| Terminology |
 | |  | |  | |  |
Afterlife: A life believed to follow one's death, and can vary in different regions of the world.
Angel: 1.In religious theology, an immortal or spiritual being attendant upon serving God. 2. A
celestial being who mediates between God and humankind.
Apparition: 1. An appearance or figure of a dead person or animal. 2. An appearance of a living
person or animal to distant to be within range of natural perception.
Astral body: A supersensible body believed by theosophists to coexist with, and survive the death
of the physical body.
Astral Projection: 1.To be able to project one's astral body at will, or under controlled conditions
2. A controlled out-of-body experience.
Automatism: Unconscious muscular movements often contributed by supernatural guidance, or
Black Shuck: 1.A large black spectral dog in British folklore often thought to be a bad omen or
death to anyone that witnesses the apparition. 2.a.k.a Old Shuck.
Cairn: Large quantities of stones used as grave markers or memorials.
Channeling: 1.A form of mediumship where an individual allows themselves to become taken over
by another personality while in a trance. 2. A form of communication with the dead.
clairaudience: 1.A receiving of messages from the dead through telepathy, without actual
hearing audible sounds. 2. Clairaudience are telepathic voices often regarding the past.
Clairvoyance: 1.A psychic vision of people, events, objects that are not visible through normal
sight. 2. Clairvoyance is an extrasensory perception dealing with the past.
Demon: 1.In theology a type of spirit or being, usually evil, intervening in the affairs of humankind.
2. Spirits usually associated with the devil.
Demonology: 1.The study of demons. 2. Belief in or worship demons.
Dreams: 1.A series of images, ideas, and emotions occurring in the mind during the 5th stage of
sleep known as the REM stage. 2. According to Freud our dreams are made up of latent content
which are the true meaning of our dreams, and the manifest content which is the form our dreams
take in whatever symbols our unconscious mind chooses. 3. Since the beginning of recorded
history dreams have been thought to have powerful significance on our lives as human beings.
Many believe dreams are visions meant to guide us.
Ectoplasm: A seemingly lifelike substance, solid or vaporous in appearance. It protrudes from
psychic, or unknown energy through a medium and can manifest as faces, or limbs of spirits. It is
usually white in color, and some say a strange odor similar to ozone.
Electromagnetic field (EMF): A field of force associated with an electromagnetic charge in
motion. Electromagnetic energy has both electric and magnetic components.
Electronic voice phenomena (EVP): the recording of voice on audio tape with no explainable or
physical source of origin.
Elementals: Protective spirits of the elements, and supernatural beings composed of pure
energy. These sometimes mischievous spirits, which where never human to begin with, have
existed on this earth long before humankind. They exist most often in natural locations such as
forests, fields, lakes, rivers, volcanoes, deserts, valleys, mountains,etc. They are also found in
locations considered sacred.
Exorcism: The expulsion of supernatural entities (ghosts, spirits, demons, elementals, and other
supernatural beings) believed to be in possession of or tormenting a human being, or disturbing a
place where people frequent.
Extrasensory perception (ESP): Metaphysical, or paranormal sensing of sight, sound, taste,
smell, and touch. The three areas that make up ESP are: telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance
which deliver information about the past, present, and future that cannot be obtained through the
five physical senses.
Fetch: An apparition of someone that will soon die, usually within a years time. These apparitions
usually do not interact with the living, like a residual image, and are most often encountered by
someone that will recognize them.
Geomagnetic storm: A disturbance or fluctuation in the earth's magnetic field, associated with
solar flares.
Ghost: 1.A generic term used by many to define, or associate with, all types of hauntings. 2. An
alleged spirit of the dead, existing after the death, on the earthly plain for some sort of reason or
purpose, whether it be voluntary or involuntary.
Ghost lights: Luminous phenomena, most often in the shape of balls or patches of light. These
anomalous forms can appear in different sizes, colors, and even produce sound at times. Ghost
lights are not to be confused with orbs, and are almost always visible to the naked eye.
Gray ladies: The ghosts of women that died violently for reasons of love, or were pinned away for
the sake of love, and sorrow. They can appear clothed in gray, white, brown, or even black.
Haunting: A broad term used to define a continuous, or reoccurring serious of phenomena. The
phenomena may occur over any given period of time in a specific location, or environment.
Hauntings exist in environments or locations for numerous reasons, purposes, and/or causes and
are most often more complex then one realizes.
Incubus: An evil spirit, or demon believed to have sexual intercourse with women as they sleep.
Victims of these attacks most often experience sleep paralysis and can do nothing to stop the
rape from occurring. See Succubus
La Llorona: Meaning "the weeping woman," and one of the most well known legends in Hispanic
folklore. She is a spectral weeping woman who drifts about at night, some say most often near
bodies of water, looking for her children that were murdered. One version of the legend says she
had a love affair with a man, and had children as a result of the affair. The lover told her that if she
murdered the children, the two of them could be together. She supposedly drown them, and upon
doing so never heard from the lover again. She killed herself soon after and has since been
damned to eternity looking for her murdered children near bodies of water.
Lepke: Intelligent apparitions which can pass for real people in society, until they vanish from
sight.
Levitation: The lifting up into the air of persons, animals, and objects in defiance of gravity with
no natural means of explanation.
Manifestation: 1. To show, demonstrate plainly, or reveal in a manner that is detectable to the
five physical senses of living creatures. 2. The act of manisfesting, or state of manifest.
Materialization: 1. To cause to become real or materialistic. 2. To manifest, in many cases,
visually to the physical senses.
Meditation: 1.A devotional or spiritual exercise of mind, body, and/or spirit for different periods
of time. 2. Engaging in contemplation for reasons significant to one's self.. 3. The act of meditating.
Medium: 1.In paranormal terms, a person thought to have the power to communicate with spirits
of the dead, or with beings from another dimension.
Near death experience (NDE): A term that defines a range of phenomena, some paranormal,
that are reported by many individuals who have come, or believe they have come close to death, or
have experienced death and been revived. These individuals most often report having out-of-body
experiences, and in some cases have reported biblical type phenomena.
Necromancy: The conjuring of the dead, or spirits of the dead often for purposes, of
prognostication. Believed to be a repulsive practice in many cultures, but ancient in origin, and
based on the belief that spirits of the dead know all about the past.
Nightmare: A dream bringing about intense feelings of fear, horror, and distress. The
unconscious intentions of these dreams are not always meant to be negative, but sometimes are
meant to help us improve our lives in some manner. Nightmares are often believed to be
unconscious ways of dealing with fears, or even warnings of events to come.
Night terror: A state of intense fear sometimes experienced on awakening from a stage of sleep
not associated with dreaming, but characterized by vivid hallucinations. Night terrors are often
experienced by children.
Old hag: A nocturnal phenomenon including suffocation, paralysis, hallucinations, and sometimes
paranormal manifestations. This phenomenon is often blamed on demons, witchcraft, and night
terrors. It has been documented since ancient times, and is documented in many cultures as a
spirit that attacks men in their sleep. This spirit poses as an old woman and attacks men
sometimes sexually, or even violently. Many of these cases can be explained by psychological
sleeping disorders such as sleep paralysis. See incubus and succubus
orbs: Energy anomalies recorded on video and still photos at many haunted locations. Most of the
time these anomalies appear rounded in shape, but have been known to appear in other shapes.
While the nature of orbs makes them difficult to see with the naked eye, they have been viewed
unexpectedly without the aid of electronic devices, but are more easily observed on infrared
viewers, or standard video. Orbs are not to be confused with ghost lights.
Out of body experience (OBE): Phenomena where a person, usually lying down, feels projected
from the body to distant locations, or even nonphysical realms. OBE's have been recorded in
history by ancient civilizations all over the world, and are considered not to be paranormal by many.
Many of these OBE's are described as voluntary or even involuntary astral travel outside the body.
Also known as Astral Projection.
Paranormal: Any event or object that defies present scientific knowledge. Used to define
occurrences more firmly rooted in the physical world like psychokinesis. See supernatural
Parapsychology: The study of the evidence of psychological phenomena of the living and the
dead such as ESP, psychokinesis, and hauntings themselves.
Phantasm: Basically an apparition.
Phantom: A ghost with an identifiable form, such as that of a human, animals, ships, etc.
Poltergeist: Comes from the German word poltern, meaning "to knock" and geist means "spirit."
1. Can be activated paranormal energy of an individual's mind, many times an adolescent female,
brought on by a stressful situation. As soon as the individual is removed the haunting often stops.
2. A mischievous or malevolent energy that is characterized by noises, moving objects, and other
manipulations of the physical world.
Possession: The idea that a person's body and mind can be possessed by a spirit, demon, or
other supernatural being. Possessions are usually of those in a weakened or innocent state of
mind where there has been no guard established for such a thing happening. In most cases an
exorcism is needed to expel the entity.
Psychokinesis (PK): The mind's ability to manipulate the physical world. This phenomena can
occur spontaneously, or in a voluntary manner.
Reincarnation: The suggestion that the soul returns after death, to live another life. The idea of a
repeated cycle involving past, present, and future lives until a soul completes it's purpose on earth.
seance: A ritual performed to contact spirits, which unless organized by a true professional
medium or researcher can lead to an uncontrolled situation.
Soul: Hard to define, due to it's many concepts in the understanding of what a soul can be. One
way to define this word is as follows: A life force of an individual, as distinguished from the
individual's physical body and sometimes spirit.
Spirit: 1. A discarnate being, or intelligent entity that can pass freely from different spirit planes,
to the earthly plane. Some spirits remain earthbound, but are not ghosts. 2. The supernatural
force of nature that can represent places such as forests, mountains, lakes, etc.
Spirit photography: Photographs that allegedly reveal or demonstrate entities of the dead,
spirits or spirit energy. Spirit photography remains controversial since the concept was brought
about in 1861.
Spirit releasement: Contemporary term for the exorcism of a spirit or supernatural being from a
place or person. Spirit releasement can slightly differ in meaning from exorcism, being that
releasement is not often performed by clergy, and the religious element may be completely
removed. The earthbound ghosts of human beings, in most cases, do not deserve to be exorcised
from a location, but may require releasement.
Spiritism: The belief that the dead can communicate with the living. Brought about by Allan
Kardec. These forms of communication may include rapping on objects, the lifting of a table during
a seance, and the flickering or dimming of a candles.
Spook lights: See ghost lights
super psi: The theoretical limitless extension of ESP and PK that would accommodate all the best
evidence of life after death.
Succubus: A demon posing as a woman that visits men in the night, while they sleep, and then
proceeds to have sexual intercourse, and/or violently attacks them in a sexual manner. These
victims most commonly experience sleep paralysis during these attacks. See incubus
telekinesis: See psychokinesis
Urban legends: Universal motifs in folklore, or stories to good to be true. Urban legends are
friend-of-a-friend stories (FOAFS) that are told to describe strange, but supposedly real events,
when in fact they are fictional due to word of mouth invention or distortion. There is usually a true
element to the legend, but it becomes fictional as it is passed from one person to the next. Core
elements in most urban legends remain the same, but details of the story can differ from one
locale to the next.
Witchcraft: 1.A way of life, or practice that involves magic, or sorcery, or worship of the earth
itself. It is perceived as both good and bad by different cultures in society. 2. Wicca
Please return to this section of the CSGR website for additions and updates on terminology
dealing with the paranormal, religious phenomena, and the occult.
Angel: 1.In religious theology, an immortal or spiritual being attendant upon serving God. 2. A
celestial being who mediates between God and humankind.
Apparition: 1. An appearance or figure of a dead person or animal. 2. An appearance of a living
person or animal to distant to be within range of natural perception.
Astral body: A supersensible body believed by theosophists to coexist with, and survive the death
of the physical body.
Astral Projection: 1.To be able to project one's astral body at will, or under controlled conditions
2. A controlled out-of-body experience.
Automatism: Unconscious muscular movements often contributed by supernatural guidance, or
Black Shuck: 1.A large black spectral dog in British folklore often thought to be a bad omen or
death to anyone that witnesses the apparition. 2.a.k.a Old Shuck.
Cairn: Large quantities of stones used as grave markers or memorials.
Channeling: 1.A form of mediumship where an individual allows themselves to become taken over
by another personality while in a trance. 2. A form of communication with the dead.
clairaudience: 1.A receiving of messages from the dead through telepathy, without actual
hearing audible sounds. 2. Clairaudience are telepathic voices often regarding the past.
Clairvoyance: 1.A psychic vision of people, events, objects that are not visible through normal
sight. 2. Clairvoyance is an extrasensory perception dealing with the past.
Demon: 1.In theology a type of spirit or being, usually evil, intervening in the affairs of humankind.
2. Spirits usually associated with the devil.
Demonology: 1.The study of demons. 2. Belief in or worship demons.
Dreams: 1.A series of images, ideas, and emotions occurring in the mind during the 5th stage of
sleep known as the REM stage. 2. According to Freud our dreams are made up of latent content
which are the true meaning of our dreams, and the manifest content which is the form our dreams
take in whatever symbols our unconscious mind chooses. 3. Since the beginning of recorded
history dreams have been thought to have powerful significance on our lives as human beings.
Many believe dreams are visions meant to guide us.
Ectoplasm: A seemingly lifelike substance, solid or vaporous in appearance. It protrudes from
psychic, or unknown energy through a medium and can manifest as faces, or limbs of spirits. It is
usually white in color, and some say a strange odor similar to ozone.
Electromagnetic field (EMF): A field of force associated with an electromagnetic charge in
motion. Electromagnetic energy has both electric and magnetic components.
Electronic voice phenomena (EVP): the recording of voice on audio tape with no explainable or
physical source of origin.
Elementals: Protective spirits of the elements, and supernatural beings composed of pure
energy. These sometimes mischievous spirits, which where never human to begin with, have
existed on this earth long before humankind. They exist most often in natural locations such as
forests, fields, lakes, rivers, volcanoes, deserts, valleys, mountains,etc. They are also found in
locations considered sacred.
Exorcism: The expulsion of supernatural entities (ghosts, spirits, demons, elementals, and other
supernatural beings) believed to be in possession of or tormenting a human being, or disturbing a
place where people frequent.
Extrasensory perception (ESP): Metaphysical, or paranormal sensing of sight, sound, taste,
smell, and touch. The three areas that make up ESP are: telepathy, precognition, and clairvoyance
which deliver information about the past, present, and future that cannot be obtained through the
five physical senses.
Fetch: An apparition of someone that will soon die, usually within a years time. These apparitions
usually do not interact with the living, like a residual image, and are most often encountered by
someone that will recognize them.
Geomagnetic storm: A disturbance or fluctuation in the earth's magnetic field, associated with
solar flares.
Ghost: 1.A generic term used by many to define, or associate with, all types of hauntings. 2. An
alleged spirit of the dead, existing after the death, on the earthly plain for some sort of reason or
purpose, whether it be voluntary or involuntary.
Ghost lights: Luminous phenomena, most often in the shape of balls or patches of light. These
anomalous forms can appear in different sizes, colors, and even produce sound at times. Ghost
lights are not to be confused with orbs, and are almost always visible to the naked eye.
Gray ladies: The ghosts of women that died violently for reasons of love, or were pinned away for
the sake of love, and sorrow. They can appear clothed in gray, white, brown, or even black.
Haunting: A broad term used to define a continuous, or reoccurring serious of phenomena. The
phenomena may occur over any given period of time in a specific location, or environment.
Hauntings exist in environments or locations for numerous reasons, purposes, and/or causes and
are most often more complex then one realizes.
Incubus: An evil spirit, or demon believed to have sexual intercourse with women as they sleep.
Victims of these attacks most often experience sleep paralysis and can do nothing to stop the
rape from occurring. See Succubus
La Llorona: Meaning "the weeping woman," and one of the most well known legends in Hispanic
folklore. She is a spectral weeping woman who drifts about at night, some say most often near
bodies of water, looking for her children that were murdered. One version of the legend says she
had a love affair with a man, and had children as a result of the affair. The lover told her that if she
murdered the children, the two of them could be together. She supposedly drown them, and upon
doing so never heard from the lover again. She killed herself soon after and has since been
damned to eternity looking for her murdered children near bodies of water.
Lepke: Intelligent apparitions which can pass for real people in society, until they vanish from
sight.
Levitation: The lifting up into the air of persons, animals, and objects in defiance of gravity with
no natural means of explanation.
Manifestation: 1. To show, demonstrate plainly, or reveal in a manner that is detectable to the
five physical senses of living creatures. 2. The act of manisfesting, or state of manifest.
Materialization: 1. To cause to become real or materialistic. 2. To manifest, in many cases,
visually to the physical senses.
Meditation: 1.A devotional or spiritual exercise of mind, body, and/or spirit for different periods
of time. 2. Engaging in contemplation for reasons significant to one's self.. 3. The act of meditating.
Medium: 1.In paranormal terms, a person thought to have the power to communicate with spirits
of the dead, or with beings from another dimension.
Near death experience (NDE): A term that defines a range of phenomena, some paranormal,
that are reported by many individuals who have come, or believe they have come close to death, or
have experienced death and been revived. These individuals most often report having out-of-body
experiences, and in some cases have reported biblical type phenomena.
Necromancy: The conjuring of the dead, or spirits of the dead often for purposes, of
prognostication. Believed to be a repulsive practice in many cultures, but ancient in origin, and
based on the belief that spirits of the dead know all about the past.
Nightmare: A dream bringing about intense feelings of fear, horror, and distress. The
unconscious intentions of these dreams are not always meant to be negative, but sometimes are
meant to help us improve our lives in some manner. Nightmares are often believed to be
unconscious ways of dealing with fears, or even warnings of events to come.
Night terror: A state of intense fear sometimes experienced on awakening from a stage of sleep
not associated with dreaming, but characterized by vivid hallucinations. Night terrors are often
experienced by children.
Old hag: A nocturnal phenomenon including suffocation, paralysis, hallucinations, and sometimes
paranormal manifestations. This phenomenon is often blamed on demons, witchcraft, and night
terrors. It has been documented since ancient times, and is documented in many cultures as a
spirit that attacks men in their sleep. This spirit poses as an old woman and attacks men
sometimes sexually, or even violently. Many of these cases can be explained by psychological
sleeping disorders such as sleep paralysis. See incubus and succubus
orbs: Energy anomalies recorded on video and still photos at many haunted locations. Most of the
time these anomalies appear rounded in shape, but have been known to appear in other shapes.
While the nature of orbs makes them difficult to see with the naked eye, they have been viewed
unexpectedly without the aid of electronic devices, but are more easily observed on infrared
viewers, or standard video. Orbs are not to be confused with ghost lights.
Out of body experience (OBE): Phenomena where a person, usually lying down, feels projected
from the body to distant locations, or even nonphysical realms. OBE's have been recorded in
history by ancient civilizations all over the world, and are considered not to be paranormal by many.
Many of these OBE's are described as voluntary or even involuntary astral travel outside the body.
Also known as Astral Projection.
Paranormal: Any event or object that defies present scientific knowledge. Used to define
occurrences more firmly rooted in the physical world like psychokinesis. See supernatural
Parapsychology: The study of the evidence of psychological phenomena of the living and the
dead such as ESP, psychokinesis, and hauntings themselves.
Phantasm: Basically an apparition.
Phantom: A ghost with an identifiable form, such as that of a human, animals, ships, etc.
Poltergeist: Comes from the German word poltern, meaning "to knock" and geist means "spirit."
1. Can be activated paranormal energy of an individual's mind, many times an adolescent female,
brought on by a stressful situation. As soon as the individual is removed the haunting often stops.
2. A mischievous or malevolent energy that is characterized by noises, moving objects, and other
manipulations of the physical world.
Possession: The idea that a person's body and mind can be possessed by a spirit, demon, or
other supernatural being. Possessions are usually of those in a weakened or innocent state of
mind where there has been no guard established for such a thing happening. In most cases an
exorcism is needed to expel the entity.
Psychokinesis (PK): The mind's ability to manipulate the physical world. This phenomena can
occur spontaneously, or in a voluntary manner.
Reincarnation: The suggestion that the soul returns after death, to live another life. The idea of a
repeated cycle involving past, present, and future lives until a soul completes it's purpose on earth.
seance: A ritual performed to contact spirits, which unless organized by a true professional
medium or researcher can lead to an uncontrolled situation.
Soul: Hard to define, due to it's many concepts in the understanding of what a soul can be. One
way to define this word is as follows: A life force of an individual, as distinguished from the
individual's physical body and sometimes spirit.
Spirit: 1. A discarnate being, or intelligent entity that can pass freely from different spirit planes,
to the earthly plane. Some spirits remain earthbound, but are not ghosts. 2. The supernatural
force of nature that can represent places such as forests, mountains, lakes, etc.
Spirit photography: Photographs that allegedly reveal or demonstrate entities of the dead,
spirits or spirit energy. Spirit photography remains controversial since the concept was brought
about in 1861.
Spirit releasement: Contemporary term for the exorcism of a spirit or supernatural being from a
place or person. Spirit releasement can slightly differ in meaning from exorcism, being that
releasement is not often performed by clergy, and the religious element may be completely
removed. The earthbound ghosts of human beings, in most cases, do not deserve to be exorcised
from a location, but may require releasement.
Spiritism: The belief that the dead can communicate with the living. Brought about by Allan
Kardec. These forms of communication may include rapping on objects, the lifting of a table during
a seance, and the flickering or dimming of a candles.
Spook lights: See ghost lights
super psi: The theoretical limitless extension of ESP and PK that would accommodate all the best
evidence of life after death.
Succubus: A demon posing as a woman that visits men in the night, while they sleep, and then
proceeds to have sexual intercourse, and/or violently attacks them in a sexual manner. These
victims most commonly experience sleep paralysis during these attacks. See incubus
telekinesis: See psychokinesis
Urban legends: Universal motifs in folklore, or stories to good to be true. Urban legends are
friend-of-a-friend stories (FOAFS) that are told to describe strange, but supposedly real events,
when in fact they are fictional due to word of mouth invention or distortion. There is usually a true
element to the legend, but it becomes fictional as it is passed from one person to the next. Core
elements in most urban legends remain the same, but details of the story can differ from one
locale to the next.
Witchcraft: 1.A way of life, or practice that involves magic, or sorcery, or worship of the earth
itself. It is perceived as both good and bad by different cultures in society. 2. Wicca
Please return to this section of the CSGR website for additions and updates on terminology
dealing with the paranormal, religious phenomena, and the occult.