After Life
A continued life or existence believed to follow death.

Agent
The person who is the focus or at the centre of paranormal activity.

Age Of Aquarius
Usually refers to the end of an era and the beginning of another, 'the end of times' or the dawning of a 'new world order'.

Akasha
A mystical, spiritual substance where memories are stored since the beginning of time.

Alien Abduction
A form of kidnapping by aliens or extraterrestrials, where the individual is taken up to a spacecraft. Time and memory loss frequently occur and some people recall surgical investigations.

Aliens
Beings from another world, also known as extraterrestrial beings.

Astral Plane
A place where all thoughts, memories, fantasies and dreams of everyone in the world exist. The astral plane is said to have many levels, and is said to operate at a higher frequency than the physical plane.

Astral Projection
The process where our etheric body, spirit or mind separates from the physical body whilst maintaining a level of consciousness.

Aura
Invisible to the naked eye, it is a glow surrounding the each individual and changes color and form depending on the mental and physical well being of the individual.

Automatic writing
When a person can produce writing that is not their own writing style and can convey messages from the deceased.

Banshees
Most often associated with Ireland and Scotland, the Banshee is an omen spirit that forewarns people of an impending tragedy.

Bermuda Triangle (The 'Devils Triangle')
A geographical area located off the south eastern Atlantic coast of the United States this area has been subject to a number of unexplainable losses of ships, boats and aircraft, including an entire squadron of TBM Avengers.

Black Dogs (Hell Hounds)
There have been countless reports over the world of these phantom 'canine' like creatures, including Norfolk's own Black Shuck.

Channeling
Describes the method in which mediums allow themselves to be used in order to manifest something which comes from outside themselves. For example, a healer is a channel for healing energy. Another form of channeling is trance mediumship during a trance, mediums can be aware of their surroundings and listen to instructions of a spirit guide and converse with other people whilst passing on messages, words of wisdom or inviting questions.

Crop Circles
Consists of a circle within which all corn stems are flattened but not broken, usually the outer ring of the circle has the corn flattened in the opposite direction to that of the centre. Sometimes the circle may be surrounded by a series of smaller circles that maybe linked by channels.

Death Bed Visions
A dying person has an awareness of the presence of dead relatives or friends, these visitors are said to come and assist the dying with the transition from life to death.

Deja Vu
Seeing or doing something completely new but having the distinct feeling that the experience had been done before.

Dematerialization
The fading or disappearance of an object.

Demons
Demons are said to have the ability to enter your home via the Ouija board, it is claimed that in such cases a demon will attach itself to an individual and not the home and therefore will follow where ever that person goes, similar too but not to be confused with possession.

Deport
Movement of an object from a secure and enclosed space.

Electrokinesis
The generation of electricity from the mind that can be used to charge watches and batteries.

Electro-Magnetic Field (E.M.F.)
A field of force associated with electric charge in motion. There is a theory that a high amount of electromagnetic energy can cause poltergeist activity, but also a theory that these same high energy levels attract spirit and that it is indeed spirit that cause the strange phenomena.

Ectoplasm
Ectoplasm is said to be made up of a viscous substance which comes from a mediums solar plexus, a combination of certain chemicals used by spirit to project solid images to its audience. It is very dangerous to disturb a medium whilst in this condition, some mediums have died from being disturbed whilst in this state.

E.V.P.
Electronic Voice Projection (recording of spirit voices).

Exorcism
The expulsion of a spirit, ghost or demon that is possessing a person or place.

Fallen Host
These are said to be angels that have fallen from Gods grace, they have been mentioned in biblical scriptures to serve as a warning of what the wrath of God can bring.

False Arrival Apparition
This is when a person hears and sometimes sees another person arrive, this can happen from half and hour to an hour before the person actually arrives.

False Awakening
A phenomenon whereby a person believes they have woken up but they are still dreaming. For a good example of this check out www.mysterymad.com and look for The Skully Experience and also look for related links.

Geomancy
An ancient form of divination which involves the scattering of soil, earth or other materials upon the ground or, markings in earth or sand which make up a configuration that can be read by a seer.

Ghosts
Disembodied spirit or image of a dead person. Ghosts have the ability to move through solid objects.

Gnome
A name given to fairies or 'little people', supposedly lost souls or pre-Christian people, or fallen angels doomed to walk the earth. It has been suggested that they are elemental nature spirits that inhabit a different dimension to our own.

Grigori (Watchers)
A collective term for fallen angels. It was said that Grigori were sent to guide and assist man during the beginning of civilization.

Hallucination
Perception of an eternal object that is not present, a mental state of being mistaken or deluded.

Healing
Types of healing are Hands on, Absent, Prayer, Color, Sound. Healing is considered medicine for the soul. Healing of any kind means laying oneself open to the Divine Source of Love either by receiving or giving. This universal source is the very life we breathe, it is the energy that permeates every living thing. The practice of these types of healing has been used for centuries, even the ancient Egyptians recognized the importance of sound, some of the great pyramids are known to have amazing acoustics and it has been suggested that they may have been used for healing through the use of incantations.

Hope Diamond
A cursed jewel supposedly torn from the brow of a temple God. The diamond has brought tragedy to those who have owned it.

I-Ching
A Chinese form of divination involving the use of 64 hexagrams.

Intuition
The process of coming to a direct knowledge or certainty without using the rational thought process. Handy for us ghost hunters who are not blessed with the gifts of the sensitive.

Jamais Vu
The exact opposite to Déjà vu, something which is familiar and experienced by an individual before but they believe it is the first time they have experienced it.

James Randi
No A-Z would be complete without a mention of Mr. Randi, possibly the ultimate definition of skepticism.

Ka
Ancient Egyptian term for the astral body.

Karma
A law in Hinduism maintaining that every act no matter how insignificant will eventually return to the doer, good with good and evil with evil, if not in this life then in the next.

Levitation
There are records of monks and nuns rising up whilst in prayer, it has been suggested that levitation is possible due to molecules becoming refined to the point of the body changing onto a lighter plane. Energy level increases have been suggested to raise the level in the atoms of our bodies and make levitation possible.

Ley Lines
Alignments of ancient sites, these are considered to be earth's natural energy lines and also that spirit may use these lines as a way of traveling quickly from one place to another. It has also been suggested that where two Ley Lines cross there is a possible chance of a portal opening to other dimensions.

Life After Death
The BIG question since the dawn of time, we are left to draw our own conclusions from studying cases such as reincarnation, N.D.E's and the writings of Mediums.

Malevolent
Malevolent spirit is a way to describe a malicious supernatural force that causes harmful acts to living beings.

Materialization
Formation of an object or human figure that appears during a séance.

Medium
An individual who can communicate with spirits.

NDE's
Near Death Experience, claimed to be a glimpse at life after death, the most common reports are those of a tunnel with a bright light at the end, a place of great beauty, meeting loved ones, or visiting another dimension and sometimes even that of hell.
 

Occam's Razor
The principle of preferring the simplest explanation of event, "a person should not increase beyond what is necessary the number of entities required to explain anything".

Occultism
A system of practice and belief, which assumes that there is the existence of supernatural, paranormal and mysterious forces.

Orbs
Orbs are allegedly the true spirit form and one theory is that these are seen at the beginning of a manifestation. Orbs can be often caught in photographs.

Out Of Body Experience (O.O.B.E.)
A form of astral projection when the consciousness leaves the physical body. Many reports of this come from people who have been involved in severe accidents or have been anaesthetized. An example of this is when a patient undergoing an operation can see and hear the operation in progress.

Palmestry
The art of foretelling a person's future by reading the lines and features on their hand.

Paranormal
Something that is unexplainable scientifically.

Poltergeist
Activity connected with poltergeists is that of unexplainable rapping's and other noises, also movement of items which are often thrown or smashed and in some cased fires have been known to start. This phenomenon is generally connected to teenagers particularly teenage girls.

Psychometry
A medium can gain psychic information by holding a personal item such as a ring or watch once belonging to a deceased person.

Quackery
Integrating metaphysics with sympathetic magic or spiritualism with healing. The term is generally used to describe frauds that dispense useless or harmful treatments to vulnerable people on their deathbeds.

Radionics
Use of certain instruments to detect radiations or emitions from a living organism, such as dowsing.

Reincarnation
The belief that the Spirit or the Soul of a person can be reborn to a new life, some people are able to remember past life personalities and experiences. This is a non-Christian belief, but many Eastern cultures have always included reincarnation in their philosophy.

Sensitive
Someone who can sense a paranormal presence.

Spirit/Soul
In the complete word finder Spirit is described as 'The vital animating essence of a person, or animal, The Intelligent Being without a material body'. Soul is described as 'The immaterial part of a human being, often regarded as immortal, vital, spirit or force, being, inner self.

Sprite
A soul, spirit or apparition.

Table Turning
Movements that come from the table used during a séance, these are suggested as being a form of communication from the spirit world.

Telepathy
The ability to transfer one persons thoughts to another, this is not considered as supernatural phenomenon, many experiments into this area started enthusiastically around 1882 with the beginning of the Society for Psychical Research. In 1903 Zenner cards were developed by K.E. Zenner and American psychologist, these cards are widely used in E.S.P research with varying results.

Teleportation
Paranormal movement of an object from one place to another.

Thixotropy
This is a property that is exhibited by certain gels. A thrixopic gel maintains its shape and appears solid, but if it is subjected to certain forms of disturbance, such as shaking, it will start to flow like liquid. Possible explanation for bleeding statues etc.

UFO
Unidentified Flying Objects, considered to be alien aircraft. It is interesting to note that a large majority of UFO's are sighted during or after an electrical storm.

Ufology
The study of unidentified flying objects.

Vampires
Mythical creatures who rise up out of their graves at night and feed of the blood of others.

Vanishing Islands
Such as Atlantis. These are geographical areas that seem to have vanished without a trace.

Veridical Dream
A dream that relates to actual events of either the past, present or future, that the dreamer is unaware of.

Warlock
The masculine name for a witch, wizard or magician.

Werewolf
Mythical creatures that change from humans to wolves. These creatures can only be killed with a silver bullet and the plant wolfs bane is said to act as a deterrent.

Xenoglossy
The alleged writing or speaking in a language that is unknown to the individual speaking or writing it.

Yeren
A mythical man beast or red haired ape 5-6 feet in height. Sighting of the Yeren have been reported in Asia and the Shennongjia Mountains in Central China.

Yeti/Bigfoot
An ape like creature most often sighted in the U.S but also around the globe since the mid 19th C. it has been suggested that bigfoot exists in another dimension and travels to this one via either, astral projection or through portals, the latter has also been suggested for the loch ness monster.

Zombie
Dead bodies with no souls, said to be created by black magic of voodoo sorcerers.

Zooform Phenomena
A term used to describe entities that resemble animals, but appear to be supernatural.