A | |
| Anomaly - something that is not part of normal experience. Before anomalies may be considered to be paranormal, an investigation must be made to determine physical, if not yet experienced, explanations. |
| Apparition - a manifestation of spirit - could be a human (ghost), animal or another object. |
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C | |
| Cold Spot - a location in a building that is colder than the surrounding area. This refers to a location that is colder for no apparent reason, i.e. unrelated to heating, cooling, drafts, etc. It is thought that spirits drawing energy to manifest causes the cold spot. |
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D | |
| Debunking - the process that is used in ghost hunting to find a logical, physical explanation for a reported paranormal incident. E.g., a report of a ghost knocking turning out to be rattling pipes |
| Demon - a malevolent, evil, non-human spirit. They are spirits that are up to no good. They may try to hurt people and often will try to convince people that they are actually harmless in order to gain access or power. |
| Digital Voice Recorder - a device that records audio sounds on digital media. Used to detect EVPs - these are similar to what people use to record lectures in colleges |
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E | |
| Ectoplasm - a physical substance that is produced by paranormal phenomena. |
| Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Detector - an electronic device used to measure electro magnetic fields. There are theories that if spirits are energy then their energy may be detected using this device. It is also becoming a common practice to use the EMF detector to communicate with spirits - having the spirits make the detectors resonate to indicator yes/no answers to questions. |
| Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) - unexpected or unexplained voices or sounds that are captured via audio-recording devices. Usually these voices/sounds are not heard by people in the vicinity and only heard when listening to a recording. Occasionally the voices are found to be understandable when played back wards. |
| Entity - this refers to any being that is not from the physical world. This includes but not restricted to ghosts, demons, poltergeist, angels... |
| EVP Session - a ghost hunting activity which involves asking questions to spirits and recording the results on a digital voice recorder. Later the voice recorder is examined for voices/sounds that were not experienced by the participants. |
| Exorcism - the practice of expelling an entity that has possessed a person. This is usually conducted by a trained religious person. |
| Extrasensory Perception (ESP) - the ability to gain knowledge of people/object/events by using one's mind - i.e. not using the normal senses. |
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G | |
| Ghost - a manifestation of a human spirit - can be intelligent, residual, non-human, or poltergeist - see hauntings. |
| Ghost Hunting - the investigation of a potentially haunted location. Devices used on a ghost hunt are digital voice recorders, digital cameras, digital video recorders, I/R lights, I/R cameras, thermal cameras, flashlights and human senses. |
| Great Lakes Paranormal and Research Society (GLPARS) - this ghost hunting group - www.greatlakespars.com - a group of paranormal researchers and investigators based in southeast lower Michigan. |
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H | |
Hauntings - there are four types of hauntings that we consider. - Residual Haunting - this is almost like a video be replayed over and over. The spirit is unaware of its surroundings. The spirit just acts out a scene - e.g. a spirit that frequently walks down hall or seems to be looking for something.
- Intelligent Haunting - this is a spirit that is aware of its surroundings. These types of spirits may interact with people.
- Poltergeist - a spirit that manifests itself by moving objects (sometimes violently) in a particular place. They often times seem to be attracted to (or possibly created by) teens with high emotional levels.
- Non-Human - this is a haunting of a non-human entity, e.g., demonic or angelic. In the case of a demonic haunting, these can be at times the most dangerous and hardest to rid.
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I | |
| Infestation - paranormal phenomena that repeats itself and is persistent. It is usually associated with a single person or location. |
| IR Lights - Infrared Lights which is used for night vision. This can be used to increase the ability of a camera or camcorder to record images in very low light. This is different than thermal imagining which uses heat signatures. |
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M | |
| Matrixing - the natural tendency for the human mind to interpret sensory input, what is perceived visually, audibly or by touch, as something familiar. E.g., people see patterns in wall paper, faces in plaster or in Orbs - a famous example is the "Man in the Moon." |
| Medium - a person who acts as a go-between of the physical and spirit world and the spirit world. They are sometime interchangeably referred to as psychics or sensitives. |
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O | |
| Orb - a spherical ball of light that is captured on film. While many people believe that Orbs indicate paranormal phenomena, they can also be caused by many other natural phenomena. E.g., dust, insects, light reflection off of a surface, light refraction, motion blur. |
| Ouija Board - a flat board marked with letters, numbers and symbols that is used by some people to communicate with spirits. A planchette is moved by the spirit (through the people touching it) to spell out messages. Many consider Ouija Boards to be dangerous since they may open portals which allow evil spirits in. |
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P | |
| Paranormal - unusual experiences that appear to be outside science's ability to explain. |
| Parapsychology - the study of the interactions between people and/or entities via psychic means. The study is generally not recognized as being scientific. |
| Poltergeist - a spirit that manifests itself by moving objects (sometimes violently) in a particular place. They often times seem to be attracted to (or possibly created by) teens with high emotional levels. |
| Possession - the taking over of a human body by a spirit or demon (or even extraterrestrial). This usually causes a change in the person's personality or even physical attributes, usually for the worse. |
| Portal - a doorway between the physical and spirit worlds. It is thought that spirits enter the physical world from the spirit world though the portal. Certain activities may open a portal - high levels of emotion, tragedy, Ouija board activity, etc. |
| Provoking - a technique used in Ghost Hunting which uses threats/insults/emotion to cause a spirit to respond. e.g. the ghost hunters may call a presumed ghost a coward hoping that it will anger the spirit and it will respond. Sometimes activity may increase or the attitude of the spirit may change after this is used. |
| Psychic - a person that can see, hear, feel or sense spirits. They are sometimes interchangeably referred to as mediums or sensitives. |
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R | |
| Remote Viewing - the ability to gather information about a location/person/event in either another location or time by using ESP. |
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S | |
| Sensitive - a person that can feel the presence of spirits (or the emotions of the living). They are sometime interchangeably referred to as mediums or psychics. |
| Shadow Person - a shadow that is seen (usually with out a light source to cast it) that may or may not be aware of its surroundings. Some theories are that they are actually other dimensional beings, evil creatures or even extraterrestrials. There are also shadow creatures - spiders are common. |
| Smudging - a method (or ceremony) employed by some people to remove ghosts/evil entities from a location. It is based on Native American traditions and usually herbs such as sage are burned during the ceremony. |
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T |
| Tagging - during an investigation an investigator will indicate on a recorder of a sound/incident that is experienced. This is often used to explain non paranormal activity so that there will be no confusion during review of the data. e.g. an investigator may hear a car horn and will state that the noise was caused by a car horn. |
| Talisman - an object which is used to provide strength, power or protection. It is often associated with a religious entity. |
| Trigger Object - an object which is sometimes used during a paranormal investigate to attempt to draw out an entity. e.g. if the spirit is thought to be a child, a trigger object may be a toy or stuffed animal and it is thought that the child may manifest to play with the object. |
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