A Glossary of Terms Used in Parapsychology

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A Glossary of Terms
The definitions of most of the following terms have been borrowed or adapted from A Glossary of Terms Used in Parapsychology by Michael A. Thalbourne (Puente Publications, 2003). We highly recommend this book to those who seek a more complete glossary of parapsychological terms.

ANOMALOUS COGNITION (AC):
A form of information transfer in which all known sensory stimuli are absent; that is, some individuals are able to gain access to information by an as yet unknown process; also known as remote viewing (RV) and clairvoyance.

CLAIRVOYANCE:
Paranormal acquisition of information about an object or contemporary physical event; in contrast to telepathy, the information is assumed to derive directly from an external physical source and not from the mind of another person.

ESP CARDS:
Special cards, introduced by J. B. Rhine, for use in tests of ESP; a standard pack contains 25 cards, each portraying one of five symbols, viz., circle, cross, square, star, and waves.

EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION (ESP):
Paranormal cognition; the acquisition of information about an external event, object, or influence (mental or physical; past, present, or future) in some way other than through any of the known sensory channels.

FORCED-CHOICE TEST:
Any test of ESP in which the percipient is required to make a response that is limited to a range of possibilities known in advance.

FREE-RESPONSE TEST:
Any test of ESP in which the range of possible targets is relatively unlimited and is unknown to the percipient, thus permitting a free response to whatever impressions come to mind.

GANZFELD:
Term for a special type of environment (or the technique for producing it) consisting of homogeneous, unpatterned sensory stimulation; an audiovisual ganzfeld may be accomplished by placing halved ping-pong balls over each eye of the subject, with diffused light (frequently red in hue) projected onto them from an external source, together with the playing of unstructured sounds (such as “pink noise”) into the ears.

MACRO-PK:
Any psychokinetic effect that does not require statistical analysis for its demonstration; sometimes used to refer to PK that has as its target a system larger than quantum mechanical processes, including microorganisms, dice, as well as larger objects.

NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE (NDE):
A predominantly visual experience undergone by persons who either seem to be at the point of death but then recover, or who narrowly escape death (as in a motor car accident) without being seriously injured. NDEs often incorporate out-of-body experiences.

OUT-OF-THE-BODY EXPERIENCE (OBE):
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.

PARANORMAL:
Term for any phenomenon that in one or more respects exceeds the limits of what is deemed physically possible according to current scientific assumptions.

PARAPSYCHOLOGY:
The scientific study of certain paranormal or ostensibly paranormal phenomena, in particular, ESP and PK.

POLTERGEIST:
A disturbance characterized by physical effects of ostensibly paranormal origin, suggesting mischievous or destructive intent. These phenomena include such events as the unexplained movement or breakage of objects, loud raps, electrical disturbances, and the lighting of fires.

PRECOGNITION:
A form of ESP involving awareness of some future event that cannot be deduced from normally known data in the present.

PSI:
A general term used either as a noun or adjective to identify ESP or PK.

PSYCHOKINESIS (PK):
Paranormal action; the influence of mind on a physical system that cannot be entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known physical energy.

RANDOM EVENT GENERATOR (REG):
An apparatus (typically electronic) incorporating an element capable of generating a random sequence of outputs; used in automated tests of psi for generating target sequences; in tests of PK, it may itself be the target system that the subject is required to influence; also called a random number generator (RNG).

RECURRENT SPONTANEOUS PSYCHOKINESIS (RSPK):
Expression for paranormal physical effects that occur repeatedly over a period of time; used especially as a technical term for poltergeist disturbances.

REMOTE VIEWING:
A term for ESP used especially in the context of an experimental design wherein a percipient attempts to describe the surroundings of a geographically distant agent.

RUN:
A fixed group of successive trials in a test of psi.

SPONTANEOUS CASE:
Any psychic occurrence that takes place naturally, and is often unanticipated-psi in a real-life situation, as opposed to the experimentally-elicited psi phenomena of the laboratory.

TARGET:
In a test of ESP, the object or event that the percipient attempts to identify through information paranormally acquired; in a test of PK, the physical system, or a prescribed outcome thereof, that the subject attempts to influence or bring about.

TELEPATHY:
The paranormal acquisition of information about the thoughts, feelings, or activity of another conscious being.