anomalous psychology - A number of studies conducted in the American, European, and Australasian continents have found that a majority of people surveyed report having had experiences that could be interpreted as telepathy, precognition, and similar phenomena. Variables that have been associated with reports of psi-phenomena include belief in the reality of psi; the tendency to have hypnotic, dissociative, and other alterations of consciousness; and, less reliably so, neuroticism, extraversion, and openness to experience. Although psi-related experiences can occur in the context of such psychopathologies as schizotypal personality, dissociative, and other disorders, most individuals who endorse a belief in psi are well-adjusted, lack serious pathology, and are not intellectually deficient or lacking critical abilities.

anomaly- An irregularity, a mis proportion, or something that is strange or unusual, or unique strange occurence.

apparition - a physical manifestation of a ghost or spirit. apparition is an act or instance of appearing, including: a religious vision such as a Marian apparition; or certain ostensibly paranormal experiences such as ghosts, doppelgänger or bilocation; or any other apparitional experience (i.e. anomalous, quasi-perceptual experience).

apport - An apport is the paranormal transference of an article from one place to another, or an appearance of an article from an unknown source. Apports are often associated with poltergeist activity, and on rare occasions are said to be witnessed landing on the floor, in a person's lap or dropping from the ceiling. Flowers are a well known form of apport at spiritualistic séances, but tar and mud have also been reported.

Conversely, an asport is the transference of a small object from a known location to an unknown location via paranormal means.

As with all paranormal phenomena, apports are highly controversial, with critics such as Robert Todd Carroll saying that they are the result of magic tricks.

astral body - The Astral body is a subtle body posited by some neo-theosophical philosophers as an intermediate between the intelligent soul and the physical body, composed of a subtle material, or the soul body, composed of an ethereal matter and posited by some western religious philosophies, based upon Esoteric Christian teachings,] to intermediate between the spirit and the physical body. The concept ultimately derives from the philosophy of Plato: it is related to an astral plane, which consists of the planetary heavens of astrology. The term was adopted by nineteenth-century Theosophists and neo-Rosicrucians.

The idea is rooted in common worldwide religious accounts of the afterlife in which the soul's journey or "ascent" is described in such terms as "an ecstatic.., mystical or out-of body experience, wherein the spiritual traveller leaves the physical body and travels in his/her subtle body (or dreambody or astral body) into ‘higher’ realms". Hence "the "many kinds of 'heavens', 'hells' and purgatorial existences believed in by followers of innumerable religions" may also be understood as astral phenomena, as may the various "phenomena of the séance room". The phenomenon of apparitional experience is therefore related, as is made explicit in Cicero's Dream of Scipio.

The astral body is sometimes said to be visible as an aura of swirling colours. It is widely linked today with out-of-the-body experience or astral projection. Where this refers to a supposed movement around the real world, as in Muldoon and Carrington's book The Projection of the Astral Body, it conforms to Madame Blavatsky's usage of the term. Elsewhere this latter is termed "etheric", while "astral" denotes an experience of dream-symbols, archetypes, memories, spiritual beings and visionary landscapes. In reference to the secular scientific world view the concept is now generally considered superseded, being rooted in an attribution of materiality and dimensionality to the psychic world.

astral plane -The astral plane, also called the astral world, is a plane of existence postulated by classical (particularly neo-Platonic), mediaeval, oriental and esoteric philosophies and mystery religions. It is the world of the planetary spheres, crossed by the soul in its astral body on the way to being born and after death, and generally said to be populated by angels, spirits or other immaterial beings. In the late 19th and early 20th century the term was popularised by Theosophy and neo-Rosicrucianism.

The "Barzakh" or inter-world in Islam, the "World of Yetzirah" in Lurianic Kabbalah, the "Spirit World" in Spiritualism and the "Fairy World" of Celtic spirituality are all related concepts.

astral projection -Astral projection (or astral travel) is an esoteric interpretation of a type of out-of-body experience that assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it. Astral projection is experienced as being "out of the body".[2] Unlike dreaming or near death experiences, astral projection is practiced deliberately.

The idea of astral travel is rooted in common worldwide religious accounts of the afterlife [3] in which the soul's journey or "ascent" is described in such terms as "an...out-of body experience, wherein the spiritual traveller leaves the physical body and travels in his/her subtle body (or dreambody or astral body) into ‘higher’ realms."

There is little evidence for astral projection, and that which does exist rests mainly in subjective personal accounts of the experience. Hundreds of personal accounts of astral projection were published in a number of books through the 1960s and 70s in an effort to validate religious concepts of the soul and an afterlife. Because of their subjective nature, however, there are many plausible explanations that can account for these experiences which do not rely on the existence of paranormal, supernatural, or psychic activity

aura - In parapsychology and many forms of spirituality an aura is a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object like the halo or aureola of religious art. The depiction of such an aura in religious art usually connotes a person of particular power or holiness.

According to the literature of movements (such as Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Archeosophy, etc.) each color of the aura has a precise meaning, indicating a precise emotional state. A complete description of the Aura and its colors was provided by Charles Leadbeater, a theosophist of the 19th century. The works of Leadbeater were later developed by Palamidessi and others.

Skeptics such as Robert Todd Carroll doubt the evidence presented for the perception of auras, contending that auras may be seen for explainable reasons such as migraines or synaesthesia.[ Some people see auras as the result of a migraine, epilepsy, a visual system disorder, or a brain disorder. Eye fatigue can also produce an aura, sometimes to referred to as "eye burn".

automatism - Has taken on many forms: the automatic writing and drawing initially (and still to this day) practiced by surrealists can be compared to similar, or perhaps parallel phenomena, such as the non-idiomatic improvisation of free jazz. Surrealist automatism is different from mediumistic automatism, from which the term was inspired. Ghosts, spirits or the like are not purported to be the source of surrealist automatic messages.

automatic drawing - Automatic drawing (distinguished from drawn expression of mediums) was developed by the surrealists, as a means of expressing the subconscious. In automatic drawing, the hand is allowed to move 'randomly' across the paper. In applying chance and accident to mark-making, drawing is to a large extent freed of rational control. Hence the drawing produced may be attributed in part to the subconscious and may reveal something of the psyche, which would otherwise be repressed. Examples of automatic drawing were produced by mediums and practitioners of the psychic arts. It was thought by some Spiritualists to be a spirit control that was producing the drawing whilst physically taking control of the medium's body.

Automatic drawing was pioneered by André Masson. Artists who practised automatic drawing include Joan Miró, Salvador Dalí, Jean Arp and André Breton. The technique was transferred to painting (as seen in Miró's paintings which often started out as automatic drawings), and has been adapted to other media; there have even been automatic "drawings" in computer graphics. Pablo Picasso was also thought to have expressed a type of automatic drawing in his later work, and particularly in his etchings and lithographic suites of the 1960s.

Most of the surrealists' automatic drawings were illusionistic, or more precisely, they developed into such drawings when representational forms seemed to suggest themselves. In the 1940s and 1950s the French-Canadian group called Les Automatistes pursued creative work (chiefly painting) based on surrealist principles. They abandoned any trace of representation in their use of automatic drawing. This is perhaps a more pure form of automatic drawing since it can be almost entirely involuntary - to develop a representational form requires the conscious mind to take over the process of drawing, unless it is entirely accidental and thus incidental. These artists, led by Paul-Emile Borduas, sought to proclaim an entity of universal values and ethics proclaimed in their manifesto Refus Global.

As alluded to above, surrealist artists often found that their use of 'automatic drawing' was not entirely automatic, rather it involved some form of conscious intervention to make the image or painting visually acceptable or comprehensible, "...Masson admitted that his 'automatic' imagery involved a two-fold process of unconscious and conscious activity.

automatic writing - Automatic writing is the process, or product, of writing material that does not come from the conscious thoughts of the writer. People who believe in "automatic writing" say that the writer's hand forms the message, with the person being unaware of what will be written. In some cases, it is done by people in a trance state. Other times the writer is aware (not in a trance) of their surroundings but not of the actions of their writing hand.

While advocates of automatic writing believe that their experiences are genuine, the Encyclopedia Britannica article on spiritualism notes that "...one by one, the mediums were discovered to be engaged in fraud, sometimes employing the techniques of stage magicians in their attempts to convince people of their clairvoyant powers." The article also notes that "the exposure of widespread fraud within the spiritualist movement severely damaged its reputation and pushed it to the fringes of society in the United States."

banshee - The banshee (rom the Irish bean sí ("woman of the síde" or "woman of the fairy mounds") is a female spirit in Irish mythology, usually seen as an omen of death and a messenger from the Otherworld. Her Scottish counterpart is the bean shìth (also spelled bean-shìdh).

The aos sí ("people of the mounds", "people of peace") are variously believed to be the survivals of pre-Christian Gaelic deities, spirits of nature, or the ancestors. Some Theosophists and Celtic Christians have also referred to the aos sí as "fallen angels". They are commonly referred to in English as "fairies", and the banshee can also be described as a "fairy woman".

bogeyman - Boog, Boogyman, bogyman, boogieman, boogey monster, or boogeyman, is a folkloric or legendary ghostlike monster often believed in by many adults children. The bogeyman has no specific appearance, and conceptions of the monster can vary drastically even from household to household within the same community; in many cases he simply has no set appearance in the mind of a child, but is just an amorphous embodiment of terror.

Bogeyman can be used metaphorically to denote a person or thing of which someone has an irrational fear. Parents often say that if their child is naughty, the bogeyman will get them, in an effort to make them behave. The bogeyman legend may originate from Scotland, where such creatures are sometimes called bogles, boggarts, or bogies.

Bogeyman tales vary by region. In some places the bogeyman is male; in others, female, and in others, both. In some Midwestern states of the United States, the bogeyman scratches at the window. In the Pacific Northwest he may manifest in "green fog." In other places he hides under the bed or in the closet and tickles children when they go to sleep at night. It is said that a wart can be transmitted to someone by the bogeyman. Bogeymen may be said to target a specific mischief – for instance, a bogeyman that punishes children who suck their thumbs – or general misbehavior.

Some say they are the ghosts of Ecto-serial killers.

Serial killer is a person who murders three or more people (although some have been defined as serial killers based on proof of only two such as Ed Gein) with a "cooling off" period between each murder and whose motivation for killing is largely based on psychological gratification. One hypothesis is that all serial killers suffer from some form of Antisocial Personality Disorder. They are usually not psychotic, and thus may appear to be quite normal and often even charming, a state of adaptation which Hervey Cleckley calls the "mask of sanity." There is sometimes a sexual element to the murders. The murders may have been completed/attempted in a similar fashion and the victims may have had something in common, for example occupation, race, or sex.

The term serial killer is said to have been coined by Michigan State University alumnus and FBI agent Robert Ressler in the 1970s. Serial killer entered the popular vernacular in large part due to the widely publicized crimes of Ted Bundy and David Berkowitz in the middle years of that decade.

Bogeyman-like beings are nearly universal; common to folklore in many disparate countries.

Azerbaijan - A boogeyman-like creature parents refer to make children behave is called khokhan ( "xoxan").
Brazil and Portugal- A similar creature with the same function (to scare misbehaving children) exists as the "Bag Man" (Portuguese: "homem do saco"). It is portrayed as an adult male, usually in the form of a bum, or a hobo, who carries a sack on his back (much like Santa Claus would), and collects mean disobedient children to sell. Parents may tell their kids that they will call the "Sack man" to collect them if they do not behave. A monster more akin to the Bogeyman is called "Bicho Papão" (Eating Beast). A notable difference is 'homem do saco' is a daily menace and "Bicho Papão" is a bed time (nightly) menace.
Bulgaria - In Bulgaria children are sometimes told that a dark scary monster-like person called Torbalan (Bulgarian : meaning a sack , so his name means "Man with a sack") will come and kidnap them with his large sack if they misbehave. In some villages people used to believe that a hairy, dark, ghost-like creature called a talasam (Tal-ah-SUHM) lived in the shadows of the barn or in the attic and came out at night to scare little children.
Czech Republic - Bubak or hastrman (Bugbear, scarecrow, respectively) is the Czech boogeyman; he is like Torbalan in being a man with a sack who takes children. He also, however, takes adults, and is known for hiding by riverbanks and making a sound like a lost baby, in order to lure the unwary. He weaves on nights of the full moon, making clothes for his stolen souls, and has a cart drawn by cats.
Denmark - The equivalent of the Bogeyman in Danish is bussemanden. It hides under the bed and grabs children who will not sleep. Like the English, it is also a slang term for nasal mucus.
Finland - The equivalent of the Bogeyman in Finland is mörkö. The most famous usage of the word these days takes place in Moomin-stories (originally written in Swedish) in which mörkö (the Groke) is a frightening, dark blue, big, ghost-looking creature.
France - The French equivalent of the Bogeyman is le croque-mitaine ("the mitten-biter").
Germany - in Germany the Bogeyman is known as Der schwarze Mann (the black man), the "Buhmann" or the Butzemann. "Schwarz" does not refer to the color of skin but to his preference for hiding in dark places, like the closet, under the bed of children or in forests at night. There is also an active game for little children which is called Wer hat Angst vorm schwarzen Mann? (Who is afraid of the black man?).
Greece - in Greece the equivalent of the Bogeyman is known as Baboulas (. Most of the times he is said to be hiding under the bed, although it is used by the parents in a variety of ways.
Haiti - in Haiti, the Boogeyman is a giant, and a counterpart of Father Christmas, renowned for abducting bad children by putting them in his knapsack. His name in the Haitian creole patois is Tonton Macoute.
Hungary - "Mumus" , the expression is often used to frighten kids when they do something wrong or just to have them fear something, usually the expression is used in the following context "the Mumus will take you away".
India - In India, the entity is known by different names.
North India - Children are sometimes threatened with the Bori Baba, who carries a sack (bori) in which he places children he captures. A similar character is the Chownki Daar, a night shift security guard who takes children who refuse to go to sleep.
South India - In the state of Tamil Nadu, children are often mock threatened with the Rettai Kannan (the two-eyed one) or Poochaandi. In the state of Andhra Pradesh, the equivalent of bogeyman is Buchadu.
Iran - In Persian culture, children who misbehave might be told by their parents to be afraid of lulu who eats up the naughty children. Lulu is usually called lulu-khorkhore (bogeyman who eats everything up). The threat is generally used to make small children eat their meals.
Italy - The Italian equivalent of the Bogeyman is l'uomo nero ("the black man"), portrayed as a tall man wearing a heavy black coat, with a black hood or hat which hides his face. Sometimes, parents will knock loudly under the table, pretending that someone is knocking at the door, and saying: "Here comes l'uomo nero! He must know that there's a child here who doesn't want to drink his soup!" L'uomo nero is not supposed to eat or harm children, just take them away to a mysterious and frightening place. A popular lullaby says that he would keep a child with him "for a whole month". As the color black is associated with fascism in Italy, in adult language l'uomo nero is often used in political puns. Since the 1980s, "nero" has also replaced "negro" as a term for black-skinned people, so the expression "uomo nero" is also sometimes heard in racist puns. Another Italian equivalent of the Bogeyman is the Carthaginian general and statesman, Hannibal Barca. Hannibal was regarded as the greatest enemy Rome ever faced and thus became an important part of Roman culture. The threat he posed to Rome was so great that he became associated with fear and parents used him and still use him today as an instrument to reprimand or correct a misbehaving child, usually in the form "Behave well or Hannibal will come and get you". Another Italian equivalent is babau(called sometimes babao or barabao).
Japan - Namahage are demons that warn children not to be lazy or cry, during the Namahage Sedo Matsuri, or "Demon Mask Festival", when villagers don demon masks and pretend to be these spirits.
Korea - In Gyungsang province, Kokemi is understood as a monster that appears to get misbehaving children. The word kokemi, however, is derived from a word Kotgahm , dried persimmon. According to Korean folklore, a woman, in an attempt to soothe her crying child, said "Here comes a tiger to come and get you. I'll let him in unless you stop crying." Accidentally, a tiger passed by, overheard her and decided to wait for his free meal. Instead of opening the door of the house, to the tiger's disappointment, the mother offered her child a dried persimon saying "Here's a kotgahm." Of course, the child, busy eating, stopped crying. The tiger, not knowing what a Kotgahm is, ran away thinking "this must be a scary monster for whom even I am no match." (Tigers are revered by Koreans as most powerful and fearsome creatures.) Other variations include mangtae younggam an oldman (younggam) who carries a mesh sack (mahngtae) to put his kidnapped children in. In some regions, mangtae younggam is replaced by mangtae halmum, an old woman with a mesh sack.
Mexico - El Coco/Cuco. Is a creature that eats children that misbehave when they are told to go to bed. Parents will sing lullabies or tell rhymes to the children warning them that if they don't sleep, El Coco will come and get them". In the Mexican-American community the creature is known as "El cucuy". Social sciences professor Manuel Medrano said popular legend describes cucuy as a small humanoid with glowing red eyes that hides in closets or under the bed. 'Some lore has him as a kid who was the victim of violence ... and now he’s alive, but he’s not,' Medrano said, citing Xavier Garza’s 2004 book Creepy Creatures and other Cucuys."
Norway - Busemannen
Netherlands - Boeman
Philippines - Pugot, Mamu (only in most Ilocano regions)
Poland - in some regions, like Silesia or Great Poland, children are mock threatened with bebok (babok, bobok), a bogeyman-like creature from old Polish legends.
Quebec - in this French-speaking province, the Bonhomme Sept-Heures (7 o'clock man) is said to visit houses around 7 o'clock to take misbehaving children who will not go to bed back to his cave where he feasts on them.
Romania - in Romania the equivalent of the Bogeyman is known as bau-bau (pronuonced "bow-bow"). Bau-bau stories are used by parents to scare children who misbehave.
Russia - usually said to be hiding under the bed, babay ) is used to keep children in bed or stop them from misbehaving. 'Babay' means 'old man' in Tatar. Children are told that "babay" is an old man with a bag or a monster, and that it will take them away if they misbehave.
Slovenia The Slovenian Bogeyman is called Bavbav. It doesn't have a particular shape or form. Many times it isn't even defined as a man or anything human. It can be thought of as a kind of sprite or spirit although the word "spirit" also doesn't give it justice.
Spain - The Spanish Bogeyman is known as El Cuco, or, more often in Spain, El Coco (also named in some parts of Spain as El Ogro), a shapeless figure, sometimes a hairy monster, that eats children that misbehave when they are told to go to bed. Parents will sing lullabies or tell rhymes to the children warning them that if they don't sleep, El Coco will come and get them. The rhyme originated in the 17th century has evolved over the years, but still retaining its original meaning. The term is also used in Spanish-speaking Latin American countries. The aforementioned Brazilian "Bag Man" also exists here in the form of the Hombre del Saco or Hombre de la bolsa, who is usually depicted as a mean and impossibly ugly and skinny old man who eats the misbehaving children he collects.
Sri Lanka - Goni Billa - A scary man carrying a sack to capture and keep children. Elders use him for kids who refused to behave well.
Sweden - in Sweden the Bogeyman is referred to either as Monstret under sängen which essentially means "the monster under the bed", or Svarta mannen; "the Black man".
Switzerland - in Switzerland the Bogeyman is called Böögg and has an important role in the springtime ceremonies. The figure is the symbol of winter and death, so in the Sechseläuten ceremony in the City of Zürich, where a figure of the Böögg is burnt.
Turkey - in Turkey there is an old lullaby about a creature called Dunganga, who puts misbehaving children in its basket and takes them back to its cave to be eaten.
Ukraine - eastern part of Ukraine has babay, possibly due to Russian influence (see entry for Russia above).
Vietnam - ông ba b? (in the North - literally mister-three-bags) or ông k? (in the South) is used to make small children eat their meals or to scare children who misbehave, usually in a mock-threatening way.

bowel ghost - Ghost that are known to infest themselves in someone's bowel or anal cavity. Woman usually suffer from womb ghost or mouth ghosts. their or even ghosts that will live in a persons navel or ear. Ear ghost tend to speak to you so you can hear them audibly.

Carbon monoxide - Some of the phenomena generally associated with haunted houses, including strange visions and sounds, feelings of dread, illness, and the sudden, apparently