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 (G - I)

copyright 2008 by Gary L. Pullman

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

G

Gaia--the planet earth, personified, often as a mother (the author).

Geller, Uri--a supposed psychic with telekinetic powers; famous for bending spoons with nothing more, allegedly, than his mind (the author).

Ghost--a spirit of the dead which sometimes are said to haunt the living (the author).

Global warming--the doctrine that the earth’s climate is warming, partially as a result of human activities and pollutants (the author).

Goatsucker, Puerto Rico--a mysterious animal in Puerto Rico, also known as the chupacabra, said to bite the necks of goats (and other animals) and suck their blood (the author).

God

God--in Christianity, Judaism, Muslim, and other faiths, the supreme being (the author).

Griffin--winged monster with an eagle-like head and body of a lion.

Gurdjieff, G. I.--a mystic; he established The Institute for the Harmonious Development of Man (presumably, women aren’t included) in Russia), based on lessons he’d learned from other mystics while he was traveling in central Asia (the author).

Guillotining, and life after death--the theory that the brain remains conscious for one or more moments after it has been severed from the body by a falling guillotine blade (the author).

H

Hades--in Greek mythology, the underworld, home of the dead, ruled by Pluto (the author).

Hallucination--illusory perception; a common symptom of severe mental disorder.

Healing, faith--healing of blindness, deafness, disease, mental illness, demonic possession, and other physical, mental, and spiritual conditions by faith in God’s ability and desire to deliver or heal one from these conditions (the author).

Heaven--in Christianity, the abode of the souls redeemed by Christ (the author).

Hecate--the Greek goddess of witchcraft (the author).

Hel--in Norse mythology, the name of both the underworld to which those who were not selected as residents of Asgard lived after death and the name of the goddess who ruled it (the author).

Hell--in Christianity, the abode of the damned; named for the Norse underworld, Hel (the author).

Hill, Betty and Barney--a couple who, under hypnosis, claimed that they were abducted by extraterrestrial aliens and subjected to bizarre medical experiments and tests (the author).

Hoax--a fraud perpetuated upon the stupid, naïve, and desperate by charlatans, some of whom claim to possess paranormal or supernatural powers and abilities (the author).

Home, levitating

Home, Daniel--a Scottish spiritualist and medium who claimed to be able to levitate, to communicate with the dead, and to cause rapping sounds by the power of his mind alone; Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, was one of his many supporters (the author).

Homeopathy--a method of treating disease with small amounts of remedies that, in large amounts in healthy people, produce symptoms similar to those being treated.

Hot reading--fortune telling that involves the surreptitious solicitation of personal information related to the medium’s or psychic’s client or an audience which is included in the fortune subsequently told (the author).

Houris--Muslim virgins waiting to serve faithful male adherents of the faith, especially martyrs (the author).

Houses, haunted--residences (and, sometimes, commercial properties) that are said to be haunted by ghosts, demons, or other paranormal or supernatural entities or forces (the author).

Houston, Jean and the Mystery School--a New Age self-help program that fosters self-development and social progress (the author).

Howe, Linda Moulton--an investigative journalist who writes what crtics characterize as sensational articles and books and produces lurid documentaries, and films about UFO’s and related topics (the author).

Hubbard, L. Ron--science fiction author and founder of Scientology (the author).

Hundredth monkey phenomenon-”a sudden spontaneous and mysterious leap of consciousness achieved when an allegedly "critical mass" point is reached” (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

Hybrids, alien program to breed--an alleged program by extraterrestrial aliens and/or the United States government to breed hybrid alien-humans, possibly to fill roles of authority within the world’s governments (the author).

Hypersensory perception (HSP)--intuition, such as may be displayed in interpreting body language (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

Hypnagogic state--the “state between being awake and falling asleep. For some people, this is a time of visual and auditory hallucination” and may explain some accounts of ghosts, demons, UFO abductions, and the like (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

Hypnopompic state--“the transition state of semi-consciousness between sleeping and waking. For some people, this is a time of visual and auditory hallucination” and may explain some accounts of ghosts, demons, UFO abductions, and the like (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

Hypnosis--a state that resembles sleep but that is induced by suggestion.

Hysteria--neurotic disorder characterized by violent emotional outbreaks and disturbances of sensory and motor functions.

Hysterio-epilepsy--“an alleged disease discovered by Dr. Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893), one of the founders of modern neurology” (The Skeptic’s Dictionary).

I

I Ching

I Ching--a set of principles and symbols by the use of which people seek to balance opposite forces and find order in seemingly random incidents (the author).

Illuminati--literally, “enlightened ones”; a secret society often identified as participants in an international conspiracy to rule the world, openly or secretly (the author).

Incantation--a chant, sometimes in verse, by which sorcerers and witches sometimes cast spells (the author).

Incorruptibility of sacred bodies--bodies of saints that remain perfectly preserved, with no evidence of decay, for prolonged periods after their deaths and entombment or burial (the author).

Indian rope trick (levitation)--a magic trick in which an Indian fakir seems to climb a levitating rope (the author).

Indigo children--children of a higher degree of evolution than normal children and who are said to have paranormal powers, such as clairvoyance; they are identifiable by the indigo aura that surrounds them (the author).

Infrasound--sound below the threshold of human hearing (the author).

Intelligent design--the doctrine that the order and structure of the universe presupposes intelligent design; the basis of the argument from design, or the teleological argument (the author).

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).