Glossary of Paranormal Terms
Abductee: Person who claims to have been abducted by an extraterrestrial.
Achluophobia: Fear of darkness.
Aeromancy: The art of predicting the future by observing atmospheric events such as wind and cloud formations. AKA Austromancy.
Agateophobia: Fear of insanity.
Alchemey: An ancient pseudo-science involving the study of transmutating metals, in particular, turning base metals into gold. Alchemy is also symbolic of human transformation into higher states of existence.
Alien: An extraterrestrial being, i.e. from some location other than the earth.
Angel:
1. Spiritual being superior to man in power and intelligence.
2. An attendant spirit or guardian.
3. A white-robed winged figure of human form.
Animal PSI: The apparent ability of animals to exhibit psychic powers such as clairvoyance, telepathy and even psychokinesis.
Apparition: A supernatural manifestation of a person (dead or living), animals or objects. Ghosts are apparitions of dead people.
Apport: An object or living being that materialises from thin air in the presence of a medium.
Archangel: Elder or higher-ranking angels who are said to guide the spiritual lives of populations of people, rather than individuals who are tended to by angels.
Astral
1. Of, relating to, or coming from the stars,
2. Of or consisting of a supersensible substance held in theosophy to be next above the tangible world in refinement.
Athazagoraphobia: Fear of being forgotton or ignored or forgetting.
Automatonophobia: Fear of ventriloquist's dummies, animatronic creatures, wax statues - anything that falsly represents a sentient being.
Bewitch:
1. To influence or affect especially injuriously by witchcraft; to cast a spell over.
2. To attract as if by the power of witchcraft: ENCHANT.
Bogyphobia: Fear of bogeys or the bogeyman.
Clairaudience: The power or faculty of hearing something not present to the ear but regarded as having objective reality.
Clairvoyance:
1. The power or faculty of discerning objects not present to the senses.
2. Ability to perceive matters beyond the range or ordinary perception.
Conjure: To summon a devil or spirit by invocation or incantation; to practice magical arts.
Conjurer:
1. One that practices magic arts: WIZARD,
2. One that performs feats of sleight of hand and illusion.
Cross-quarter days: Sabbats falling between the Solstices and Equinoxes: Samhain, Imbolc, Beltane, and Lughnassadh.
Coven: An organized group of Wiccans, sometimes restricted to 13 members.
Deje Vu: An unexpected sense of familiarity to what is believed to be a new experience, place, person, or object.
Demon (Daemon):
1. An evil spirit; a source or agent of evil, harm, distress or ruin
2. An attendant power or spirit 3: a supernatural being of Greek mythology intermediate between gods and men.
Demoniac:
1. Possessed of influenced by a demon.
2. Of, relating to, or suggestive of a demon: fiendish.
Demonic
Demoniac
Demonology
1. The study of demons or evil spirits
2. Belief in demons.
Elements: Wiccan. Air, Water, Earth, Fire and Spirit. A Wiccan’s world is viewed of in terms of four physical elements - earth, water, air and fire (which roughly correspond to the four scientific forms of matter: solid, liquid, gas and plasma) - plus spirit. Together, these elements form a united whole, as is symbolized in the pentagram. All are necessary and should be in balance.
Elementals: A supernatural entity or force thought to be physically manifested by occult means.
Elf:
1. A small often mischievous fairy.
2. A small lively creature; also, a usually lively mischievous or malicious person.
Enchant:
1. To influence by or as if by charms and incantation: BEWITCH.
2. To attract and move deeply rouse to ecstatic admiration.
Enchantment:
1. the act or art of enchanting; the quality or state of being enchanted.
2. 2. something that enchants.
Equinox:
1. Around March 22 and September 22, when day and night are equal in length. Held as the sabbats of Ostara and Mabon.
Esbat: A celebration that takes place during the full moon each month.
ESP
Extrasensory Perception
1. Perception (as in telepathy, clairvoyance, and precognition) that involves awareness of information about events external to the self not gained through the senses and not deducible from previous experience. Also called ESP.
Fairy: A mythical being of folklore and romance usually having diminutive human
form and magic powers.
Ghost (noun):
1. The seat of life or intelligence; soul.
2. A disembodied soul; the soul of a dead person believed to be an inhabitant of the unseen world or to appear to the living in bodily likeness.
3. A spirit or demon.
4. A faint shadowy trace; the least bit.
5. false image in a photographic negative or on a television screen caused by reflection.
6. One who ghostwrites,
7. A red blood cell that has lost its hemoglobin.
Ghost (verb):
1. To haunt like a ghost,
2. To move silently; to sail quietly in light winds.
Hag:
1. An ugly, slatternly, or evil-looking old woman.
2. Archaic; a female demon; an evil or frightening spirit; hobgoblin.
3. WITCH.
Haunt:
1. To visit or inhabit as a ghost.
2. To stay around 3: to appear habitually as a ghost.
3. A place habitually frequented by ghosts.
Hemophobia
Hemaphobia
Hematophobia
Fear of blood.
Hereditary Witch: Someone who has passed the skills of witchcraft down through his or her family.
Hobgoblin: A mischievous goblin.
Incubus: A demon or goblin which appears as a male mortal seeking to seduce women, usually while they sleep. A feeling that a familiar place or situation has never been experienced before.
Jamais Vu: A feeling that a familiar place or situation has never been experienced before.
Kirlian Photography: Named after Seymon Kirlian, a controversial technique to photograph a person's aura or biofield.
Levitation: The raising of a body into the air without physical aid.
Ley Lines: Patterns and alignments of invisible energy said to connect various sacred locations, e.g. churches, stone circles, burial grounds, etc.
Lucifer: The name of Satan before his fall from Heaven.
Lycanthropy: In folklore, the ability of a person to change into animal form. In psychiatry, the delusion of having been transformed into an animal.
Magic:
1. The use of means (as charms or spells) believed to have supernatural power over natural forces; magic rites or incantations.
2. An extraordinary power or influence seemingly from a supernatural source; something that seems to cast a spell: ENCHANTMENT .
3. The art of producing illusions by sleight of hand.
Medium: An individual held to be a channel of communication between the earthly world and the world of spirits.
Necromancy:
1. Conjuration of the spirits of the dead for purposes of magically revealing the future or influencing the course of events.
2. MAGIC, SORCERY.
Necrophobia: Fear of death or dead things.
Neo-Pagan: Another name for pagan.
Nyctophobia: Fear of the dark or of night.
Orb: A type of anomaly that appears in photographs, especially digital flash photography, in which mysterious objects appear floating in the air.
Out-of-Body: Relating to or involving a feeling of separation from one's body and of being able to view oneself and others from an external perspective.
Pagan: Middle English, from Late Latin paganus, from Latin, country dweller, from pagus country district; akin to Latin pangere to fix; follower of an Earth Religion. All Wiccans are Pagans.
Paganism: Any polytheistic religion or any non-Judeo-Christian religion. However, both of these definitions include such people as Hindus and Amerindians, neither of which associate their religious practices with Paganism.
Paranormal: Not scientifically explainable. Supernatural.
Parapsychology: A field of study concerned with the investigation of evidence for paranormal psychological phenomena.
Paraskavedekatriaphobia: Fear of Friday the 13th.
Pediophobia: Fear of dolls.
Pentagram: A symbol of protection and invocation. Always depicted point-up. Symbolizes the union of the five basic elements.
Phenomenon:
1. An observable fact or event.
2. An object or aspect known through the senses rather than by thought or intuition; a temporal or spatiotemporal object of sensory experience as distinguished from a noumenon; a fact or event of scientific interest susceptible of scientific description and explanation
3. A rare or significant fact or event b plural phenomenon; an exceptional, unusual, or abnormal person, thing, or occurrence.
Poltergeist: A noisy usually mischievous ghost held to be responsible for unexplained noises.
Precognition: To know beforehand : clairvoyance relating to an event or state not yet experienced.
Psychic:
1. Of or relating to the psyche.
2. Lying outside the sphere of physical science or knowledge; immaterial, moral, or spiritual in origin or force
3. Sensitive to nonphysical or supernatural forces and influences; marked by extraordinary or mysterious sensitivity, perception, or understanding.
Psychokinesis: Movement of physical objects by the mind without use of physical means.
Psychometry: Divination of facts concerning an object or its owner through contact with or proximity to the object.
Scotophobia: Fear of darkness.
Sorcerer: A person who practices sorcery; wizard.
Sorcery:
1. The use of power gained from the assistance or control of evil spirits especially for divining; NECROMANCY.
2. MAGIC.
Soul: The immaterial essence, animating principle, or actuating cause of an individual life; the spiritual principle embodied in human beings, all rational and spiritual beings, or the universe.
Spirit:
1. An animating or vital principle held to give life to physical organisms.
2. A supernatural being or essence, as a: Holy Spirit; Soul; an often malevolent being that is bodiless but can become visible; a malevolent being that enters and possesses a human being.
Spirit (verb): To carry off usually secretly or mysteriously.
Spiritualism:
1. The view that spirit is a prime element of reality.
2. A belief that spirits of the dead communicate with the living usually through a medium; a movement comprising of religious organization emphasizing spiritualism.
Sprite
1. An archaic: SOUL; a disembodied spirit: GHOST.
2. ELF, FAIRY; an elfish person.
Succubus: A female demon or goblin which appears as a female mortal seeking to seduce men, usually while they sleep.
Supernatural:
1. Of or relating to an order of existence beyond the visible observable universe; of or relating to God or a god, demigod, spirit or devil.
2. Departing from what is usual or normal especially so as to appear to transcend the laws of nature; attributed to an invisible agent (as a ghost or spirit).
Taphophilia: A passion for and enjoyment of cemeteries.
Telekinesis: The production of motion in objects without contact or other physical means.
Telepathy: Communication from one mind to another by extrasensory means.
Vampire:
1. The reanimated body of a dead person believed to come from the grave at night and suck the blood of persons asleep.
2. One who lives by preying on others; a woman who exploits and ruins her lover
Zombie: The supernatural power that according to voodoo belief may enter into and reanimate a dead body; a will-less, speechless human capable only of automatic movement who is held to have died and supernaturally reanimated.
