copyright 2008 by Gary L. Pullman
Note: Unless otherwise noted, definitions are courtesy of dictionary.die.net, an Internet dictionary in the public domain.
D
Daniken, Erich von--author of Chariot of the Gods and other books which allege that the ancient or prehistoric earth was visited by extraterrestrials who may have manipulated human evolution (the author).
Déjà vu--the experience of thinking that a new situation had occurred before.
Demon--one of the evil spirits of traditional Jewish and Christian belief.
Deport--an object that vanishes during a séance (the author).
Determinism--a philosophical doctrine holding that all events are inevitable consequences of antecedent sufficient causes; often understood as denying the possibility of free will
Dianetics--the psuedo-scientific doctrine that engrams (traces on protoplasm caused by stimuli) cause mental problems that can be cured by the elimination of such traces from one’s “bank” of such engrams (the author).
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs, surviving--the belief that dinosaurs survive in some remote parts of the world (the author).
Divination--prophecy (or the pretense of prophecy) by supernatural means.
Divine, encounters with the--the belief that people have encountered God or angels and may again encounter them, either face to face or through messengers or other media (the author).
Divine fallacy--an argument from incredulity that posits God as the author of inexplicable phenomena (the author).
Dixon, Jeanne--(1918-1997) an astrologer and self-proclaimed psychic witch.
Double-blind test--a test in which the controls (standards of comparison) are unknown to both researcher and subject (the author).
Dowsing--searching for underground water or minerals by using a dowsing rod.
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan and Cottingley fairy photographs--Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, believed that photographs of cutout cardboard fairies posed by the Cottingley girls were real beings (the author).
Dreams, interpreting--the interpretation and explanation of dream images according to philosophical, theological, psychological, or some other system (the author).
Dreams, prophetic--the foretelling of future events through dreams (the author).
Druid--a pre-Christian priest among the Celts of ancient Gaul and Britain and Ireland.
Dryad--a deity or nymph of the woods.
Dualism--the doctrine that reality consists of two basic opposing elements, often taken to be mind and matter (or mind and body), or good and evil.
E
Earth, flat--the belief that the Earth is flat.
Earth, Flat Earth Society--an English organization that endorses and promotes the view that the Earth is flat and challenges the belief in a spherical Earth (the author).
Earth, hollow--the belief that the Earth is hollow and houses the lost tribes of Israel and/or extraterrestrial aliens (the author).
Ectoplasm--in spiritualism, the substance supposed to emanate from the body of the medium during a trance.
Electromagnetic field--a space occupied energy derived from ions; some claim that such a field indicates the presence of ghosts (the author).
Electronic voice phenomenon--tape-recorded messages of sounds taken during the investigation of an alleged haunting that were nit heard on the scene and resemble human voices and are used as evidence for the existence of ghosts (the author).
Elf--in folklore, fairies that are somewhat mischievous.
Enfield poltergeist--an alleged haunting of a London residence by poltergeists (the author).
Empiricism--the doctrine that knowledge derives from experience.
Energy--the capacity of a physical system to do work; the units of energy are joules or ergs; "energy can take a wide variety of forms."
Enneagram--a pseudo-psychological test that identifies personality types according to nine ego-archetype patterns, as (1) reformers, critics, and perfectionists, (2) helpers, givers, and caretakers, (3) achievers, performers, and succeeders, (4) romantics, individuals, and artists, (5) observers, thinkers, and investigators, (6) loyalists, devil’s advocates, and defenders, (7) enthusiasts, adventurers, and sensationalists, (8) leaders, protectors, and challengers, and (9) mediators, peacemakers, and preservationists (Wikipedia).
Evil eyes for sale
Evil Eye--a look that is believed to have the power of inflicting harm.
Exorcism--freeing from evil spirits; dispossession.
Extrasensory perception (ESP)--apparent power to perceive things that are not present to the senses; clairvoyance; second sight.
F
Face on Mars--Martian rock formations which, from space, resemble a human face and which are, for some, evidence of the past or present occupation of the planet by intelligent life (the author).
Fairy--small, human in form, playful, having magical powers.
Fakir--a Muslim or Hindu mendicant monk who is regarded as a holy man.
False analogy--a set of similarities between two items that are neither strong enough nor numerous enough to warrant the conclusion that one derives from them (the author).
False dilemma--the error in reasoning that occurs when a person does not consider all possible alternatives or outcomes; also known as the either-or fallacy (the author).
False memory--a fantasy thought to be a true memory or an actual memory that is distorted in recall (the author).
Familiar--a spirit (usually in animal form) that acts as an assistant to a witch or wizard.
Fata Morgana--a mirage or other optical illusion, such as the reflection of a city in the sky, caused by a temperature inversion; named for Arthurian sorceress Morgan Le Fay; the phenomenon may explain the legend of the Flying Dutchman and some UFO sightings (the author).
The girls to whom the Virgin Mary appeared at Fatima
Fatima--Fatima, Portugal, is the site at which the Virgin Mary reportedly appeared in a vision to three children, delivering a prophecy concerning the reality of hell; a second, believed to refer to World War I and World War II, and a controversial third, the meaning of which is still debated (the author).
Feng shui--a system by which natural energies are balanced in specific environments to maximize their benefits (the author).
Fetish--a charm superstitiously believed to embody magical powers.
Feral children--children allegedly reared by wolves or other wild animals (the author).
Fire walking--the ability to walk over live coals, hot stones, or fire, as a test of one’s faith (the author).
Flying Dutchman--a ghost ship condemned to forever sail the sea; the Fata Morgana may explain this supposed apparition (the author).
Flying saucer (unidentified flying object, UFO)--an (apparently) flying object whose nature is unknown; especially those considered to have extraterrestrial origins.
Foo fighter--UFO’s described, usually as a ball or ball of light, seen by fighter pilots during World War II (the author).
Ford, Arthur hoax--American psychic who claims to have channeled messages from a spirit guide named Fletcher concerning the deceased magician Harry Houdini, which were subsequently proven to have been fraudulent (the author).
Fort, Charles--a collector of anecdotes concerning bizarre and inexplicable phenomena, such as rains of toads or blood (the author).
Fortean Society--an American organization, founded by Tiffany Thayer and various writers, including Theodore Dreiser, Booth Tarkington, Ben Hecht, Alexander Woolcott, Dorothy Parker, and H. L. Mencken, to promotes the theories and views of Charles Fort (Wikipedia)
Fortean Times--a British magazine published monthly to promote the theories and views of Charles Fort; its “general content” includes “general Forteana, anomalous phenomena, apparitions, bizarre deaths, conspiracy theories, crop circles, crypto zoology, cults and would-be messiahs, fringe science, hoaxes, mutants (animal and human), parapsychology, religious phenomena (stigmata, appearances and simulacra and miracles. . . ), natural simulacra, UFOs, [and] urban legends” (Wikipedia).
Fortune telling--divination by various means (the author).
Fox, Kate and Maggie--sisters who claimed to be victims of poltergeist activity who later confessed to perpetuating a hoax that, ironically (or maybe not so ironically) helped to establish the credibility of spiritualists’ claims and of spiritualism in general (the author).
Francis of Assisi, St.--Roman Catholic saint who could supposedly levitate and communicate with animals; according to legends, he actually preached to birds (the author).
Frankenstein--novel by Mary Shelley (the author) in which an alchemist assembles a monster from parts of corpses and brings it to life with electricity (the author).
Freemason (Mason)--a member of an international secret society, the Free and Accepted Masons (the author).
Freud, Sigmund--founder of psychoanalysis, dream analysis, and related psychological views which are no longer generally recognized as valid (the author).