Citation: Kelly, T.M. (2014). Classification & Statistical Manual of Extrasensory Experiences. Copyright © 2014 Theresa M. Kelly, MsD. Interested professionals are welcome to Download a Complimentary Copy of the CSM-EE. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
A
Agent (Para-Psychology)
An individual who sends information using telepathic or empathic processes; who impresses information onto another or is the cause of impression-like telepathic or empathic experience; who initiates experiences involving telepathic or empathic impression; an active and efficient cause; capable of producing a certain effect.
Aha! Factor (Psychology)
A subjective standard ascribing validity to an idea when it resonates with one’s personal experience. Similar: Eureka! Effect.
Alpha Abundance (Neuroscience)
An abundance of alpha brain wave activity; an abundance of neural oscillations in the frequency range of 7.5–12.5 Hzand detectable by either electroencephalography (EEG) or magnetoencephalography (MEG).
Altered States of Consciousness (Psychology)
Refers to any mental state differing from normal waking conditions. Evidence support these states may be psi-conducive and include; dreaming, hypnosis, hypnogogic-like states induced by the Ganzfeld effect, trance states, meditation, and drug-induced states.
Amygdala (Neuroanatomy)
An almond-shaped neural structure in the anterior part of the temporal lobe of the cerebrum; performs a primary role in the processing of memory, decision-making, and emotional reactions.
Angel (Theology)
A divine attendant; divine intermediaries; benevolent celestial beings; a spirit once living as human; an intelligent spirit never belonging to the human race and is immortal’ protecting and guiding spirits.
Anomalous Communication (Para-Psychology)
Communication by paranormal means. A general term referring to unusual experiences involving communications that cannot be explained in terms of current scientific knowledge.Similar: Psychic communication.
Apparition (Para-Psychology)
An experience usually visual but sometimes involving other sense-modalities in which there appears to be present a person or animal (deceased or living) and even inanimate objects such as carriages and other things, who/which is in fact out of the sensory range of the experient; often associated with spontaneous extrasensory perception, for example, in connection with an agent who is dying or undergoing some other crisis (in which case, it is likely to be termed a “crisis apparition,” or in connection with haunting (in which case, it is likely to be referred to in non-technical contexts as a “ghost“). Similar: Ghost; Discarnate Entity, Astral Projection.
Apportation (Para-Psychology)
An apport is a physical object which has been paranormally transported into a closed space or container, suggesting the passage of “matter through matter,” that is, through intervening solid material objects; the paranormal transference or appearance of an object; the paranormal transference of an article from one place to another, or an appearance of an article from an unknown source that is often associated with poltergeist activity or spiritualistic séances.
Astral Projection (Metaphysics)
An astral body is an entity said to be an exact, quasi-physical replica or “double” of the individual physical body, which can separate itself from the physical body, either temporarily, as in dreaming or in the out-of-the-body experience, or permanently, at the moment of death. Also known as the “etheric” body; an interpretation of out-of-body experience (OBE) that assumes the existence of an “astral body” separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it; involves a clairvoyant remotely viewing a location joined by the sensation of actually being physically at the location; involves a clairvoyant remotely viewing themselves as in out-of-body experiences; an anomaly of remote viewing/sensing. Similar: Out-of-Body Experience, Remote Viewing, Apparition.
Audible Thought (Psychiatry)
A person hearing an audible thought in their own head may hear a thought spoken in their own voice; a thought that is perceived as being spoken aloud; hallucinatory voices that echo or speak his thoughts aloud which are associated with Schneider’s First Rank symptoms of Schizophrenia. Similar: Auditory hallucinations.
Augury (Metaphysics)
An event that is experienced as indicating important things to come; a sign of what will happen in the future; an omen; the interpretation of omens; a priest and official in the classical world with the role of interpreting the will of the gods by interpreting omens;prophetic divining of the future by observation of natural phenomena. Similar: Augur, Divination, Diviner.
Aura (Medical Science)
A perceptual disturbance experienced by some with migraine or seizures before either the headache or seizure begins; the perception of a strange light symptomatic of dehydration or sleep deprivation; visual hallucinations such as bright lights and vibrating visual field often in conjunction with other perceptual disturbances and sensations. Similar: Hallucination.
Aura (Para-Psychology)
A field of energy believed by some to surround living organisms; a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding, emanating from, a person or object; thoughts and feelings surrounding a person in the form of colors and seen by the third eye.
Automatism (Medical Science)
Any complex sensory or motor activity the details of which are carried out by a person without their conscious awareness or volition, thus constituting instances of dissociation; examples of sensory automatisms are certain visual and auditory hallucinations; an example of motor automatisms is sleep-walking. A symptom of schizophrenia.
Automatism (Para-Psychology)
A sprit’s influence on a medium’s physical activity (e.g. arm movements, writing, drawing, trance-utterances). Similar: Automatic writing, Xenoglossy.
B
Boundary Cases (Psychiatry)
Clinical cases that straddle the boundary of two or more diagnoses.
Boundary Cases (Para-Psychology)
Extrasensory experience cases that involve the criteria of two or more types or subtypes of extrasensory experience.
C
Chance(Philosophy)
A measure of how likely it is that some event will occur; a number expressing the ratio of favorable cases to the whole number of cases possible; an unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event to result one way rather than another. Similar: Luck, Probability.
Chance(Para-Psychology)
A shorthand expression used in parapsychology referring to the Mean Chance Expectation (MCE).
Channeling(Para-Psychology)
When an entity influences a medium’s physical body in addition to speech; a phenomenon where one psychically conveys information or messages from another consciousness other than their own, typically an entity. Similar: Mediumship, Trance Mediumship, Xenoglossy, Automatism, Clairvoyant Interaction.
Clairvoyance (Para-Psychology)
The psychical influence of an objective environment, which is assumed capable of storing, retaining, and recalling information pertaining to the past and current states of objects and events, involved in the interim integration, processing, shifting, and retrieval of information pertaining to objects and events in real-time, and probabilistically determining the potential trajectory of future events.
Clairvoyant Cognition(Para-Psychology)
The phenomenologically indirect knowledge of an object or event via Nature without the intervention of the five senses. This includes remote viewing/sensing, precognition, retro/postcognition, and contemporaneous ESP.
Clairvoyant Interaction (Para-Psychology)
The causal influence of an entities “mind” onto an experient without the intervention of the five senses. This form of clairvoyance is typically known as trance mediumship or channeling.
Clairvoyant Simulation (Para-Psychology)
A case in which an experient’s mental or physical state appears to produce an accommodating effect in Nature, or Nature produces an accommodating effect within itself or the experient to satisfy the needs of the experient. Similar: Wish Fulfillment, Serendipity, Synchronicity, Luck, Probability Shifting, Prayer Fulfillment, Spell Casting.
Contemporaneous ESP (Para-Psychology)
Refers to clairvoyant extrasensory experiences in relation to persons, places, objects, or events in real-time. Similar: Remote Viewing/Sensing.
Coincidence (Statistics)
The temporal property of two things happening at the same time; An event that might have been arranged although it was really accidental; a collection of two or more events or conditions, closely related by time, space, form, or other associations which appear unlikely to bear a relationship as either cause to effect or effects of a shared cause, within the observer’s or observers’ understanding of what cause can produce what effects. Similar: Luck, Chance.
Cryptomnesia (Psychology)
A memory bias that occurs when a forgotten memory returns without it being recognized as such by the subject, who believes it is something new and original.
D
Determinism(Philosophy)
A philosophical theory holding that all events are inevitable consequences of antecedent sufficient causes; often understood as denying the possibility of free will. Opposite: Free Will, Indeterminism.
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association, offers a common language and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. The current editions is the DSM-5.
Discarnate Spirits/Entity(Para-Psychology)
Typically refers to spirits of the deceased or consciousness that is assumed to exist after bodily death; a disembodied being, as opposed to an incarnate one; the surviving personality of a deceased individual or non-human entity; a spirit; ghost; a disembodied consciousness of some type of immaterial or discarnate element of human, or animal, personality that survives bodily death for an unknown duration of time. Similar: Entity, Ghost, Spirit.
Distance Healing (Para-Psychology)
Refers to instances of psychic healing that occurs at a distance where the healer is typically miles away from the subject such as the healer and subject residing in different buildings, cities, or even countries, and may be the result of remote bio-PK (i.e. remote psychokinetic energy healing) or intention (i.e. intention healing). Can also refer to in-room energy healing that does not require touch such as Reiki. Similar: Clairvoyant Simulation, Psychic Healing, Psychokinesis.
Divinatory Practices (Metaphysics)
Divination is the practice of seeking knowledge of the future or the unknown by supernatural powers; Divination is the attempt to gain insight and information into a query, person, object, or situation by way of a standardized process. Diviners ascertain their interpretations of how they or a querent should proceed by reading signs, or events. There have been hundreds of types of divinatory methods used and recorded throughout history, but the most common forms today are of the sortilege type in which consists of the casting of lots. Popular types of divination include the I Ching, tarot or oracle cards, runes, and stones. Similar: Divination, Diviner.
E
Electroencephalogram (EEG) (Neuroscience)
An EEG machine, or electroencephalograph, in an experimental context, refers to the recording of the brain’s spontaneous electrical activity over a short period, as recorded from multiple electrodes positioned on the scalp; a device that measures brainwave activity.
Electrogastrogram (EGG) (Neuroscience)
A graphic produced by an electrogastrograph, which records the electrical signals that travel through the stomach muscles and control the muscles’ contractions.
Emotion (Social Science)
An episode of interrelated, synchronized changes in the states of all or most of the five organismic subsystems in response to the evaluation of an external or internal stimulus event as relevant to major concerns of the organism.
Empath (Para-Psychology)
A person with the psychic ability to apprehend the emotional state of other individuals in a way currently unexplained by conventional science; an individual that is highly psychically sensitive to the emotions of others; a person who is capable of psychically sensing the emotions of others; a person with frequent extrasensory empathic experiences. Similar: Empathy, Empathic, Empathetic, Intuitive Impressions.
Empathy (Para-Psychology)
The psychical influence of emotion via experient influence over the emotional basis of consciousness and the mental and physiological processes associated with a wide variety of emotional experiences.
Empathic Cognition (Para-Psychology)
The phenomenologically indirect knowledge of the collective emotional experience of a large group or population via Nature.
Empathic Interaction (Para-Psychology)
The direct causal influence of an emotional experience of another individual without the intervention of the five senses.
Empathic Interaction *Hypnogenic*(Para-Psychology)
A form of empathic interaction that is assumed involved in causing a mild hypnotic state in subjects, possibly involving impressed emotions related to relief, which results in the behaviors of relaxation or decompression, via an empathist’s command.
Empathic Simulation (Para-Psychology)
A case in which an individual’s emotional experience appears to directly produce a similar emotional experience in someone else without the intervention of the five senses.
Energy (Physics)
Typically understood as the ability that a system has to do work on other systems. A thermodynamic quantity equivalent to the capacity of a physical system to do work.
Entity (Para-Psychology)
A being of non-corporeal (non-physical) existence. A being with distinct and independent existence; a conscious being not of this world; the consciousness of a deceased person; an angel, demon, or other types of supernatural beings including seemingly omnipotent beings. Alternative: Ghosts, Apparition, Spirit.
Entity (Philosophy)
That which is perceived, known, or inferred to have its own distinct existence (living or nonliving). Similar: Object.
Eureka! Effect (Psychology)
The common human experience of suddenly understanding a previously incomprehensible problem or concept typically presumed as a result of subconscious intuition; a sudden unexpected discovery; a suddenly realized solution to a previously unconceivable problem; the effect of solving a problem by allowing the subconscious to work while the conscious mind lets go (e.g. during sleep); spontaneous inspiration. Similar: Aha! Factor, Intuition, Intuitive Impression.
Experient (Psychology)
A person undergoing an experience or that had an experience.
Extrasensory Experiences (Para-Psychology)
A single, episodic, or continuous experience of an extrasensory nature. Similar: Extrasensory Perception.
Extrasensory Perception (ESP) (Para-Psychology)
The reception of information not gained through the recognized physical senses, but sensed by the mind; the acquisition of information about, or response to, an external event, object, or influence (e.g. mental or physical; past, present, or future) otherwise than through any of the known sensory channels. Similar: Extrasensory Experiences.
F
Fortune Teller (Metaphysics)
A person who foretells the future by paranormal means. Similar: Psychic, Diviner, Clairvoyant, Precognitive.
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) (Neuroscience)
A functional neuroimaging procedure using MRI technology that measures brain activity by detecting associated changes in blood flow.
G
Gaussian Probability Distributions (Statistics)
Assumes that observations are closely clustered around a mean, and this amount is decaying quickly the farther away from the mean; a function that tells the probability that any real observation will fall between any two real limits or real numbers, as the curve approaches zero on either side. Also known as normal distribution.
Ghost (Para-Psychology)
The apparition of a deceased person, frequently similar in appearance to that person, and usually encountered in places he or she frequented, the place of his or her death, or in association with the person’s former belongings. Similar: Discarnate Entity, Apparition.
Ghost Whisperer (Popular Culture)
Refers to an individual that is capable of passing on and conveying messages from discarnate spirits to the living. Similar: Mental Mediumship, Trance Mediumship, Channeling.
Guardian Angel (Theology)
A spirit that is believed to watch over and protect a person or place; an angel assigned to protect and guide a particular person, group, kingdom, or country; serves to protect whichever person ‘God’ assigns them to, and present prayer to ‘God’ on that person’s behalf. Similar: Angel, Entity.
Gut Feeling or Gut Intuition (Psychology)
A personal, intuitive or instinctive feeling or response; sudden, strong judgments of which the origin cannot be immediately explained. Similar: Intuition, Intuitive Impression.
H
Hallucination (Para-Psychology)
An experience involving the apparent perception of someone or something not physically present, that is not indicative of psychopathology, and where veridical information is conveyed. In hallucinatory extrasensory experiences, information is conveyed in the form of a sensory hallucination. Hallucinations are typically reported as being abstract, fragmented, or somewhat vague, or comprehensible and weak, or vivid and substantial and are perceived in a conscious and awake state. Hallucinations can occur in any sensory modality including visual (sight), auditory (hearing), olfaction (smell), gustatory (taste), tactile (pressure/touch), equilibrioception (balance), thermoception (temperature), chronoception (time), etc. Hallucinations often involve living persons or the deceased.
Hallucination (Psychology)
An experience involving the apparent perception of something not present; sensing things while awake that appear to be real, but instead have been created by the mind; something (such as an image, a sound, or a smell) that seems real but does not really exist and that is usually caused by mental illness or the effect of a drug.
Hallucinations *Auditory* (Psychology)
The perception of sound without outside stimulus; hallucinations of hearing/sound. Involves verbal and non-verbal hallucinations perceived internally or externally either with or without an identifiable location of origin. Auditory hallucinations can be divided into two categories: elementary and complex. Elementary hallucinations are the perception of sounds such as hissing, whistling, an extended tone, and more. Complex hallucinations are those of voices, music, or other sounds that may or may not be clear, may be familiar or completely unfamiliar, and friendly or aggressive, among other possibilities. Similar: Audible Thoughts, Thought Insertion.
Hallucinations *Gustatory* (Psychology)
The perception of taste without a stimulus. May include a wide range of taste sensations classified as bitter, sour, sweet, ‘disgusting,’ etc., but can be classified in more specific terms (e.g. tobacco, garlic, salt, blood, etc.).
Hallucinations *Olfactory* (Psychology)
Smelling odors that are not really present. The most common odors are unpleasant smells, typically indicative of psychopathology or pathology, such as rotting flesh, vomit, urine, feces, smoke, or others. These hallucinations are typically extrinsic where the localization of the smell is outside of, or on, the body.
Hallucinations *Somatic* (Psychology)
Refers to hallucinations from inside the body only (e.g. heart, lungs, sensations within the limbs, stomach e.g. nausea). Also known as somatosensory hallucinations.
Hallucinations *Tactile* (Psychology)
Tactile hallucinations are the illusion of tactile sensory input, simulating various types of pressure to the skin or other organs. Tactile hallucinations are classified based on the type of sensation experience (e.g. painful sensations are classified as pain hallucinations; temperature sensations are classified as thermal/thermic hallucinations).
Hallucinations *Visual* (Psychology)
The perception of an external visual stimulus where none exists; hallucinations of sight. Involving a perceived complexity classified as simple or complex. If the entire environment is replaced by the visual hallucination, the hallucination is classified as scenic or panoramic hallucinations. Visual hallucinations in which are located beyond the visual field (e.g. in the back of the mind, third eye vision, etc.) are classified as extracampine hallucinations. Using the perceived shape of the hallucination, visual hallucinations can be classifies as formed, organized, or unformed (i.e. abstract).
Haruspex (Metaphysics)
In ancient times, a religious official who interpreted omens by inspecting the entrails of sacrificial animals. Similar: Diviner.
Haunting (Para-Psychology)
The occurrence of paranormal phenomena associated with a particular locality (especially a building) and usually attributed to the activities of a discarnate entity. The phenomena may include apparitions, poltergeist disturbances, cold drafts, sounds of steps and voices, and various odors. Similar: Discarnate Entity, Poltergeist.
Hippocampus (Neuroanatomy)
A curved elongated ridge that extends over the floor of the descending horn of each lateral ventricle of the brain, that consists of gray matter covered on the ventricular surface with white matter, and that is involved in forming, storing, and processing memory.
Holy Spirit (Theology)
The third person in the Christian trinity.In Christian theology, the Holy Spirit is believed to perform specific divine functions in the life of the Christian or the church. The Holy Spirit also acts as comforter, one who intercedes, or supports or acts as an advocate, particularly in times of trial.Similar: Holy Ghost, Nature.
Hypnagogic State (Psychology)
A transitional state of consciousness experienced just before falling asleep often characterized by vivid hallucinations. Alternatively used to refer to the similar state during the process of awaking. Similar: Hypnagogia, Hypnopomp.
Hypnopompic State (Psychology)
Of or relating to the state immediately preceding waking up; the state of consciousness leading out of sleep. Similar: Hypnopomp, Hypnagogia.
Hypnosis (Psychology)
A condition or state that resembles sleep but that is induced by suggestion; as state accompanied by narrowing of the range of attention; a temporary state of heightened relaxation and suggestibility during which some (not all) people are able to become so focused that they experience imaginary happenings as if they were real.
I
I Ching (Metaphysics)
One of the oldest of the Chinese classic texts. The book contains a divination system. In Western cultures and modern East Asia, it is still widely used for this purpose. Alternative: Classic of Changes; Book of Changes; Zhouyi. Similar: Divination.
Implicit Emotional Memories (Psychology)
Emotional memories referred to as “non-declarative” because an individual is unable to verbally “declare” these memories. Implicit memories are non-conscious and involve specific feelings/emotions (e.g. ones conditioned emotional response to a “frightening” situation), which is not something that one can consciously or verbally recall.
Information Teleportation *Quantum* (Para-Psychology)
Referring to the process of instantaneous information transmission across space-time involving two or more quantum entangled participants (e.g. telepathic information transmission from agent to sender).
Information Teleportation *Quantum* (Physics)
A process by which quantum information can be transmitted from one location to another via quantum entanglement between the sending and the receiving.
Insight (Psychology)
The capacity to gain an accurate and deep intuitive understanding of a person or thing; the understanding of a specific cause and effect in a specific context; an introspection; the power of acute observation and deduction, penetration, discernment, perception called intellection or noesis.
Intention (Philosophy)
An agent’s specific purpose in performing an action or series of actions; the thing that one plans to do or achieve; an aim or purpose.
Intention Healing (Para-Psychology)
Refers to clairvoyant simulative healing, or psychic healing, where the healer focuses on the intended result rather than the actual healing process or the ailment to be healed. This form of healing primarily refers to information-based healing(i.e. bio-logical/genetic information shifting, where the healer and Nature are the source of the healing process), but may involve bio-energy or energy influences external to the body. Similar: Clairvoyant Simulation Output, Wish Fulfillment, Prayer Healing, Faith Healing.
Intuition (Para-Psychology)
The capability of “paranormally’ coming to an idea directly, by means other than those of reasoning and intellect, and often outside of all conscious processes. Similar: Intuitive Impression, Intuitive, Empath. Empathic.
Intuition (Psychology)
The capability of coming to an idea directly, by means other than those of reasoning and intellect, and often outside of all conscious processes.
Intuition *Mothers* (Para-Psychology)
Suggestive of an empathic or telepathic connection between mother and child often seen in a spiritual context.
Intuitionism (Philosophy)
The doctrine that knowledge is acquired primarily by intuition.
Intuitive Impression (Para-Psychology)
Cover any extrasensory experience in which comprises of a general unreasoned impression or hunch. With intuitive experiences, there is no visual imagery, or auditory information in accompaniment, nor any conscious processes of linear coherent thought leading to the impression. The experient reports suddenly “just knowing” something, typically describing a vague impression, that upon subsequent investigation was supported to some extent. Alternative: Empathy, Intuitive Telepathy, Intuitive Clairvoyance.
K
Kundalini (Metaphysics)
An indwelling spiritual energy that can be awakened in order to purify the subtle system and ultimately to bestow the state of Yoga, or divine union upon the seeker of truth. It is reported that Kundalini awakening results in deep meditation, enlightenment, and bliss.
L
Levitation (Para-Physics)
The psychical influence of suspending an object against the force of gravity in a stable position void of solid, physical contact. Alternative: Psychokinesis.
Luck (Philosophy)
An unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that leads to a favorable outcome; An unknown and unpredictable phenomenon that causes an event to result one way rather than another; one’s overall circumstances or condition in life. Similar: Chance, Coincidence.
M
Magic (Metaphysics)
The power of influencing the course of events by using supernatural forces; an attempt to understand, experience, and influence the world using rituals, symbols, actions, gestures and language. Similar: Magick, Spell Casting, Wish Fulfillment, Prayer Fulfillment, Clairvoyant Simulation, Probability Shifting.
Medical Intuition (Para-Psychology)
An alternative medical practice where a practitioner claims to use their self-described intuitive abilities to find the cause of a physical or emotional condition. Similar: Clairvoyant, Clairvoyance, Medical Clairvoyant, Medical Psychic, Intuitive Counselor.
Meditation (Philosophy)
A practice in which an individual trains the mind or induces a mode of consciousness, either to realize some benefit or as an end in itself. The term itself is widely utilized, but it is typically utilized in a highly vague manner, whereby rendering its descriptive authority inadequate. However, in regards to meditative techniques in which result in certain alternative states of consciousness, some effects are measureable and repeatable. This suggests that despite certain historical attempts to categorize diverse meditation practices (e.g. involving the assumption that meditation is a mystical experience that transcends thought, language, reason, and normal perceptive processes) reliable neuroscientific examinations of meditation are possible. These examinations involve the effects of meditative practices on the brain and body, and typically involve identifying neuroelectric or neuroimaging correlates. Similar: Altered States of Consciousness.
Mediumship *Mental* (Para-Psychology)
The anomalous communication with immaterial entities most commonly referred to as discarnate spirits (i.e. ghosts) or spirit guides, which are believed to have a form of consciousness and element of personality, or the anomalous communication with Nature, which some believe to be an aggregate of consciousness, or “universal consciousness,” assumed “friendly,” but possessing a neutral personality (i.e. behaviors, temperament, emotions, etc.). Similar: Clairvoyance, Trance Mediumship, Channeling, Clairvoyant Interaction.
Mediumship *Physical* (Para-Psychology)
Refers to a medium with or without obvious psychical ability, which can be used as a source of “power” for spirit manifestations such as loud rapping and other noises, voices, materialized objects, materialized spirit bodies, or body parts such as hands, or the occurrence of levitation; the influence of the energies and energy systems of spirits.
Mediumship *Trance* (Para-Psychology)
A form of mediumship that has characteristics of mental mediumship, but with the medium sitting or lying down in a deep meditative state. During these sessions, the medium may speak as though the information is being conveyed to the medium, but rather, the information is coming directly from the entity, but being conveyed through the mediums natural voice and behaviors. During a session of this type, the mediums consciousness is believed to be “set aside” within their physical body as a means to allow an entity’s consciousness to enter the mediums physical body. This form of mediumship, verses mental mediumship, appears to allow a means of more comprehensible communication between sitters and the entity called. Similar: Automatism, Mediumship, Clairvoyant Interaction.
Mental Compulsion (Psychology)
An uncontrollable impulse to perform an act, often repetitively, as an unconscious mechanism to avoid unacceptable ideas and desires which, by themselves, arouse anxiety. Similar: Mental Suggestion, Telepathic Interaction.
Mental Suggestion (Psychology)
The psychological process by which one person guides the thoughts, feelings, or behavior of another; the process by which a physical or mental state is influenced by a thought or idea; the act of inducing hypnosis. Similar: Mental Compulsion, Mind Influence, Telepathic Interaction.
Meta-analysis (Statistics)
Refers to statistical methods for contrasting and combining results from different studies, in the hope of identifying patterns among study results, sources of disagreement among those results, or other interesting relationships that may come to light in the context of multiple studies.
Memory (Neuroscience)
The power or process of reproducing or recalling what has been learned and retained especially through associative mechanisms; the store of things learned and retained from an organism’s activity or experience as evidenced by modification of structure or behavior or by recall and recognition; the process in which information is encoded, stored, and retrieved; a diverse set of cognitive capacities by which we retain information and reconstruct past experiences, usually for present purposes.
Mind Control (Psychology)
A theoretical indoctrination process which results in “an impairment of autonomy, an inability to think independently, and a disruption of beliefs and affiliations. The term has been applied to any tactic, psychological or otherwise, which can be seen as subverting an individual’s sense of control over his or her own thinking, behavior, emotions, or decision-making. Similar: Brainwashing, Coercive Persuasion, Thought Control, or Thought Reform, Thought Insertion, Telepathic Interaction, Clairvoyant Interaction.
Mind/Mental Rape (Psychology)
A fairly common description of some symptoms of schizophrenia typically in relation to thought insertion. Similar: Thought Insertion, Thought Withdrawal, Thought Broadcasting.
Mind Reading (Para-Psychology)
A common way of describing telepathic cognitive experiences; the faculty of discerning another’s thoughts through extrasensory means of communication.Similar: Telepathy, Telepathic Cognition, Telepathic Simulation.
Mind Reading (Psychology)
The ability to know another person’s thoughts without being told what they are typically through a set of techniques used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, mediums and illusionists to determine or express details about another person, often to imply that the reader knows much more about the person than the reader actually does. Similar: Cold Reading, Mentalism.
Multidimensional Classification (Psychology)
Of or involving several dimensions or scales utilized in the process of classification (i.e. the act of distributing things into classes or categories of the same type); the approach to classification that quantifies an individual’s symptoms or other characteristics of interest and represents them with numerical values on one or more scales or continuums, rather than assigning them to a category.
Mystical Experiences (Psychology)
In relation to experiences aimed at human transformation, variously defined in different traditions; a religious or spiritual experience based on mystical communion with an ultimate reality. Similar: Religious Experience, Spiritual Experience, Transpersonal Experience, Exceptional Experience.
N
Nature (Philosophy)
The universe or reality as a whole including all phenomena of the physical world, both understood and not yet understood, ranging in scale from the subatomic to the cosmic, and the classical to the quantum; an objective environment, which is capable of storing, retaining, and recalling information pertaining to the past and current states of objects and events, and probabilistically determining the potential trajectory of future events; the universe as an intelligent, loving, and nurturing entity. Similar: Universal Consciousness, Divine, God, Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost.
New Agers (Popular Culture)
An eclectic group of cultural attitudes arising in late 20th century Western society that are adapted from those of a variety of ancient and modern cultures, that emphasize beliefs (as reincarnation, holism, pantheism, and occultism) outside the mainstream, and that advance alternative approaches to spirituality, right living, and health.
Non-Hallucinatory Sensations (Psychology)
Refers to sensations that are purely intuitive or emotional. Similar: Intuitive Impressions, Empathy, Emotions, Feelings.
O
Obsession (Theology)
Refers to when a single entity, such as a discarnate spirit or “evil” presence, that attempts to interact with a living individual on a regular basis either in proximity to the living individual or in proximity to the living individual’s home (i.e. recurring often over the course of weeks, months, or years). Here the physical manifestations are perceptible to other individuals. In other words, the experient is haunted by an entity. Similar: Mediumship, Physical Mediumship, Telekinesis, Psychokinesis, Haunting, Poltergeist.
Occipital Lobe (Neuroscience)
One of the four major lobes of the cerebral cortex in the brain of mammals; the visual processing center of the mammalian brain containing most of the anatomical region of the visual cortex.
Oracle (Metaphysics)
An authoritative person in ancient times who divine the future;a person or agency considered to interface wise counsel or prophetic predictions or precognition of the future, inspired by the gods. Similar: Divination, Clairvoyant, Clairvoyance, Precognition, Precognitive, Fortune Teller.
Oracle Cards(Philosophy)
Similar to tarot cards, but are used for divinatory purposes in relation to one’s life path. Typically not utilized for mundane matters such as love and money. Similar: Tarot Cards, Divination.
Out-of-Body Experiences (OBEs) (Para-Psychology)
An experience, either spontaneous or induced, in which one’s center of consciousness seems to be in a spatial location outside of one’s physical body; in which a person appears to themselves to possess a duplicate body, sometimes connected to the physical body by a “silver cord;” in which one feels themselves to be entirely bodiless. Similar: Astral Projection, Remote Viewing.
P
Palm Reading (Metaphysics)
The supposed ability to predict someone’s future by interpreting the lines on the palms of their hands; the claim of characterization and foretelling the future through the study of the palm. Similar: Fortune Telling, Divination.
Parapsychological Association (Organization)
The Parapsychological Association is an international professional organization of scientists and scholars engaged in the study of psi (or ‘psychic’) experiences, such as telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis, psychic healing, and precognition. The primary objective of the PA is to achieve a scientific understanding of these experiences. First established in 1957, the PA has been an affiliated organization of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) since 1969. The PA is a non-profit, non-adjudicating organization that endorses no ideologies or beliefs other than the value of rigorous scientific and scholarly inquiry. (www.parapsych.org).
Parapsychology Foundation (Organization)
The Parapsychology Foundation is a not-for-profit foundation which provides a worldwide forum supporting the scientific investigation of psychic phenomena. The Foundation gives grants, publishes pamphlets, monographs, conference proceedings and the International Journal of Parapsychology, hosts the Perspectives Lecture Series, conducts the Outreach Program, maintains the Eileen J. Garrett Library with its collection of more than 12,000 volumes and 100 periodicals on parapsychology and related topics, and is proud of its quality paperback imprint, Helix Press. (www.parapsychology.org).
Parietal Lobe (Neuroscience)
That part of the cerebral cortex in either hemisphere of the brain lying below the crown of the head; integrates sensory information among various modalities, including spatial sense and navigation, the main sensory receptive area for the sense of touch in the somatosensory cortex which is just posterior to the central sulcus in the postcentral gyrus, and the dorsal stream of the visual system. The major sensory inputs from the skin (i.e. touch, temperature, and pain receptors) relay through the thalamus to parietal lobe.
Participant (Para-Psychology)
An individual who shares information using telepathic or tele-empathic processes; who shares or who has a sharing-like telepathic or tele-empathic experience; who may or may not initiate experiences involving telepathic or tele-empathic information. Relates to: Telepathic Simulation, Empathic Simulation.
Perception (Psychology)
The organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the environment; a basic component in the formation of a concept.
Percipient (Para-Psychology)
An individual, who initiates and receives information using telepathic, clairvoyant, or empathic processes; who perceives or who has a perception-like telepathic, clairvoyant, or empathic experience; who initiates experiences involving telepathic, clairvoyant, or empathic information. Relates to: Telepathic Cognition, Clairvoyant Cognition, Empathic Cognition.
Photic Stimulation (Medical Science)
Intermittent Photic Stimulation, or IPS, is a form of visual stimulation used in conjunction with electroencephalography to investigate anomalous brain activity triggered by specific visual stimuli, such as flashing lights or patterns.
Physical Object (Physics)
A collection of masses or smaller physical bodies; a whole or single “thing.”
Poltergeist (Para-Psychology)
A disturbance characterized by bizarre physical effects of paranormal origin, other than psychokinesis, suggesting mischievous or destructive intent (e.g. unexplained movement or breakage of objects, loud raps, the lighting of fires, and occasionally personal injury to people); spirit phenomena often depending upon the presence of a particular living individual, called the “focus,” frequently an adolescent or child, and apparitions are rarely seen; denotes a demonic spirit or malevolent ghost that manifests itself by moving and influencing objects and may or may not have demonic assistance. Similar: Obsession, Haunting, Ghost, Entity.
Possession (Theology)
The spirit possession of an individual by a malevolent preternatural being, commonly known as a demon. Descriptions of demonic possessions often include erased memories or personalities, convulsions, “fits” and fainting as if one were dying. Other descriptions include access to hidden knowledge (i.e. gnosis) and foreign languages (i.e. xenoglossia), drastic changes in vocal intonation and facial structure, the sudden appearance of injuries (e.g. scratches, bite marks) or lesions, and superhuman strength. Unlike in channeling, the subject has no control over the possessing entity and so it will persist until forced to leave the victim, usually through a form of exorcism.
Postcognition (Para-Psychology)
The purported paranormal transfer of information about an event or object in the past; the psychical influence of an objective environment assumed capable of storing, retaining, and recalling information pertaining to the past states of objects, and events, possibly achievable through the act of an experient requesting and receiving information pertaining to past events via Natures “long-term memory” or “long-term information storage.” Alternative: Retrocognition. Opposite: Precognition.
Prayer (Theology)
An invocation or act that seeks to activate a rapport with a deity, an object of worship, or a spiritual entity through deliberate communication. Prayer can be a form of religious practice, may be either individual or communal, and take place in public or in private. It may involve the use of words or song. When language is used, prayer may take the form of a hymn, incantation, formal creed, or a spontaneous utterance in the praying person.
Prayer Fulfillment (Theology)
Refers to when a prayer is answered. Similar: Wish Fulfillment, Magic, Miracle, Accommodating Effect (CS).
Prayer Healing (Theology)
Healing through prayer; healing effects initiated by prayer. Similar: Faith Healing, Psychic Healing, Laying on of Hands, Clairvoyant Simulation (Healing), Accommodating Effect (CS), Magic, Miracle.
Precognition (Para-Psychology)
Literally means, “before or prior to knowing,” and is defined as a form of extrasensory perception wherein a person is said to perceive information about places or events through paranormal means before they happen; the psychical influence of an objective assumed capable of probabilistically determining the potential trajectory of future events; the extrasensory perception of information pertaining to probability (i.e. the future states of individuals, objects, and events).Similar: Presentiment, Premonition, Prediction. Opposite: Postcognition, Retrocognition.
Precognitive Telepathy (Para-Psychology)
A classification that typically refers to clairvoyant cognitive processes rather than telepathic; the phenomenologically indirect knowledge of another person’s future thoughts or mental states without the intervention of the five senses; the transfer of information, through Psi, about the future of an individual’s mind to another individual.Similar: Clairvoyance, Clairvoyant Cognition, Precognition.
Premonition (Para-Psychology)
Refers tooccurrences when an experient of precognition receives information pertaining to future events that are perceived as only emotions (i.e. intuitive impressions); the paranormal acquisition of information concerning the future mental state of another conscious being; A feeling or impression that something is about to occur, often threatening or grim, but no additional information is available (e.g. visual or auditory hallucinations).Alternative: Presentiment.
Presentation *Experiential* (Psychology)
Refers to the typical characteristics (e.g. evoking negative or positive emotions) associated with a particular type of experience, where the proper interpretation of the experiential presentation often leads to specific categorization.
Presentation *Clinical* (Medical Science)
Refers to the typical signs or symptoms that are associated with a particular disease process (e.g. flat affect in schizophrenia). The proper interpretation of the clinical presentation often leads to a specific diagnosis; the constellation of physical signs or symptoms associated with a particular morbid process.
Presentiment (Para-Psychology)
Refers to occurrences when an experient of precognition receives information pertaining to future events that are perceived as only emotions (i.e. intuitive impressions); an intuitive feeling about the future. Alternative: Premonition.
Pre-stimulus (Medical Science)
Also known as a “presponse,” refers to physiological activity before a stimulus. Similar: Presentiment.
Principle of Causality (Philosophy)
States that a cause must precede its effect. In other words, the cause and its effect are separated by a time-like interval and the effect belongs to the future of its cause. This principle therefore states that it is physically impossible for and effect (future) to occur before its cause (present). Therefore, it is physically impossible for information to travel from the future back in time to the present. Alternative: Causality; Arrow of Time, Indeterminism.
Probability (Statistics)
The extent to which something is probable; the likelihood of something happening or being the case; a probable or the most probable event; the measure of the likeliness that an event will occur. Similar: Chance, Luck.
Probability Shifting (Para-Psychology)
The psychical influence on Nature’s stored probabilistic information (i.e. altering the probabilistic information pertaining to an object or event). Probabilistic information that can be shifted can include historical (also known as retro-PK), real-time, or future probabilities. In regard to all of these types of influence, quantum information is neither created, copied, hidden, nor destroyed, but rather appears to be negotiated (e.g. an accommodating existing future potential is selected rather than various existing non-accommodating potentials). Similar: Clairvoyant Simulation Output, Psychokinesis, Retro-Psychokinesis, Retro-PK, Historical Shifting.
Prophet (Theology)
An authoritative person who divines the future; someone who speaks by divine inspiration; someone who is an interpreter of the will of God. Similar: Prophesier, Fortune Teller, Diviner, Divination, Clairvoyant, Precognition.
Psi (Para-Psychology)
An all-encompassing term for extrasensory perception and psychokinesis combined. The term “Psi-Gamma” is typically used to refer to ESP, and “Psi-Kappa” is the term typically used for PK.
Psi-Conducive (Para-Psychology)
Advantageous to the occurrence of psi. Tending to bring about or facilitate psi; being partly responsible for psi processes.
Psipathy (Para-Psychology)
Refers to psi related ability including telepathy and/or psychic empathy; refers to telepathic or clairvoyant cognitive experiences where only visual information is received. Similar: Telepathy, Empathy, Clairvoyant Cognition, Telepathic Cognition, Psipathic.
Psychic Communication (Para-Psychology)
Communication by paranormal means. Similar: Anomalous Communication, Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Mediumship, Empathy.
Psychic Healing (Para-Psychology)
Is the treatment of mental and/or physical illnesses by spiritual means such as crystals, bioenergy work, faith, or prayer; healing by paranormal means. Similar: Clairvoyant Simulation Output (Healing), Psychokinesis, Bio-Psychokinesis, Bio-PK, Psychic Energy Healing, Direct Mental Influence of Living Systems (DMILS), Prayer Healing, Faith Healing, Intention Healing.
Psychic Knowledge (Para-Psychology)
The gaining of knowledge by paranormal means. Alternative: Telepathic Cognition/Simulation, Clairvoyant Cognition/Simulation.
Psychokinesis (PK) (Para-Physics)
Is defined as the direct influence of mind on a physical system that cannot be entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known physical energy. PK includes any direct mind over matter interaction or mental influence upon the structure of a physical system; an umbrella term for all paranormally-based kinetic phenomena.
Psychosis (Medical Science)
A severe mental disorder in which thought and emotions are so impaired that contact is lost with external reality; refers to an abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a “loss of contact with reality.” People experiencing psychosis may exhibit some personality changes and thought disorder. Depending on its severity, this may be accompanied by unusual or bizarre behavior, as well as difficulty with social interaction and impairment in carrying out daily life activities. Similar: Psychotic, Psychotic Disorder, Psychopathy, Hallucinations, Delusions.
Psychometry (Para-Psychology)
Is assumed a form of retrocognition, and is defined as the psychical ability to make relevant associations from an object of unknown history by making physical contact with that object. Similar: Clairvoyance, Clairvoyant Cognition.
Psychopathology (Medical Science)
The scientific study of mental disorders, including efforts to understand their genetic, biological, psychological, and social causes; the study of psychological and behavioral dysfunction occurring in mental disorder or in social disorganization.
Psychopompic Activity (Para-Psychology)
Typically refers to an experient of mediumship in which is capable of assisting spirits, which have or have not crossed-over, resolve unfinished issues with the living, and where the experient can also assist spirits that have not crossed-over on their journey to the afterlife; a mediumship ability to assist discarnate spirits, that have not crossed-over to the afterlife, to the afterlife. Similar: Medium, Mediumship.
R
Realistic Dreams (Para-Psychology)
Dreams that are not necessarily completely literal in context, but information does not include the quality of being conveyed in a disguised form. Opposite: Unrealistic Dreams.
Remote Viewing (Para-Psychology)
The practice of seeking extrasensory impressions (typically visual content) about a distant, spatially or temporally, or unseen target using subjective means. Typically refers to a contemporaneous temporal facet in which appears to involve the perception of information about places or events through paranormal means during the time at which they are occurring. In regard to contemporaneous clairvoyance — the psychical influence of an objective environment, which I assume is involved in the interim integration, processing, shifting, and retrieval of information pertaining to remote objects and events in real-time. Related: Clairvoyant Cognition (Visual), Telepathy (Visual), Contemporaneous ESP (Visual). Related: Remote Sensing.
Retrocognition (Para-Psychology)
The purported paranormal transfer of information about an event or object in the past. The psychical influence of an objective environment assumed capable of storing, retaining, and recalling information pertaining to the past states of objects, and events. Presumed achievable through the act of an experient requesting and receiving information pertaining to past events via Natures “long-term memory” or “long-term information storage;” the extrasensory transfer of information about an individual, object, or event in the past; the extrasensory reception of information pertaining to the past states of individuals, objects, and events. Alternative: Postcognition. Opposite: Precognition.
Runes (Philosophy)
Any character from an ancient Germanic alphabet used in Scandinavia from the 3rd century to the Middle Ages. Also utilized today as a form of divination.
S
Second Sight (Para-Psychology)
A form of extrasensory perception, the supposed power to perceive things that are not present to the senses, whereby a person perceives information e.g. in the form of a vision, about future events before they happen, or about things or events at remote locations. Similar: Telepathic Cognition (Visual), Clairvoyant Cognition (Visual), Clairvoyant Simulation Input (Visual), Remote Viewing, Mediumship.
Seer (Metaphysics)
A person with unusual powers of foresight; an authoritative person who divines the future. Similar: Diviner, Fortune Teller.
Sensitive (Para-Psychology)
Typically refers to a person who is highly sensitive to the paranormal and paranormal events.
Sensation (Medical Science)
A stage of processing of the senses in human and animal systems, such as vision, auditory, vestibular, and pain senses. The faculty through which the external world is apprehended.
Serendipity (Philosophy)
Good luck in making unexpected and fortunate discoveries; the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way. Similar: Luck, Chance, Coincidence.
Shaman (Philosophy)
A practitioner reaching altered states of consciousness in order to encounter and interact with the spirit world; a person regarded as having access to, and influence in, the world of benevolent and malevolent spirits, who typically enters into a trance state during a ritual, and practices divination and healing. Similar: Shamanic.
Sibyl (Metaphysics)
In ancient times, a woman who was regarded as an oracle or prophet. Similar: Diviner, Oracle, Prophet.
Sitter (Para-Psychology)
Refers to any living individual of whom attends a séance or mediumship session that is not the medium. A living individual who sits with a medium at a sitting or séance and who receives information through the medium (i.e. an individual who seeks to sit down with a medium in hopes that the medium can convey information to and/or from a particular discarnate spirit).
Skin Conductance Resistance (Medical Science)
A method of measuring the electrical conductance of the skin, which varies with its moisture level. This is of interest because the sweat glands are controlled by the sympathetic nervous system so skin conductance is used as an indication of psychological or physiological arousal. There has been a long history of electrodermal activity research, most of it dealing with spontaneous fluctuations or reactions to stimuli. Alternative: Skin conductance, also known as galvanic skin response (GSR), electrodermal response (EDR), psychogalvanic reflex (PGR), skin conductance response (SCR) or skin conductance level (SCL).
Soothsayer (Metaphysics)
Someone who makes predictions of the future usually on the basis of special knowledge. Similar: Oracle, Fortune Teller, Haruspex, Diviner.
Spell Casting (Metaphysics)
A set of words, spoken or unspoken, that is considered by its user to invoke some magical effect and of which may also involve symbols, patterns, recipes, or rituals that are considered by the user as fundamental or supplementary to a magical effect. Similar: Prayer, Invocation, Magic, Clairvoyant Simulation Output.
Spirit (Metaphysics)
The nonphysical part of a person that is the seat of emotions and character; the soul; the force within a person that is believed to give the body life, energy, and power; the inner quality or nature of a person; That which survives bodily death; consciousness. Similar: Soul, Consciousness, Ghost, Entity.
Spirit Guide (Metaphysics)
A term typically used by mediums and psychics to describe an entity that remains a discarnate spirit in order to act as a spiritual counselor or protector to one or more living incarnated human beings; refers to an “angelic” being (i.e. of an angelic race) that watches over an individual and protects them, but is not believed to have ever lived and died as a human being. Similar: Guardian Angel, Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, Nature, Discarnate Spirit.
Spiritualism (Theology)
A system of belief or religious practice based on supposed communication with the spirits of the dead, especially through mediums; a belief that spirits of the dead have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living. Similar: Spiritualist.
Spontaneous Experiences (Psychology)
Refers to experiences in which are non-consciously controlled and initiated by ones subconscious; occurring as a result of a sudden inner impulse or inclination and without premeditation or external stimulus; occurring without apparent external cause.
Subject (Science)
A person or animal that is the object of medical or scientific study; a person likely or prone to be affected by a particular condition or occurrence. Opposite: Experimenter, Agent.
Subject (Para-Psychology)
An individual, who is influenced into sending or receiving telepathic or tele-empathic information; who telepathic or tele-empathic information is retrieved from, or telepathic or tele-empathic information is impressed upon telepathically or tele-empathically; who is the non-initiator of experiences involving telepathic or tele-empathic information. Opposite: Agent.
Synchronicity (Philosophy)
Refers to synchronistic events; meaningful coincidences of two apparently (in terms of cause and effect) non-related events. Similar: Chance, Coincidence, Clairvoyant Simulation Output, Wish Fulfillment, Prayer Fulfillment.
T
Target (Para-Psychology)
In an extrasensory perception test, the person, object, or event that a subject attempts to identify through information extrasensorially acquired, simulated, impressed, etc. In a psychokinesis test, the physical system, or a prescribed outcome (e/.g shifted probability), that the subject attempts to influence or produce.
Tarot Cards (Metaphysics)
Any of a set of (usually 72) cards that include 22 cards representing virtues and vices and death and fortune etc.; used for divinatory purposes of typically mundane earthly matters such as love and money. Similar: Oracle Cards.
Telepathy (Para-Psychology)
The psychical influence of thought via experient influence over the biological basis of consciousness and the mental process by which we perceive, act, learn, and remember. Similar: Telepathic Cognition, Telepathic Interaction, Telepathic Simulation.
Telepathy *Dream* (Para-Psychology)
Refers to a dream involving a telepathic experience.
Telepathy *Telephone* (Para-Psychology)
Refers to a type of telepathy involving an individual determining who was calling another after the call was made, but before the caller spoke.
Telepathy *Twin* (Para-Psychology)
Refers to telepathic experience occurring between identical or fraternal twins.
Telepathic Cognition (Para-Psychology)
The phenomenologically direct knowledge of another person’s thoughts or mental states without the intervention of the five senses.
Telepathic Interaction (Para-Psychology)
The causal influence of one mind on another without the intervention of the five senses.
Telepathic Simulation (Para-Psychology)
A case in which an individual’s mental state appears to produce a similar mental state in someone else without the intervention of the five senses.
Temporal Lobe (Neuroscience)
Each of the paired lobes of the brain lying beneath the temples, including areas concerned with the understanding of speech. *Temporal Lobe Dysfunction* refers to damage of the temporal lobe. Individuals who suffer from medial temporal lobe damage have a difficult time recalling visual stimuli. This neurotransmission deficit is due to, not lacking perception of visual stimuli but to, lacking perception of interpretation.The most common symptom of inferior temporal lobe damage is visual agnosia, which involves impairment in the identification of familiar objects. Damage specifically to the anterior portion of the left temporal lobe can cause savant syndrome (i.e. a condition in which a person with a mental disability, such as an autism spectrum disorder, demonstrates profound and prodigious capacities or abilities far in excess of what would be considered normal).
Thought Broadcasting (Medical Science)
A delusional belief that others can hear or are aware of an individual’s thoughts. It is one of Schneider’s First Rank symptoms of schizophrenia. This differs from telepathy in that the thoughts being broadcast are thought to be available to anybody (i.e. strangers), not just those who one has a strong emotional connection.
Thought Insertion (Medical Science)
The feeling that one’s thoughts are not their own; the person experiencing the thought insertion will not necessarily know where the thought is coming from. It is one of Schneider’s First Rank symptoms of schizophrenia. This differs from telepathic interaction in that in cases of TI the “attacker” is identifiable; there is one attacker and one or more victims; the victim and the attacker have or have had a social/romantic emotional connection; the attacker is trying to direct the victim to think, feel, or act a certain way that is beneficial to the attacker.
Thought Transmission (Para-Psychology)
Refers to the telepathic process of one individual sending and one individual receiving information telepathically. Similar: Thought Transference, Thought Reception.
Thought Withdrawal (Medical Science)
The delusional belief that thoughts have been ‘taken out’ of the patient’s mind, and the patient has no power over this. It often accompanies thought blocking (i.e. a phenomenon that occurs in people with psychiatric illnesses (usually schizophrenia), occurs when a person’s speech is suddenly interrupted by silences that may last a few seconds to a minute or longer). The patient may experience a break in the flow of their thoughts, believing that the missing thoughts have been withdrawn from their mind by some outside agency. . It is one of Schneider’s First Rank symptoms of schizophrenia. This differs from telepathy in that “mind reading,” or telepathic cognition, involves “knowing” what one is thinking rather than “stealing their thoughts.”
Trance (Para-Psychology)
A state of dissociation in which the individual is unaware of their condition and surroundings, and in which various forms of automatism (e.g. automatic writing) may be expressed; typically demonstrated under hypnotic, or mediumistic conditions.
Trance (Psychology)
Denotes a variety of processes, ecstasy, techniques, modalities, and states of mind, awareness, and consciousness. May be associated with hypnosis, meditation, magic, flow, and prayer. In addition, may related to the generic term altered states of consciousness.
U
Unrealistic Dreams (Para-Psychology)
Are dreams defined similar to realistic dream experiences, but here the imagery is more dramatized by fantasy. Important elements within the spectrum may appear realistic, but the scene or scenarios surrounding the elements appear disguised, as in symbolic form. Opposite: Realistic Dreams.
V
Validation (Para-Psychology)
Refers to when an extrasensory experience has been validated by an individual other than the experient (e.g. the subject(s) confirmed the accuracy of the information received by the experient), and/or a clinician determines the experience was more than a coincidence/chance occurrence based on the quality of the information received and reported, and all other possible explanations for obtaining the information is excluded.
Visions (Para-Psychology)
An experience of seeing someone or something in a dream or trance, or as a supernatural apparition. Similar: Clairvoyant (Visual), Medium (Visual), Visionary.
W
Wicca (Theology)
The religious cult of modern witchcraft, especially an initiatory tradition founded in England in the mid-20th century and claiming its origins in pre-Christian pagan religions. Wicca is a diverse religion with no central authority or figure defining it. It is divided into various lineages and denominations, referred to as traditions, each with its own organizational structure and level of centralization. Similar: Wiccan Practitioner.
Wish Fulfillment (Philosophy)
The satisfying of unconscious desires in dreams or fantasies. Similar: Prayer Fulfillment, Clairvoyant Simulation Output, Synchronicity.
X
Xenoglossy (Para-Psychology)
When an entity impresses its own personality or skills onto an experient of which the experient himself/herself does not actually possess (e.g. communicates in a language or vocabulary unknown to the experient). In cases involving Xenoglossy and the spirit of a discarnate entity, the personality or skills of the spirit, from when he/she was alive, are impressed onto the medium for the duration of the session. Similar: Trance Mediumship, Channeling, Clairvoyant Interaction.
Y
Z
Citation: Kelly, T.M. (2014). Classification & Statistical Manual of Extrasensory Experiences. Copyright © 2014 Theresa M. Kelly, MsD. Interested professionals are welcome to download a complimentary copy of the CSM-EE. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.