Agronomy: The science of soil management and the production of fieldcrops.
Altered State of Consciousness (ASC): A term used to refer to any state of consciousness that is different from "normal" states of waking or sleeping. ASCs include hypnosis, trance, ecstasy, psychedelic and meditative experience. ASCs do not necessarily have paranormal features.
Animal Magnetism: A term coined by F.A. Mesmer to refer to a putative force or fluid capable of being transmitted from one person to another, producing healing effects.
Anomalous Phenomena: Natural phenomena that cannot be explained in terms of current scientific knowledge.
Apparition: A visual appearance (cf. hallucination), often of a person or scene, generally experienced in a waking or hypnagogic / hypnopompic state.
Astrophysics: The branch of astronomy that deals with the physical properties of celestial bodies, and with the interaction between matter and radiation in the interior of celestial bodies and in interstellar space.
Biophysics: The branch of biology dealing with the study of biological structures and processes by means of the methods of physics.
Cerebral Anoxia: Lack of oxygen to the brain, often causing sensory distortions and hallucinations. Sometimes used to explain features of the near-death experience.
Channeling: to serve as a channeler or intermediary for. As applied to psi-phenomena, this means serving as an intermediary for ghosts, angels, aliens, etc.
Cosmology: 1. The branch of philosophy dealing with the origin and general structure of the universe, with its parts, elements, and laws, and esp. With such of its characteristics as space, time causality, and freedom. 2. The branch of astronomy that deals with the general structure and evolution of the universe.
Cryptomnesia: Knowledge (acquired in normal ways) that may be revealed without the person remembering its source. Such memories may falsely appear to be paranormal revelations. Sometimes cryptomnesia is used as an explanation for apparently paranormal experiences such as xenoglossy or past-life memories.
Cryptozoology: the study of the lore concerning legendary animals (as Sasquatch) especially in order to evaluate the possibility of their existence.
Crystal Gazing: Staring into a reflecting surface (e.g., mirror, glass, crystal, liquid) in order to obtain paranormal information. Also known as scrying.
Demonic Possession: Possession by evil spirits.
Discarnate Entity: A spirit or non-material entity. Often used to refer to the personality of a deceased individual. See also channeling, communication, mediumship, possession, survival.
Divination: Practices involving the interpretation of signs or symbols that seek to obtain oracular knowledge of events. Examples of divinatory practices are geomancy, tarot, I Ching, sortilege, and reading tealeaves.
DMILS: "Direct Mental Interaction with Living Systems". Psychokinetic influences on physiological processes.
Doppelganger: A mirror image or double of a person.
Dowsing: The paranormal detection of underground water or mineral deposits (or lost persons and objects) using a divining rod (a split steel or wooden rod) or pendulum.
Energetics: The branch of physics that deals with energy. The physics of energy and its transformations.
Extrasensory Perception (ESP): Paranormal acquisition of information. Includes clairvoyance, telepathy and precognition.
Extraterrestrial: Originating beyond planet Earth. Not normally considered being extradimensional.
Focal Person: Person who is at the center of poltergeist activity.
Fortean Phenomena: Strange phenomena, especially those which challenge conventional scientific knowledge. Named after the American researcher and writer Charles Fort. Fortean phenomena include those generally considered paranormal, but also bizarre non-paranormal events such as monsters and prodigies, extraordinary coincidences, and unusual rains.
Ganzfeld: A technique for investigating ESP in which the person experiences an absence of patterned stimulation. This generally involves the subject wearing halved table-tennis balls over the eyes while listening to hiss (white noise) through headphones.
Geophysics: a branch of earth science dealing with the physical processes and phenomena occurring especially in the earth and in its vicinity.
Glossolalia: Unintelligible speech generally uttered in a dissociated or trance state. Also known as "speaking in tongues".
Histology: The anatomical study of the microscopic structure of animal and plant tissues. The microscopic structure of tissue.
Invocation: Summoning benevolent spiritual beings.
Kinesiology: The study of muscles and their movements as applied to physical conditioning.
Luminous Phenomena: The experience of strange lights or glows, often around objects or people.
Lucid Dreaming: Dreaming in which the person is aware that the experience is a dream. It is often associated with feelings of aliveness and freedom.
Metaphysical: of or relating to the transcendent or to a reality beyond what is perceptible to the senses.
Metempsychosis: Another term for reincarnation.
Necromancy: Black magic practices involving communicating with the dead.
Neuropsychiatry: The branch of medicine dealing with diseases involving the mind and nervous system. The integrated medical study of both neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Occam's Razor: The principle that we should always prefer the simplest explanation of events.
Occultism: Esoteric systems of belief and practice that assume the existence of mysterious forces and entities.
Parapsychology: Term coined by J.B. Rhine to refer to the experimental and quantitative study of paranormal phenomena. Now generally used instead of "psychical research" to refer to all scientific investigation of the paranormal.
Phenomenology: The study of all possible appearances inhuman experience, during which considerations of objective reality and of purely subjective response are temporarily left out of account. A philosophical movement based on phenomenology, originated about 1905 by Edmund Husserl.
Phonology: The science of speech sounds, including phonetics and phonemics.
Photogrammetry: The process of making surveys and maps through the use of photographs.
Phrenology: The reading of character and mental ability from the shape of a person's skull.
Poltergeist: German word meaning "noisy or troublesome spirit". Poltergeist activity may include unexplained noises, movements of objects, outbreaks of fire, floods, pricks or scratches to a person's body. Unlike haunting, which are associated with specific locations, poltergeists typically focus on a person (the focal person or poltergeist agent) who is often a young child or adolescent. Many physical mediums experienced poltergeist activity in their childhood.
Possession: Refers to cases in which a person's body is apparently taken over by another personality or entity. Cf. multiple personality.
Precognition: clairvoyance relating to an event or state not yet experienced.
Process research: Research that aims to investigate factors affecting psi. Cf. proof research.
Proof research: Research that aims to demonstrate the existence of psi.
Proxy Sitting: A seance in which another person sits in on behalf of the person receiving a communication.
Psi: A term used to encompass all paranormal abilities.
Psi-Mediated Instrumental Response (PMIR): Theory put forward by Rex Stanford that psi activity is used to serve an organism's needs.
Psychometry: Obtaining paranormal knowledge using a physical object as a focus. Also known as object reading.
Psychokinesis: movement of physical objects by the mind without use of physical means.
Pyramid Power: Belief that pyramid shapes can produce paranormal effects.
Qualitative Method: A research method involving the collection of non-quantitative data (e.g., observations, interviews, subjective reports, case studies). Cf. quantitative method.
Quantitative Method: A research method involving the collection and statistical analysis of numerical data. Cf. qualitative method.
Radiesthesia: Theories based on the assumption that living organisms emit some kind of radiation or emanation that is capable of being detected using instruments or by dowsing. See also aura, radionics.
Radionics: Use of instruments to detect radiation from living organisms.
Raps: The name given to unexplained knocking sounds associated with physical mediumship and poltergeist activity.
Raudive Voices: Intelligible voices recorded on magnetic tape under conditions of silence or white noise which are heard only when the tape is played. A phenomenon discovered by Konstantin Raudive.
Regression: (a) a statistical technique that enables predictions to be made from a set of data. (b) a technique used in hypnosis, involving suggesting to hypnotized persons that they are returning to an earlier time. Sometimes the regression occurs spontaneously, without suggestion. See also past-life regression.
Reincarnation: The belief that some aspect of a person's being (e.g., consciousness, personality, or soul) survives death and can be reborn in a new body at some future date. Reincarnation is often seen as a repeating cycle of death and rebirth in which future lives are influenced by past and present actions through the law of karma.
Synchronicity: A term used by C.G. Jung to refer to coincidental events that are meaningfully but not causally connected.
Telemetry: The science and technology of automatic measurement and transmission of data by wire, radio, or other means from remote sources, as from space vehicles, to a receiving station for recording and analysis.
Telepathy: communication from one mind to another by extrasensory mean.
Teleportation: Paranormal transportation of objects to a distant place.
Temporal Lobe Activity: Electrical activity in the temporal lobes of the brain. Often associated with strange sensations, time distortions and hallucinations. Sometimes used as an explanation for seemingly paranormal experiences such as apparitions and alien abduction experiences.
Theosophy: Religious and philosophical system of the Theosophical Society, founded in 1875 by Madame Blavatsky. Its paranormal claims were controversially reported upon by the Society for Psychical Research in 1885.
Theurgy: Magical practices, which aim to contact and communicate with the gods.
Thoughtography: Paranormal ability to produce images on photographic film (e.g., by concentrating on a mental image). Most famously demonstrated by Ted Serios.
Transcendental Meditation: A technique of meditation taught by Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, involving the repetition of a sound (mantra).
Ultrasonography: The diagnostic use of ultrasonic waves (acoustic frequencies above the range audible to the human ear) to visualize internal bodily structures and organs.
Veridical: Information or experience that is confirmed by facts and events.
Voodoo: A spiritualist and ancestral religion, originating in Africa, and now found in Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba and Brazil. Magical rites, trance states and possession all play a major role in voodoo.
Xenoglossy: The ability to speak or write in a language that has not been learned.
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The OSIR has many words or terms that it likes to use to name the different paranormal happenings. Here is a alphabetical list of some of the more frequently used terms.
Here is a list of the differnt cases that the OSIR follow:
haunting or poltergeist phenomena
possessions
exorcisms
miracles
psi-related phenomena
--psychokinesis
--precognition
--altered states
--near-death experiences
--channeling
geophysical mysteries
astral projection
reincarnation
telepathy
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