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The Center for Paranormal Investigations
We are based in historic Bradford County, Pennsylvania.
Founder & President: Patrick Cartwright Jr.

Paranormal Glossary

ALCHEMY - The Science of turning base metals into gold or silver by chemical means. The byproduct, "Quicksilver," was thought to have magical powers. This was a very perfected science in Egyptian times and lasted all the way up into the 14th-16th Century A.D. when some of the alchemy methods were lost due to war and fire.

AGE REGRESSION - The process of going back to a previous time in your current life through the use of hypnosis.

AKASHIC RECORD - A chart of a person’s past lives, future lives, and parallel lives.

ANOMALY - Something that cannot be explained by currently accepted scientific theories. Anything difficult to classify is considered an anomaly.

APPARITION - The visual appearance of any spirit, ghost, or unusual phenomenon that doesn’t necessarily take on the shape of a human form nor does it show signs of intelligence or personality.

ASTRAL PROJECTION - Projecting one’s consciousness into the spirit world.

AURA – An energy field of radiant light believed to surround all living creatures. Each color represents a different aspect of that person or object. Every time a person comes into contact with someone new, the aura reacts to the other person. If the aura's frequency are close to the same, a person would feel an immediate bond.

AUTOMATIC WRITING - A method of communication with the other side that involves using a normal writing instrument and paper. The automatic writer allows a spirit to control the pen and what is drawn or written on the paper.

AUTONOGRAPHIST - Professional automatic writer.

AUTOSCOPY - The viewing of one's physical body while experiencing astral projection.

BANSHEE - An omen spirit from Ireland and Scotland that appears to people to warn them of impending violent and untimely death.

BILOCATION - Appearing to be in two locations at one time. Often associated with astral projection.

BOGEY - Also referred to as the bogeyman in British folklore, these are classed as horrible or evil spirits that love to be mischievous. Sometimes synonymous with the devil, in the past the threat of calling upon the bogeyman was used by parents to frighten children into good behavior.

BOOGYMAN – See Bogey

CHANNELER - A person who allows a spirit to temporarily possess his or her body in order for the spirit to be able to communicate with the living.

CHANNELING - Channeling is a process where information from an external source of consciousness is accessed and expressed. People can channel entities, their Higher Self or energy.

CHANNELING BOARD - A tool used for communication with the other side. Also known as a Ouija board or talking board. VERY DANGEROUS!

CLAIRALIENCE: The ability to use smell to receive a spirit’s message.

CLAIRAUDIENCE – The ability to hear voices, astral music or discarnate beings. This is considered a form of channeling. A person may actually hear spirits talking or singing in their head while there are no auditory sounds.

CLAIROLEOFACTOR – Having an extraordinary sense of smell, as if you could smell flowers before they bloom or smell trouble before it occurs.

CLAIRSENTIENCE – Having the ability to clearly feel another person's emotions and sensations.

CLAIRVOYANCE – The ability to have lucid mental perceptions and keen insights about people and life situations and to have clear visual mental images, pictures, to "see" auras and other psychic phenomena. The visions may also be in the future, and some times in the past. Clairvoyance is an umbrella term that often refers to telepathy, spiritualism, psychic research, second sight, prophetic visions, and dreams.

CLASSIC HAUNTING - The spirit of a once living person that for some reason did not cross over at the moment of death. A Classic Haunt involves a spirit that has the ability to interact with you and vice versa.

COLD SPOT - An area of psychic energy with a considerable amount of temperature change from the surrounding area. May be free floating or stationary. All other possibilities for the temperature change must be ruled out before this is to be considered authentic.

COLLECTIVE APPARITION - The witnessing of an apparition by two or more persons.

CRISIS APPARITION - The appearance of an apparition within moments of a crisis such as death, sudden illness, or accident.

CROSS-SPECIES COMMUNICATION - To have a special rapport and understanding with animals, plants or alien beings.

CRYSTALOMANCY - The art of gazing into a crystal globe, a pool of water, a mirror, or any transparent object to see visions or summon forth spirits.

COLLECTIVE APPARITION - An apparition that is seen simultaneously by multiple witnesses.

DEJÀ VU - Certain events and experiences that seem as if you have experienced them before. As familiar as the experiences are, you cannot recall nor figure out when they happened.

DEMATERIALIZATION - The disappearance or fading of a physical object.

DIRECT WRITING – This is when spirits actually write using any means. This may be done by slate writing or by pen and paper.

DISCARNATE - Having no physical form or body.

DIVINATION – The ability to obtain unknown knowledge or future events from omens. Astrology may be considered divination.

DIVINING ROD - A forked rod used to indicate the presence of water or minerals underground.

DMILS - Abbreviation of Direct Mental Interaction with Living Systems. Used to denote instances where one person is attempting to influence a distant biological system, usually the physiology of another person. As it is unclear whether this represents an influence (see psychokinesis), a case of ESP on the part of the influence (see ESP) or an opportunistic selection process, the term 'interaction' has been adopted.

DOPPELGANGER - A spirit of a living person or animal outside of the physical body. Being exact duplicates of the living person including dress, this could possibly be an projected out of body experience either consciously or unconsciously or a death omen. Typically "double-goers" are seen by others in distant locations just as the individual in question is about to die or has died.

DOWSING - To be able to find underground water and/or underground minerals or energy.

ECTOPLASM (ETCO) (ETCO MIST) - Residue left behind by ghosts or other paranormal phenomena. Many times ectoplasm is seen as a smoky film.

EKIMMU - The legendary evil ghost of an individual who was denied entrance to the underworld and is doomed to walk the earth for eternity. Ekimmu means "that which is snatched away." One could become an Ekimmu by dying a violent death such as murder, drowning, or any other unsavory death.

ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD METER (EMF Detector) - This tool detects changes in the Electromagnetic Field found around just about everything, from TVs to power lines. The normal reading for paranormal activity is between 2.0 and 8.0, anything above this is usually man-made in origin.

EMPATHY - Rarely used in modern parapsychology, the popular usage of this term refers to a low-level form of telepathy wherein the empath appears to be aware of the emotional state of a distant person. An empath may also be able to "broadcast" emotions to others.

ESP - Extrasensory perception (ESP) is the knowledge of external objects or events without the aid of the senses. It is most commonly called the "sixth sense" as it is sensory information an individual receives which comes beyond the ordinary five senses (sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch.) Many people have experienced dreams, visions, or unexplained feelings where they could predict some future event, sense a spirit or presence of something or someone, or even read someone else's mind.

EVP - (Electronic Voice Phenomena) The practice of recording spirit voices on tapes, usually audio. Usually nothing is heard at the time of the recording, it is only during playback that the hushed and gravely voices are heard. Discovered by Konstantin Raudive. Usually recorded in a range from 0 – 300 Hz (Human speech is generally within 500-2000 Hz, and has never been recorded below 300 Hz).

GANZFIELD - A state of mild sensory deprivation, characterized by the presentation of homogenous sensory fields.

GHOST - A visual manifestation of a soul, spirit, life force, or life energy. Most people use this term to describe the visual appearance of a human being or creature that has died and passed on to the other side. A ghost is residual in nature -- it does interact with our physical world.

GHOST BUSTER - A person who visits a site that is believed to be haunted with the expressed purpose of eliminating the ghost or paranormal activity from that location.

GHOST HUNTER - A person who uses protocol set by researchers to search for haunted areas.

GHOST LIGHT - An unexplainable light visible to the naked eye. It may be seen traveling in a conscious manner, giving the appearance of intelligence.

GHOST MIST/FOG - This is a fog or mist that is visible on photographs but was not visible to the naked eye. A feeling of a presence, cold chill, smell, or phantom footsteps may be felt prior to capturing these phenomena on photos.

GHOUL - A demon thought to feed on the dead.

HAUNTING - Paranormal experiences occurring over a period of time in a specific location. May include apparitions, sounds, smells, moving / disappearing objects, etc.

HYPNOTHERAPY - The treatment of an ailment through the use of hypnosis.

INNER VOICE - Receiving guidance and assistance from your own mind.

INTELLIGENT HAUNTING - When spirits seem to live in a specific area and act with free will and/or show intelligence. Spirits don't necessarily haunt the place they die at, but might haunt the most comfortable place for them to stay (i.e., their old home, favorite getaway, etc.)

INTERACTIVE HAUNTING - An interactive haunting is one that shows a consciousness. The spirit is able to answer pertinent questions and directly interact with the living persons in our dimension.

INTUITION - The act of knowing without the use of usual rational processes. Based partly on subconscious pattern association of known information, and partly on subconscious psi impressions. To get information without knowing where it came from.

KINETIC ENERGY - The ability to use pure energy to move objects.

LEVITATION - See Telekinesis.

MEDIUM - A person who has a special gift and believes he or she can act as a bridge between the world of the living and the other side.

MANIFESTATION - When an entity takes form or makes an appearance. Can also mean the outbreak of activity.

MATERIALIZATION - The deliberate, though usually temporary, visible and/or physical formation of a spirit.

METAPHYSICS - A field of study dedicated to the nature of reality; an underlying philosophical or theoretical principle.

MEDITATION - Private devotion or mental exercise consisting in any of innumerable techniques of concentration, contemplation, and abstraction, regarded as conducive to heightened spiritual awareness or somatic calm. It may serve purely quietistic aims, as in the case of certain reclusive mystics; it may be viewed as spiritually or physically restorative and enriching to daily life.

ORBS - A phenomenon in the shape of a floating ball of light, often thought to be souls or spirit energy. Some theories state orbs are the form spirits travel in. In my theory, they are spirits in a relaxed state. With additional energy, they can manifest in different forms but the orb is the natural relaxed state of the energy.

OUIJA BOARD - A board with the alphabet and other symbols on it, and a planchette that is thought to move in such a way as to spell out spiritualistic and telepathic messages. THESE BOARDS ARE DANGEROUS AND SHOULD NOT BE USED AND NEVER BURNED.

OUT-OF-BODY EXPERIENCE (OBE) or ASTRAL PROJECTION - To be able to leave your physical body and project your soul, consciousness or what appears to be your mind to another place and return via a silver cord. OBE is the most reported and documented type of astral projection. When the consciousness leaves the body in this fashion it is virtually always in the here/now plane, and close to the physical body. Most OBEs have common features. For instance, the subjects often see their own physical body during the experience, like any other object in the room. They usually report having "ghostly" bodies that can pass through solid objects during the experience. There have even been reports of other people witnessing the person as they astral project.

OTHER SIDE - A term used to describe the spirit world, or the place spirits go after death beyond our physical plane.

PARANORMAL - A term used to describe unusual activity that involves ghosts, apparitions, spirits, hauntings, poltergeists, monsters, etc. This term defines anything for which there is no scientific explanation. ; Something that is beyond the range of normal human experience or scientific explanation.

PARANORMAL RESEARCHER - Someone who uses their own theories/ideas to test new research methods, protocols, and equipment. A true researcher is not biased to an old idea, but works to disprove or prove further the old idea, to expand the knowledge of the community. Typically, a researcher does not work to prove a paranormal occurrence as genuine, but to disprove the occurrence legitimately. Only when all possible false-positive contaminants have been ruled out can something be defined as a true anomaly.

PARANORMAL INVESTIGATION - The act of going to an allegedly haunted location, gathering data such as photos, audio recordings, video, electromagnetic field monitoring, etc., and summarizing your data in reports.

PARASCHOLOGY - The study of phenomena, real or supposed, that appear inexplicable on presently accepted scientific theories.

PAST-LIFE-REGRESSION - The act of using trance or hypnosis to visit former lives.

PAST LIFE RECALL - To remember or have mental flashes about previous lives.

PHANTASM - Vision of absent person.

PHANTASMAGORIA - A crowd of dim or unreal figures. It is also a device used for ghost making as a popular entertainment in the 18th century developed by E.G. Robertson around the 1790's for projecting convincing figures before an audience.

PHANTOM - An apparition or specter that exists only as an energy form.

PHENOMENON - An unusual, profound, or unexplainable fact or occurrence.

PHYSICAL MEDIUMSHIP - A form of mediumship in which the spirit communicates using both the physical energies and consciousness of the medium.

PLACE MEMORIES - Refers to a location that captures energy and uses it to record an image of an event that once happened there and later replays it.

PLANCHETTE - A pointing device used in conjunction with a channeling board.

POLTERGEIST - German term which literally translates to “noisy ghost.” This phenomenon is more often experienced than seen. A poltergeist will often interact with its environment by moving objects, making noises, or making itself known in a variety of other ways. Some theories state poltergeists are related to the emotional state of a person living in the environment.

PROGRESSION HYPNOTHERAPY - The act of visiting future lives through the use of hypnosis.

POSSESSION - When a person's mind or body are believed to be taken over by ghosts, spirits, or other supernatural entities.

PRECOGNITION - Pre-knowing; where nondeductible information about a future event is acquired.

PRECOGNITIVE DREAMS - To have dreams of events or incidents before they happen.

PREDICTION - To be able to predict future events before they occur.

PSI - A general term for parapsychological phenomena that includes informational (RV, ESP) and energetic (PK) effects. Psi, or Y, is the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet.

PSYCHIC - A person who uses empathic feelings to tap into nonphysical forces.

PSYCHOKINESIS - The ability to move objects using only one’s mind.

PSYCHOMATICS - A field of study dedicated to the idea that the medical health of a person’s body is related to that person’s mind and emotions.

PSYCHOMETRY - To touch an object with your hands and get information about the object, it's creator, its owner, or it's history.

RADIO VOICE PHENOMENON (RVP) - To receive the voices of a deceased human being over a regular radio. (CB, AM/FM, and HAM etc.)

REMOTE VIEWING (RV) - The ability to access distant or shielded information primarily of visual character such as natural or structural features via an unknown mental process. RV may include other sensory modes, such as feelings, motion, or sound. Some individuals associate specific approaches, or protocols, with RV. It is the ability to produce information that is correct about a place, event, person, or object located somewhere in time/space, which is completely blind to the remote viewer.

RESEARCH SITE - A true research site is when a controlled environment is established and then visited frequently (normally on a regular basis, weekly, biweekly, etc.) to test new theories and research ideas. To a researcher, the benefits of a long-term research site is the ability to find out what is normal for that location, therefore deviations from that norm may be recorded as data. This is not possible on an investigation where one may only visit a site a few times.

RESIDUAL HAUNTING - This type of haunt generally occurs at the same time every time and is the same scene over and over. There will be no interaction for the spirits don't even see you. These hauntings usually involve a visual sighting of a past traumatic event that occurred at that location. It may not be technically referred to as a haunting, but more of an energy imprint.

REINCARNATION - The idea that a soul can be reborn into a new human body.

SCRYING - A term used to cover a wide range of divination techniques which parapsychology would tend to classify as types of ESP. Most scrying techniques involve some degree of fixation on a surface with a clear optical depth (e.g. a crystal ball, a pool of ink or deep water) or on an area which shows random patterns (e.g. flames in a fire, smoke), the idea being that subconscious information available to the scrying will be manifested in their interpretation of the imagery or random patterns they see. Techniques using a clear optical depth are actually very similar to the idea behind the homogenous visual field used in Ganzfeld ESP research.

SÉANCE - A séance generally involves communication between the physical realms and one or more entities from other dimensions. A 'medium' usually is the vehicle that contacts the spirit world. A group of people mentally calling to spirits will create a stronger energy field than one person. It is a sitting organized for the purpose of receiving spirit communications or paranormal manifestations via the services of a medium.

SKEPTIC - In parapsychology, one who insists on ruling out all possible natural causes for a phenomenon before calling it paranormal.

SHADOW MEN - These ghosts usually appear as a shadow normally seen from the corner of your eye or in a mirror. It is difficult to distinguish shadow men from regular shadows on film or in photography, that's why it is important to see if it is possible to recreate the shadow.

SIXTH SENSE - A term used to describe psychic ability.

SOUL LOSS - The loss of vital energy experienced as a result of any kind of physical, emotional, mental, or spiritual trauma.

SPIRIT - The principle force within a living being. The soul. Also, a supernatural entity.

SPIRIT - Electromagnetic entities in the forms of orbs, mist, vortexes, or shadows, which are the signature of a once-living person who has returned to a specific location. Their nature is interactive as opposed to residual.

SPIRIT COMMUNICATION - A spirit or ghost that uses a medium in order to communicate with someone either verbally or visually.

SPIRIT OPERATOR - A spirit or ghost that uses a medium to physically manipulate something on earth.

SPIRIT WORLD - The place spirits go after death.

SPIRITUAL GUIDE - A spirit that watches over a living person and that offers wisdom or guidance.

SUBLIMINAL PERCEPTION - Sensory impressions below the threshold of conscious awareness.

SUPERNATURAL - Something that exists or occurs through some means other than any known force in nature. As opposed to paranormal, the term "supernatural" often denotes divine or demonic intervention.

SUPERPERSONALITIES - Negative entities.

SYNCHRONICITY - Meaningful coincidences that often are mediated by subconscious psi activity. Our intuitive/psi faculty nudges our paths into meaningful intersections in times of need.

TELEKINESIS, PSYCHOKINESIS, LEVITATION - To move an object or your body without physical means. A common theory is that TK works by energy fields (magnetic or electric) or by "waves" of psychic energy that are actually dense enough to push/repel an object or draw it inward. Most people's only encounter with TK is accidental-something mysteriously falls over or objects fly around a room, a phenomena often mistaken for a poltergeist when it may actually be a person with spontaneous telekinetic powers.

TELEPATHY - To know what others are thinking; thought transference including the sending and receiving of thoughts.

TERRAFIRM - To be connected with the planet Earth as if it were a part of you.

TONE HEALING - Your tone of voice affects others by disturbing, catalyzing, soothing, lulling, inspiring and quite often healing them.

TOUCH HEALING - To impart through your hands soothing and healing vibrations of energy.

TRANCE MEDIUMSHIP: A form of mediumship in which the medium shares his or her energy with a spirit through the use of trance.

VORTEX: A tornado-like mass of air, water, or energy that spins around very fast -- creating a vacuum to pull objects into its empty center. In supernatural studies, a vortex is an energy mass that is a temporary opening to the other side, this can be the result of spirit energy in motion. I also believe that a vortex is not necessarily a temporary thing but more of a recurring thing. It comes back in basically the same area each time but is fairly frequent.

WHITE NOISE - A hiss-like sound, formed by combining all audible frequencies. Often used as a background to EVP recordings.

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