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Principle Of Contagion
The law of contagion is a folk belief that suggests that once two people or objects have been in contact, a magical link persists between them unless or until a formal cleansing, consecration, exorcism, or other act of banishing breaks the non-material bond. The first description of the law of contagion appeared in ''The Golden Bough'' by James George Frazer. Benefits and dangers According to this law, contagion has both dangers and benefits. Benefits, for example, include that the holiness of a saint, god or other venerated figure confers benefits to relics, as do temples and churches, by virtue of their having religious rituals conducted within them. Psychics and mediums commonly utilize an object once owned by a missing or deceased subject as their "focus" for psychometry or clairvoyance or during séances. Dangers include, for example, a sorcerer or witch might acquire a lock of hair, nail clipping or scrap of clothing in order to facilitate a curse. Voodoo dolls resemble ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ritual Purification
Ritual purification is a ritual prescribed by a religion through which a person is considered to be freed of ''uncleanliness'', especially prior to the worship of a deity, and ritual purity is a state of ritual cleanliness. Ritual purification may also apply to objects and places. Ritual uncleanliness is not identical with ordinary physical impurity, such as dirt stains; nevertheless, body fluids are generally considered ritually unclean. Most of these rituals existed long before the germ theory of disease, and figure prominently from the earliest known Ancient Near Eastern religion, religious systems of the Ancient Near East. Some writers connect the rituals to taboos. Some have seen benefits of these practices as a point of health and preventing infections especially in areas where humans come in close contact with each other. While these practices came before the idea of the germ theory was public in areas that use daily cleaning, the destruction of infectious agents seems t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Clairvoyance
Clairvoyance (; ) is the claimed ability to acquire information that would be considered impossible to get through scientifically proven sensations, thus classified as extrasensory perception, or "sixth sense". Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () (). Claims for the existence of paranormal and psychic abilities such as clairvoyance have not been supported by scientific evidence.Robert Todd Carroll, Carroll, Robert Todd. (2003)"Clairvoyance" Retrieved 2014-04-30. Parapsychology explores this possibility, but the existence of the paranormal is not accepted by the scientific community. The scientific community widely considers parapsychology, including the study of clairvoyance, a pseudoscience. Usage Pertaining to the ability of clear-sightedness, clairvoyance refers to the paranormal ability to see persons and events that are distant in time or space. It can be divided into roughly three classes: precognition, the ability to perceive o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quantum Entanglement
Quantum entanglement is the phenomenon where the quantum state of each Subatomic particle, particle in a group cannot be described independently of the state of the others, even when the particles are separated by a large distance. The topic of quantum entanglement is at the heart of the disparity between classical physics and quantum physics: entanglement is a primary feature of quantum mechanics not present in classical mechanics. Measurement#Quantum mechanics, Measurements of physical properties such as position (vector), position, momentum, Spin (physics), spin, and polarization (waves), polarization performed on entangled particles can, in some cases, be found to be perfectly correlated. For example, if a pair of entangled particles is generated such that their total spin is known to be zero, and one particle is found to have clockwise spin on a first axis, then the spin of the other particle, measured on the same axis, is found to be anticlockwise. However, this behavior ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Totem
A totem (from or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage (anthropology), lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system. While the word ''totem'' itself is an anglicisation of the Ojibwe term (and both the word and beliefs associated with it are part of the Ojibwe language and Ojibwe, culture), belief in Tutelary deity, tutelary spirits and deities is not limited to the Ojibwe people. Similar concepts, under differing names and with variations in beliefs and practices, may be found in a number of cultures worldwide. The term has also been adopted, and at times redefined, by anthropologists and philosophers of different cultures. Contemporary Neoshamanism, neoshamanic, New Age, and mythopoetic men's movements not otherwise involved in the practice of a traditional, tribal religion have been known to use "totem" terminology for the personal identification with a tutelary sp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sympathetic Magic
Sympathetic magic, also known as imitative magic, is a type of Magic (paranormal), magic based on imitation or correspondence. Similarity and contagion James George Frazer coined the term "sympathetic magic" in ''The Golden Bough'' (1889); Richard Andree, however, anticipated Frazer, writing of sympathy-enchantment () in his 1878 . Frazer subcategorised sympathetic magic into two varieties: that relying on similarity, and that relying on contact or "contagion": Imitation Imitation involves using effigies, fetishes, or poppets to affect the environment of people, or people themselves. Voodoo dolls are an example of fetishes used in this way: the practitioner uses a lock of hair on the doll to create a link (also known as a "taglock") between the doll and the donor of this lock of hair. In this way, that which happens to the doll will also happen to the person. Correspondence Correspondence (theology), Correspondence is based on the idea that one can influence something based o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psychometry (paranormal)
In parapsychology, psychometry (from Greek language, Greek: ψυχή, ''psukhē'', "spirit, soul" and μέτρον, ''metron'', "measure"), also known as token-object reading,Psychometry – Key Words Frequently Used in Parapsychology, Parapsychological Association (2006-12-17) or psychoscopy, is a form of extrasensory perception characterized by the claimed ability to glean accurate knowledge of an object's history by making physical contact with that object.Leonard Zusne, Zusne, Leonard; Jones, Warren H. (1989). ''Anomalistic Psychology: A Study of Magical Thinking''. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. pp. 193–194. Supporters assert that an object may have an Energy (esotericism), energy field that transfers knowledge regarding that object's history. There is no evidence that psychomet ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serial Killer
A serial killer (also called a serial murderer) is a person who murders three or more people,An offender can be anyone: * * * * * (This source only requires two people) with the killings taking place over a significant period of time in separate events. Their psychological gratification is the Motive (law), motivation for the killings, and many serial murders involve sexual contact with the victims at different points during the murder process. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) states that the motives of serial killers can include anger, thrill killing , thrill-seeking, attention seeking, and financial gain, and killings may be Modus operandi, executed as such. The victims tend to have things in common, such as demographic profile, appearance, gender, or Race (human categorization), race. As a group, serial killers suffer from a variety of personality disorders. Most are often not adjudicated as insane under the law. Although a serial killer is a distinct cl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Experimental Psychology
Experimental psychology is the work done by those who apply Experiment, experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ Research participant, human participants and Animal testing, animal subjects to study a great many topics, including (among others) Sense, sensation, perception, memory, cognition, learning, motivation, emotion; Developmental psychology, developmental processes, social psychology, and the Neuroscience, neural substrates of all of these. History Early experimental psychology Wilhelm Wundt Experimental psychology emerged as a modern academic discipline in the 19th century when Wilhelm Wundt introduced a mathematical and experimental approach to the field. Wundt founded the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany. Other experimental psychologists, including Hermann Ebbinghaus and Edward Titchener, included introspection in their experimental methods. Charles Bell Charles Bell was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Voodoo Doll
A voodoo doll is an effigy that is typically used for the insertion of pins. Such practices are found in various forms in the magic (paranormal), magical traditions of many cultures around the world. Despite its name, the voodoo doll is not prominent in the African diaspora religions of Haitian Vodou nor Louisiana Voodoo. Members of the High Priesthood of Louisiana Voodoo have denounced the use of voodoo dolls as irrelevant to the religion. Depictions in culture 20th-century link with Voodoo The association of the voodoo doll and the religion of Voodoo was established through the presentation of the latter in Western popular culture during the first half of the 20th century as part of the broader negative depictions of Black and Afro-Caribbean religious practices in the United States. In John Houston Craige's 1933 book ''Black Bagdad: The Arabian Nights Adventures of a Marine Captain in Haiti'', a Haitian prisoner is described sticking pins into an effigy to induce illness. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Curse
A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, "curse" may refer to such a wish or pronouncement made effective by a supernatural or spirituality, spiritual power, such as a god or gods, a spirit, or a Natural phenomenon, natural force, or else as a kind of spell (paranormal), spell by magic (paranormal), magic (usually black magic) or witchcraft; in the latter sense, a curse can also be called a hex or a jinx. In many belief systems, the curse itself (or accompanying ritual) is considered to have some causative force in the result. To reverse or eliminate a curse is sometimes called "removal" or "breaking", as the Incantation, spell has to be dispelled, and often requires elaborate rituals or prayers. Types The study of the forms of curses comprises a significant proportion of the s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nail Clipper
A nail clipper (also called nail clippers, a nail trimmer, a nail cutter or nipper type) is a hand tool used to trim fingernails, toenails and hangnails. Design Nail clippers are usually made of stainless steel but can also be made of plastic and aluminum. Two common varieties are the pliers type and the compound lever type. Many nail clippers come with a miniature file affixed to them, for manicuring (smoothing) the rough edges of nails, and some come with a nail catcher. The head of a nail clipper may be either concave or convex. Nail clippers with convex clipping ends are intended for trimming toenails, while concave clipping ends are for fingernails. The cutting head may be manufactured to be parallel or perpendicular to the principal axis of the cutter. Cutting heads that are parallel to the principal axis are made to address accessibility issues involved with cutting toenails. History Before the invention of the modern nail clipper, people would use small knives ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Witchcraft
Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meaning. According to ''Encyclopedia Britannica'', "Witchcraft thus defined exists more in the imagination", but it "has constituted for many cultures a viable explanation of evil in the world". The belief in witches has been found throughout history in a great number of societies worldwide. Most of these societies have used Apotropaic magic, protective magic or counter-magic against witchcraft, and have shunned, banished, imprisoned, physically punished or killed alleged witches. Anthropologists use the term "witchcraft" for similar beliefs about harmful occult practices in different cultures, and these societies often use the term when speaking in English. Belief in witchcraft as malevolent magic is attested from #Ancient Mesopotamian religion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
