Terms and Definitions

The place the person's soul or surviving consciousness goes when the body has stopped functioning, i.e. died.  Where and how a person goes varies from culture to culture.  For some this is a one way trip, your Soul enters this world from somewhere else, lives it's physical existance and then moves on to it's just reward, Heaven or Paradise if they have been good and worthy, or Hell.  For others it's like an spiraled coil were they repeated return to the physical plane after a brief period of planning before Reincarnating back into either human or animal form depending on the religion and how good of a person they were, or what spiritual lessons they have to learn or help teach another.

No matter how sure someone is, no one really knows what happens after death.  Even people who have Near Death Experiences will report different things.  There are some common events: A Light, Angels (as defined by their various religious beliefs), and/or loved ones.  Some have reported visiting not very pleasent places described as Hell. Like many things in the Spirital Realm it depends largely on the person's life experiences and religious beliefs.

There are two basic places, one is before “The Veil” and the other is after it.  When the body dies, the Soul is presented with an opportunity to complete the process and move on.  Most people do pass into their version of Heaven.  Typically a place of healing, joy, love and peace.

However for various reason they do not and become ghosts.  In some traditions, a person is not allowed to cross over for a specified time period.  In either case this "before place" is not a place of happiness and joy.  They are stuck there by choice or time but they can move on, with some help.

See also: Exorcism, Spirit Releasement

Comes primarily from the Jewish, Christian and Islamic traditions. They are beneovlent Beings that acts as an intermediary between humans and God and/or Heaven, or the Creator.  They serve as messengers and may take action in the lives of mortal humans.  Sometimes they manifest as apparitions in brilliant white robes, as balls or mists of brilliant white light. The word stems from the Greek angelos for “messenger.”

Some people consider the appearance of a Spirit, such as a family member to be an Angel if the vision serves to warn, comfort or protect them.

In the Christian system there are three levels in three spheres for a total of nine Choirs of Angels, ranging from the highest and closet to the Divine and responsible for universal managment to individual spiritual and physical events.

• Apparition (general sense)
  Also called ghosts, spirits, spooks or specters.  Common examples include the infamous Lady in White, the hitchhiker near the cemetery that vanishes, or soldiers on a battle field marching to action or partaking in the battle.
• Crisis Apparition
  Appear to the loved one, family member or good friend to communicate to that person that they are dying or have died.  Crisis Apparitions can appear both when a person is awake or in their dreams while asleep.  See also: Etiäinen.
• Deathbed Apparitions
  The opposite of a Crises Apparition these are angelic beings, religious figures or loved one(s) who have already died appearing to those shortly before death in order to provide comfort or assistance in their passing. These individuals are usually terminally or wounded.
• Omens of Death
  These differ from the Deathbed visitations as they appear to otherwise healthy individuals, or well in advance of the death of loved with no indication of health issues. Their appearance can be taken one of two ways.the scare of a lifetime and struggle to prevent the immenant, or an opportunity to take advantage of the time remaining.
  It can appear as the Angel of Death or Grim Reaper staring at (indicating) you, or standing beside a loved one who's time will soon be up or as an "overlay" on a reflection in a mirror or the actual person either as a "ghostly" white palor as they looked at another time in their life. See also Banshee, Doppleganger.

Also referred to Etheric or Spiritual. This is one of the two main Planes of Existance.  It is the level at which non-physical Beings and Energies exist and operate.  It exists alongside, or on top with the Physical Plane, like a sheet (or several sheets) of plastic on top of a piece of cardboard.

Because the Astral Plane is less tenuous, it allows for freer and faster movement.

Any place on Earth or in the Universe (such as another planet, or another galaxy) can reached.  The Astral Plane does not only cover physical locations, but non-physical, it includes areas often described as Heaven, and yes, at it's lower levels Hell.  But whatever your religious beliefs, this is where those mystical good and bad places exist and where the Gods/Goddesses, Saints, Servants, Minnons, Demons and Devils primarily reside.  This is also the where items such as the Akashic Records are stored and maintained.

Because there are no physical limits, events happen at the speed of thought, depending on the will of all Beings involved.  At this level all time exists at once, this means that information about events and people past, present and future are available.

Also known as Astral Travel. This is where a person's awareness travels to anywhere or to anytime on the Astral Plane.

There is some debate as many people Astral Travel and an Out of Body Experience to be the same.  The growing concensus seems to be they are. But there are some things to consider, one being that people who do Astral Travel will report visiting not places on Earth in the current time, but past or future events; other physical worlds; as wells as various planes and spiritual realities such as the Shamanic Upper World all the way to alternate worlds of reality.

Another is the “physical” component, rarely do Astral Travelers describe the physical sensation of leaving or being detached from their body they way the others will describe an Out of Body Experience..

Thirdly, Astral Travel, with the exception of certain dreams experiences, are intentional and controlable, where as an Out of Body Experience can happen unexpectably due to physical trauma or illness or under anthesia.

For the purposes of this glossary, they are two different things.  See also: Biolocation, Near Death Experience.

Generally speaking it refers to specialized public or private hospitals for people suffering from mental or physical ailments who require a more structured or supervised environment.  It comes from the Greek word asylon meaning “refuge.”^[1]  In older times asylum was typically granted by the church regardless of religion.  Part of the roles of Priests and Nuns was to tend the wounded, sick and infirm, as result the earliest hospitals were run by or funded by religous organizations, giving the sick "refuge."

Asylum also used to refer to orphanges, as the children were given refuge until they reached legal age. Interestingly enough many of these were also run by religious organizations.

Over time physical and mental ailments were segretated into seperate facilities and hospital became the word of preference for "hosting" the physical unwell, while asylum remained for term used for the place of those suffering mental disturbances.  See also: Sanitarium, Near Death Experience.

From Irish mythology, a screaming or wailing woman who appears to family members indicating one of them is about to die. The Scottish counterpart is the bean shìth (also spelled bean-shìdh).

The case where an individual is seen in two different geographic locations at the same time by different people. One will be the “real” individual the other, well... It depends on the context in some cases it could be a doppelganger while in others, some people who have the ability to Astral Project will be seen by people in the locations they visit.  See also: Astral Double, Astral Projection, Out of Body Experience, Near Death Experience.

An area of land, large or small, were bodies of the deceased are buried.  The bodies can be placed below ground, in graves, or above ground in masoleums.  They can be owned by the state and anyone in the community can be there.  It comes form the Greek koimeterion meaning to “sleeping place, dormitory.”^[1]

Some of these "community cemeteries" required the purchase of a plot, others you only need be a resident and will given a place upon death. Others are privately owned and require the purchase of a plot, while the remained are owned by a church and only members of their religion will be buried there, such a Catholic or Jewish Cemetaries.

Cemeteries are also a favorite haunt (pun intented) of ghost hunters.  Remember these a places should be treated with respect.  If you are going to participate in a "cemetery crawl" it should be treated with the same attitude that you would any other investigation.  Go with the intention of investigating rumored occurances, document date/time, investigators...  This is not the time to run amuk, it may be less formal, but that doesn't mean it's any less of a serious endevour.

See also: Charnel House, Graveyard.

A form of communication in which a person allows themself to be taken partially or fully over by an being or to receive messages from nonphysical entity while in a trance, such as Angels, nature spirits, totems, guides of higher intelligence, as well as the dead.  This is a voluntary process on the part of the Channel and not to be confused with an involuntary possession.

Besides the act, it also refers to the person who allows the process to move through them.  It should be noted that all Mediums are Channels but not all Channels are Mediums. See also Automatic Writing.

The child of folklorish creatures (elves or fairies) that has been swapped in the middle of the night for a human infant or child.  The human child is then taken back to their elf or fairy realm to either live happily forever as child and act a punishment or pain to the parents.  On other occassions the Changeling might be considered a gift or blessing if it had greater strength. Yet other stories tell of the human child being taken to server the elf or fairy that took it.  In these instances it apparently did not end well for the child.

Clair is French for "clear."  It is used before other words to imply "clear reception of information" from incorporeal sources or events from other periods of time.  The second part of the word is believed to be from the 17^th century French, one for each of the physical senses.  This is a fancy way of describing the way psychic information is received.  Below is a list of clairs in order of most commonly expressed:

• Clairvoyance (clairvoyant)
  the gift of seeing.  A person receives psychic information in the form of pictures, visions, or moving images.  Humans are largely visual creatures so this is the most common way of perceiving or expressing information received.  This is also referred to as Inner Vision or Second Sight.
• Clairaudience (clairaudient)
  the gift of hearing.  A person receives psychic information in the form of sound or thoughts.  This does not imply Telepathy.  Simply that the information is revealed between the ears or is heard as an actual external sound not whose source is not perceived by another other physical sense (i.e. sight, touch, smell or taste).
• Clairsentience (clairsentient)
  the gift of feeling.  A person receives psychic information in the form of bodily sensations or physical feeling.  Another term used is Empathic, those will refer more specifically to the emotions. Some claim that Psychometry is associated with psychic sense because an object is held, however this is the "process" not the sense.  A psychic may hold an object and "see" images or "hear" sounds. This is the second of the more misused terms.  Below are some samples of what clairsentient person may feel and what it may imply:
• pain in the chest to indicate information about a person's health or method of passing when communicating with ghosts could indicate: heart attack, respiratory aliment, gun shot or stabbing depending on the type of sensation and any other information received.
• Tugging, pulling or pushing to indicate a direction to move.
• Pressure or tingling to indicate the presence of entity (ghost, spirit, angel); a living person's energy or vibration; the energy or "chi" / "qi" flowing about the room in relation to Feng Shui.
• Clairalience (clairalient)
  the gift of smell.  A person receives information in the form of orders (some pleasant, some not).  For example the smell of cigarette smoke, flowers, or rotting flesh.
• Clairgustance (clairgustant)
  the gift of taste.  A person receives information in the form of tastes.  They may taste warm, fresh baked bread in an old farmhouse kitchen that hasn't been used in years or chocolate chip cookies in the presence of someone's deceased mother during a reading.
• Claircognizance (claircognizant)
  the gift of knowing.  Technically this should be the term used to generalize reception of information instead of clairvoyant or clairsentient.  It doesn't refer specifically to any of the senses but when asked how someone received a piece of information, they will simply state "I just know."  In reality this is not fully accurate statement and indicates a psychic novice no matter how long they've been receiving information.  These are people who operate simply and do not or have not yet attempted to understand their ability further.

These terms are also falling from use, except for clairvoyant and clairsentience.  However it should be noted that the vast majority of the time they are misused or used by those attempting to sound more important and on occasion additional clairs have been invented.  An example of misuse was the following phrase that occurred on a mass-market web site listing psychics: "I'm not psychic I'm claireverything."

The process of buring the body of a deceased person.

In modern times this is rarely done in the presence of family and friends, however some crematoriums do provide a final onsite viewing area just prior to the actual cremetation.  This is seperate from the view that may or may not have taken place at the funeral.  In addition, modern cremation equipment can generate heat high enough and long enough to reduce the body to mostly ash.  On occassion some teeth and larger bones may not reduced, in those cases it they are ground to maintain the consistancy of ash so when the remains are returned to family there are no remains.  The remains are then kept in a place of honor in the home, a masoleum in a cemetary, or scattered at an outdoor location important to the individual.  Although some remains of certain scientists have been sent into orbit, or various locations in space.

In older times these fires, called pyres, were built with materials on hand.  This meant that most bones and teeth were only charred. Family members would then place the bones in urns.  This is why the urns of ancient times, are quite large as compared to the modern ones that easily fit on a book shelf.

A crematorium is the place in which the body is burned.