoplasm.

MICRO-PSYCHOKINESIS:

A term used to describe the small, often unobserved effects of psychic phenomenon on the natural surroundings. Examples may include a psychic who is able to subtly influence a random number generator or other electronic equipment.

MISSING TIME:

An phenomenon frequently associated with the alleged abduction of human beings by extraterrestrials. The person who experiences “missing time” will often awake in an unexpected place and have no memory of how they got there and what happened in the previous hours. The person may also report strange headaches or other physiological symptoms, marks on their bodies or disturbing dreams or visions.

N: NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE

NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE (NDE):

An experience in which a person survives or perceives to survive a potentially fatal experience which become personally and emotionally transformative for him / her. It is during such an experience that many persons claim to see a bright light; pass through a long, dark tunnel; feel or see a comforting presence; or have a panoramic review of their entire lifespan.

O: OBSESSION THRU OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE

OBSESSION:

Similar to possession, this is the belief that evil spirits, devils or demons can assail a person. The difference is that these evil entities do not enter the body of their victims, but rather attack him from the outside.

OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE (OBE):

The belief that the human consciousness can leave the body, whether by will or by accident, and visit other times, places or persons. See also Astral Body.

P: PARAMNESIA THRU PSYCHOMETRY

PARAMNESIA:

A possible explanation for some reincarnation experiences, when witnesses believe that the experient is the original source of information about a pass life, but that information was actually obtained elsewhere.

PAREIDOLIA:

A psychological phenomenon in which random or vague information is perceived as something common and recognizable by the human brain. Examples of this would include seeing shapes in clouds or hearing hidden voices buried in music or white noise. Pareidolia is often experienced by very religious individuals all over the world who frequently ascribe images on walls or everyday objects as being miraculous in nature. Perhaps the best known example of this in the United States occured in 1978 when a woman in New Mexico claimed that an image of Jesus Christ appeared on a tortilla.

PK:

See Psychokinesis.

POLTERGEISTS:

See Recurrent Spontaneous Psychokinesis (RSPK).

POSSESSION:

The occupation of a human body by a devil, demon or spirit. This is a concept embraced by numerous religions. See also obsession.

PRECOGNITION:

Direct paranormal knowledge of future events.

PSI:

The twenty-third letter in the Greek alphabet, pronounced "sy." It denotes the ability of humans and other sentient beings to acquire knowledge or to physically effect their environment through mechanisms currently unknown to modern science.

PSI MISSING:

(also known as the bidirectionality of psychokinesis) Often experienced during ESP tests in the laboratory, this is when an individual ascertains incorrect answers ("misses") more often than would be expected by chance.

PSYCHIC:

An adjective that describes a variety of forces, events or powers that are not scientifically explainable under currently understood standards. These may include telepathy, psychokinesis, extrasensory perception and magical or spiritual phenomenon. As a noun, the word describes an individual who is adept at calling upon these powers.

PSYCHIC HEALING / SURGERY:

A mode of healing in which some form of psychic energy is directly transferred from the healer to the patient, creating a curative result. Psychic healing is considered a form of psychokinesis. Psychic surgery is largely considered a parlor trick performed by unscrupulous con-persons. In psychic surgery, the practitioner actually appears to reach into the human body to remove tumors and other diseased materials. This is actually performed through a sleight-of-hand trick frequently used by conjurors.

PSYCHIC PHOTOGRAPHY:

The psychokinetic ability to produce an image on unexposed film or photographic plates.

PSYCHIC PORTRAITS:

The ability of a psychic to render an artistic portrait of a dead person after contacting the person’s spirit or otherwise having some kind of paranormal contact with the deceased.

PSYCHOGRAPHY:

See Automatic Writing.

PSYCHOKINESIS:

(also known as PK) The ability to move or effect physical objects by the mind or psyche.

PSYCHOKINETE:

A person gifted with the ability to manipulate physical objects through psychokinesis.

PSYCHOMETRY:

The ability of a psychic to absorb impressions about past or future events or about unknown persons by coming into physical contact with an object.

R: REINCARNATION THRU RETROCOGNITION

REINCARNATION:

The belief that the spirit is immortal and indestructible, and is able to inhabit many bodies and live many lifetimes. The idea of reincarnation is addressed by most major religions and is the cornerstone of the beliefs of the Buddhists, Hindus and other Eastern faiths. Most believers, however, will assert that this process is more than the simple transference of the soul from one body to another at the time of death. It is a natural and complex mechanism through which the soul attains knowledge, compassion and enlightenment. For related information, see Survival Hypothesis and Karma.

RECURRENT SPONTANEOUS PSYCHOKINESIS (RSPK):

This is the psychic mechanism that is released from an agent during a poltergeist case. Psychokinesis is the ability to manipulate or move physical objects with the power of the human mind. In Type I RSPK cases, this ability is unfocussed, uncontrolled and often unknown to the agent. In Type II RSPK cases, the poltergeist phenomenon is interactive and intelligent, often focussing on other people who may be the source of the agent’s stress or anger. As a result, often Type II RSPK cases are mistaken for true hauntings because the phenomenon seems to have some element of intelligence behind it. In extreme cases, there may even be reported sightings of "apparitions," in actuality a telepathic projection from the agent that is received by other people in the affected area. As with Type I case, these "ghosts" will cease to appear once the agent’s stresses are eliminated.

REMOTE VIEWING:

The ability of a psychic or sensitive person to have knowledge about a place or events that they have not visited personally.

RETROCOGNITION:

("backward knowing") Direct paranormal knowledge of past events, essentially the opposite of precognition.

S: SPEAKING IN TONGUES THRU SYNCHRONICITY

SPEAKING IN TONGUES:

See glossolalia.

SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY:

The forerunner of psychic photography, this ability to capture the images of dead persons on film originated in 1861 by a con-man and continued for many decades by a string of charlatans. In most cases, the "photographer" had used simple tricks such as double-exposures and posed images to create the spirits captured on film. Despite this dubious beginning, the phenomenon of capturing what appear to be ghosts on film is widespread and well documented today.

SUPER ESP HYPOTHESIS:

The idea that a medium need not know the identity or the location of pertinent sources in order to have psychic contact or impressions of them.

SURVIVAL HYPOTHESIS:

The notion that there is some element of human existence or consciousness that survives death.

SYNCHRONICITY:

Parapsychologists, working off a theory by Carl Jung, define synchronicity as "meaningful coincidence."

T: TELEPATHY THRU TELEPORTATION

TELEPATHY:

One of the elements of extrasensory perception, telepathy is the ability of a human being or animal to ascertain the thoughts and emotions of another through means other than the normal senses or communication modes.

TELEPORTATION:

The ability of people to magically and instantaneously transport themselves from one locale to another by force of will alone. See also bilocation.

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V: VISION QUEST

A traditional rite of passage among the Inuit people and other Native American tribes. The vision quest is usually undertaken at the end of puberty and involves a young man or woman retreating to the wilderness for an extended period of time in the hopes that their spiritual destiny will be revealed through visions or other metaphysical experiences. This process often involves the appearance of a spirit guide who frequently appears in animal form. The spirit guide will reveal previously hidden information to the individual which will profoundly effect their lives. The vision quest is freqently used among cultures that practice shamanism.

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