Parapsychology: Dictionary of Parapsychology C-D

A dictionary of Parapsychology. Please note that words in grey are hyperlinked to a corresponding archive with articles related to that particular topic.

C

Cabinet

A box or curtained enclosure in which a physical medium is secured and from which various phenomena may manifest (e.g., lights, objects moving, instruments played). Certain stage magicians can simulate this procedure with great effect.

Call

Response made by a subject in a card-guessing or other ESP test.

Candomble

A Brazilian spiritist religion. See also Umbanda, Voodoo.

Card Guessing

An experimental test for ESP in which subjects guess the identity of a set of cards (e.g., playing cards or Zener cards).

Cartomancy

Fortune telling using cards. See also tarot.

Cerebral Anoxia

Lack of oxygen to the brain, often causing sensory distortions and hallucinations. Sometimes used to explain features of the near-death experience.

Chance

Random, unpredictable influences on events.

Channeling

Receiving messages and inspiration from discarnate entities. See also medium.

Charm

A spell or object possessing magic power.

Christian Science

A religious healing movement founded by Mary Baker Eddy. Rejects orthodox medical practice.

Cipher Test

A coded message left by a person who intends to communicate the cipher after death.

Circle

A group of people who hold seances. See also mediumship.

Clairaudience

The paranormal obtaining of information by hearing sounds or voices. See also clairvoyance, clairsentience.

Clairsentience

An archaic term that refers to the paranormal obtaining of information using faculties other than vision or hearing. Cf. clairaudience, clairvoyance, empathy, intuition.

Clairvoyance

A general term that refers to the paranormal obtaining of information about an object or event. In modern usage, this does not necessarily refer to obtaining information visually. Cf. clairaudience, clairsentience, ESP, psi.

Clairvoyant

See clairvoyant medium.

Clairvoyant Medium

Or clairvoyant. A person who obtains information paranormally (often by spirit communication) without the need to enter into a trance state. Cf. trance medium.

Closed Deck

A set of cards used in a card-guessing test where each card appears a fixed number of times. Statistical analysis of research data using a closed deck differs from statistical analysis of data using an open deck.

Coincidence

The occurrence, within a short space of time, of two or more meaningfully related events and without any apparent causal connection between them. Coincidences are sometimes bizarre and extraordinarily improbable. See also synchronicity.

Cold Reading

A reading given with no prior knowledge of the sitter. Often a mixture of very general statements which could apply to anyone, together with inferences made from cues presented by the sitter (e.g., physical appearance, clothes, tone of voice, statements made). Cf. hot reading.

Collective Apparition

An apparition seen simultaneously by more than one person.

Collective Unconscious

Concept put forward by C.G. Jung to refer to a level of unconscious thought and experience shared collectively by humans.

Communication

In mediumship, a message purported to be from a discarnate entity.

Communicator

A discarnate entity from whom the medium receives messages. See also drop-in communicator.

Confederate

A person who secretly provides information to a fraudulent psychic or mentalist.

Conjuring

Using trickery to simulate paranormal effects, generally for the purpose of entertainment.

Contact Mind Reading

A technique simulating telepathy, in which the "mind reader" (who generally holds a hand or arm) responds to slight muscle movements produced unconsciously by the person whose mind is apparently being read. Also known as muscle reading, Cumberlandism or Hellstromism.

Control

(a) In experimental parapsychology a procedure undertaken in order to ensure that the experiment is conducted in a standard fashion and so that results are not unduly influenced by extraneous factors. See also control group, artefact.

(b) In spiritualism, a discarnate entity who communicates with a trance medium and who generally controls the trance state.

Control Group

A group of people whose performance is compared with that of experimental subjects. Cf. experimental group.

Corn Circle

Circular (or more elaborate) formations found in growing crops, most commonly in Southern Britain. Sometimes they are associated with UFO sightings. Many formations appear to have been intelligently created and to have some symbolic meaning. Despite several "confessions" made by various individuals and groups, the crop circle mystery remains unsolved.

Correlation

An association between two or more events or variables.

Correlation Coefficient

A mathematical of the degree of association between two or more measures.

Cosmic Consciousness

A blissful experience in which the person becomes aware of the whole universe as a living being. See also altered state of consciousness, mystical experience.

Coven

A group of witches

Crisis Apparition

An apparition in which a person is seen within a few hours of an important crisis such as death, accident or sudden illness.

Cross-correspondence

(a) Separate items of information, received independently by two or more mediums, which make sense only when pieced together.

(b) THE cross-correspondences is a classic case of highly complex cross-correspondences which continued from 1901 to 1932 among a group of automatists associated with the Society for Psychical Research.

Cryptomnesia

Knowledge (acquired in normal ways) that may be revealed without the person remembering its source. Such memories may falsely appear to be paranormal revelations. Sometimes cryptomnesia is used as an explanation for apparently paranormal experiences such as xenoglossy or past-life memories.

Crystal Gazing

Staring into a reflecting surface (e.g., mirror, glass, crystal, liquid) in order to obtain paranormal information. Also known as scrying. See also divination.

Cumberlandism

See contact mind reading.

Curse

Words spoken or written in order to influence others paranormally, causing them harm. See also spell, hex.

D

Daemon (Daimon)

A guardian spirit who communicates inspiration and advice. See also guardian angel.

Death

Generally understood to be the extinction of an organism's life. Many doctrines assert some form of mental or spiritual survival of physical death. See also deathbed experience, haunting, mediumship, near-death experience, reincarnation.

Deathbed Experience

A dying person's awareness of the presence of dead friends or relatives. See also near-death experience.

Decline Effect

A decrease in performance on a psi test when the test is repeated. Cf. incline effect.

Deja Experience

See deja vu.

Deja Vu

A person's feeling that current events have been experienced before.

Delta

A term used to refer to any kind of anomalous experience.

Dematerialization

The paranormal fading or disappearance of a physical object. See also deport.

Demonic Possession

Possession by evil spirits. See also exorcism.

Deport

The paranormal movement of objects out of a secure enclosed space. Cf. apport. See also dematerialization, teleportation.

Dice Test

Experimental techniques for investigating psychokinesis, in which a subject attempts to influence the fall of dice.

Direct Voice

A voice heard in a seance which does not seem to emanate from any person. The voice may seem to come out of thin air, or from a trumpet used specifically for this purpose. Cf. indirect voice.

Discarnate Entity

A spirit or non-material entity. Often used to refer to the personality of a deceased individual. See also channeling, communication, mediumship, possession, survival.

Displacement

Responses on a psi test that correspond systematically to targets other than the intended one (e.g., those before or after).

Dissociation

Activity performed outside of normal conscious awareness, or mental processes that suggest the existence of separate centres of consciousness.

Divination

Practices involving the interpretation of signs or symbols that seek to obtain oracular knowledge of events. Examples of divinatory practices are geomancy, tarot, I Ching, sortilege, and reading tea leaves.

Divining Rod

A forked rod (or sometimes a pair of L-shaped rods) used in dowsing.

DMILS

"Direct Mental Interaction with Living Systems". Psychokinetic influences on physiological processes. See also Bio-PK.

Doppelganger

A mirror image or double of a person. See also astral body.

Double

A duplicate of one's own body. See also astral body

Double Blind

An experimental procedure in which neither the subject nor experimenter is aware of key features of the experiment.

Down Through Technique (DT)

An experimental test for clairvoyance in which the person guesses the order of a stacked series of target symbols (e.g., cards) from top to bottom. Cf. up through technique.

Dowsing

The paranormal detection of underground water or mineral deposits (or lost persons and objects) using a divining rod or pendulum.

Dream

See paranormal dream.

Drop-in Communicator

An uninvited communicator who 'drops in' at a sitting.