Glossary

Altered states of consciousness are mental conditions that differ significantly from normal waking awareness.

Analytical psychology is a school of psychology developed by Carl Jung that studies the unconscious mind and symbolic processes.

Ancient civilisations are early complex societies that developed organised cities, writing systems, governance, and cultural traditions thousands of years ago.

Ancient symbols are visual signs or images used by early cultures to represent ideas, beliefs, or concepts.

Angels are spiritual or supernatural beings described in many religious traditions as messengers or intermediaries between humans and the divine.

Anomalistic psychology studies unusual experiences by exploring psychological and neurological explanations.

Anomalous cognition refers to the claimed ability to acquire information without using known sensory channels.

An anomalous experience is an unusual perception or event that appears difficult to explain using conventional scientific understanding.

Anthropomorphism is the tendency to attribute human characteristics to non-human entities.

Apophenia is the tendency to perceive meaningful patterns or connections in random or unrelated information.

Apparitions are reported visual experiences of figures or entities that appear without an identifiable physical source.

An archetype is a universal symbolic pattern or character that appears in myths, dreams, and cultural narratives.

Astral projection is the reported experience of a person's consciousness or awareness leaving the physical body and travelling in a non-physical form.

Attentional bias is the tendency for perception and attention to be drawn more strongly toward certain types of information than others.

Autobiographical memory is memory for events, experiences, and facts related to a person's own life.

Automatic writing is the practice of writing words or messages without conscious control of the writing process.

Awareness is the ability to perceive and respond to internal thoughts and external stimuli.

Bayesian reasoning is a method of updating beliefs based on new evidence.

Belief formation refers to the psychological processes through which people develop and maintain beliefs.

The binding problem is the question of how the brain combines separate sensory features into a unified conscious experience.

Brain activity refers to the electrical and chemical processes occurring within neural networks.

The brain–mind problem refers to the question of how physical brain processes produce subjective conscious experience.

Cartesian dualism is the philosophical view that mind and body are fundamentally separate kinds of substance.

Chakras are energy centres described in several ancient Indian spiritual traditions.

Channeling is the claimed process of receiving information from external entities, spirits, or non-physical sources.

Childhood anomalous experiences refer to unusual perceptions or events reported by individuals during childhood.

Clairvoyance is the claimed ability to obtain information about distant objects, events, or people without using the known senses.

A cognitive bias is a systematic error in thinking that affects how people interpret information and make decisions.

Cognitive dissonance occurs when a person experiences psychological discomfort from holding conflicting beliefs.

A cognitive illusion is a systematic error in thinking caused by the brain's interpretation processes rather than by faulty sensory input alone.

Cognitive neuroscience studies how brain activity produces mental processes such as memory, perception, and decision-making.

Collective consciousness refers to shared beliefs, ideas, and knowledge that emerge within a group or society.

The computational theory of mind is the view that mental processes can be understood as forms of information processing or computation.

Confirmation bias is the tendency to favour information that supports existing beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence.

Conscious perception is the process of becoming aware of sensory information.

Consciousness is the state of being aware of one's thoughts, sensations, and environment.

Consciousness research investigates how subjective experience arises and functions.

Consciousness studies is an interdisciplinary field that investigates the nature and origins of conscious experience.

A cover-up refers to the deliberate concealment of information by institutions, governments, or organisations.

Cryptozoology is the study of animals whose existence is unconfirmed or disputed by mainstream science.

The default mode network is a network of brain regions active during introspection and mind-wandering.

Déjà vu is the feeling that a present experience has already happened before, even when it has not.

Dissociation is a psychological process where thoughts, identity, or perception become disconnected from conscious awareness.

A dissociative experience involves feeling detached from one's thoughts, body, or surroundings.

A dream is a sequence of images, thoughts, or sensations that occur during sleep.

Dream precognition refers to dreams that appear to contain information about future events.

Dream recall is the ability to remember dreams after waking.

Dualism is the philosophical view that mind and body are fundamentally distinct.

Embodied cognition is the theory that cognitive processes are influenced by the body's interactions with the environment.

Emergent consciousness is the idea that conscious experience arises from complex interactions among simpler physical processes in the brain.

Empirical evidence is information obtained through observation or experimentation.

In spiritual traditions, energy refers to an invisible life force believed to flow through living beings.

Quantum entanglement is a physical phenomenon in which particles become linked so that the state of one affects the other instantly.

Epistemology is the branch of philosophy that studies knowledge and how it is acquired.

Extrasensory perception refers to the claimed ability to obtain information without using the known senses.

An exceptional human experience is a rare or unusual perception that challenges ordinary understanding.

Extrasensory perception refers to the claimed ability to perceive information without using the known senses.

An extraterrestrial encounter is a reported interaction between humans and beings believed to originate outside Earth.

A false memory is a recollection of an event that did not occur or occurred differently than remembered.

Flashbulb memory is a highly vivid memory of an emotionally intense or surprising event.

Functionalism is the theory that mental states are defined by what they do rather than by what they are physically made of.

A Ganzfeld experiment is a parapsychology research method designed to test possible information transfer between people under conditions of sensory reduction.

The Ganzfeld protocol is an experimental method used to test telepathy under controlled conditions of sensory reduction.

Gestalt perception is the tendency to perceive organised wholes and patterns rather than isolated sensory parts.

Global Workspace Theory is a theory of consciousness proposing that information becomes conscious when it is made globally available across the brain.

A hallucination is a sensory perception that occurs without an external stimulus.

The hard problem of consciousness refers to the challenge of explaining why physical brain processes produce subjective experience.

Heuristic thinking is the use of mental shortcuts to make judgments and decisions quickly.

Hypnagogia refers to the transitional state between wakefulness and sleep.

The hypnopompic state is the transitional state between sleep and full wakefulness.

Hypnosis is a state of focused attention and increased suggestibility.

A hypothesis is a proposed explanation that can be tested through scientific investigation.

Inner experience refers to thoughts, emotions, and perceptions occurring within the mind.

Integrated Information Theory is a theory suggesting that consciousness corresponds to the degree to which a system integrates information into a unified whole.

Intentionality is the property of mental states that allows them to be about, represent, or refer to objects, ideas, or situations.

Introspective awareness refers to the ability to observe one's own thoughts and mental states.

Introspective observation is the examination of one's own thoughts and mental states.

Intuition is the ability to understand something quickly without conscious reasoning.

Lucid awareness refers to clear awareness of one's mental state during experiences such as dreaming.

A lucid dream is a dream in which the dreamer becomes aware that they are dreaming.

Lucidity refers to a state of mental clarity and awareness.

Materialism is the philosophical view that all phenomena, including consciousness, arise from physical processes.

Mediumship is the claimed ability to communicate with spirits of deceased individuals.

Memory consolidation is the process by which newly formed memories become stabilised over time.

Memory reconstruction is the process by which the brain rebuilds memories rather than storing them exactly.

Mental representations are internal cognitive symbols that represent objects, ideas, or experiences.

Metacognition is the awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes.

Mind wandering is the spontaneous drift of attention away from the current task.

A near-death experience is a profound psychological event reported by some people who come close to death or believe they are about to die.

Neuroimaging refers to technologies used to visualise brain structure and activity.

Neuroplasticity is the brain's ability to change its structure and function in response to experience.

Non-local consciousness is the hypothesis that consciousness may not be entirely confined to the brain.

Nonlocality refers to correlations between distant systems that cannot be explained by classical interactions.

The observer effect refers to changes that occur in a system when it is measured or observed.

The observer problem refers to questions about the role of observation or measurement in determining the outcome of quantum events.

An out-of-body experience is the reported feeling of being separated from one's physical body, often observing it from outside.

Panpsychism is the philosophical view that consciousness, or some form of mind-like quality, is a fundamental feature of the universe.

The paradox of consciousness refers to the difficulty of explaining subjective experience through physical processes alone.

Parapsychology is the scientific study of claimed psychic phenomena and anomalous experiences.

Pattern recognition is the brain's ability to detect meaningful relationships in information.

Perception is the process by which the brain interprets sensory information.

A perceptual illusion is a misinterpretation of sensory information that leads to an experience that differs from external reality.

Phenomenology is the philosophical study of subjective experience.

The placebo effect occurs when a person experiences real improvement due to belief in a treatment.

Precognition is the claimed ability to gain information about an event before it happens.

Predictive processing is the theory that the brain constantly generates predictions about sensory input and updates them using incoming information.

Prospection is the ability to mentally simulate, imagine, or anticipate possible future events.

The psi effect refers to statistically unusual results in experiments testing psychic phenomena.

The psi hypothesis is the idea that some reported effects or experiences may involve genuine psychic functioning rather than ordinary sensory or cognitive processes.

Psi missing is a term used when experimental results appear to show outcomes opposite to the expected direction of a claimed psychic effect.

Psi phenomena is a collective term used to describe claimed psychic abilities such as telepathy or psychokinesis.

Psi research is the scientific investigation of psychic phenomena.

A psychic is a person who claims to perceive information beyond the normal human senses.

Psychic surgery is a practice in which a healer claims to perform surgery without physical instruments.

The quantum observer effect refers to the fact that measuring a quantum system can change its behaviour or outcome.

Quantum physics is the branch of physics that studies matter and energy at the smallest scales, such as atoms and subatomic particles.

REM sleep is a stage of sleep associated with rapid eye movements, vivid dreaming, and high brain activity.

Remote perception is the claimed ability to perceive distant locations, objects, or events without using ordinary sensory input.

Remote viewing is the claimed ability to perceive information about distant locations without physical access.

Retrocausality is the hypothesis that future events could influence past events.

The salience network is a brain network involved in detecting important stimuli and helping shift attention toward them.

Scientific research is the systematic investigation of phenomena using observation, experimentation, and analysis.

Self-awareness is the ability to recognise oneself as an individual with thoughts and feelings.

A sensed presence is the feeling that another being or person is nearby when no one is physically present.

Sensory integration is the process by which the brain combines information from different senses into a coherent experience.

Signal Detection Theory is a framework used to measure how people distinguish meaningful signals from noise under uncertainty.

Sleep fragmentation is the repeated disruption of normal sleep continuity by brief awakenings or disturbances.

A sleep hallucination is a vivid perceptual experience that occurs during transitions into or out of sleep.

Sleep paralysis is a temporary inability to move or speak while waking up or falling asleep.

A source monitoring error is a memory mistake in which the origin of information is misidentified.

A spontaneous case study is the detailed examination of an unusual experience or event that occurred naturally outside controlled laboratory conditions.

A statistical anomaly is an observation that deviates significantly from expected patterns.

Subjective experience is the personal, first-person perspective of consciousness.

Synchronicities are meaningful coincidences that appear related but lack a clear causal connection.

Telekinesis is the claimed ability to move objects using mental intention alone.

Telepathy is the claimed transfer of thoughts, feelings, or information between people without using the known senses.

Temporal binding is the process by which the brain links events across time into a coherent perception or sequence.

Terminal lucidity refers to a sudden return of mental clarity shortly before death in individuals with severe neurological impairment.

Time anomalies are unusual experiences in which a person perceives time behaving differently than expected.

Time perception is the psychological experience of the passage, duration, and sequence of time.

A trance medium is a person who claims to communicate messages while in a trance state.

A trance state is a mental condition characterised by focused attention and reduced awareness of the surrounding environment.

A UFO is an unidentified flying object that cannot immediately be explained.