Psychic /Spiritual Dictionary D

D

Daemon (Daimon) Psychic Dictionary Index

A guardian spirit who communicates inspiration and advice. See also guardian angel.

Generally understood to be the extinction of an organism's life. Many doctrines assert some form of mental or spiritual survival of physical death. See also deathbed experience, haunting, mediumship, near-death experience, reincarnation.

Deathbed Experience Psychic Dictionary Index

A dying person's awareness of the presence of dead friends or relatives. See also near-death experience.

Decline Effect Psychic Dictionary Index

A decrease in performance on a psi test when the test is repeated. Cf. incline effect.

Deja Experience Psychic Dictionary Index

See deja vu.

Deja Vu Psychic Dictionary Index

A person's feeling that current events have been experienced before.

Delta Psychic Dictionary Index

A term used to refer to any kind of anomalous experience.

Dematerialization Psychic Dictionary Index

The paranormal fading or disappearance of a physical object. See also deport.

Demonic Possession Psychic Dictionary Index

Possession by evil spirits. See also exorcism.

Deport Psychic Dictionary Index

The paranormal movement of objects out of a secure enclosed space. Cf. apport. See also dematerialization, teleportation.

Dice Test Psychic Dictionary Index

Experimental techniques for investigating psychokinesis, in which a subject attempts to influence the fall of dice.

Direct Voice Psychic Dictionary Index

A voice heard in a seance which does not seem to emanate from any person. The voice may seem to come out of thin air, or from a trumpet used specifically for this purpose. Cf. indirect voice.

Discarnate Entity Psychic Dictionary Index

A spirit or non-material entity. Often used to refer to the personality of a deceased individual. See also channeling, communication, mediumship, possession, survival.

Displacement Psychic Dictionary Index

Responses on a psi test that correspond systematically to targets other than the intended one (e.g., those before or after).

Dissociation Psychic Dictionary Index

Activity performed outside of normal conscious awareness, or mental processes that suggest the existence of separate centres of consciousness.

Divination Psychic Dictionary Index

Practices involving the interpretation of signs or symbols that seek to obtain oracular knowledge of events. Examples of divinatory practices are geomancy, tarot, I Ching, sortilege, and reading tea leaves.

Divining Rod Psychic Dictionary Index

A forked rod (or sometimes a pair of L-shaped rods) used in dowsing.

DMILS Psychic Dictionary Index

"Direct Mental Interaction with Living Systems". Psychokinetic influences on physiological processes. See also Bio-PK.

Doppelganger Psychic Dictionary Index

A mirror image or double of a person. See also astral body.

Double Psychic Dictionary Index

A duplicate of one's own body. See also astral body

Double Blind Psychic Dictionary Index

An experimental procedure in which neither the subject nor experimenter is aware of key features of the experiment.

Down Through Technique (DT) Psychic Dictionary Index

An experimental test for clairvoyance in which the person guesses the order of a stacked series of target symbols (e.g., cards) from top to bottom. Cf. up through technique.

Dowsing Psychic Dictionary Index

The paranormal detection of underground water or mineral deposits (or lost persons and objects) using a divining rod or pendulum.

Dream Psychic Dictionary Index

See paranormal dream.

Drop-in Communicator Psychic Dictionary Index

An uninvited communicator who 'drops in' at a sitting.

E

Earthquake Effect Psychic Dictionary Index

A phenomenon produced by the physical medium D.D. Home, involving the room shaking as if there was an earthquake.

Ecstasy Psychic Dictionary Index

An altered state of consciousness in which the person experiences great rapture and loss of self-control. Cf. trance.

Ectoplasm Psychic Dictionary Index

A semi-fluid substance exuded by a physical medium from which materializations may form.

EEG (Electro-encephalography) Psychic Dictionary Index

A method of recording variations of electrical activity in the cortex of the brain.

Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) Psychic Dictionary Index

See Raudive voices.

Elemental Spirit Psychic Dictionary Index

A spirit associated with one of the classical four elements (fire, earth, air and water). See also animism.

Elongation Psychic Dictionary Index

Paranormal extension of the physical body, reported in some mystics and physical mediums.

Empath Psychic Dictionary Index

Someone who shows considerable empathy, especially of the apparently psychic type.

Empathy Psychic Dictionary Index

The ability to understand the experience or emotional state of another person or animal. Often used to refer to an apparently psychic ability to experience another person's sensations, pain or emotions. Cf. clairsentience, intuition.

Entity Psychic Dictionary Index

See discarnate entity.

ESP Psychic Dictionary Index

See Extrasensory Perception.

ESP Cards Psychic Dictionary Index

See Zener Cards.

Etheric Body Psychic Dictionary Index

Similar to astral body.

Evil Eye Psychic Dictionary Index

Alleged ability of some people to harm others by looking at them.

EVP Psychic Dictionary Index

Electronic Voice Phenomena. See Raudive voices.

Evocation Psychic Dictionary Index

The summoning of (often evil) spirits using a magical incantation or ritual. Cf. invocation.

Exorcism Psychic Dictionary Index

A religious or quasi-religious rite to drive out evil spirits. See also possession.

Experiment Psychic Dictionary Index

A test carried out under controlled conditions.

Experimental Group Psychic Dictionary Index

A group of subjects who undergo a specific experimental procedure. Often results from this group are compared with those of a control group.

Experimental Parapsychology Psychic Dictionary Index

Parapsychological research involving experimental methods rather than survey techniques or the investigation of spontaneous cases.

Experimenter Psychic Dictionary Index

The person who conducts the experiment.

Experimenter Effect Psychic Dictionary Index

Influence that the experimenter's personality or behaviour may have on the results of an experiment.

Extradimensional Psychic Dictionary Index

Originating outside our normal space-time reality. Cf. extraterrestrial.

Extrasensory Perception (ESP) Psychic Dictionary Index

Paranormal acquisition of information. Includes clairvoyance, telepathy and precognition. See also psi.

Extraterrestrial Psychic Dictionary Index

Originating beyond planet Earth. Not normally considered to be extradimensional.

Fairy Psychic Dictionary Index

Small, human-like mythical being. May be benevolent or malevolent.

Faith Healing Psychic Dictionary Index

Healing that is associated with prayer or belief in Divine power.

False Awakening Psychic Dictionary Index

An experience in which a person believes he or she has woken up, but actually is still dreaming.

Faraday Cage Psychic Dictionary Index

A wire mesh enclosure that provides a shield to radio waves.

Feedback Psychic Dictionary Index

The giving of information to subjects about their performance on a test. See also biofeedback.

Fire Walking Psychic Dictionary Index

Walking on red-hot coals, without pain or damage to the feet.

Flying Saucer Psychic Dictionary Index

A term, coined in 1947, to refer to unknown disk-like aerial objects, often believed to be extraterrestrial spacecraft. The term has now been largely superseded by "UFO".

Focal Person Psychic Dictionary Index

Person who is at the centre of poltergeist activity.

Forced-Choice Test Psychic Dictionary Index

An ESP test in which the subject guesses from a predetermined list of alternative targets.

Fortean Phenomena Psychic Dictionary Index

Strange phenomena, especially those which challenge conventional scientific knowledge. Named after the American researcher and writer Charles Fort. Fortean phenomena include those generally considered paranormal, but also bizarre non-paranormal events such as monsters and prodigies, extraordinary coincidences, and unusual rains.

Fortune Telling Psychic Dictionary Index

Various practices which aim to divine future events. See also divination.

Fraud Psychic Dictionary Index

The deliberate faking of paranormal phenomenena, generally for the purpose of financial gain, psychological manipulation, or notoriety. Faking for the purpose of entertainment (e.g., by stage magicians and mentalists) is not normally classed as fraud.

Free-Response Test Psychic Dictionary Index

An ESP test in which the subject responds freely (does not choose from a fixed list of targets). For example, the subject may write down or draw their impressions, or may talk freely into a tape recorder. In order to assess the accuracy of the responses, they are compared with various targets (including the actual target) by a judge. See also preferential matching.

G

Ganzfeld Psychic Dictionary Index

A technique for investigating ESP in which the person experiences an absence of patterned stimulation. This generally involves the subject wearing halved table-tennis balls over the eyes while listening to hiss (white noise) through headphones.

General Extrasensory Perception (GESP) Psychic Dictionary Index

ESP in which it is unclear whether the results are due to clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition or retrocognition.

Geomancy Psychic Dictionary Index

A system of divination involving the interpretation of lines or figures.

GESP Psychic Dictionary Index

See general extrasensory perception

Ghost Psychic Dictionary Index

Popular term for an experience believed to indicate the presence of the spirit of a deceased person. See also apparition, haunting, poltergeist. Full definition

Gimmick Psychic Dictionary Index

In conjuring, any small concealed apparatus that is used to produce a magical effect. Also used by fraudulent mediums.

Glossolalia Psychic Dictionary Index

Unintelligible speech generally uttered in a dissociated or trance state. Also known as "speaking in tongues". See also xenoglossy.

"Goat" Psychic Dictionary Index

Name given to a subject in a psi test who does not believe in the phenomenon. See also "sheep", sheep-goat effect.

Guardian Angel Psychic Dictionary Index

An angel believed to protect the individual. See also guide.

Guide Psychic Dictionary Index

A spirit who is believed to assist a person's spiritual journey. See also angel, guardian angel

H

Hallucination Psychic Dictionary Index

A sensory experience that does not correspond to physical reality. See also apparition.

Haunting Psychic Dictionary Index

Paranormal phenomena such as apparitions, unexplained sounds, smells or other sensations that are associated over a lengthy period of time with a specific location. Cf. poltergeist.

Healer Psychic Dictionary Index

Someone who claims the power of healing.

Healing Psychic Dictionary Index

Generally indicates cures that cannot be explained in terms of accepted medical principles. See also faith healing, psychic healing, spirit cures.

Hellstromism Psychic Dictionary Index

See contact mind reading.

Hex Psychic Dictionary Index

(a) An evil spell or magical curse.

(b) To practice witchcraft.

Hit Psychic Dictionary Index

A response that accurately matches the target. Cf. miss.

Hot Reading Psychic Dictionary Index

A reading given in which prior knowledge of the sitter has been obtained, often using devious or fraudulent means. Cf. cold reading.

Huna Psychic Dictionary Index

An Hawaiian religious practice involving clairvoyance, precognition, healing, miracles and magic.

Hyperacuity Psychic Dictionary Index

See hyperaesthesia.

Hyperaesthesia Psychic Dictionary Index

Exceptionally acute sensory awareness.

Hypnagogic Imagery Psychic Dictionary Index

Imagery occurring in the hypnagogic state (occuring while dropping off to sleep).

Hypnopompic Imagery Psychic Dictionary Index

Imagery occurring in the hypnopompic state (occurring while waking up).

Hypnosis Psychic Dictionary Index

An ASC involving a heightened degree of suggestibility. See also Mesmerism.

Hypnotism Psychic Dictionary Index

See hypnosis.

I

I Ching Psychic Dictionary Index

Ancient Chinese "Book of Changes". It describes 64 hexagrams (patterns of 6 broken and unbroken lines) which are used in a divinatory practice involving the throwing of yarrow stalks or coins.

Illusion Psychic Dictionary Index

(a) An appearance that leads the person to draw mistaken conclusions.

(b) In conjuring, a perceptual trick.

Imagery Psychic Dictionary Index

The ability to perceive images in the mind. These may be visual, auditory, tactile, etc.

Immortality Psychic Dictionary Index

Various beliefs based on the assumption that some aspect of personal existence survives death.

Incline Effect Psychic Dictionary Index

An increase in performance on a psi test when the test is repeated. Cf. decline effect.

Incorruptibility Psychic Dictionary Index

Inexplicable lack of decay in a corpse.

Indirect Voice Psychic Dictionary Index

Mediumistic phenomenon in which the discarnate entity appears to speak using the vocal apparatus of the medium. Often the voice will sound very different from the medium's normal voice. Cf. direct voice.

Intuition Psychic Dictionary Index

The non-paranormal ability to grasp the elements of a situation or to draw conclusions about complex events in ways that go beyond a purely rational or intellectual analysis. Cf. clairsentience, empathy.

Invocation Psychic Dictionary Index

Summoning benevolent spiritual beings. Cf. evocation.