The following is a list of definitions of words and phrases used by paranormal investigators and parapsychologists.

Alectryomancy - divining an answer to a question through the order in which a bird reveals letters by eating the grains set on top of them

Amorphous - having no definite form or shape

Amulet - a charm worn around the neck to ward off evil

Animism - the belief that everything in nature has a soul or form of consciousness

Apparition - the appearance of a spirit or ghost in human form

Apport - a solid object, either animate or inanimate, that manifests during a seance or a haunting by non-physical means

Asport - a solid object that disappears during a seance or a haunting and reappears elsewhere

Astral Projection - the "leaving" of the body and traveling in spirit to wherever one desires

Aura - a mystical radiance believed to surround some people and objects

Automatic Writing - a method of spirit communication by which a medium enters a trance state and allows a spirit to control his or her hands to write messages

Automatism - the theory in which the subconscious communicates with the conscious by means of a vehicle such as a Ouija board or pendulum

Auspice - divining the future by the actions of birds

Benign Spirit - a spirit that is not harmful to man, such as an elemental

Bibliomancy - divining the future by randomly choosing a passage in a book, especially the Bible

Bilocation - the uncommon phenomenon of a person or object appearing in two distant places simultaneously

Black Magic - any form of magic used for evil purposes

Cabalistic - having a hidden meaning

Cartomancy - fortune telling using cards

Ceromancy - divining the future by reading the shapes formed by melting wax

Channeling - acting as a medium to receive communications from the spiritual or unseen world

Chiromancer - a palm reader

Clairaudience - the ability to hear things nobody else can hear, especially emanations from a spiritual or otherworldly plane

Clairsentience - the ability to feel things not normally felt by most people

Clairvoyance - the ability to perceive what cannot be seen in the physical world

Collective Apparition - an encounter with a ghost or spirit in which more than one person sees the same thing

Coincidence - the occurrence within a short space of time of two or more meaningfully related events without any apparent causal connection between them

Communicator - a discarnate spirit from which a medium receives messages

Confederate - a person who secretly provides information to a fraudulent psychic

Conjure - to summon a spirit with black magic

Crisis Apparition - an apparition seen at the point of death or at the time of a serious illness or injury

Decline Effect - a decrease in performance on a psi test when the test is repeated

Deja Vu - the haunting feeling that one has visited a place before or has experienced something at an earlier time or in a past life

Dematerialization - a term used by spiritualists and parapsychologists for the sudden disappearance of an item

Demon - a low-level and inhuman spirit that interacts in the affairs of the mortal world: some are good; some are evil; some are a combination of both

Demonic Possession - possession by evil spirits

Demonology - the study of demons and the rituals and folk-legends associated with them

Deport - the movement of objects out of a secure enclosed space without any physical means

Direct Voice - a phenomenon whereby a spirit speaks through a medium in trance during a seance

Direct Writing - messages written by spirits without the agency of a medium or other living persons

Discernment - to perceive or feel using the mind or senses

Divination - foretelling the future by supernatural means

Doppelganger - the human double or ghost resembling a person who is still alive

Dowsing - the art of locating water or other objects by the use of a divining rod or other tool

Eidolism - the belief in disembodied spirits, ghosts, or souls

Elementals - nature spirits who watch over the four elements

Electromagnetic Field - a field propagated by a combination of electric and magnetic energy that radiates from radio and light waves to gamma and cosmic rays

ESP - extra sensory perception: a power of perception beyond what is normal; the ability to sense the thoughts of others or things that cannot be physically seen

Evil Eye - the ability of some people to harm others by looking at them

EVP - (electronic voice phenomenon) voices captured on magnetic audiotape when no one is present; believed to be the voices of spirits attempting to communicate with the living

Exorcism - the casting out of a demon from someone's body with prayers and incantations

False Awakening - an experience in which a person believes he or she has woken up, but actually is still dreaming

Focal Person - Person who is at the centre of poltergeist activity

Gauss Meter - an instrument which measures electromagnetic fields

Geomancy - divination of the future involving the interpretation of lines or figures

Ghost - the spirit or apparition of a deceased person that appears to the living or returns to haunt a former habitat

Glossolalia - unintelligible speech generally uttered in a dissociated or trance state

Hallucination - a sensory experience that does not correspond to physical reality

Haunting - a recurrent visitation or appearance of a ghost or spirit before a particular person or in a particular location

Hydromancy - divining the future by peering into water

Hyperaesthesia - exceptionally acute sensory awareness

Hypnagogic Imagery - imagery occurring while dropping off to sleep

Hypnopompic Imagery - imagery occurring while waking up

Imagery - the ability to perceive images in the mind

Incantation - the utterance of a magical spell or charm

Infestation - a condition that occurs when an evil spirit inhabits a location

Intuition - the ability to grasp the elements of a situation or to draw conclusions about complex events in ways that go beyond a rational or intellectual analysis

Kirlian Photography - a technique for photographing auras or biofields

Lucid Dreaming - the act of dreaming while remaining conscious of everything occurring in the dream itself

Manifestation - the appearance of or taking the form of an entity

Materialization - the visible and/or physical manifestation of a ghost or spirit

Medium - one who acts as a receptor or channel to receive spirits or spiritual messages

Metaphysics - the study of psychical research

Mysticism - belief in the spiritual world or other dimension that cannot be perceived by the human eye

Necromancy - divining the future by communication with the dead

Numerology - the study of numbers as an influence in one's life

Obsession - the second stage of a haunting where an invading entity begins to dominate the mind of and exert its power over its living victim

Occam's Razor - the principle that we should always prefer the simplest explanation of events

Omen - a sign of things to come

Oneiromancy - divination of the future through the interpretation of dreams

Oppression - the initial stage of a haunting in which the invading entity attempts to gain access to the location or person targeted for victimization

Orb - a sphere of electromagnetic energy, usually only visible in photographs, believed to be a visible representation of a spirit

Out-of-Body Experience - the release of one's soul or spirit - said to sometimes occur during close brushes with death - when one may actually view one's abandoned physical body from a remote location

Palmistry - the pseudoscientific art of reading palms to divine one's fate

Paranormal - that which cannot be explained or is beyond human perception

Parapsychology - the study of psychic or mental powers beyond scientific comprehension

Phantomania - a term used to describe a type of paralysis that occurs when a person is under attack by either preternatural or supernatural forces

Poltergeist - a noisy ghost who moves things around; believed by some to originate from the energy released by living persons

Possession - occupation by an evil spirit or demon of one's soul, mind, or body

Precognition - "seeing" or "knowing" what will occur in the future

Prescience - knowledge of what will occur in the future

Preternatural - diverging from, or exceeding the common order of, nature but not outside the natural order as distinguished from the supernatural

Provocation - an effort to provoke or command a spirit to reveal itself

Psephomancy - divining the future through the use of pebbles

Pseudoscience - that which claims to be scientific, but is actually discredited by true science

Psi - psychic powers or extra sensory perception

Psychic - having the ability to read minds or predict the future

Psychokinesis - the ability to move objects by the power of one's mind alone

Psychometry - the ability to receive psychic impressions of a person, place, or past event by holding or touching certain objects

Radio Voice Phenomenon - hearing spirit voices over a regular radio

Raudive Voices - audible voices recorded on magnetic tape under conditions of silence or white noise which are heard only when the tape is played

Retrocognition - paranormal knowledge of past events

Revenant - one who returns from the dead

Rhabdomancy - divining the future by a divining rod

Scry - to divine the future by gazing into a crystal ball

Seance - an assembly at which a medium calls to spirits to communicate with those in attendance

Sensitive - a person who possesses a high degree of proficiency in extrasensory perception

Shadow Ghost - a black, mist-like spirit possessing no discernable features, believed to be usually demonic in nature and commonly described as a "black shape"

Shamanism - a Native American and Asian practice or belief through which a skilled medium communicates with the spiritual world and employs magic to heal or to divine the future

Spirit - a being that exists without a physical body and is not bound by the restrictions or characteristics of the spiritual world

Spirit Writing - messages conveyed through a medium's handwriting by spirits

Stigmata - unexplained markings on a person's body that correspond to the wounds of Christ

Subliminal Perception - perceiving without conscious awareness

Suffumigation - the ritual burning of special herbs or incenses for the purpose of attracting spirits and enabling them to materialize; also used to clear spirits from a dwelling

Supernatural - that which is beyond the understanding of science and the physical world

Synchronicity - the interconnectedness of coincidences and their hidden meanings

Telekinesis - moving objects from a remote position without touching them

Telepathy - communication with the mind; thought transference

Thought Form - an apparition produced by the power of the human mind

Veridical - information or experience that is confirmed by facts and events

Vortex - a powerful portal through time and space through which one can travel to another dimension

White Magic - magic employed for good

White Noise - a hiss-like sound formed by combining all audible frequencies

Wraith - a ghost or vision of a living person that is said to appear just before that person dies

Xenoglossy - the ability to speak or write in a language that has not been learned

Zener Cards - a set of 25 cards divided into 5 separate shapes used in Para psychological experiments