We hope that this glossary can help you further understanding many of the terms associated with the paranormal; on this website or anywhere else you may come across them. It can be used as a form of reference for our readers or someone who has had an experience. We will continually add to it as time goes by.

Sources:  Paranormality.com

              Glossary of Psi

              National Paranormal Research Nashville

              Answers.com

              ASSAP

A-E                    F-J                    K-O                    P-T                    U-Z

F

Fairy 

     A mythical small being with human form, popularly believed to possess magical powers and a capability to interfere in human affairs (with either good or evil intent).  Today fairies tend to be represented as enchanting beautiful females, usually with wings.

  

Faith Healing

     A form of healing that is usually associated with a belief in a divine being and the power of prayer exerting a beneficial effect upon a sick animal or human. A spiritual form of healing used to help the afflicted recover from their ailment or illness.

Fallen Angels

     These are angels that have fallen from God's grace.  Although rarely mentioned in biblical scripture these beings serve as a warning to the reader of what the wrath of God can bring. Angelologists have a certain interest in these creatures because they have quite an air of shadowy mystery surrounding them. Fallen angels can be split into two main groups namely: the angels who sided and allied with Satan during the war in Heaven and the fallen  Grigori.  In both of these cases the angels tuned on God, their creator, by misusing the free will that had been granted to them by God.

False Awakening

     A phenomenon whereby a person believes that they have woken up, but they are still actually dreaming.

False Memory

     False memory syndrome refers to a memory disorder in which the individual has come to believe fantasies, usually invoked during hypnotism or while undergoing psychotherapeutic counseling, are real. Instances of therapist-implanted false memory involve alien abductions and past life regression. These cases are cited as proof that certain methods can induce false memories.
 

Fear Cage

     A confined area (usually a smaller room) in which there are high concentrations of EMFs. It has been theorized that prolonged exposure to these EMFs can possibly result in physical (nausea, headaches) or psychological (anxiety, paranoia, hallucinations) impairment.
 

Flap

     Is a sudden intense period of time with many sightings (typically of UFOs, but it could be a monster flap). It is often witnessed by many different people and sometimes accompanied by news coverage.
 

Flying Saucer

     Popular term for Unidentified Flying Objects or UFOs. The terms flying saucer and UFO were used somewhat synonymously in the 1950s, but the former term was eventually adopted by those who claimed to have positive evidence that what others called UFOs were in fact extraterrestrial crafts. The term originated from a report by Kenneth Arnold, whose 1947 sightings of UFOs near Mt. Rainier in Washington began the modern UFO era. He described them as "saucers skipping across the water."
 

Foo Fighter

     The term 'foo fighter' was used by Allied aircraft pilots in World War II to describe various UFOs or mysterious aerial phenomena seen in the skies over the European and Pacific theatres. Witnesses often assumed that the foo fighters were secret weapons employed by the enemy, but they still remained unidentified post-war. Despite these fears, there are no reports of injuries resulting from actions of Foo Fighters. Name was culled from the 1940s comic strip character 'Smokey Stover' who used the term "foo" extensively.
 

Fortean

     Refers to strange, naturally occurring phenomena that science cannot yet define or explain. Fortean Phenomena is named so in honor of Charles Fort (1874-1932), an American writer who collected tales of weird happenings. Throughout his life, Fort was skeptical about scientific explanations, observing how scientists argued according to their own beliefs rather than the rules of evidence and that inconvenient data was ignored, suppressed, discredited or explained away (which is quite different from explaining a thing).
 

Fraudulent Mediums Act

     This Act was introduced in 1951 to repeal the 1735 Witchcraft Act and provide a new basis for prosecuting fraudulent mediums who intend to profit from their deceit. Fines or imprisonment follow conviction. The Act is still in force. The last person to be prosecuted under the Witchcraft Act was the wartime medium Helen Duncan, whose knowledge of the fate of missing servicemen raised suspicions.
 

G

Ganzfield Experiment

     This technique for inducing ESP deprives the experiencer of normal sensory input by placing e.g. halved white ping-pong balls over their eyes and playing white noise into their ears to induce mild sensory deprivation and possibly a state between full wakefulness and sleep. Often used for tests of telepathic ability.

Ghosts

     Believed to be the spirits of dead people.  When they appear, they are said to appear in bodily likeness to living persons and often haunt their former habitats.  Some believe that ghosts are the souls of the deceased, demons or spirits.  Ghosts are believed to be ethereal, able to penetrate doors and walls, and are often said to appear at the moment of death to a distant relative or friend. Ghosts are also believed to haunt specific localities, either dwellings associated with their earthly life or locales with a tragic history. Children are often reported to have encountered ghostly playmates.

Ghost Hunting

     A carefully controlled research project in which various methods and equipment are used to investigate reports of ghosts and hauntings. Various research groups have been set up to investigate the phenomenon of ghosts; some do it as a hobby and some take the subject much more seriously. Ghosts are known to frequent certain places more often than others, graveyards seem to be an obvious common starting point.

Ghost Busting

     A term that is associated with getting rid of unwanted ghosts or entities from places where they are not desirable. The term has been popularized by a Hollywood Film called 'Ghostbusters'. Although this film had quite a humorous slant to it, in real life, it would appear, that ghost busting services are sometimes required to get rid of unwanted 'visitors'. The Internet has a number of organizations that claim to offer help with these unwanted 'visitors' and other things that go 'bump in the night'. Some people actually make a hobby out of ghost hunting, which, unlike ghost busting, is less about trying to rid oneself of ghosts; but is more about trying to observe and capture the phenomenon on film.

Ghostly Transport

     A phenomenon that challenges the commonly held view that ghosts are spirits of the dead. There are a wide variety of reports about phantom vehicles or ghostly forms of transport some forms reported more often than others. Out of all of the reports of ghostly transport, ghostly cars are possibly one of the rarest forms of phantom vehicle. One of the theories behind this, is that the car is a relatively recent invention which has left little time for the phenomenon to become established. Apparently, phantom trains account for one of the more common forms of ghostly vehicle. They are said to appear, usually at the site of a rail disaster. Ships are a much older from of transport than cars and planes and as a result reports of ghostly ships abound. One example is an 18th century ship called 'The Flying Dutchman'.
 

Golem

     An artificial man-monster of Jewish legend created from clay by a magic religious ceremony. The word golem was first used in Talmudic references to the creation of Adam to indicate formless matter before the inception of a soul.

Guide

     A continually benevolent, protective, ethereal influence acting through mediums in Spiritualist séances. The guide usually delivers lofty philosophical or religious instruction beyond the normal intellectual capacity of the medium. It may operate while the medium is either awake or in trance. Some are clearly fictional entities, but acceptance of their claims may result in remarkable and sometimes verifiable communications. Since the New Age occult revival of the 1980s, there has been a widespread renewal of interest in the teachings of trance personalities under the general term channeling.
 

Guardian Angel

     A guardian angel is a spirit who protects and guides a particular person. Contemporary orthodox belief in both the eastern and western churches is that guardian angels protect the body and present prayers to God, protecting whichever person God assigns them to.

Gray

     An alien type that first became famous in the 1980s. Typically shorter than humans, hairless, with large black eyes. In reports from alleged eye witnesses, Grays are described as diminutive beings which, while appearing very human-like, seem to lack or possess reduced forms of human organs and anatomical components. Individual Grays are said to appear very uniform compared to the wide range of variation in humans. Some commentators have expressed the opinion that their anatomy is more consistent with robots or cyborgs than with actual living organisms.

H

Halloween

     A shortened version of the name 'All Hallows Even'. It marks 'The Eve of All Saints' which occurs each year on the 31st of October. This is also the last night of the year in the early Celtic Calendar. For centuries a quiet festival in the UK, it is now being overtaken by the commercialized American version with ‘trick or treat’. This was another traditional time for bonfires, the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain.

Hallucination

     A state in which one hears, sees, smells or feels something that is not there. The experiencer may believe that it is a true perception, but it occurs without external stimulation of the relevant sensory organ. Hallucinations are popularly associated with illness, use of drugs, alcohol, etc.

Haunted House

     A haunted house is defined as building that is believed to be a center for supernatural occurrences or paranormal phenomena. A haunted house may contain ghosts, poltergeists, or even malevolent entities.

Haunting

     Disturbances of a paranormal character, attributed to the spirits of the dead. Tradition established two main factors in haunting: an old house or other locale and restlessness of a spirit. The first represents an unbroken link with the past, the second is believed to be caused by remorse over an evil life or by the shock of violent death. The manifestations vary greatly. In most cases, strange noises are heard alone (auditory effects); in some others objects are displaced, and lights are seen (visual effects); also, a chilliness is sometimes felt in the atmosphere, not infrequently unbearable stench pervades the room, and an evil influence imparts feelings of unspeakable horror (sensory effects); and phantoms, both human and animal, appear in various degrees of solidity.

Healing

     Healing apparently brought about by such non-medical means as prayer, the “laying on of hands,” Psychic healing; immersion at a religious shrine, and so on, and inexplicable according to contemporary medical science; not to be confused with merely unconventional medicine.

Hell

     Place or state reserved for unrepentant sinners after death, where they suffer both separation from God, and other traditional punishments. Most ancient religions included the concept of a place that divided the good from the evil or the living from the dead. The view that hell is the final dwelling place of the damned after a last judgment is held by Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The Jewish concept of Gehenna as an infernal region of punishment for the wicked was the basis for the Christian vision of hell as the fiery domain of Satan and his evil angels and a place of punishment for those who die without repenting of their sins.

Hell Fire Club

     An eighteenth-century British Satanist society of rich men, politicians, and eccentrics based at Medmenham Abbey in Buckinghamshire and later in caves at High Wycombe. The founder was the notorious profligate Sir Francis Dashwood (1708-1781), a member of parliament. As grand master, Dashwood used a communion cup to pour libations to pagan gods, and even administered the sacrament to a baboon in a contemptuous mockery of sacred ritual.

 

Hex

     A product of witchcraft or one who works it. The word is of German origin, and beliefs connected with it spread from Europe to the United States, especially to the Pennsylvania Dutch country. The hex can be worked by either sex, but more commonly by a man, usually an amateur or professional hex “doctor.” The colorful, geometric hex signs found on Pennsylvania Dutch barns are meant to protect the animals within from malicious curses, spells, and the evil eye.

Horoscope

     Astrological chart showing the positions of the sun, moon, and planets in relation to the signs of the zodiac at a specific time. It is used to analyze the character of individuals born at that time, providing information about the current state of their life and predicting their future. To cast a horoscope, the heavens are divided into 12 zones called houses; these influence such aspects of human life as health, wealth, marriage, friendships, or death.

House Blessing

     A ceremony performed to cleanse the house of past memories and energies and bless the space and its contents (both animate and inanimate) with Divine Spirit for protection, prosperity and love.

Hypnagogic/Hypnopompic State

     A condition between waking and sleeping characterized by illusions of vision or sound. The mind can produce images as it is falling asleep (hypnagogic) or waking up (hypnopompic). These hallucinations can be vivid, frightening and dream-like and may occur during sleep paralysis, contributing to ‘night terrors’. Hypnagogic imagery can be particularly vivid with sleep-onset REM periods.

Hypnotism

     To induce an altered state of consciousness characterized by deep relaxation and heightened suggestibility. The term was originally coined by James Braid in 1842 to describe a phenomenon previously known as animal magnetism or mesmerism. Superficially resembling sleep, it is generally induced by the monotonous repetition of words and gestures while the subject is completely relaxed. Although almost everyone can be hypnotized, individuals vary greatly in susceptibility. In the paranormal field, hypnosis can be used in a variety of ESP experiments, while hypnotic regression has been used to take people back into the past to examine such things as alleged past lives or abductions by UFOs.

I

Incubus

     A male demon spirit that has sexual intercourse with mortal females. The demons were generally believed to appear most frequently during sleep or in nightmares. During the witchcraft scare of the late medieval period these demons, when associated with an individual witch or sorcerer, were known as familiars.

Infrared (IR)

     Infrared is used in night vision equipment when there is insufficient visible light to see. Night vision devices operate through a process involving the conversion of ambient light photons into electrons which are then amplified by a chemical and electrical process and then converted back into visible light. The use of infrared light and night vision devices should not be confused with thermal imaging which creates images based on differences in surface temperature by detecting infrared radiation (heat) that emanates from objects and their surrounding environment.

Infrared Thermometer

     Sometimes called a laser thermometer, these handheld devices are used to take temperature readings without having to come into direct contact with the object being tested. Investigators will often use infrared thermometers to detect sudden and significant temperature fluctuations, which are believed by some to be associated with paranormal activity. These devices are only effective when taking the surface temperature of an object. They are not designed to accurately register the atmospheric or 'ambient' temperature of a location.

Illusion

     A delusional perception between what is perceived and what is reality.

Intuition

      Non-paranormal knowledge that is gained through a perceptive insight. The source of these messages is often said to be in the normal, mundane, unconscious, but it is often also said to be the result of mystical or paranormal processes.

J

J. Allen Hynek

Jersey Devil

     Strange creature on the borderline between fact and legend, reported in southern New Jersey for more than two centuries. The Jersey devil is said to have a kangaroo body, bat's wings, pig's feet, dog's head, the face of a horse, and a forked tail. Depending on the storyteller the creature is said to be anywhere from 18 inches to 20 feet in height and is considered impervious to gunshot. It appears to have been born, at least as a legend, after the off-the-cuff remark of a woman named Leeds, unhappy over her pregnancy. Her curse on her child resulted in her child being devil-like. The Jersey Devil appeared over the years, possibly as a running joke by bored newspaper reporters

                                      Jung, Carl                         

     Carl Gustav Jung is the Swiss psychiatrist whose importance in the history of psychoanalysis rivals that of Sigmund Freud. Between 1907 and 1912 he was Sigmund Freud's close collaborator and most likely successor, but he broke with Freud over the latter's insistence on the sexual basis of neuroses. In the succeeding years Jung founded the field of analytic psychology, a response to Freud's psychoanalysis. Jung advanced the concepts of the introvert and extravert personality, archetypes, and the collective unconscious (the pool of human experience passed from generation to generation). Jung's horizon includes religious, mystical, mythical, and occult phenomena, and his views have been rejected by some specialists as unscientific. His influence is nevertheless considerable. Like Freud, he was eminently successful in the treatment of neuroses, and acquired a world-wide reputation. The familiar words ‘extrovert’ and ‘introvert’ were introduced by Jung.