Glossary

Paranormal Glossary

Below are some of the most commonly used paranormal terms.  If you run into a term which is not included on this list and would like more information about it, please contact us at contact@spirtofpa.com.

  • Anomaly – A deviation from the common rule; something different, abnormal, peculiar, or not easily classified. This term is often used to describe a paranormal event which does not involve ghosts or entities.
  • Apparition – The perception of either a living being or an inanimate object without there being any material stimulus for such a perception.
  • Astral Projection – An interpretation of any form of out-of-body experience that assumes the existence of an “astral body” separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it.
  • Astrology – a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs which hold that the relative positions of celestial bodies (the Sun, Moon, and planets) and related details can provide information about personality, human affairs and other “earthly” matters.
  • Audio Tagging – the process by which an investigator will mark any anomalous sound during recording which might later be mistaken for a paranormal event.
  • Aura – A field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object.
  • Automatic Writing/Art – A concept in by which spirits are claimed to dictate or take the hand of a medium to write messages, letters, and even entire books.
  • Channeling – The act of allowing a spirit to use one’s body for communication, sometimes involving the practitioner to enter a trance-like state and become temporarily possessed by a spirit.
  • Clairalience – a form of extra-sensory perception wherein a person accesses psychic knowledge through the physical sense of smell.
  • Clairaudience – a form of extra-sensory perception wherein a person acquires information by paranormal auditory means.
  • Claircognizance – A form of extra-sensory perception wherein a person acquires psychic information primarily by means of intrinsic knowledge.
  • Clairgustance – A form of extra-sensory perception that allegedly allows one to taste a substance without putting anything in one’s mouth. It is claimed that those who possess this ability are able to perceive the essence of a substance from the spiritual or ethereal realms through taste.
  • Clairsentience – A form of extra-sensory perception wherein a person acquires psychic knowledge primarily by feeling.
  • Clairvoyance – the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses.
  • Cold Spots – sudden temperature drops in one specific location which are said to occur due to the presence of an entity.
  • Déjà vu – The experience of feeling sure that one has already witnessed or experienced a current situation, even though the exact circumstances of the previous encounter are uncertain and were perhaps imagined.
  • Demon – A supernatural being described as something that is not human and in ordinary usage malevolent.
  • Demonlology – The systematic study of demons or beliefs about demons.It is the branch of theology relating to superhuman beings who are not gods. It deals both with benevolent beings that have no circle of worshippers or so limited a circle as to be below the rank of gods, and with malevolent beings of all kinds.
  • Disembodied Voice – A sound resembling speech with no perceivable physical origin.
  • Divination – The attempt to gain insight into a question or situation by way of a standardized psychic process or ritual.
  • Divining Rod – An L or Y shaped stick used to locate groundwater, ores, gemstones, oil, or gravesites or as a communication tool with spiritual entities. It is held loosely in the hands and alleged that the movement reflects the existence of something underground or the interaction of a spirit.
  • Ectoplasm – A substance or spiritual energy that results from interaction with paranormal entities or associated with the formation and manifestation of spirits.
  • Electromagnetic Field (EMF) – a physical field produced by electrically charged objects. It affects the behavior of charged objects in the vicinity of the field. It is believed that paranormal occurrences cause electromagnetic anomalies and thus can be measured.
  • Electronic Voice Phenomenon(EVP)– Anomalous voices or other sounds on electronic audio recordings. These anomalies are not heard at the time of the recording.
  • Elemental – A non-human entity that originates from either a natural source, a nature-worship ritual, or a reserve of residual emotional energy that develops a personality or ability to interact with the physical world.
  • Empathy – the capacity to recognize and share, feelings that are being experienced by another being.
  • Extra Sensory Perception(ESP)– The ability to experience, feel, or perceive something psychically or in a manner that transcends the physical senses.
  • Entity – A term used to refer to human ghosts and other spiritual beings.
  • Exorcism – The religious practice of evicting demons or other spiritual entities from a person or place they have possessed.
  • Ghost – the essence or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living.
  • Haunting – an occurrence where a supernatural being is interacting with the human world at a specific location. These can include residual, intelligent, poltergeist, inhuman or demonic.
  • Hex – A negative spell or curse.
  • House Blessing – also known as “House Cleansing”, the practice of using ritual and prayer to force a spirit out of a location. Most commonly done through religious ministration, a house blessing can also be done preemptively to prevent future paranormal occurrences.
  • Inhuman Haunt – Recurring paranormal activity that is believed to originate from a sentient supernatural being. This being never existed as a human or lived a natural life.
  • Intelligent Haunt – Paranormal activity that has sentience or self-awareness with the ability to interact intentionally with the physical world.
  • Invocation – The act of calling upon specific spiritual beings for a distinct purpose.
  • Medium – One who professes the ability to communicate with spirits.
  • Orb – Unexpected, typically circular, luminous artifacts that occur in photography — sometimes with trails indicating motion. Most orbs in photography are dust, bugs or water vapor.
  • Ouija Board – a divination tool developed in the late 1800s to allow non-sensitives to communicate with the spirit world without the use of a medium or psychic. Most paranormal teams, SPIRT of PA included, would advise against the use of a Ouija board as they are easily misused and can increase unwanted activity.
  • Paranormal – Experiences that lie outside the range of normal experience or current scientific explanation.
  • Paranormal Investigator – A person who studies claims of spiritual activity or haunting.
  • Parapsychology – a discipline that seeks to investigate the existence and causes and conditions of psychic abilities, near-death experiences, out-of-the-body experiences, crisis apparitions, retro-cognitions, reincarnation memories, regression memories, prophecy, astrology, ghosts and life after death.
  • Phantom Smell – An odor with no perceivable physical origin.
  • Poltergeist – a phenomenon in which disorder occurs without explainable cause, usually indoors and in the presence of people. Such disorder typically includes inanimate objects moving or being thrown about, erratic noises (such as knocking, pounding, or banging), and physical attacks on human beings. Poltergeists have traditionally been described as troublesome spirits or ghosts haunting a particular person, but are often suggested in parapsychology to be caused by spontaneous psychokinesis.
  • Possession – Psychokinetic control of the behavior of a living thing or natural object by a spiritual being.
  • Psychic – a person who professes an ability to perceive information hidden from the normal senses through extrasensory perception (ESP), or is said by others to have such abilities.
  • Psychokinesis – The direct influence of mind on a physical system that cannot be entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known physical energy.
  • Residual Haunt – Repeated playbacks of auditory, visual, olfactory, and other sensory phenomena that are attributed to a traumatic event, life-altering event, or a routine event of a person or place, like an echo or a replay of a videotape of past events.
  • Séance – A semi-ritualized attempt to communicate with spirits, often by a group of people. These are most often led by a trained medium and should not be attempted by those without proper training.
  • Sensitive – a person who has the ability to sense (either through sight, sound, emotion, instinct or mental images) the presence of an entity. Most often, they are not able to directly communicate with the entity.
  • Smudging – The process of using a bundle of herbs (most commonly sage) for spiritual cleansing or purification.
  • Spirit Guide – An entity that acts as an advisor or protector to a living incarnated human being.