Glossary — S.P.I.R.I.T. Indiana

21 terms

After Life: A continued life or existence believed to follow death.
Agent: A human being, typically a teenage female, who unknowingly directs poltergeist energy.
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).
Alien Abduction: 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.
Aliens: Creatures not of this world.
Alpha Rhythm: Electrical activity in the brain (about 10 cycles per second) associated with a state of mental relaxation.
Altered State of Consciousness (A.S.C.): Any state of consciousness that is different from "normal" states of waking or sleeping.
Amulet: An object that has the power to ward off ghosts and evil spirits.
Angel: Benevolent spiritual beings who help and watch over people.
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.
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).
Animal Psi: Paranormal abilities exhibited by animals. Also known as "Anpsi."
Animism: Religious practices based on the belief that all living things and natural objects have their individual spiritual essence or soul.
Announcing Dream: A dream believed to announce an individual's rebirth. See also Reincarnation.
Anomalous Experience: A general term referring to unusual experiences that cannot be explained in terms of current scientific knowledge.
Anomalous Phenomena: Natural phenomena that cannot be explained in terms of current scientific knowledge.
Apparition: The disembodied soul or spirit that can be seen visually.
Apport: When a solid object seemingly appears from out of nowhere, with the help of the spirits in the presence of a medium.
Artefact: In parapsychology, false evidence of paranormal phenomena, due to some extraneous normal influence.
Asport: When a solid object is teleported to a different location with the help of the spirits in the presence of a medium.
Astral Body: The soul of an individual projected outside of their body.
Astral Projection: See Out-Of-Body (OBE).
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).
Atmospheric Apparition: Not actually a ghost or spirit, but instead a "visual imprint" of people and events that was left behind in the environment that continues to replay.
Aura: A field of energy believed by some to surround living creatures. Invisible to the naked eye, it is a glow surrounding each individual and changes color and form depending on the mental and physical wellbeing of the individual.
Automatic Writing: A type of communication with ghosts or spirits where they take control over the writer's hand and write out a message. The alleged writing or speaking in a language that is unknown to the individual speaking or writing it.
Automatism: An unconscious or spontaneous muscular movement caused by ghosts or spirits. Automatic Writing is one form of Automatism.

5 terms

Ballcock: Valve operated by a flotation device, such as the float ball in a toilet tank. Why, what did you think it was?
Banishing: Formal, ceremonial procedure performed to cast an invisible presence or influence out of an area.
Banshee: Irish spirit that appears to warn of a coming death, signaled by a wail. Often associated with Ireland and Scotland, the Banshee is an omen spirit that forewarns people of an impending tragedy.
Bermuda Triangle: See also "The Devil's Triangle."
Black Dogs (Hell Hounds / Devil Dogs): There have been countless reports across the world of these phantom canine-like creatures, including Norfolk's own Black Shuck.

11 terms

Channeling: A form of spirit communication where an unseen entity possesses a medium in a controlled environment to impart guidance, wisdom, or future events. The channeled entity could be a deceased human being, an angel, demon, elemental, or other higher-plane spirit. Describes the method in which mediums allow themselves to be used in order to manifest something which comes from outside them.
Charms: A spell or object possessing magic power.
Clairaudience: A person's ability to hear spirits.
Clairvoyance: Either an internal or external vision of present or future events, spirits, objects, places, and people.
Cold Reading: A psychic reading given with no prior knowledge of the sitter.
Collective Unconscious: Form of analytical psychology developed by Carl Jung. It is the collective memory of all of humanity's past, held somewhere inside the unconscious mind.
Collective Apparition: A ghost or spirit sighted simultaneously by more than one living person.
Continuance: 1.) Commonly referred to as life-after-death — survival of the psyche post-cessation of the biological organism that had generated it. 2.) Tactic used by lawyers to drag out a case for as long as possible.
Coupling: 1.) Popular BBC-America sitcom. 2.) Combining two or more pieces of evidence.
Crop Circles: Consist of a circle within which all corn stems are flattened but not broken. Usually the outer ring has the corn flattened in the opposite direction to that of the center. Sometimes the circle may be surrounded by a series of smaller circles linked by channels.
Crisis Apparition: Ghosts that appear to loved ones and close friends just before or soon after their death.
Cross Correspondence: Information received from the spirit world.
Crossroads Point: Where two roads intersect. Said to be a focus point of supernatural energy.

11 terms

Dead Bodies with No Souls: Said to be created by the black magic of voodoo sorcerers.
Death Bed Apparitions: See Crisis Apparition.
Demon: Fallen angels associated with evil. Demons are said to have the ability to enter your home via the Ouija board; in such cases a demon may attach itself to an individual and not the home, and therefore will follow wherever that person goes — similar to but not to be confused with possession.
Demonologist: A person, usually a member of the clergy, who studies and catalogs demons.
Déjà Vu: Seeing or doing something completely new but having the distinct feeling that the experience had been done before.
Digital Audio: Specifically refers to the small digital sound recorders we set up, or to the media on which we record.
Digital Audio Recorder: Not prone to the "noise and hiss" of analog tape, nor to the compression needed for Minidisc, which removes those parts of an audio signal above and below the range of human hearing. Spirits are said to be generally audible below this level, at 50dB or less.
Digital Infrared Camera: Used to capture images invisible to the human eye. Feeds to a computer where the infrared images are stored on a hard drive.
Digital Thermometer: Witnesses often report "cold spots" and "hot spots" during an apparent paranormal event. Some digital thermometers record temperatures second-by-second for PC storage and graphical charting.
Digital Video Camera: Offers better quality than videotape camcorders, which are more limited in bandwidth.
Direct Voice Phenomenon (DVP): The voice of a ghost or spirit being spoken to the sitters of a séance. The voice usually comes from some point near the medium, but not through the medium. Sometimes a spirit horn or trumpet is used.
Direct Writing: When ghost or spirit handwriting appears directly on a previously unmarked, unwritten surface.
Drop-In Communicator: A ghost, spirit, or entity that makes its presence known at a séance.
Disembodied Spirit: The image of a dead person. Ghosts have the ability to move through solid objects.
Dowsing Rod: A Y-shaped rod or two L-shaped rods used in searches for underground water, discovering the location of unmarked graves, determining the sex of unborn children, and for locating ghosts.
Dowsing: The paranormal detection of underground water or mineral deposits (or lost persons and objects) using a divining rod or pendulum.
Dybbuk: A Jewish legend. The restless soul of a deceased human being that enters the body of a living person and takes possession.

11 terms

Earth Lights: Luminous phenomena typically shaped in ball form or irregular patches of light appearing randomly and defying explanation.
Ectoplasm: A filmy, quasi-solid substance which supposedly issues from the bodies of mediums (from the mouth, nostrils, eyes, ears, navel, or nipples) during trance states. In photographs, this phenomenon seems to resemble soaked muslin fabric. Said to be made up of a viscous substance which comes from a medium's solar plexus — a combination of certain chemicals used by spirit to project solid images. It is very dangerous to disturb a medium whilst in this condition. Ectoplasm can be either solid, liquid, or vaporous; it is usually a milky white color and has an ozone smell.
Electrokinesis: The kinetic ability to conjure and manipulate high amounts of electricity with your mind and/or body alone.
Electromagnetic Field (E.M.F.): A force given off by electric charges, found in anything that uses electricity. The higher the spikes in the electromagnetic field, the more potential there is for paranormal activity.
Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Detectors: Handheld scientific instruments that can pick up electronic and magnetic fields over different frequencies. They can read changes and distortions in the normal electromagnetic fields.
Electromagnetic Field Recorder: Controversial among ghost hunters: EMFs from power lines, TVs, etc., surround us constantly, and it is undetermined that ghosts emit EM energy. Some researchers say ghosts do disrupt EMFs, however.
Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP): The attempt to capture a ghost or spirit's voice on audio recording. Typically, there is no voice heard by the people present in the recording, but after reviewing the recording, strange voices may be detected.
Electronic Voice Projection: Recording of spirit voices.
Elemental Spirit: A spirit associated with one of the classical four elements (fire, earth, air, and water).
Energy Vortex: See Ectoplasm.
Entity: A disembodied "consciousness" commonly referred to as a ghost, spirit, or (if of an apparently malicious or resentful nature) demon.
EVP: Electronic Voice Phenomena: disembodied "voices" and sounds imprinted on audio recording devices.
Exorcism: Ceremonial expulsion of invading spiritual/demonic entities from a person or dwelling. Also a religious rite used to cast out a ghost, spirit, or entity from a living person's body or a particular location.
Exorcist: A religious "holy man" who conducts an exorcism within the paranormal realm.
Extrasensory Perception (ESP): The acquisition of information by means beyond the five human senses.

7 terms

Fairy: Small, human-like mythical being. May be benevolent or malevolent.
Fallen Host: Angels that have fallen from God's grace. Although rarely mentioned in biblical scripture, these beings serve as a warning to the reader of what the wrath of God can bring. Fallen angels can be split into two main groups: those who sided with Satan during the war in Heaven, and the fallen Grigori. In both cases the angels turned on God, their creator, by misusing the free will that had been granted to them.
False Arrival Apparition: A phenomenon whereby the percipient hears (and sometimes less frequently sees) another person arrive. This usually occurs half an hour or an hour or so before the person arrives. The percipient may hear footsteps on a path, the opening of a gate, the opening of a front door, or even footsteps on the stairs. In Scandinavian countries this phenomenon is common.
False Awakening: An experience in which a person believes he or she has woken up, but actually is still dreaming.
Family Apparitions: Ghosts that haunt one particular family. Their appearance usually means that someone within the family is about to die.
Floating Orb: Spherical image, usually translucent white though sometimes of a reddish or bluish hue, which inexplicably registers on film and videotape.
Focal Person: Person who is at the center of poltergeist activity.

10 terms

Ghost: The visual appearance of a spirit or soul of a deceased being, human or animal. The disembodied soul or life-force. The image of a person witnessed after his or her death, reflecting the appearance of the living, physical body yet less substantial.
Ghost Catcher: A wind-chime-like device that makes noise as a ghost or spirit passes by it.
Ghost Hunt: An attempt made by the living to find and see a ghost or spirit.
Ghost Hunter: A living individual who searches out and sometimes finds and identifies ghosts and spirits.
Ghost Investigation: A scientific endeavor, in a controlled environment, set up to communicate, record, and capture visual evidence of the existence of ghosts.
Ghost Lights: See Earth Lights.
Ghostbusters: A living person who can remove an unwanted ghost, spirit, entity, or poltergeist activity from a particular location.
Ghoul: Evil spirit or monster that robs graves and feeds on the flesh of the dead.
Gray Lady: The ghost of a woman who has died at the hands of a lover or waits for the return of a loved one.
Grigori: The Watchers.
Guardian Angel: An angel believed to protect the individual.

7 terms

Halloween: All Hallows' Eve, the night of October 31st when the spirit and natural worlds allegedly become one.
Hallucination: A false and distorted perception of reality.
Haunt: A place where a ghost or ghosts frequently return.
Haunted Objects: Jewelry, furniture, clothing, etc., that seems to be haunted by a past owner or have been cursed.
Haunting: Manifestation of a ghostly presence, attached to a specific locale. The continuous manifestation of inexplicable phenomena associated with the presence of ghosts or spirits attached to a particular location.
Hi-8: A quick way of saying "portable camcorder," specifically the kind that utilizes Hi-8 tapes. It also can refer to the tapes themselves.
Hypnotism: An induced trance or sleep state.

1 term

Intelligent Haunting: A haunting that knows you're there and interacts with you. It tries to get you to help it, or it gets a kick out of scaring you.

1 term

K-2 Meter: A machine that measures magnetic fields and is specially calibrated for paranormal investigators. In theory, it can be used to train a spirit to intensify its magnetic field as a form of interaction.

4 terms

Levitation: The paranormal raising or suspension of an object or person.
Ley Lines: Invisible lines that run between sacred objects or locations. Alignments of ancient sites — considered to be earth's natural energy lines. Spirits may use these lines as a way of traveling quickly from one place to another. It has also been suggested that where two ley lines cross there is a possible chance of a portal opening to other dimensions.
Lucid Dreams: A dream in which the dreamer is aware that they are dreaming.
Luminous Phenomena: The experience of strange lights or glows, often around objects or people.

9 terms

Magnetometer: A technical device used to study the strength, direction, and fluctuation of magnetic fields.
Malevolent Spirit: A way to describe a malicious supernatural force that causes harmful acts to living beings.
Marian Apparition: The appearance of the Virgin Mary.
Materialization: When a ghost appears — sudden or gradual, indistinct or seemingly quite solid. The paranormal manifestation of physical objects, animals, or people. Movement of an object from a secure and enclosed space.
Matrixing: Natural tendency for the human mind to interpret sensory input (perceived visually, audibly, or tactilely) as something familiar or more easily understood and accepted, in effect mentally "filling in the blanks."
Medium: 1.) A person who can sense the emotions of persons either alive or dead and is sensitive to the electrical fields around personalities. 2.) A person with a gift to communicate with ghosts and spirits on behalf of the living.
Mind's Eye: Invisible to the naked eye, it is a glow surrounding each individual and changes color and form depending on the mental and physical wellbeing of the individual.
Mini DV: Slang for a camcorder that records and plays Mini DV tapes; also shorthand for the tapes themselves.
Modern Apparitions: "New" ghosts of deceased individuals. They appear in fashion from the current time.

5 terms

Near Death Experience (NDE): 1.) Claimed to be a glimpse at life after death, the most common reports are those of a tunnel with a bright light at the end, a place of great beauty, meeting loved ones, or visiting another dimension and sometimes even hell. 2.) A paranormal phenomenon in which a person clinically dies or comes very close to death only to be revived and then can recall in great detail stories of spiritual worlds and other supernatural events.
Necromancer: A person, usually considered a wizard or sorcerer, who can raise the dead and command the spirits to obtain information about the future.
Necromancy: A form of prophecy performed by a necromancer.
Night-Vision Goggles: Magnifies available light by 10,000 to 15,000 times. Cannot be used in total darkness, however, without an infrared attachment.
Nipple: Short pipe installed between couplings — oh, come on, I thought we got past this back at "ballcock."

5 terms

Omen: A foretelling of a future event.
Oracle: A seer who can communicate with ghosts, spirits, and gods to obtain information.
Orb: A mass of energy in the shape of a ball. There are several classifications depending on size; ghostly apparitions are usually associated with an orb being present. Orbs are allegedly the true spirit form, and one theory is that these are seen at the beginning of a manifestation. Orbs can be often caught in photographs.
Ouija Board: A board with letters and numbers used by people who are attempting to communicate with ghosts or spirits.
Out-Of-Body Experience (OBE): Also called Astral Projection. The phenomenon in which a living person's spirit can exit their body, travel the earth and other spiritual worlds, and then return to their body.

14 terms

Paranormal: Beyond the normal — something that is unexplainable scientifically. An umbrella term used to describe a wide variety of reported anomalous phenomena. Describes subjects studied under parapsychology — psychic phenomena like telepathy, ESP, psychokinesis, and post-mortem survival studies like reincarnation, ghosts, and hauntings. As a broader category, the paranormal sometimes describes subjects outside the scope of parapsychology, including anomalous aspects of UFOs, cryptozoology, and the Bermuda Triangle.
Parapsychology: The scientific study of unusual events associated with the paranormal human experience and PSI subjects.
Percipient: A living person who sees a ghost, spirit, or paranormal event. The person who is the focus or at the center of paranormal activity.
Phantom Animals: Ghosts of deceased animals.
Phantom Hitchhiker / Traveler: A ghost or spirit that haunts a particular stretch of road or route. Phantom hitchhikers ask for rides only to suddenly disappear when they reach their destination.
Photographic Apparitions: Ghosts and spirits that you can't see, but appear in photographs after they are developed.
Planchette: A pointer used with a Ouija Board to communicate with ghosts, spirits, or higher-plane entities.
Poltergeist: "Noisy ghost." Poltergeists are invisible masses of spirit energy that may or may not be connected to a living human Agent. Some of the most common poltergeist activities include loud unexplained noise, levitations, the moving of objects, and electrical problems.
Possession: When a person's mind and body are taken over by ghosts, spirits, or other supernatural entities such as demons.
Precognition: The paranormal awareness of future events.
PSI: A general term used to denote the unknown factors responsible for a variety of paranormal phenomena.
Psychic Cleansing: A less ritualized form of exorcism, wherein a site is purified and malevolent influences banished through prayers, which are spoken as the petitioner moves through the area.
Psychic Echo: When sounds from the past have mysteriously recorded themselves into the natural environment.
Psychic: Popular term used to denote a person who regularly uses, or who appears to be especially gifted with, psi abilities.
Psychokinesis (PK): Mind movement. The apparent ability to influence the environment by intention alone.
Purgatory: The place where the souls of those who have died must go to be cleansed of all their sin before they can be admitted to Heaven.

6 terms

Radio Voice Phenomenon (RVP): The voice of a ghost or spirit communicating through a regular radio.
Reciprocal Apparition: An experience where both the agent and the ghost or spirit see and react to each other.
Recurring Apparitions: Ghosts or spirits that appear in regular cycles, usually once a year — for example on the anniversary of their death.
Reincarnation: The belief that the spirit or the soul of a person can be reborn to a new life. Some people are able to remember past-life personalities and experiences. This is a non-Christian belief, but many Eastern cultures have always included reincarnation in their philosophy.
Repressed Psychokinetic Energy: A theoretical psychic force unconsciously produced by an individual while undergoing a physical or mental trauma.
Residual Haunting: Psychic imprint of a scene that is repeatedly played out, in which the witness essentially is peering into the past. The ghostly participants of these time displacements often seem unaware of their living observers.
Retrocognition: Paranormal knowledge of past events.

17 terms

Screaming Skulls: Human skulls that protest with poltergeist activity when their final wishes are not fulfilled.
Scrying: A type of prophecy where an individual can see future events by staring into a shiny or reflective surface, such as a mirror or crystal ball.
Séance: The gathering of individuals for the purpose of communicating with the ghosts of the dead.
Sensitive: Someone who is aware or can detect paranormal events beyond the range of their five human senses. Someone who can sense a paranormal presence.
Shaman: A witch doctor or medicine man who communicates with spirits while in a trance, and who has the power of healing.
Silky: A female ghost attired in a rustling silk garment (sometimes seen, other times just heard) who performs domestic chores for a household after the occupants have retired for the night.
Sixth Sense: Popular term for ESP.
Sleep Paralysis: A frightening state of seeming to be awake but unable to move.
Smudge Sticks: Traditional Native American tools used for purification, healing, clearing, cleansing, and spiritual ceremonies. Their smoke is believed to balance and clear "negative energies" from spaces, objects, and organic beings, as well as their auras.
Specter: A ghost or apparition.
Spirit Detection: The reading made by scientific equipment (EMF detectors, temperature changes, etc.) when a ghost or spirit is present.
Spirit Photography: Photographs of figures or faces, believed by some to be those of deceased persons.
Spirit Profile: Researching the background and history of the ghost or spirit, and then determining its consistent patterns as a result of the findings.
Spirit / Soul: Spirit is often used to define the soul of a person, but it can also represent places such as sacred lakes or objects, shrines, and elemental entities. Spirit is described as "the vital animating essence of a person or animal — the intelligent being without a material body." Soul is described as "the immaterial part of a human being, often regarded as immortal — vital, spirit or force, being, inner self."
Spirit Cleansing: Clearing "negative energies" from spaces, objects, and organic beings, as well as their auras.
Spiritualism: Belief systems that hold that ghosts and spirits can and do communicate with the living.
Spiritual Healing: Integrating metaphysics with sympathetic magic or spiritualism with healing. The term is generally used to describe frauds that dispense useless or harmful treatments to vulnerable people on their deathbeds.
Spook Lights: See Earth Lights.
Sprite: A type of legendary creature including elves, fairies, and pixies.
Stigmata: Unexplained markings on a person's body that correspond to the wounds of Christ.
Super-ESP: A more powerful form of telepathy that allows certain individuals to pick up information about a deceased person from other living people.
Supernatural: Something that exists or occurs through some means other than any known force in nature or science.

8 terms

Table-Turning Movements: Come from the table used during a séance — these are suggested as being a form of communication from the spirit world.
Telepathy: Mind-to-mind communication. The ability to transfer one person's thoughts to another. Many experiments into this area started enthusiastically around 1882 with the beginning of the Society for Psychical Research. In 1903, Zenner cards were developed by K.E. Zenner, an American psychologist; these cards are widely used in ESP research with varying results.
Telephone Calls from the Dead: When a person receives a telephone call from someone who is dead. The person may or may not know that the caller is deceased.
Teleportation: Paranormal transportation of an object from one location to another, even through solid objects.
Thermal-Imaging Digital Camera: Records images of long-wavelength infrared radiation (i.e. heat), which is invisible to the human eye. This allows the capture of images in even total darkness, or through smoke or fog.
Thixotropy: A time-dependent shear-thinning property. Certain gels or fluids that are thick (viscous) under static conditions will flow (become thin, less viscous) over time when shaken, agitated, or otherwise stressed. Many gels and colloids are thixotropic, exhibiting a stable form at rest but becoming fluid when agitated. Possible explanation for bleeding statues, etc.
Time-Slips: Moments where the past and present collide at one point.
Transportation Apparitions: The appearance of ghostly cars, trucks, ships, bicycles, carriages, trains, airplanes, and anything else that carries people. They haunt their old routes.
Trap: 1.) Fitting that holds water to prevent entry of sewer gases. 2.) Any discussion that begins, "Does this make me look fat?"
Types of Healing: Hands-on, absent, prayer, color, and sound. Healing is considered medicine for the soul. Healing of any kind means laying oneself open to the divine source of love either by receiving or giving. The practice of these types of healing has been used for centuries — even the ancient Egyptians recognized the importance of sound. Some of the great pyramids are known to have amazing acoustics, and it has been suggested that they may have been used for healing through the use of incantations. Absent healing takes place when the healer is not in direct contact with the person to be healed.

2 terms

Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs): Considered to be alien aircraft. It is interesting to note that a large majority of UFOs are sighted during or after an electrical storm.
Ufology: The study of unidentified flying objects.

2 terms

Vampire: A supernatural creature (undead) that can only come out at night and lives by drinking the blood of the living. There are psychic vampires as well.
Vortex: A gateway that opens from the spirit world — like a rip in our dimension — that lets entities from the other side enter our world. An opening or doorway between our world and the spirit world, in paranormal terms.

4 terms

Werewolf: Mythical creatures that change from humans to wolves. These creatures can only be killed with a silver bullet, and the plant wolfsbane is said to act as a deterrent.
Wild Hunt: Spectral horsemen or packs of ghostly dogs seen at night.
Witch: A woman with supernatural powers.
Wye: Wye not?

1 term

Zombie: Mythical creatures who rise up out of their graves at night and feed off the blood of others. Once-living persons that have been turned into zombies after their death — normally associated with the practice of voodoo. Practitioners use a blowfish toxin to suppress the body's vitals for a period of time, causing damage to the brain and leaving the person in a psycho-receptive state for suggestions and a lethargic, mentally disarranged state.

Glossary of Terms

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