A Dictionary of the Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Otherworldly (V - Z)

copyright 2008 by Gary L. Pullman

Note: Unless otherwise noted, definitions are courtesy of dictionary.die.net, an Internet dictionary in the public domain.

V

Vampire--a corpse that rises at night to drink the blood of the living.

Vanishing--the sudden disappearance of an object that may or may not reappear or be seen again; many such vanishings are said to have occurred in the so-called Devil’s, or Bermuda, Triangle; see “Bermuda Triangle” and “Saladin balloon” (the author).

Veronica cloth

Veronica cloth, miraculous image of Christ on--veils or other cloths upon which the image of Christ’s face appears or is a part, as a result of a miracle; see “holy relic”) (the author).

Victor, wild boy of Aveyron-- “a boy who apparently lived his entire childhood alone in the woods before being found wandering the woods near Saint Sernin sur Rance, France (near Toulouse) in 1797” (Wikipedia); see “feral children.”

Virgin Mary--the mother of Jesus Christ; according to the gospels, she conceived as a virgin, impregnated by God, and bore and delivered his son, the founder of Christianity, in which religion he is considered “the only begotten son of God”; see “Fatima, Virgin Mary appears at” (the author).

Vitalism--a doctrine that life is a vital principle distinct from physics and chemistry.

Voodoo--a religious cult practiced chiefly in Caribbean countries (especially Haiti); involves witchcraft and animistic deities.

W

Wandering Jew (by Gustave Dore)

Wandering Jew--according to legend, a Jew who was cursed to wander the earth forever because he taunted Jesus on the way to his crucifixion (the author).

Warlock--a male witch or demon.

Wells, H. G.--science fiction author (see his story in the column to the right) (the author).

Werewolf--a monster able to change appearance from human to wolf.

Witch--a female sorcerer or magician.

Wizard--one who practices magic or sorcery.

X

Xenophobia--an irrational fear of strangers (the author).

Y

Ying-yang

Ying-yang--a Chinese symbol of opposites united or reconciled (the author).

Z

Zen Buddhism-- “school of Mahayana Buddhism that asserts that enlightenment can be attained through meditation, self-contemplation, and intuition rather than through faith and devotion and that is practiced mainly in China, Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. (Answers.com).

Zombies

Zombie--a dead body that has been brought back to life by a supernatural force; a spirit or supernatural force that reanimates a dead body; god of voodoo cults of African origin worshipped especially in West Indies; someone who acts or responds in a mechanical or apathetic way.

Zombie, philosophical--a a human body without consciousness which would nevertheless behave like a human body with consciousness (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

A Note on the Dictionary Entries

Many short stories, novels, epic poems, television series, and motion pictures that involve elements of Gothic romance or horror are based, in part or in full, upon the concepts, beliefs, theories, legends, or folklore mentioned in the definitions of the terms in this blog’s “Dictionary of the Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Otherworldly.” Here is a sample:

Ad hoc analysis: many stories, in print and on film, make use of the ad hoc hypothesis as a means of explaining, explaining away, or diverting attention from the cause of the bizarre series of incidents that have been taking place of late.

Aliens populate many stories, including H. G. Wells’ The War of the Worlds and countless movies, from Invaders from Mars to Alien and Independence Day.

Dracula nearly always wears an amulet.

The Argo and its crew, the Argonauts, appear in several movies of the 1950’s, including Jason and the Argonauts.

Stephen King alludes to auras throughout Insomnia.

Willow Rosenberg channels spirits in several Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes, as do several of the series’ characters in “Conversations with Dead People.”

Close Encounters of the Third Kind occur in the movie of that title and in many others in which human characters encounter extraterrestrial aliens.

Crop circles occur in Signs.

In Stephen King’s Children of the Corn and other films and stories, cults are central to the plot.

Curses are featured in many films, one of which is Curse of the Mummy.

Buffy Summers has a déjà vu experience in “Becoming, Part I.”

Demons appear in countless stories, in print and on film, including, perhaps mist notably, in William Peter Blatty’s novel The Exorcist and the movie based upon it.

Dinosaurs still walk the earth (or part of it) in such films as The Lost World, King Kong, One Million Years B. C., and plenty of others, and they’re brought back in Jurassic Park.

Stephen King’s novel, Desperation, includes an encounter with the divine, as do many other horror stories, such as Bentley Little's novels, University and Revelation.

Prophetic dreams are plot elements in a number of horror stories, including Nightmare on Elm Street.

The protagonist of the film 1408, based upon Stephen King’s short story by the same title, has evidence of the haunting he experienced in the tape-recorded voice of his deceased daughter, an example of electronic voice phenomena.

Poltergeists appear in Poltergeist and many other movies and in some novels.

What would The Exorcist be without demonic possession and exorcism?

Feral children are the adversaries in Cat People and other films, and, one might argue, appear, in a sense, in H. G. Wells’ novel, The Island of Dr, Moreau.

The theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung inform virtually every horror story every written, but are especially discernable in Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray and Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.

Ghosts are plentiful in the fiction of horror, appearing in a myriad stories, not the least of which by any means is Henry James’ classic, The Turn of the Screw.

Hallucinations appear frequently as ad hoc hypotheses to account for the mysterious doings that characters perform and the bizarre beliefs they hold.

Without hell, Dante couldn’t have written The Inferno any more than John Milton could have penned Paradise Lost.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s Christabel is about a lamia.

Lycanthropy and full moons underlie every story ever written or filmed in which a werewolf appears, from The Wolfman and I Was a Teenage Werewolf to The Howling and An American Werewolf in London.

It’s largely thanks to lucid dreaming that Nancy is able to confront Freddie Kreuger in A Nightmare on Elm Street.

Logical positivism, as a convenient ad hoc hypothesis, underlies the initial rejection of supernatural realities in movies such as The Exorcist and countless other movies that include demons, vampires, and other things that go bump in the night.

A fungus, delivered courtesy of a meteorite, is the death of the character in the “The Lonesome Death Of Jordy Verril” segment of Stephen King’s Creepshow.

Numerology is at the heart of the psychological thriller, The Number 23.

Ouija Board is about, well, a Ouija board. So is Ouija.

Psychics appear in Poltergeist, Rose Red, The Psychic, The Shining, and many other horror stories, in print and on film.

Repressed memories are vital to The Turn of the Screw and the movie, The Innocents, based upon the Henry James ghost story.

Urban Legends is based upon urban legends.

Mummies, trances, vampires, voodoo, witches, and zombies are in movie after movie and book upon book, including The Mummy, Trance, Dracula, Burn, Witch, Burn!, and Night of the Living Dead.

Sources

The following sources were used in compiling this dictionary:

About.com

American Heritage Dictionary

Charles Fort Files, The

Dictionary.die.net
Famous Scientologists (Church of Scientology)

Skeptic’s Dictionary, The
Wikipedia

Note: Unless otherwise noted, definitions are courtesy of dictionary.die.net, an Internet dictionary in the public domain.

A Dictionary of the Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Otherworldly (S - U)

copyright 2008 by Gary L. Pullman

Note: Unless otherwise noted, definitions are courtesy of dictionary.die.net, an Internet dictionary in the public domain.

S

St. Elmo’s Fire--A visible electric discharge on a pointed object, such as the mast of a ship or the wing of an airplane, during an electrical storm. Also called corposant (Answers.com).

Saladin balloon--a government balloon that “shot up” into the sky with a passenger, Walter Powell, on board, becoming lost in the vicinity of a UFO (The Charles Fort Files).

Satan--in Judeo-Christian religion, the chief spirit of evil and adversary of God; tempter of mankind; master of Hell.

Satanic ritual abuse--“alleged systematic abuse of children by Satanists” (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

Satanism--the worship of devils (especially Satan).

Satyr--one of a class of woodland deities; attendant on Bacchus; identified with Roman fauns.

Scapulimancy-- “a decision procedure used by the Naskapi Indians whereby the shoulder of a caribou is held over hot coals causing cracks in the bone which are then used to direct a hunting party” (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

Scientism--“the self-annihilating view that only scientific claims are meaningful, which is not a scientific claim and hence, if true, not meaningful. Thus, scientism is either false or meaningless” (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

Scientology--“the religion that was initially established as a secular philosophy in 1952 by science-fiction author L. Ron Hubbard” (Wikipedia). Actors Tom Cruise, John Travolta, Kirstie Alley, and Karen Black and singer-actress Brandy Norwood are among its netter-known members, according to Famous Scientologists (Church of Scientology).

Scrying--“a type of divination” in which one seeks “to scry or descry is to spy out or discover by the eye objects at a distance”; crystal ball gazing is an example (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

Sea serpents--monsters reported by sailors to inhabit the sea, some of which may have been kraken or other natural creatures that were unfamiliar to those who sighted them; Beowulf claims to have fought and killed many of them during a swimming contest against Breca (the author).

Séance--a meeting of spiritualists; "the séance was held in the medium's parlor."

Shamanism--any animistic religion similar to Asian shamanism especially as practiced by certain Native American tribes; an animistic religion of northern Asia having the belief that the mediation between the visible and the spirit worlds is effected by shamans.

Simulacra--A likeness; a semblance; a mock appearance; a sham.

Shelley, Mary--author of Frankenstein, or The Modern Prometheus; wife of the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley Sleep paralysis--“Sleep paralysis is a condition that occurs in the state just before dropping off to sleep (the hypnagogic state) or just before fully awakening from sleep (the hypnopompic state). The condition is characterized by being unable to move or speak. It is often associated with a feeling that there is some sort of presence, a feeling which often arouses fear but is also accompanied by an inability to cry out. The paralysis may last only a few seconds. The experience may involve visual, auditory, or tactile hallucinations.” (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

Soul--the immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life.

Sorcery--the belief in magical spells that harness occult forces or evil spirits to produce unnatural effects in the world.

Spontaneous human combustion--the reported bursting into flame, possibly from an internal, but unknown cause, so that the body or part thereof is consumed by intense heat that does not destroy nearby objects, such as the chair in which the person is seated or other objects in near proximity to the body (the author).

Spirit guide--the spirit of a dead person or a supernatural entity that mediums claim to channel, during séances, automatic writing sessions, or at other times, and who often reveals occult information to the medium and otherwise offers guidance concerning various topics, personal and otherwise (the author).

Spirit photograph--the alleged production of images on photographic media by paranormal means such as psychokinesis or of paranormal phenomena such as ghosts or astral bodies (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

Subliminal--below the threshold of conscious perception. Superstition--an irrational belief arising from ignorance or fear.

Stigmata--marks resembling the wounds on the crucified body of Christ.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge--an assemblage of upright stones with others placed horizontally on their tops, on Salisbury Plain, England,-- generally supposed to be the remains of an ancient Druidical temple.

Synchronicity--the relation that exists when things occur at the same time; "the drug produces an increased synchrony of the brain waves."

Synaesthesia--a sensation that normally occurs in one sense modality occurs when another modality is stimulated.

T

Talisman--a trinket or piece of jewelry thought to be a protection against evil.

Tantra--doctrine of enlightenment as the realization of the oneness of one's self and the visible world; combines elements of Hinduism and paganism including magical and mystical elements like mantras and mudras and erotic rites; especially influential in Tibet.

Tarot cards--cards used to tell fortunes (or, in Europe, more commonly, to play games); the deck consists of 22 cards of the major arcana (“secrets”) and 56 cards of the minor arcana. The major arcana includes such cards as the Fool, the Emperor, the Empress, the Hierophant, the World, the Star, the Sun, Death, and the Devil; their meanings can be reversed as well (the author).

Telekinesis--a the power to move something by thinking about it without the application of physical force.

Teleportation--the movement of material objects through space by the power of the mind alone (psychokinesis) or by other means.

Testimonial evidence--a type of anecdotal evidence based upon one’s own personal experience, such as is sometimes given by churchgoers concerning how God has affected their lives or changed them as people, although testimonial evidence may include any type of testimony, such as eye-witness courtroom testimony; such evidence is regarded as seriously flawed and unreliable by scientists (the author).

Theosophy--belief based on mystical insight into the nature of God and the soul.

Theurgy--magic performed with the help of beneficent spirits.

Third Eye--a metaphysical concept that symbolizes some people’s ability to experience paranormal or supernatural phenomena (visions, clairvoyance, poetic inspiration) that come from internal stimuli rather than external stimuli; also called the “inner eye” or the “mind’s-eye”; sometimes symbolizes intuition or the imagination (the author).

Tinnitus--a ringing or booming sensation in one or both ears; a symptom of an ear infection or Meniere's disease.

Twain, Mark--American author; wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and many other works combining humor and social satire; had a prophetic dream in which his brother, Henry, was killed (the author).

Trance--a psychological state induced by (or as if induced by) a magical incantation; a state of mind in which consciousness is fragile and voluntary action is poor or missing; a state resembling deep sleep.

Troll--in Scandinavian folklore, a supernatural creature (either a dwarf or a giant) that is supposed to live in caves or in the mountains.

Shroud of Turin

Turin, Shroud of--a burial cloth that is said to bear the likeness of the crucified Christ, perhaps as a result of radiation that was released by his body upon his death; carbon dating has cast doubt upon its authenticity as Christ’s burial shroud; see “holy relic” (the author).

Truman, President Harry S--U. S. president who supposedly signed a “Top Secret, Eyes Only” document recounting the discovery of extraterrestrial corpses at a UFO crash site near Roswell, NM, and establishing a secret committee for investigating these and other visitors from other planets; the committee was known as Majestic-12 and included well-known, well-respected government officials and scientists (the author).

U

Underworld--(in various religions) the world of the dead.

Unidentified flying objects (UFOs, flying saucers)--any object that moves under its own power and cannot be accounted for (by the observer) by reference to known phenomena; many such objects turn out to be natural objects (weather balloons, clouds, atmospheric effects, aircraft, planets, meteorites); some believe them to be extraterrestrial spacecraft visiting Earth (the author).

Urantia book--a book that alleges to have been written on the basis of information provided by “superhuman personalities,” although “Matthew Block. . . has identified hundreds of plagiarized passages” in the book (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

Urban legend-- “An apocryphal story involving incidents of the recent past, often including elements of humor and horror, that spreads quickly and is popularly believed to be true” (American Heritage Dictionary); see “testimonial evidence.”

Urine Therapy, the book

Urine therapy--the drinking of one’s or another’s urine (or its topical use) to maintain health and cure disease; supposedly, Mahatma Gandhi was a practitioner (the author).

A Dictionary of the Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Otherworldly (P - R)

copyright 2008 by Gary L. Pullman

Note: Unless otherwise noted, definitions are courtesy of dictionary.die.net, an Internet dictionary in the public domain.

P

Paganism--any of various religions other than Christianity or Judaism or Islamism.

Palmistry--telling fortunes by lines on the palm of the hand.

Pandora--in Greek mythology, the first woman; created by Hephaestus on orders from Zeus who presented her to Epimetheus along with a box filled with evils.

Panspermia--The theory that microorganisms or biochemical compounds from outer space are responsible for originating life on Earth and possibly in other parts of the universe where suitable atmospheric conditions exist (American Heritage Dictionary)

Pantheism--belief in multiple Gods.

Papyromancy--divination using paper (the author).

Paradigm shift--“a change in basic assumptions within the ruling theory of science” (Wikipedia).

Paranormal--seemingly outside normal sensory channels; not in accordance with scientific laws.

Parapsychology--phenomena that appear to contradict physical laws and suggest the possibility of causation by mental processes.

Penile plethysmograph--“that measures changes in blood flow in the penis in response to audio and/or visual stimuli. It is typically used to determine the level of sexual arousal as the subject is exposed to sexually suggestive content, such as photos, movies or audio” (Wikipedia).

Pentagram--a star with 5 points; formed by 5 straight lines between the vertices of a pentagon and enclosing another pentagon.

Perpetual motion machine--a machine which, once it is set in motion, moves continuously thereafter, requiring less energy to operate than it generates; perpetual motion machines are impossible, as they violate the first law of thermodynamics (the author).

Pets, homing of--the ability of pet animals to find their way home over long distances by unknown means (the author).

Phrenology--a now abandoned study of the shape of skull as indicative of the strengths of different faculties.

Philosopher’s stone--a substance that is alleged to be able to transform a base metal, such as lead, into gold (the author).

Physicalism--the doctrine that only physical things exist and that, consequently, all things that exist are physical (the author).

Physiognomy--the human face, believed to be a key to interpreting character (the author).

Piltdown Hoax--a fraud in which the jawbone of an orangutan was represented to belong to and a human skull which had belonged to an undiscovered early form of human being (the author).

Placebo effect--a therapeutic effect without a pharmaceutical or medical basis, simply as a result of the belief that the substance provided will help to alleviate symptoms or remedy physical condition (the author).

Plant perception--the theory or belief that plants are sentient or conscious of their environment and react to stimuli (the author).

Plesiosaur

Plesiosaur--extinct marine reptile with a small head on a long neck a short tail and four paddle-shaped limbs; of the Jurassic and Cretaceous (dictionary.die.net); some believe that the Loch Ness monster may be a plesiosaur (the author).

Pluto--the Greek god of the underworld.

Poe, Edgar Allan--American author of “tales of the grotesque and the arabesque”; Poe gave the modern horror story its structure and many of its themes (the author).

Poltergeist--a noisy ghost, which is alleged to cause mischief and may be destructive and dangerous (the author).

Polygraph--see “lie detector.”

Possession, demonic or Satanic--the alleged take over and control of a person’s body by Satan or a lesser evil spirit; priests may attempt to evict the spirit by exorcising it (the author).

Post hoc fallacy--see “magical thinking.”

Pragmatic fallacy--“the pragmatic fallacy is committed when one argues that something is true because it works and where ‘works’ means something like “I’m satisfied with it,” “I feel better,” “I find it beneficial, meaningful, or significant,” or “It explains things for me” (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

Precognition (foretelling the future)--knowledge of an event before it occurs.

Prometheus--in Greek mythology, the Titan who stole fire from Olympus and gave it to mankind.

Pseudo science--knowledge that appears to be or is represented as being scientific but does not conform to scientific principles or cannot be demonstrated as true or false by use of the scientific method; see pyramidology (the author).

PSI--”A term used to demarcate processes or causation associated with cognitive or physiological activity that fall outside of conventional scientific boundaries (ESP, for example)” (Wikipedia).

Psychic--pertaining to forces or mental processes outside the possibilities defined by natural or scientific laws; "psychic reader"; "psychical research"; a person apparently sensitive to things beyond the natural range of perception.

Psychic detective--a person who uses alleged osychic abilities to investigate crime (the author).

Psychic surgery--allegedly, the use of psychic means to perform surgical procedures (the author).

Psychoanalysis--a set of techniques for exploring underlying motives and a method of treating various mental disorders; "his physician recommended psychoanalysis."

Psychokinesis (moving objects by mental means)--the power to move something by thinking about it without the application of physical force.

Psychologism--the explanation of physical, social, historical, cultural, religious, or other facts, principles, beliefs, or values through psychological theory; often used derisively, when this approach is considered reductionistic (the author).

Psychology--the science of mental life.

Psychometry--any branch of psychology concerned with psychological measurements; The art of measuring the duration of mental processes, or of determining the time relations of mental phenomena.

Pterodactyl--extinct flying reptile.

Pyramidiocy--the supposedly scientific study of pyramids and their effects; a pseudo science (the author).

Q

No entries.

R

Rama--avatar of Vishnu; any of three incarnations: Ramachandra or Parashurama or Balarama.

Ramtha--“a 35,000 year-old spirit-warrior who appeared in JZ Knight’s kitchen in Tacoma, Washington, in 1977” (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

Randi's paranormal challenge--the offer of “a one-million-dollar prize to anyone who can show, under proper observing conditions, evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power,” made by James Randi, a “magician and author of numerous works skeptical of paranormal, supernatural, and pseudoscientific claims” (The Skeptic’s Dictionary)

Reflexology--the massaging of feet to diagnose and cure disease” (The Skeptic’s Dictionary)

Relic

Relic, holy--a memento, such as bones, a garment, or a body part, that is believed to have belonged to a holy person or saint; see “Christ, foreskin of” (the author).

Reincarnation--a second or new birth.

Remote viewing--the use of psychic powers (and map coordinates) to discern targets or other items of intelligence at specific locations from which the “viewer” is physically absent (the author).

Repressed memory--”the memory of a traumatic event unconsciously retained in the mind, where it is said to adversely affect conscious thought, desire, and action” (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

Retrocognition--“a type of clairvoyance involving knowledge of something after its occurrence through psychic means” (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

Revelation--The act of revealing, disclosing, or discovering to others what was before unknown to them.

Rod--“an insect caught in the act of flying by a video camera” and passed off as “some sort of unknown alien life form” (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

Roswell (New Mexico), UFO--site of the alleged crash of an extraterrestrial spaceship and the recovery of its injured occupants (the author).

Rumpology--“the art of reading the lines, crevices, dimples, and folds of the buttocks to divine the butt owner's character and get a glimpse of what lies ahead by analyzing what trails behind” (The Skeptic's Dictionary).

Rune--any character from an ancient Germanic alphabet used in Scandinavia from the 3rd century to the Middle Ages; "each rune had its own magical significance."

A Dictionary of the Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Otherworldly (M - O)

copyright 2008 by Gary L. Pullman

Note: Unless otherwise noted, definitions are courtesy of dictionary.die.net, an Internet dictionary in the public domain.

Magical thinking--belief characterized by assuming that because two or more things are similar in some ways, one can affect the other or others or that mistakes coincidence or correlation for cause (the author).

Magick--a misspelling of “magic” with the intention of distinguishing spells and incantations from the tricks and illusions of the stage magician (the author).

Magnet therapy--the use of magnets to treat or cure physical or emotional diseases, or other conditions (the author).

Marfa lights--lights that appear, vanish, and reappear, behaving strangely, even for lights, near the town of Marfa, Texas. There’s another near Joplin, Missouri, and others elsewhere (the author).

Massage therapy--the use of massage to run out one’s physical, emotional, and spiritual problems, somehow (the author).

Mayan prophecy--predictions about the future, based upon the unusual Mayan calendar (the author).

Meditation--the use of transcendental techniques to relax the mind and body, levitate, fly, and perform other apparent miracles (the author).

Medium--one who allegedly communicates with the spirits of the deceased, through channeling or some other means, often acting an an intermediary between the quick and the dead (the author).

Men in Black (MIB)--supposedly government agents or agents of some other organization that dress in black and intimidate people who claim to have seen UFO’s or to have been abducted by extraterrestrial beings (as if such people don’t already have enough problems) (the author).

Mentalist--a reputed mind-reader, or clairvoyant (the author).

Metaphysics--the branch of philosophy concerned with what may be known to be real and why; the chapter in Aristotle’s book that follows the chapter on “physics”; therefore, called “meta” (after) physics (the author).

Mermaids (sirens)--fish-women given to song (the author).

Mermaid

Meteorite--;a stony or metallic object that is the remains of a meteoroid that has reached the earth's surface (Dictionary.net); some allege that meteors bring with them microbes, seeds, or plants from elsewhere in the universe (see “panspermia“) (the author).

Mind--the soul, or seat of consciousness, said to exist by some (mostly religious) people (dualists), but denied existence by others (materialists) (the author).

Mind control--the control of another person’s mind (and thus his or her behavior) by another, usually using occult techniques, without the controlled person’s knowledge or consent (the author).

Minotaur--in Greek mythology, a creature whose upper half is that of a man, and whose lower half is that of a bull; we know they exist, because Theseus killed one (the author).

Miracle--a marvelous event manifesting a supernatural act of God.

Moody, Raymond--a parapsychologist whose works include studies of, and reports concerning, near-death experiences, altered states of consciousness, divination, past-life regression, and the like; he chaired University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Department of Consciousness Studies for five years before the department was discontinued (The Skeptic’s Dictionary)

Moon, full--a lunar phase that, according to some, inspires lunacy (and lycanthropy) (the author).

Moroni, angel--the angelic giver of the plates to Brigham Young.

Mothman--a West Virginia man-moth (the author).

Multiple personality disorder--the personality disorder in which a sufferer has ore than one personality who controls his or her behavior--Spider-Man, who is sometimes Peter Parker, is a textbook example, as are most other comic book superheroes (the author).

Murphy, Bridey--Virginia Tighe’s spiritual mouthpiece, who claimed she was a 19th-century Irishwoman who had nothing better to do, after being reincarnated, than channel herself, lilting accent and all, through Ms. Tighe, whether or not Tighe’s was hypnotized at the time (the author).

N

Naturalism--the doctrine that the world can be understood in scientific terms without recourse to spiritual or supernatural explanations.

Nazca lines--goggles (giant pictures drawn on the ground); many form animals, such as a monkey or a bird, or an arachnid, such as a spider (the author).

Near-death experience (NDE)--the belief among some patients who recover from a near-death experience that they encounter loved ones or God, sometimes after seeing a bright light or tunnel of light before being resuscitated or revived (the author).

Nephite tribe, and Mormons--the Nephite tribe is one of the so-called lost tribes of Israel; according to Mormonism, the tribe immigrated to America and one of its descendents, the leader Mormon, buried his book, Another Testament of Jesus Christ, which after it was published in 1830, became the Mormons’ book of faith, being held to be “more accurate” than the Bible or any other book (the author).

New Age--“of or relating to a complex of spiritual and consciousness-raising movements originating in the 1980s and covering a range of themes from a belief in spiritualism and reincarnation to advocacy of holistic approaches to health and ecology” (American Heritage Dictionary).

New World Order--any proposed change in the international political, social, cultural, and economic structure, real or imagined (the author).

Naiad--in Greek mythology, a nymph of lakes and springs and rivers and fountains.

Night terror--a nightmare on steroids (the author).

Noah's ark

Noah’s ark--a great boat, built by Noah, at the command of God, to carry two pairs of all animals and Noah and his family while the earth was under a flood, sent by God to drown the wicked (the author).

Numerology--the occult discipline that holds that numbers have hidden divinatory or other significance (the author).

O

Occam’s razor--the principle, advanced by William of Occam, that the simplest explanation of an event is to be preferred over more complicated ones (the author).

Occult--having an import not apparent to the senses nor obvious to the intelligence; beyond ordinary understanding; "mysterious symbols"; "the mystical style of Blake"; "occult lore"; "the secret learning of the ancients,"

Occultism--a certain Oriental system of theosophy. --A. P. Sinnett.

Ontology--the branch of philosophy that considers being, or existence, and its categories (the author).

Oracle--a priestly spokesman for the gods, who divulged the divine will to heroes (e. g., Oedipus of Thebes) and other supplicants (the author).

Orb--a sphere that is held, by some, to be a ghostly phenomenon (the author).

Orb

Ouji board--a board game, in which users use a planchette to determine answers to specific questions they ask (the author).

Ouspensky, Petyr Demianovich--a mystic who interpreted and popularized the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff, founder of The Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man (the author).

Out-of-body experience (OBE)--the perception that one has left one’s body; there is often a perception of floating above the body and looking down upon it (the author).

A Dictionary of the Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Otherworldly (J - L)

copyright 2008 by Gary L. Pullman

Note: Unless otherwise noted, definitions are courtesy of dictionary.die.net, an Internet dictionary in the public domain.

J

Joan of Arc (or, possibly, Leelee Sobrieski)

Joan of Arc--a Roman Catholic saint, formerly burned by the church as a heretic, who successfully led the French army against the English invaders and the Burgundian rebels to enthrone King Charles IV (the author).

Juggernaut--originally, an embodiment of the Hindu god Vishnu; now, any unstoppable force (the author).

Jung, Carl--a psychoanalyst and a one-time follower of Sigmund Freud; Jung developed the theory of a racial, or “collective unconscious” in which archetypes are stored (the author).

K

Kabbalah--A body of mystical teachings of rabbinical origin, often based on an esoteric interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures (American Heritage Dictionary).

Karma--in Hinduism and Buddhism, Hinduism and Buddhism, the effects of a person's actions that determine his destiny in his next incarnation.

Ketamine

Ketamine anesthetic--a dissociative anesthetic that may cause so-called near-death experiences (the author).

King, Stephen--a contemporary best-selling author of short stories, novels, and screenplays in the horror genre. He has also written non-fiction articles and books.

Kirlian photography--the photographing of objects which exhibit a halo, or aura, effect as a result of the images created on a photographic plate due to high-voltage electric fields, pressures, moisture, and other natural conditions (the author; The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

L

Lamarckian evolution--“A theory of biological evolution holding that species evolve by the inheritance of traits acquired or modified through the use or disuse of body parts” (“Lamarckism: Definition and Much More from Answers.com”).

Lamia--a monster capable of assuming a woman's form, who was said to devour human beings or suck their blood; a vampire; a sorceress; a witch.

Ley lines--“alignments of a number of places of geography interest, such as ancient megaliths” (Wikipedia).

Lie detector--a device that, by monitoring various physiological processes and conditions, such as blood pressure, heart rate, and muscle contractions, is said to be able to detect whether a person is telling the truth or lying; its results are not admissible as evidence in court proceedings and are controversial among scientists and other experts (the author).

Life after death (afterlife)--existence is some state that extends beyond the death of the physical body, as is a matter of faith in many religions (the author).

Abraham Lincoln

Lincoln, Abraham--16th president of the United States, whose term occurred during the American Civil War; Lincoln had a prophetic dream in which he foresaw his assassination, which followed several days later (the author)

Loch Ness monster--a sea-serpent-like animal, perhaps a plesiosaur, said to inhabit Scotland’s Loch Ness (the author).

Logical positivism--“a 20th century philosophical movement that holds characteristically that all meaningful statements are either analytic or conclusively verifiable or at least confirmable by observation and experiment and that metaphysical theories are therefore strictly meaningless —called also logical empiricism” (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary).

Lucid dreaming--a dream during which the dreamer recognizes that he or she is asleep and dreaming and in which he or she may consciously interact with the dream images (the author).

Lycanthropy--in folklore, the magical ability of a person to assume the characteristics of a wolf; in medicine, a kind of erratic melancholy, in which the patient imagines himself a wolf, and imitates the actions of that animal.

A Dictionary of the Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Otherworldly (D - F)

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).

A Dictionary of the Paranormal, the Supernatural, and the Otherworldly (A - C)

copyright 2008 by Gary L. Pullman

Note: Unless otherwise noted, definitions are courtesy of dictionary.die.net, an Internet dictionary in the public domain.

A

The Alchemist

Abracadabra--A mystical word or collocation of letters. . . . worn on an amulet. It was supposed to ward off fever. At present the word is used chiefly in jest to denote something without meaning; jargon.

Abominable Snowman (Bigfoot, Sasquatch, Yeti)--a large hairy humanoid creature said to live in the Himalayas.

Acupuncture--The insertion of needles into the living tissues for remedial purposes.

Ad hoc hypothesis--an interpretation of facts that explains away evidence that contradicts a favored idea or belief (the author).

Akashic record--a spiritual or incorporeal plane upon which all knowledge is stored (the author).

Alchemy--An imaginary art which aimed to transmute the baser metals into gold, to find the panacea, or universal remedy for diseases, etc. It led the way to modern chemistry.
Alien (Extraterrestrial Biological Entities, EBEs)--a form of life assumed to exist outside the Earth or its atmosphere.

Allopathy--That system of medical practice which aims to combat disease by the use of remedies which produce effects different from those produced by the special disease treated; -- a term invented by Hahnemann to designate the ordinary practice, as opposed to homeopathy.

Alpha wave--the normal brainwave in the electroencephalogram of a person who is awake but relaxed; occurs with a frequency of 8-12 hertz.

Altered state of consciousness--a trance or trance-like state of mind (the author)

Amityville (New York) haunting--a hoax; the Lutz family, owners of a Dutch Colonial house in Amityville, NY, claimed their residence was haunted; prior to their purchase and residence in the house, Ronald DeFeo, Jr., killed six of his family members in the same house (the author).

Amulet--An ornament, gem, or scroll, or a package containing a relic, etc., worn as a charm or preservative against evils or mischief, such as diseases and witchcraft, and generally inscribed with mystic forms or characters.

Angel--spiritual being attendant upon God.

Animal ghost--the ghost of an animal.

Animism--the doctrine that all natural objects and the universe itself have souls.

Anomaly--deviation from the normal or common order or form or rule.

Appeal to authority fallacy: the idea or belief that the credibility or authority of an expert is sufficient cause to accept the claims of an argument (the author).

Apollo--Greek god of light; god of prophesy and poetry and music and healing; son of Zeus and Leto; twin brother of Artemis.

Apparition--the appearance of a ghostlike figure.

Apport--the transference of an article from an unknown source, to you, or another place by unknown means (Wikipedia).

Argo--The name of the ship which carried Jason and his fifty-four companions to Colchis, in quest of the Golden Fleece.

Argonaut--one of the heroes who sailed with Jason on the Argo in search of the Golden Fleece

Argument from design (teleological argument)--the argument that the order the universe and the inetraction of its myriad parts necessitates the belief in God as a ominscient and omnipotent designer (the author).

Argument from incredulity--see "Divine fallacy."

Artemis--the virgin goddess of the hunt and the moon; daughter of Leto and twin sister of Apollo; identified with Roman Diana.

Astarte--a Phoenician goddess; counterpart of Ashtoreth and Ishtar.

Astral plane--an otherworldly plane of existence or one in a parallel dimension (the author).

Astral projection--the spiritual body’s travel from the physical body (the author).

Astronauts, ancient--extraterrestrial visitors to earth (sometimes mistaken for gods) during prehistoric times to manipulate or control human evolution or culture (the author).

Aura--a distinctive but intangible quality surrounding a person or thing.

Aural hallucination--hearing things (that aren’t there) (the author).

Autism--an abnormal absorption with the self; marked by communication disorders and short attention span and inability to treat others as people.

Autokinetic effect--the apparent movement of a stationary light in an otherwise dark environment (the author).

Automatic writing--writing produced without conscious thought; often considered a means of channeling (the author).

B

Baal--any of numerous local fertility and nature deities worshipped by ancient Semitic peoples; the Hebrews considered Baal a false god.

Backward Satanic messages--supposedly diabolical communications created by backmasking (the author).

Ball lightning

Ball lightning--a rare form of lightning sometimes seen as a globe of fire moving from the clouds to the earth.

Banshee--In Irish folklore, a female spirit who wails to warn of impending death.

Begging the question--circular reasoning (the author).

“Believe It Or Not” strip--a comic strip in which the artist-writer Robert Ripley recounted strange and mysterious incidents and recorded odd facts and trivia.

Benzene molecule--a ring-shaped chemical molecule the structure of which was perceived by Friedrich August Kekulé, a German chemist, during a dream in which he saw a snake biting its own tail (the author),

Bermuda Triangle--an area in the western Atlantic Ocean where many ships and planes are spposed to have been mysteriously lost.

Bible Code--information patterns said to exist in encrypted or coded form in the text of the Bible, or, more specifically, in the Hebrew Torah, the first five books of Old Testament (Wikipedia).

Biorhythm--a hypothetical cycle in physiological, emotional, or intellectual well-being or prowess (Wikipedia).

Blavatsky, Madame Helene Petrovna--founder of the Theosophy Society (the author).

Book of shadows--a witch's personal collection of spells and incantations (the author).

Brainwashing--forcible indoctrination into a new set of attitudes and beliefs.

C

Cardiff giant--a hoax perpetuated by P. T. Barnum in which it was claimed that a giant “petrified man” had been dug up on Cardiff, NY, by laborers digging a well (the author); this alleged giant is the basis of “A Ghost Story” by Mark Twain (the author).

Cartomancy--the art of telling fortunes with cards.

Castenada, Carlos--a Peruvian mystic (the author).

Cayce, Edgar--an American psychic who claimed to channel messages from the dead concerning health, reincarnation, Atlantis, and other matters (the author).

Cattle mutilation--the evisceration of cattle, often on isolated farms, allegedly by extraterrestrials, presumably for research purposes (the author).

Celestine Prophecy--a 1993 novel by James Redfield which discusses various psychological and spiritual ideas which are rooted in many ancient Eastern Traditions (Wikipedia) .

Centaur--a mythical being that is half man and half horse.

Cerberus--three-headed dog guarding the entrance to Hades; son of Typhon.

Chakra--a anatomical energy center (the author).

Channeling--opening oneself as a medium for the receipt of messages from spirits, often during séances (the author).

Chariot of the Gods--book by Erich von Daniken in which the author claims ancient humans were visited by extraterrestrial beings (ancient astronauts) (the author).

Chemtrail--gaseous trails released by aircraft; they are believed to consist of dangerous, but unidentified, chemicals sprayed by the government as part of a nationwide (possibly worldwide) clandestine mission (the author).

Chiropractic--a method of treatment that manipulates body structures (especially the spine) to relieve low back pain or even headache or high blood pressure.

Chopra, Deepak--Indian mystic and author who influenced the New Thought movement in America and elsewhere (the author).

Christ, foreskin of--a holy relic.

Chupacabra--a legendary beast that roams North, Central, and South America, attacking goats and other animals, from which it sucks blood; also known as a “goatsucker” (the author).

Close Encounters of the Second Kind (CE2)--an observation of a UFO and associated physical effects (heat, radiation, damaged terrain, human paralysis, frightened animals, interference with engines or TV or radio reception, and/or crop circles found in the vicinity of the UFO (Wikipedia).

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (CE3)--an observation of. . . “animate beings” in association with a UFO sighting (Wikipedia).

Coelacanth--a supposedly extinct fish caught (several times) by Japanese fishermen and others (the author).

Cold reading--a medium or other’s use of people’s innate need and tendency to make sense of experiences by imposing order and cause upon otherwise random or seemingly random incidents as a means by which to ascertain information and to seem credible as fortunetellers or others who are adept in the use of allegedly paranormal or supernatural abilities (the author).

Collective hallucination (mass hallucination)--the same hallucination, shared by several (often many) people (the author).

Conspiracy theory--the belief that many individuals or organizations are involved in an attempt to conceal evidence, mislead the public, discredit individuals, secure power, promote a hidden agenda, or otherwise extend influence and socio-economic and political power over the unsuspecting masses (the author).

Cosmobiology--the metaphysical study of the universe; the astronomical study of the universe (the author).

Course in Miracles, A--a book that Helen Schucman (1909-1981) claims was dictated to her by Jesus Christ (the author).

Crop circle

Crop circle--geometrical patterns cut into the crops or grass of a field, allegedly by extraterrestrials, possibly as messages or navigational aids; some have been revealed as elaborate hoaxes (the author).

Crowley, Aleister--author of several books of occult mysticism, including Magick in Theory and Practice and The Book of the Law (the author).

Cryptomnesia--forgotten or repressed memories (the author).

Cryptozoology--the study of legendary, mythical, or unknown animals (the author).

Crystal skull--skulls carved in quartz or other stone and sometimes alleged to be endowed with magical powers of various kinds (the author).

Cult--adherents of an exclusive system of religious beliefs and practices.

Cupping--a treatment in which evacuated cups are applied to the skin to draw blood through the surface.

Curse--an evil spell.

Cyclops--In Greek mythology, one of a race of giants having a single eye in the middle of their forehead.

Alternative Explanations, Part IV: Vampires, Werewolves, and Zombies

copyright 2008 by Gary L. Pullman

In “Alternative Explanations, Part III: Telekinetic Characters,” we considered ways by which skeptics seek to debunk claims that some people make concerning their ability to move or affect objects simply by the use of mental powers, an act known as telekinesis. In the final part of this series, we’ll consider how your horror story’s skeptical character might challenge the belief that vampires, werewolves, and zombies actually exist.

Vampires are corpses that demons possess and animate, causing them to terrorize the living, upon whose blood they feed, sucking it from their victims’ jugular veins after piercing them with their vampire fangs. Anyone whom the vampire bites also becomes a vampire, an incident that has permitted a mathematician to deliver devastating proof that vampires do not and cannot exist.

According to “Math proves that the Buffy universe harbors no more than 512 vampires,” Costa Efthimiou and Sohang Gandi, authors of Ghosts, Vampires, and Goblins: Cinema Fiction vs. Physics Reality, vampires do not and cannot exist because, if they did, they would soon “depopulate the earth.” According to the authors, were a vampire to appear on the earth in the year 1600, when the world’s population numbered 536,870,911 people, and this vampire fed upon only one person per month, thereby transforming him or her into a vampire, each of which newly created vampire also fed upon one human per month, transforming him or her into another vampire, the whole human population of the planet would have been transformed into bloodsucking fiends in only thirty months, despite any offset that would be gained by the human birth rate. Therefore, Efthimiou and Gandi conclude:

. . . that vampires cannot exist, since their existence contradicts the existence of human beings. Incidentally, theological proof that we just presented is of a type known as reductio ad absurdum, that is, reduction to the absurd. Another philosophical principal related to our argument is the truism given the elaborate title, the anthropic principle. This states that if something is necessary for human existence, then it must be true since we do exist. In the present case, the nonexistence of vampires is necessary for human existence. Apparently, whomever devised the vampire legend had failed his college algebra and philosophy courses.

Sorry, Buffy Summers, but your career as a “vampire slayer” and the difficult sacrifices it entailed as you sought to defend the world against bloodsucking fiends were totally unnecessary and ridiculous, and you could have had the normal life that you so often claimed to crave. Apparently, you really were nothing more than the paranoid schizophrenic that you were diagnosed to be in one of your television series’ episodes.

Wait a minute! Buffy also fought other paranormal and supernatural threats, including demons, ghosts, werewolves, and zombies. If one or more of these monsters actually exist, maybe she wasn’t completely crazy, after all, and maybe she didn’t waste the best years of her life.

We’ve already dealt with demons, ghosts, and vampires. But what about werewolves and zombies? Might they exist? Somewhere? Somehow?

A werewolf is a animal (or a human) that can switch back and forth from being a human (or an animal) to being an animal (or a human) and is believed to devour humans. (It’s all rather complicated.) Unfortunately, as our spoilsport extraordinaire, The Skeptic’s Dictionary, points out, “there are no documented cases of any human turning into a wolf and back.” The best we can come up with is lycanthropy, a delusion in which its victim believes he’s a wolf, just as a person may believe that he is possessed by demons. Perhaps especially hirsute men have experienced this delusion, adding to the belief that men and wolves are--or, at times, can be--pretty much the same thing. Extreme hairiness does occur, in both men and women (ever heard of the “bearded lady”?), usually as a result of the genetic disorder known as hypertrichosis or such disorders as adrenal virilism, basophilic adenoma of the pituitary, masculinizing ovarian tumors, or Stein-Leventhal syndrome. At least, that’s what your horror story’s skeptical character can suggest to explain the misguided beliefs of others that werewolves are afoot. The Skeptic’s Dictionary article on “werewolves” links to photographs of people who are afflicted with these conditions.

We’re going to conclude our review of paranormal and supernatural phenomena and the explanations that a skeptical character may offer as alternatives to those that claim that these phenomena result from the existence and exercise of mysterious, occult powers by considering the zombie.

According to the drill, zombies are soulless bodies created by voodoo sorcerers. Scientists believe that zombies are actual people who are drugged, kidnapped, buried alive, disinterred, and kept as slave laborers:

The black magic of voodoo sorcerers allegedly consists of chemicals, various poisons (perhaps that of the puffer fish) which immobilize a person for days, as well as hallucinogens administered upon revival. The result is a complacent, paralyzed, or brain damaged creature used by the sorcerers as slaves, viz., the zombies.

The other kind of zombie--the corpse that is revived but without benefit of the soul it once had, seems unlikely (okay, downright impossible) to anyone beyond the age of nine or ten, so if it’s this kind that’s supposed to be running loose through your story’s setting, the skeptical character has every right to cast aspersions upon the view that the antagonists are really and truly revenants. Indeed, his or her failure to do so would be cause to transform this undoubting doubter into a zombie him- or herself.

Sources Cited in the “Alternative Explanations” series.

The Skeptic’s Dictionary
Live Science
Federation of American Scientists
NOVA Online
MythBusters
Ghosts, Vampires, and Goblins: Cinema Fiction vs. Physics Reality

Alternative Explanations, Part II: Clairvoyants

copyright 2008 by Gary L. Pullman

In “Alternative Explanations, Part I: Demons and Ghosts,” we considered ways by which skeptics seek to debunk these paranormal or supernatural phenomena. In Part II, we will take a look at how the skeptical character in your horror story may seek to dismiss or explain alleged clairvoyants.

A clairvoyant is a person who can see things beyond the limits of ordinary vision, including things that haven’t taken place yet (precognition) or things that have occurred already (retrocognition). One might say that he clairvoyant is blessed with phenomenal foresight and hindsight. These powers are said to derive from psychic abilities, except when they are given to one by the devil, and are (except in the devil-made-me-do-it instances), as such, paranormal, rather than supernatural, in nature.

In its’ Voice of Reason series, Live Science’s “Choosing Psychic Detectives Over Real Ones,” by Joe Nickell, discusses the remote viewing capabilities that psychic detectives allegedly have. According to the article, psychic detectives use a variety of once “discredited techniques” to acquire their visions of tomorrow, yesterday, and far away, including “astrology. . . spirit guides. . . dowsing rods and pendulums . . . psychometry,” or the use of “psychic impressions from objects connected with a particular person,” and “auras,” noting that neither “such disparity of approach” nor “specific tests” offer “a credible basis for psychic sleuthing.”

Clairvoyants are regarded as having been successful by naïve law enforcement officers on occasion because they fall for a technique known as retrofitting:

. . . this after-the-fact matching -- known as "retrofitting" -- is the secret behind most alleged psychic successes. For example, the statement, "I see water and the number seven," would be a safe offering in almost any case. After all the facts are in, it will be unusual if there is not some stream, body of water, or other source that cannot somehow be associated with the case. As to the number seven, that can later be associated with a distance, a highway, the number of people in a search party, part of a license plate number, or any of countless other possible interpretations. . . . Many experienced police officers have fallen for the retrofitting trick.

In addition, psychic detectives, Nickell, maintains, rely on a number of other simple, but sometimes-successful ploys:

Psychics may also enhance their reputations by exaggerating their successes, minimizing their failures, passing off secretly gleaned information as psychically acquired, and other means, including relying on others to misremember what was actually said.

Your horror story’s skeptical character may also critique claims of the paranormal and supernatural nature of clairvoyance by debunking the sources that clairvoyants claim for their powers: “astrology. . . spirit guides. . . dowsing rods and pendulums . . . psychometry,” or the use of “psychic impressions from objects connected with a particular person,” and “auras.” If the underlying source for clairvoyance can be shown to be false, any powers that are said to derive from these sources must also be seen as false or non-existent.

The Skeptic’s Dictionary gives a succinct definition of “astrology”:

Astrology, in its traditional form, is a type of divination based on the theory that the positions and movements of celestial bodies (stars, planets, sun, and moon) at the time of birth profoundly influence a person's life. In its psychological form, astrology is a type of New Age therapy used for self-understanding and personality analysis (astrotherapy). In both forms, it is a manifestation of magical thinking.

Even in William Shakespeare’s time, it was difficult for educated people to believe that the movements of heavenly bodies had any cause-and-effect on people. “The fault. . . lies in ourselves, not in the stars,” he has Julius Caesar tell Brutus.

Astrology is an ancient and complex system, and, as such, it cannot be completely debunked here, but some critical notes that your horror story’s skeptical character could address to the clairvoyant who maintains that his or her power to see past, future, or distant events include these, which appear in The Skeptic’s Dictionary’s essay concerning “astrology”:

Astrologers emphasize the importance of the positions of the sun, moon, planets, etc., at the time of birth. However, the birthing process isn’t instantaneous. There is no single moment that a person is born. The fact that some official somewhere writes down a time of birth is irrelevant. . . . Why are the initial conditions more important than all subsequent conditions for one’s personality and traits? Why is the moment of birth chosen as the significant moment rather than the moment of conception? Why aren’t other initial conditions such as one’s mother’s health, the delivery place conditions, forceps, bright lights, dim room, back seat of a car, etc., more important than whether Mars is ascending, descending, culminating, or fulminating?. . . . Why isn’t the planet Earth—the closest large object to us in our solar system--considered a major influence on who we are and what we become? Other than the sun and the moon and an occasional passing comet or asteroid, most planetary objects are so distant from us that any influences they might have on anything on our planet are likely to be wiped out by the influences of other things here on earth. . . . Initial conditions are less important than present conditions to understanding current effects on rivers and vegetables. If this is true for the tides and plants, why wouldn’t it be true for people?

Clairvoyance of a type, known as remote viewing, was once popular with the U. S. federal government, which has way too much taxpayer money on its hands. Supposedly, remote viewing clairvoyants, supplied with nothing more than paper, pencils, and map coordinates of distant points of military or intelligence interest could sketch whatever actually existed on these sites. The Federation of American Scientists published the findings of a study of remote viewing’s effectiveness. The study concluded that the remote viewers’ sketches were sometimes interpreted according to the researchers’ own familiarity with the targets, which made them believe that the drawings were more detailed and accurate than they were; that results that included information supplied by historical sources were always ,ore accurate than results that required predictions on the part of the remote viewers themselves; and that sketches were too vague and general to be of any use to the military or intelligence agencies. The agencies underwriting these experiments in remote viewing--at taxpayer--meaning your and my--expense discontinued them as unworthy of continued research.

The same conclusions might well be reached with regard to the efficacy of clairvoyance in general, since remote viewing is a specific type of the same activity.

Although the use of spirit guides need not include channeling, the criticisms against channeling may be directed against the idea of spirit guides as well. The language and dialect that spirit guides use is often at odds with the time period from which they are alleged to hail. The Skeptic’s Dictionary offers an example:

1987, ABC showed a mini-series based on [Shirley] MacLaine's book Out on a
Limb, which depicts MacLaine conversing with spirits through channeler
Kevin Ryerson. One of the spirits who speaks through Ryerson is a contemporary
of Jesus called "John." "John" doesn't speak Aramaic--the language of Jesus--but
a kind of Elizabethan English.

The banality of spirit guides is also susceptible to doubt:

One of MacLaine's favorite channelers is J. Z. Knight who claims to channel a
35,000 year-old Cromagnon warrior called Ramtha. . . . Some of her patrons pay
as much as $1,000 to attend her seminars where she dispenses such wisdom as "[we
must] open our minds to new frontiers of potential."

Shouldn’t spirits who have gone on to enlightenment utter proverbs equal in wisdom to those of Buddha and Christ?

Dowsing rods and pendulums--what would such dubious devices have to do with clairvoyants’ supposed abilities to see past, present, and remote events? Nothing, other than the use of dowsing rods is supposed to help their users detect subterranean substances such as oil, water, and metal. According to The Skeptic’s Dictionary:

In 1949, an experiment was conducted in Maine by the American Society for
Psychical Research. Twenty-seven dowsers "failed completely to estimate either
the depth or the amount of water to be found in a field free of surface clues to
water, whereas a geologist and an engineer successfully predicted the depth at
which water would be found in 16 sites in the same field."

The same article also recounts an experiment in which

James Randi tested some dowsers using a protocol they all agreed upon. If they could locate water in underground pipes at an 80% success rate they would get $10,000 (now the prize is over $1,000,000). All the dowsers failed the test, though each claimed to be highly successful in finding water using a variety of non-scientific instruments, including a pendulum. Says Randi, "the sad fact is that dowsers are no better at finding water than anyone else. Drill a well almost anywhere in an area where water is geologically possible, and you will find it.

It seems clear that dowsing is a highly dubious enterprise, but, even if it works, what has it to do with seeing future, past, or future events? None that many can detect.

Not to be deterred, if astrology, spirit guides, and the use of dowsing rods and pendulums can’t explain how clairvoyants can do what they claim they do, maybe clairvoyance is the result of psychometry. According to psychometry, by handling objects associated with a person, the handler can discern facts about the property’s owner, often by seeing the owner’s aura, the “a colored outline or set of contiguous outlines, allegedly emanating from the surface of an object.”

Most critics--including your horror story’s skeptical character, perhaps--associate psychometry with magical thinking, selective thinking, cold reading, subjective evaluation, and shot gunning, all of which themselves have fatal logical and scientific flaws. Like many paranormal and supernatural beliefs, clairvoyance is interlinked with a complex of other such ideas and attitudes, which makes debunking it in a space less than that of a large volume difficult, if not impossible.

Therefore, the reader must take upon him- or herself the task of researching these lesser, but related, topics. To assist the aspiring horror writer in this task, we list these sources:

The Skeptic’s Dictionary
Live Science
Federation of American Scientists
NOVA Online
MythBusters

In Part III of “Alternative Explanations,” we’ll consider how your horror story’s skeptical character might debunk claims about other paranormal and supernatural phenomena.