AGENT: A living person who is the focus of poltergeist activity. Typically a teenage female.

​

ANGEL: Messengers of God who can also protect and guide human beings.

​

ANNIVERSARY IMPRINT: An imprint that usually manifests around the same time each year.

​

ANOMALY: Something that is out of place and unexplained.

 

APPARITION: A disembodied soul or spirit that can be seen visually.

​

APPORT: A physical object that can materialize and appear at will and can include coins, watches, jewelry and even food.

​

ASTRAL PROJECTION: The conscious initiation of an out-of-body experience.

​

AURA: A field of energy that emanates from matter. It is especially prominent around living things.

​

AUTOMATIC WRITING: A method used by spirit mediums to obtain information from the "other side."

​

BANSHEE: A death omen or spirit that attaches itself to certain families.

​

CLAIRVOYENCE: The ability to obtain knowledge based on unexplainable intuition, vision or psychic senses.

​

CLEARING: Ridding a location of ghostly activity.

​

COLD SPOTS: Patches of cool/cold air strewn about haunted locations.

​

COLLECTIVE APPARITION: A type of ghost sighting that occurs when one or more people see the same apparition.

​

CRISIS APPARITION: An apparition that is seen when a person is seriously ill, seriously injured or at the point of death.

​

DEMATERIALIZATION: The sudden disappearance of a person or spirit in full view of witnesses.

​

DEMON: Fallen angels under the command of Satan.

​

DEMONOLOGIST: One who studies and practices the art of demonology. An individual who specializes in the removal of evil or demonic forces from a given environment using the art of demonology.

​

DEMONOLOGY: The study of demons or beliefs about demons.

​

DIRECT WRITING: Where spirits actually communicate by the use of writing.

​

DISEMBODIED: Having no physical body.

​

DIVINING/DOWSING RODS: A forked rod from a tree said to indicate the presence of water or minerals underground. May also indicate an energy field. Can also be made of metal.

​

DOPPELGANGER: A ghost of the present that looks identical to a living person, but behaves differently.

​

DOUBLE: A ghost of the present that looks identical to a living person, and behaves identically.

​

DIVINATION/DOWSING: Interpreting the motions of rods, sticks, pendulums, and other such instruments to obtain information (also called diving).

​

DIRECT VOICE PHENOMENON (DVP): An auditory "spirit" voice that is spoken directly to the sitter's at a seance.

​

EARTHBOUND: Refers to a ghost or spirit that is unable to cross over at the time of death.

​

ECTOPLASM: A substance that allegedly oozes from ghosts or spirits and makes it possible for them to materialize and perform feats of telekinesis.

 

ELECTRO-MAGNETIC FIELD (EMF): A physical field produced by electrically charged objects. It effects the behavior of charged objects in the vicinity of the field.

​

ELECTRONIC VOICE PHENOMENON (EVP): Disembodied voices or sounds that are captured on recording (audio or video) devices.

​

ELEMENTALS: A term used to describe angry or malicious spirits. Also known as "earth spirits."

​

EMF DETECTOR: An instrument for measuring the magnitude and direction of a magnetic field typically used by paranormal researchers to detect a ghost's magnetic energy.

​

ENTITY:  A conscious, interactive ghost. Any being, including people and ghosts.

​

EXTRASENSORY PERCEPTION (ESP): The knowledge of external objects or events without the aid of senses.

​

EXORCISM: The act of ridding a person or a location of demons/evil spirits by using religious rites.

​

EXORCIST: A person who performs the ridding of demons or other supernatural beings who are alleged to have possessed a person, or (sometimes) a building or even a object.

​

FEAR CAGE: An area of high EMF readings which can bring out feelings of uneasiness, anxiety and fear.

​

GHOST: The soul or spirit of a deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living.

​

GHOST BOX: A 2-way communication device used for communicating with spirits/ghosts.

​

GHOST HUNTER: One who seeks to experience and document paranormal activity.

​

GHOST LIGHTS: Strange balls of light that appears in specific locations, often for an extended period of time.

​

HARBINGER: A ghost of the future that brings warnings of impending events.

​

HAUNTING: Repeated manifestations of unexplained phenomenon that occur at a particular location.

​

HOT SPOT: An area within a haunted location where the activity is prominent and/or energy fields are focused.

​

INCUBUS: A demon in male form who, according to a number of mythological and legendary traditions, lies upon sleepers, especially women, in order to have sex with them.

​

INTELLIGENT HAUNTING: A haunting by an intelligent or conscious spirit which interacts with living persons.

​

LEVITATION: To lift or raise a physical object in apparent defiance of gravity.

​

MANIFESTATION: The tangible signs of a haunting, including tactile, auditory, olfactory, and visual.

​

MATERIALIZATION: The act of forming something solid from air.

​

MEDIUM: A person with the gift of communicating with the dead. Necromancy: Interacting with the dead, particularly for the purpose of communication or resurrection.

​

NATURAL: A rare phenomenon that appears ghostly but in fact is created by some scientifically unknown property of the present nature.

​

OLD HAG SYNDROME: A sleep phenomena that involves a feeling of immobilization, suffocation, odd smells and feelings and is sometimes accompanied by immense fear.

 

ORBS: Round "lights" caught on film (still or video) that are believed by some to be related to paranormal activity. Very controversial. Most appear to be dust, bugs or moisture.

​

OUIJA BOARD: A flat board marked with letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0-9, the words 'yes' 'no' and 'goodbye'. The Ouija board can supposedly be used to communicate with spirits of the dead. NOTE: Can unknowingly invite demon/evil spirits into the home. TCGH does not ever recommend the use of Ouija boards.

​

OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE (OBE): When one's consciousness exits the restrictions of the physical body.

​

PARANORMAL: Anything beyond what is normal.

​

PARANORMAL RESEARCH: The study of phenomenon currently considered unexplainable by mainstream sciences.

​

PARAPYSCHOLOGY: The study of mental abilities and effects outside the usual realm of psychology. Parapsychology includes the study of ESP, ghosts, luck, psycho kinesis, and other paranormal phenomena.

​

PAREIDOLIA: The phenomenon when faces and /or shapes are often reported in objects such as doors, trees, clouds, bushes, food and even animals. This is usually nothing paranormal. It is a trick of the mind.

​

PENDULUM: A small weight at the end of a cord or chain that is usually about six to ten inches long. The movement of the weight, when uninfluenced by other factors, can be used to detect areas of paranormal energy.

​

PHANTOM: Another name for a ghost or spirit. Many use the term to refer to ghosts that have been seen wearing robes or cloaks.

​

POLTERGEIST: German for "noisy ghost", usually associated with knocking or movement of objects, which usually involves a agent.

​

PORTAL: A theoretical doorway of energy, through which spirits may be able to enter or exit a location.

​

PORTENT: Something that foreshadows a coming event; omen, sign.

​

POSSESSION: The entry of a spirit into the body of a willing or unwilling host, in which the spirit takes control of the individual's motor and cognitive functions.

​

PRECOGNITION: Seeing or knowing activity received from the future using ESP. Premonition: A psychic awareness of future events, often with a negative outcome.

​

PSYCHIC: A person who is sensitive beyond the normal mean. May be able to see and hear things that are not available to most people.

​

PSYCHOKINESIS: To move something with the powers of one's mind. Usually associated with poltergeist activity.

​

RECIPROCAL APPARITION: A rare type of ghost sighting when both the spirit and the human witness see and respond to one another.

​

RESIDUAL HAUNTING: A repeated haunting in which no intelligent entity or spirit is directly involved. This is the playback of a past event, trapped in a continuous loop. It is often associated with past events involving great trauma or tragedy.

​

RETROCOGNITION: Seeing or knowing activity from the past using ESP.

​

SEANCE: A meeting of individuals in order to contact the spirit of a deceased loved one or other person (usually consisting of a medium, assistants, loved ones of the departed, or other interested individuals).

​

SENSITIVE: A person who professes an ability to perceive information through extrasensory perception (ESP).

​

SHADOW PERSON: A dark fleeting entity seen out of the corner of the eye.

 

SOUL: A soul, in certain spiritual, philosophical, and psychological traditions, is the corporeal essence of a person of living thing or object.

​

SPECTER: Another term for a ghost. Spirit: The actual consciousness or soul of an individual that has passed on and continues to be observed in an area. An angel or demon.

​

SUCCUBUS: A female demon appearing in dreams, who takes the form of a human woman in order to seduce men, usually through sexual intercourse.

​

SUPERNATURAL: Events or happenings that take place in violation of the laws of nature, usually associated with ghosts and hauntings.

​

TELEKINESIS: The ability to control one's physical environment without using physical manipulation or force (also known as psycho kinesis, TK, or PK). Usually associated with poltergeist activity.

​

TELEPATHY: The process by which the mind can communicate directly with another without using normal, physical interaction or ordinary sensory perception.

​

TELEPORTATION: A method of transportation in which matter or information is dematerialized, usually instantaneously, at one point and recreated at another.

​

WARP: A location where the known laws of physics do not always apply and space/time may be distorted.

​

WHITE NOISE: A sound, such as running water, which masks all speech sounds. Used in collection of EVP's.

​

WRAITH: An apparition of a living person that appears as a portent, just before that person's death.