|
The Book On Mediums
''The Book on Mediums'' or ''Mediums and Evokers' Handbook'' (a.k.a. ''The Mediums' Book'' —''Le Livre des Médiums'', in French), is a book by Allan Kardec published in 1861, second of the five Fundamental Works of Spiritism — the philosophy Kardec had been publishing — being the tome in which the experimental and investigative features of the doctrine were presented, explained and taught. Scope It is intended to be an actual ''handbook'' for would-be mediums, containing doctrine and practices that one must master in order to become a medium, an elementary course on theories and basic methods to assess the ''new light'' that had never been tried by rational inquiry before: the interaction of the physical and spiritual worlds. ''The Book on Mediums'' set the bases and the terminology that guided Parapsychology and Paranormality for quite sometime. In its pages one will find a classification of paranormal phenomena, with a special focus on those capable of communicati ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Allan Kardec
Hippolyte Léon Denizard Rivail (; 3 October 1804 – 31 March 1869), known by the pen name of Allan Kardec (), was a French educator, translator, and writer. He is the author of the five books known as the Spiritist Codification, and the founder of Spiritism.Moreira-Almeida, Alexander (2008)''Allan Kardec and the development of a research program in psychic experiences'' Proceedings of the Parapsychological Association & Society for Psychical Research Convention. Winchester, UK. Early life Rivail was born in Lyon in 1804 and raised as a Roman Catholic. He pursued interests in philosophy and the sciences, and became an acolyte and colleague of Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi. Rivail completed a Bachelor of Arts and a doctorate in medicine. He was also fluent in German, English, Italian, and Spanish, in addition to his native French. Kardec became interested in Protestantism after his education in Switzerland. He was also trained in positivist ideas, although he ended up not being a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlatan
A charlatan (also called a swindler or mountebank) is a person practicing quackery or a similar confidence trick in order to obtain money, power, fame, or other advantages through pretense or deception. One example of a charlatan appears in the ''Canterbury Tales'' story " The Pardoner's Tale," with the Pardoner who tricks sinners into buying fake religious relics. Synonyms for ''charlatan'' include '' shyster'', ''quack'', or ''faker''. ''Quack'' is a reference to ''quackery'' or the practice of dubious medicine, including the sale of snake oil, or a person who does not have medical training who purports to provide medical services. Etymology The English word comes from French '','' a seller of medicines who might advertise his presence with music and an outdoor stage show. The best known of the Parisian charlatans was Tabarin, whose skits and farces – which were influenced by ''commedia dell'arte'' – inspired the 17th century playwright Molière. The word is also simil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Personality Disorder
Personality disorders (PD) are a class of mental health conditions characterized by enduring maladaptive patterns of behavior, cognition, and inner experience, exhibited across many contexts and deviating from those accepted by the culture. These patterns develop early, are inflexible, and are associated with significant distress or disability. The definitions vary by source and remain a matter of controversy. Official criteria for diagnosing personality disorders are listed in the sixth chapter of the ''International Classification of Diseases'' (ICD) and in the American Psychiatric Association's ''Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders'' (DSM). Personality, defined psychologically, is the set of enduring behavioral and mental traits that distinguish individual humans. Hence, personality disorders are characterized by experiences and behaviors that deviate from social norms and expectations. Those diagnosed with a personality disorder may experience difficulti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mania
Mania, also known as manic syndrome, is a Psychiatry, psychiatric Abnormality (behavior), behavioral syndrome defined as a state of Abnormality (behavior), abnormally elevated arousal, affect (psychology), affect, and energy level. During a manic episode, an individual will experience Emotional lability, rapidly changing emotions and moods, highly influenced by surrounding Stimulus (psychology), stimuli. Although mania is often conceived of as a "mirror image" to depression (mood), depression, the heightened mood (psychology), mood can be Dysphoria, dysphoric as well as Euphoria, euphoric. As the mania intensifies, irritability can be more pronounced and result in anxiety or anger. The symptoms of mania include elevated mood (either euphoric or irritable), Flight of Ideas, flight of ideas, pressure of speech, increased energy, decreased "need" and desire for sleep, and psychomotor agitation, hyperactivity. They are most plainly evident in fully developed hypomanic states, however ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Evocation
Evocation is the act of evoking, calling upon, or summoning a Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit, demon, deity or other supernatural agents, in the Western mystery tradition. Conjuration also refers to a summoning, often by the use of a magical spell. The conjuration of the ghosts or spirits of the dead for the purpose of divination is called necromancy. Comparable practices exist in many religions and Magic (paranormal), magical traditions and may employ the use of mind-altering substances with and without uttered word formulas. Conjuration In traditional and most contemporary usage, ''conjuration'' refers to a magic (paranormal), magical act of invoking spirits or using incantations or charms to cast magical spells. In the context of legerdemain, it may also refer to the performance of illusion or magic (illusion), magic tricks for show. This article discusses mainly the original and primary usage, describing acts of a supernatural or paranormal nature. Within some magic ( ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poltergeist
In German folklore and ghostlore, a poltergeist ( or ; ; or ) is a type of ghost or spirit that is responsible for physical disturbances, such as loud noises and objects being moved or destroyed. Most claims or fictional descriptions of poltergeists show them as being capable of pinching, biting, hitting, and tripping people. They are also depicted as capable of the movement or levitation of objects such as furniture and cutlery, or noises such as knocking on doors. Foul smells are also associated with poltergeist occurrences, as well as spontaneous fires and different electrical issues such as flickering lights. These manifestations have been recorded in many cultures and countries, including Brazil, Australia, the United States, Japan and most European nations. The first recorded cases date back to the 1st century. Skeptics explain poltergeists as juvenile tricksters fooling credulous adults. Etymology The word ''poltergeist'' comes from the German language words and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Telekinesis
Telekinesis () (alternatively called psychokinesis) is a purported psychic ability allowing an individual to influence a physical system without physical interaction. Experiments to prove the existence of telekinesis have historically been criticized for lack of proper controls and repeatability. There is no reliable evidence that telekinesis is a real phenomenon, and the topic is generally regarded as pseudoscience. Reception Evaluation There is a broad scientific consensus that telekinetic research has not produced a reliable demonstration of the phenomenon. A panel commissioned in 1988 by the United States National Research Council to study paranormal claims concluded that:despite a 130-year record of scientific research on such matters, our committee could find no scientific justification for the existence of phenomena such as extrasensory perception, mental telepathy or "mind over matter" exercises... Evaluation of a large body of the best available evidence simply does ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psychophony
Psychophony (from the Greek ''psyke'', soul and ''phone'', sound, voice) is the name given by Spiritism and some other spiritualist traditions to the phenomenon where, according to them, a spirit talks using the voice of a medium. Spiritist Doctrine as codified by Allan Kardec identifies two main classes of ''psychophony'', to say, the "conscious" one and the "unconscious" one. The first one, as its name says, happens when the medium assures that he has mentally perceived or physically heard something that a spirit said, having only used his voice to reproduce it. The second one occurs when the medium assures that he ignores what was said, suggesting that a spirit used his phonetic organs while he was unconscious. As happens with all sorts of classification, this one is useful only for didactic purposes. Most psychophony occurrences are neither 100% conscious nor 100% unconscious, lying somewhere between the two classes. In '' The Book on Mediums'', Allan Kardec calls uncons ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Psychography
Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed List of psychic abilities, psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged spirits to manipulate the practitioner's hand. The instrument may be a standard writing instrument, or it may be one specially designed for automatic writing, such as a planchette or a ouija board. Religious and spiritual traditions have incorporated automatic writing, including Fuji (planchette writing), Fuji in Chinese folk religion and the Enochian language associated with Enochian magic. In the modern era, it is associated with Spiritualism (beliefs), Spiritualism and the occult, with notable practitioners including W. B. Yeats and Arthur Conan Doyle. There is no evidence supporting the existence of automatic writing, and claims associated with it are Unfalsifiability, unfalsifiable. Documented examples are con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apparitional Experience
In parapsychology, an apparitional experience is an anomalous experience characterized by the apparent perception of either a living being or an inanimate object without there being any material stimulus for such a perception. In academic discussion, the term "apparitional experience" is preferred to the term "ghost" because: # The term ghost implies that some element of the human being survives death and, at least under certain circumstances, can make itself perceptible to living human beings. There are other competing explanations of apparitional experiences. # Firsthand accounts of apparitional experiences differ in many respects from their fictional counterparts in literary or traditional Ghost story, ghost stories and List of ghost films, films (see below). # The content of apparitional experiences includes living beings, both human and animal, and even inanimate objects. History Attempts to apply modern scientific or investigative standards to the study of apparitional e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Haunted House
A haunted house, spook house or ghost house in ghostlore is a house or other building often perceived as being inhabited by disembodied spirits of the deceased who may have been former residents or were otherwise connected with the property. Parapsychologists often attribute haunting to the spirits of the dead who have suffered from violent or tragic events in the building's past such as murder, accidental death, or suicide. Upon scientific investigation, alternative causes to supernatural phenomenon are found, such as hoaxes, environmental effects, hallucinations or confirmation biases. Common symptoms of hauntings, like cold spots and creaking or knocking sounds, can be found in most homes regardless of suspected paranormal presences. Carbon monoxide poisoning has also been cited as a cause of suspected hauntings. History According to Owen Davies, a paranormal historian, hauntings in the British Isles were usually attributed to fairies, but today hauntings are usually ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
