Updated August 2026
As used in the Pragmatic Model of Reality
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M |
| N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z |
Please Select a Letter to Access a Term
My objective has been to be consistent in how I use words. Because of this rather rarified subject, I often intend second or third meaning offered in most dictionaries. This Glossary of Terms is intended to help you understand my intended meaning. Other references material for the Pragmatic Mode include:
Glossary of Terms (this document)
Organizing Principles
A
Academic-Layperson Partition: A phrase used here to describe the functional separation of academia from laypeople. Collaboration amongst similarly educated people is natural but the result has been that those who are qualified to conduct research tend to be isolated from those who are able to produce the phenomena
Anomalistic Psychology: The study of human behavior and ostensibly paranormal phenomena with the assumption that no paranormal phenomena are involved. Research in this area is often reported as an academic study. However, Anomalistic Psychology studies often fail to consider a paranormal hypothesis. Essentially, a field of study intended to debunk things paranormal.
Apophenia: The perception of patterns or connections where none exist. It may be the underlying natural response that leads a person to hear distant voices or music in noise that can almost be understood, but that on closer examination, do not exist and cannot be objectively recorded. See Pareidolia and Gestalt
A Priori: A conclusion made without examination or factual study. The viewpoint that something is impossible, therefore it cannot be, is an a priori conclusion if the person has made an assumption based on faith or popular wisdom and not on evidence or actual study of the subject.
Apparition: The anomalous appearance of a discarnate person; usually a spontaneous visual phenomenon. Apparitions seem more likely to manifest in moments of crisis and the message given by them is usually brief as if the contact field is unfocused. Apparitions may appear quite solid and yet objects may be seen beyond them. They also may be accompanied by bright light.
Apport: The apparent physical-to-etheric dissociation of an object and then etheric-to-physical association in a new location under the control of an etheric personality. Usually in the context of a séance. The object that is thus transported is referred to as an apport.
Aspectation: The creative process of intention acting on an imagined result produces aspects of reality which are a subset of the personality’s personal reality.
Attention Complex: In the Implicit Cosmology, the Life Field Complex Diagram illustrates the functional areas of a life field. The influence of attention functions as an attractor that binds perception forming functions as the mostly unconscious part of a life field matrix.
Avatar: In Hinduism, an avatar (from Sanskrit for descent) is a deliberate descent of a deity to Earth. The term can be translated into English as incarnation. A person is an etheric personality entangled with a human body in an avatar relationship.
B
Best Practices: Methods and procedures found to be most effective. Best practices are to be used as a guide to help a person be aware of the state of the art. They are an excellent means of maintaining a record of what the community has learned.
Black Box Analysis: In Black Box Analysis, a closed box is imagined containing a set of functions that respond to known inputs to produce known outputs. Formal development of the Pragmatic Model of Reality began with a Black Box Analysis to identify possible mental functions that would respond to such inputs as intention and Psi signals to produce such outputs as expression and perception. The result here is a function, process and relationship model that is best considered native to Psi space.
C
“Clair-” is a French prefix meaning clear. It has been adopted in Organized Spiritualism to describe the apparent ability to psychically sense information. The term Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) superseded the Clair- abilities. “Psychic” has become the a more common term, and in academia, Psi is currently the term of choice to describe thought and the influence of thought.
Clairaudience: Clear hearing; psychically sensing information as sounds rather than impressions or images. To the person who experiences this, it is as if hearing someone speak; however, not with the physical ear.
Claircognizance: Clear knowing; the more or less lucid psychic sensing of information as a whole thoughtform. See Gestalt.
Clairsentience: Clear sensing. A person senses characteristics of the etheric communicator or circumstance but does not hear or see the information.
Clairvoyance: Clear seeing. It is a mode of perception in which visual images are presented to the conscious mind. The perception may be of objects, people and/or scenes, and can be from the present, past, future or the etheric. The clairvoyant experience may be spontaneous or induced as through meditation, scrying or other methods of divination.
“Clairvoyance” has become a catchall term which includes all forms of sensing information in the Psi field.
Collective: Reality is modeled in the Pragmatic Model as hierarchical with the initial state of curiosity as the reality life field. Also in this model, life fields express aspects of themselves to explore their environment. The parent and sibling life fields constitute a collective. The worldview for child life fields is a subset of the parent life field.
Coloring: Mediumistic messages purported to come from the etheric are typically influenced by the medium’s own thoughts and ideas (worldview). Training for mediums typically includes techniques to reduce coloring. However, following the Pragmatic Model, it is probably impossible for a medium to completely step aside to allow uncolored messages to come through.
Concept: A fundamental idea; a root thoughtform from which more complex thoughts can be derived. For instance, the concept of something to protect a foot is the fundamental concept for shoes, sandals and such. As fundamental elements of thought, concepts might be considered a building block of reality, but more importantly, concepts are the building block of understanding. Comprehension of concepts is fundamental to understanding the nature of reality. The Psi Field is considered a conceptual space. The concept of a thing precedes the objective thing.
Consciousness: A better term might be “awareness.” Our awareness of the world around us is consciousness. Our sense of self and being alive is consciousness. Our formation of expression is a mostly unconscious, preconscious process described in the Pragmatic Model as being developed in the Attention Complex. Our conscious perception of that expression is described as the Lucidity Feedback Test functional area. That is our I am this sense of being … our conscious self.
Contact Field: A “contact field” can be considered a special case of entangled thoughtforms producing a local intended order. The rapport of cooperation amongst people builds what might be thought of as a contact field which facilitates the perception of an etheric-to-physical influence, probably because of the accumulated expectations associated with the subject.
Cosmology: A model representing the relationship of a set of concepts, usually defined as a metacausal theory.
Creative Process: The Creative Process is a fundamental expression of mind. It is defined here as Changes in reality are expressed via personality’s attention on an imagined outcome with the intention to make it so.
D
Discarnate: A personality that is not associated with a physical body. In Physicalism, a person who has transitioned out of a physical lifetime (aka died). As opposed to incarnate, which is a personality entangled with an avatar at birth. See Incarnate below
Discernment: Believe what you wish but understand the implications of what you believe. While worldview informs perception and expression, the conscious intention to align perception and expression with the actual nature of reality is discernment. Suspended judgment allows personality to consider experiences without incorporating them into worldview.
Divination: Discovery of things that are hidden using various practices such as dowsing, astrology, numerology, palmistry, crystal gazing and various versions of the Tarot cards. This is a form of Psi functioning as information acquisition using a device or object for attention entrainment.
E
Ectoplasm: Typically, a white substance that is sometimes produced by a physical medium during a séance. It is usually produced via the mouth but reportedly might come from any orifice. In red light, we have witnessed the FEG medium produce it in copious amounts, often pulling the white substance from his mouth with both hands. See A Visit to the Felix Experimental Group on the ATransC website.
Ectoplasm often functions as a tool. It can become semi-rigid and move on its own to lift a spirit light or enable a physical object such as a trumpet move about the room. Ectoplasm is able to assume the shape of a person, even to the extent of flesh tones.
Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP): EVP are anomalous, intelligible speech produced (usually) in electronic devices. They may be heard as a real-time speech but are more generally heard on review of a subsequent recording. No currently understood physical processes account for the existence of EVP. The ATransC uses a three-tier scale for classifying how well an EVP example can is expected to be heard and understood by a listener:
Class A: Can be heard and understood by most people
Class B: Can be heard but not everyone will agree as to what is said
Class C: Requires using a headphones to make out and is difficult to understand
Class B or C voices may have one or two clearly understood words. Loud does not equal Class A. A distinction can be made between types of phenomena so that a Type 1 is transformed physical media, and the paranormal example is not always present while a Type 2 example is always present and is often as a persistent artifact of the technology or material. See: the Classification Phenomena Best Practice web page
The term EVP is plural because there are a number of forms. For instance, Transform EVP is the most common form in which the speech is formed out of available audio-frequency background sound either in the environment or produced in the recorder. Opportunistic EVP is speech formed by selection of available bits of sound via a technique such as radio-sweep or random selection of prerecorded speech. A third form is the spontaneous messages found in telephones and answering machines. These three forms are thought to depend on very different physical processes. EVP are considered a subset of Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC).
Entangled: The concept of entanglement is used to indicate the binding rapport between an etheric personality and its avatar (physical body) during a lifetime. The sense of being the body is often so complete that, for some people, the possibility of mind separate from body is unthinkable. Entanglement is thought to be by way of sharing of worldview. See the Life Field Complex Diagram below.
Etheric: Etheric is an old term referring to the greater reality. The term has been traditionally used to describe the underlying medium propagation for the influence of thought (Psi) and organizing principles. It is the matrix of reality.
The terms “etheric” and “etheric space” are used as a generic term for the conceptual aspect of reality. It is nonlocal in the sense that everywhere is here. It is described in the Pragmatic Model s a dimensionless singularity that is conceptually infinitely large.
Some parapsychologists describe a Psi Field as a nonlocal medium of propagation for Psi that is an emergent nonphysical characteristic of the physical.
Etheric Energy: The concept of etheric energy has been superseded by fields theory. See Etheric Field below
Etheric Field: Conceptually, a field represents a set of elements with related characteristics which are bound together by a common influence. Etheric fields are regions of reality that can be modeled as a node or nexus (attractor) associated with a set of related elements. It is useful to model reality as a single etheric field (reality field) expressed by a first cause or Source. In this view, the reality field is the top etheric field, from which all other fields have been derived via aspectation. In this way, the reality field has been differentiated as a hierarchy of nested life fields and their expressions.
The expression of mind is modeled in the Pragmatic Model as thoughtforms which are either information fields or experiencing fields also known as child life fields.
Etheric Studies: The study of consciousness and Psi phenomena. While “Etheric Studies” seems to be an appropriate name for this study, I am probably the only one using it. See the About Etheric Studies Paper.
F
Fallacy of Equal Similars: It is illogical to argue that two experiences are equal just because they appear to be similar. For instance, a common claim of skeptics is that, since a magician can reproduce the appearance of a particular phenomenon, the phenomenon must be fake. In fact, being able to simulate an effect under controlled conditions is not the same at all.
Field: In physics, a field is a space-time region of influence that has a value for each point that is generally related to a common point or potential. For instance, a magnet has a field of influence around its poles. More conceptually, a field represents a set of elements with common characteristics but with each element having a different value. See the Etheric Fields Paper.
First Sight Theory: The theory that (Proposition 1) we psychically sense information before becoming conscious of the information, and Proposition 2) that our expression includes a psychokinetically component. The resulting thirteen corollaries describing how sensed information is translated into expression and perception have been adopted as the ruleset for functions in the Attention Complex of the Pragmatic Model of Reality. See the About First Sight Theory Paper.
G
Gestalt: A system or set of elements that must be taken as a whole; something that is understood as a whole, such as a gestalt realization resulting in sudden overall comprehension.
Information in the etheric is managed as concepts which are perceived as gestalt bundles of related concepts modeled here as thoughtforms. Our minds, which are oriented toward a building-block perspective of reality, then converts thoughtforms into understanding based on our worldview.
An interesting explanation for how practitioners and listeners might find EVP where there are none is seen in the Gestalt Laws of Perceptual Organization, which includes:
The Law of Proximity: Stimulus elements that are closed together tend to be perceived as a group
The Law of Similarity: Similar stimuli tend to be grouped, this tendency can even dominate grouping due to proximity
The Law of Closure: Stimuli tend to be grouped into complete figures
The Law of Good Continuation: Stimuli tend to be grouped as to minimize change or discontinuity
The Law of Symmetry: Regions bound by symmetrical borders tend to be perceived as coherent figures
The Law Simplicity: Ambiguous stimuli tend to be resolved in favor of the simplest
Ghost: Any visitation from a discarnate personality. The presence of the personality might be sensed as a feeling or as the result of some psychokinetic influence such as lights turning on and off. In extreme cases, the personality manifests as an apparition which may be seen by more than one person and even photographed. It is the apparition one usually thinks of as a ghost.
In some systems of thought, ghosts are considered earthbound personalities. In that view, a personality is said to be earthbound or stuck because it has unfinished business, does not know it is dead or has some emotional tie to a place or person. Ghost rescue is a common practice in which a person attempts to convince the personality to move on.
There is speculation that some apparitions are really just the residual body consciousness or body image behaving as a recorder ghost by repeating more or less the same habitual actions.
H
Haunting: Paranormal disturbances usually attributed to the personality of a discarnate person. Various phenomena are reported as haunt phenomena including moving objects, strange noises, lights, cold spots, unpleasant smells and the appearance of ghostly figures.
Healing Intention: When a person thinks of another person, a link of rapport is established between the two people. The nature of this link is determined by the thinker’s attention, visualization and intention. When intention is focused on the wellbeing of the other person, the resulting expression of intended order is seen as a healing influence.
The various healing modalities are modeled as healing intention, but with unique points of view as to how healing is expected to occur. Some modalities are more about setting the receiver’s expectations to expect healing. In organized Spiritualism, the “healer” is considered a conduit through which discarnate helpers are able to express a healing influence toward the sitter.
Healing intention is thought to apply more to the avatar’s morphogenic mind (aka body mind or body consciousness)
Hyperlucidity: A short-term change in behavior marked by a person’s tendency to find phenomena everywhere despite considerable testimony to the contrary from peers. The concept comes from occasional reports of odd behavior exhibited by some people when they visit an emotionally charged place (Paris syndrome, Jerusalem syndrome) or experience great beauty (Stendhal syndrome). The effect is the experiencer’s mistaken belief in experiencing paranormal phenomena such as reporting voices in recordings when there are none, seeing features in featureless visual media and misattributing thoughts as transcommunication. This term is not widely used.
I
Ideoplastic: The Ideo- prefix means idea or image. Ideoplastic is used here to mean the nature of objects formed in the creative process as a mind to object expression. Ideoplasy means the process of formation. Think in terms of “Intended Order.”
Inattentional Blindness: Not noticing a fully visible, but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task, event or object.
Incarnate: An incarnate personality, known here as a person A person is defined here as an immortal self entangled with a human in an avatar relationship. As opposed to discarnate, which is a personality that is not entangled with an avatar.
Incredulity Blindness: A category of inattention agnosia, in which an audio or visual example of a phenomenon is not experienced because it is so foreign to a person’s worldview.
Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC):Technology aided nonphysical-physical expression of intended order via images, voices and text messages. While ITC may be audible or visible phenomena, Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) is an earlier and more traditional term for the audible form of ITC.
ITC is often considered discarnate-incarnate communication (aka mediumship) with the aid of technology. However, the Pragmatic Model suggests that ITC is more generally initiated by any life field whether incarnate or discarnate. ITC appears to be colored by the worldview of the practitioner or interested observer.
Intended Order: This is one of the foundation concepts of the Implicit Cosmology. A common factor in ITC is the transformation of broad-spectrum, chaotic energy into intelligently intended features such as speech in EVP and faces in visual ITC. This is known as transform ITC.
Current studies are showing that the output of random event generators decrease in randomness when in the presence of strongly expressed intention. There is evidence in precipitation phenomena, such as spirit art, that the precipitation material undergoes a transformation from chaotic physical energy to intended order.
This Creative Process appears to be by way of the expression of intended order on the thoughtform that represents the physical object or process. If so, very indeterminant thoughtforms (concepts) appear to be more useful for trans-etheric influences such as apports and ITC.
Interested Observer: A person is considered an interested observer or witness if the person is present for an experimental session, knows about it or in some way has attention on the session. In the study of trans-etheric influences, it is not necessary for the person to be physically involved to have an influence on the process. At this time, there is no way to shield from attention, even if it is only subconscious.
J, K
(Empty)
L
Life Field: In the Pragmatic Model of Reality, reality exists as life fields and their expressions. As a way to bound the model, first cause is a primitive thoughtform responding to curiosity about its nature. The means of gaining understanding is considered implicate by the nature of curiosity. As such, life fields are the mechanism by which understanding is acquired. It is acquired by experiencing reality in all of its implicate form.
Life fields encounter experiences by a process of aspectation in which parent life fields express aspects intended to have specific experiences leading to intended understanding. The result is a nested hierarchy of life fields composing reality via evolving understanding.
“Personality” and “self” are often used as more relatable terms to mean “life field.”
Lucidity: If consciousness is about awareness, lucidity is about clarity of awareness. Lucidity is the degree to which we are able to clearly sense information from our mostly unconscious mind. In the Seeker’s Way, the objective is to more clearly experience the actual nature of reality. That is to say the seeker learns to be more lucid.
Another way to express this idea is to say that through discernment, a Seeker learns to align worldview with the actual nature of reality, thereby gaining greater lucidity.
Lucidity Spectrum: As people seek to gain awareness of their spiritual nature and who work to better align their worldview with the actual nature of reality are thought to become more lucid. That is, they more clearly sense the actual nature of reality. Lucid sensing is a continuum of clarity from some natural sensing, through flashes of insight and on to clarity that converges on actual. See the Temperament Mediated Perception Diagram below.
M
Matter Through Matter: In this phenomenon, physical material is seen to pass through other material without breaking the integrity of either material. For instance, two wood rings might be linked as if to demonstrate the nonphysical nature of physical material. As can be seen in the above photograph taken by a camera triggered by a motion sensor, a relatively fragile object can pass through relatively rigid material without damage.
Matter through matter is a common form of physical phenomena demonstrated by some physical mediums.
Medium: A person who is able to sense presumably “dead” personalities and convey information from or about them to people in the physical. The task of a medium is to be a clear channel of information without coloring the message. Mental mediums often enter into deep trance as they access information. Inspirational speaking, for instance, is usually accomplished while the person is in a light trance.
A popular assumption of Organized Spiritualism is that physical mediums in effect step aside so that the personality of the communicating personality may directly communicate using the medium’s physical body.
Metacausal: Consciousness and Psi studies require a more generic variation of metaphysics that is open to the possibility of a nonphysical aspect of reality. Metacausal theories should imply a cosmological model that suggests answers to the three Seeker’s Questions: What is the nature of reality, 2.) what is our nature, 3.) what is our relationship with reality? This term is not widely used.
Metaphysics: A mostly philosophical examination of the nature of reality. For seekers, this is an outdated, mostly physicalist philosophy. The term is more often used in reference to the physical universe and Physicalism.
Mind: Our mind is treated in the Pragmatic Model in two parts:
- A mostly unconscious functional area that includes worldview and processes that enable consideration and coloring of sensed information. This area is referred to as the Judge. The functional area produces a preconscious Psi signal referred to as Expression.
- Our perception—that of which we become aware – is developed in our mostly conscious mind based on our unconscious expression. An intention signal is developed in our conscious mind based on our “want.” That intention signal is returned to our mostly unconscious mind as feedback that has the potential to modify worldview. This is our Experiencer function.
Our mostly conscious functional area is considered the source of our awareness (aka our consciousness). Our mostly unconscious functional area is considered the source of our sentience. Both functional areas are considered nonphysical (aka native to the etheric). Refer to the Life Field Complex Diagram above.
Model: In the context of Etheric Studies, a model is a theoretical set of functional areas defined to produce the effect proposed by a hypothesis. As in black box analysis, the model need not be factually correct, but it must produce the intended functional results.
Morphic Field: (Paraphrased from Sheldrake) A field within and around a morphic unit which organizes its characteristic structure and pattern of activity. Morphic fields underlie the form and behavior of life fields at all levels of complexity. According to Rupert Sheldrake, the term morphic field includes morphogenetic, behavioral, social, cultural, and mental fields. Morphic fields are shaped and stabilized by morphic resonance from previous similar morphic units, which were under the influence of fields of the same kind. They consequently contain a kind of cumulative memory and tend to become increasingly habitual. See the Etheric Fields Paper on ethericstudies.org and Morphic Resonance and Morphic Fields on Rupert Sheldrake’s website.
Morphic Resonance: (From Sheldrake) The influence of previous structures of activity on subsequent similar structures of activity organized by morphic fields. Through morphic resonance, formative causal influences pass through or across both space and time, and these influences are assumed not to fall off with distance in space or time, but they come only from the past. The greater the degree of similarity, the greater is the influence of morphic resonance. In general, morphic units closely resemble themselves in the past and are subject to self-resonance from their own past states. See the Etheric Fields Paper on ethericstudies.org and Morphic Resonance and Morphic Fields on Rupert Sheldrake’s website.
Morphogenetic Field: A nonphysical field proposed by Rupert Sheldrake in the Hypothesis of Formative Causation to explain organization of biological cell differentiation. In that theory, the field contains the organizing instructions for both species-specific biological organism formation and behavior (aka instincts). In the Implicit Cosmology, a person is described as a symbiotic life field as Mind 1 entangled with a biological organism avatar as Mind 2. The avatar’s mind is described as a morphogenic field.
N
Nonlocal (etheric): Ubiquitous or everywhere at once. From the Physical Dualism point of view, information in the Psi Field is holographic in nature and is everywhere available to psychics. That can be characterized as “here is everywhere.”
From the Strict Dualism point of view taken for the Implicit Cosmology, reality is modeled as a dimensionless singularity that is conceptually infinitely large. In that view, it may be correct to say that “everywhere is here.”
Nonlocal (mind): If the mind exists independent of biological brain, it is said to be nonlocal. The spiritualist point of view that we are spirit having a human experience presupposes that the mind of spirit is native to the etheric. The morphogenic mind (Mind 2) of the implicit cosmology is modeled as the nonlocal mind of a biological organism such as our human avatar.
Nonphysical: Not of this physical aspect of reality; the Etheric. Some may think of nonphysical reality as:
- The higher planes of existence
- Beyond the Veil
- The other side
- A different dimension
- Finer worlds
- Spirit world
- Etheric reality
- Heaven
However you think of it, the idea is that there is one reality, but that reality has aspects. Our physical universe is one aspect of reality. Here, we are referring to the greater reality beyond our physical universe as the etheric or etheric space.
O
Objective Phenomena: Phenomena that have external reality and that can be perceived and observed by others. In contrast to subjective phenomena, objective phenomena are considered the physical manifestation of intended order expressed on the concept (thoughtform) associated with a physical effect.
P
Paranormal: From the perspective of consciousness and Psi studies, “paranormal” refers to phenomena that are not currently explained with known physical principles. Generally referred to as Psi phenomena as opposed gravitational phenomena, for instance.
Examples include psychic ability (Psi functioning, remote viewing, healing intention), healing intention (biofield healing, distant healing, healing prayer) and the phenomena related to survival of consciousness (mediumship, visual and audible ITC, hauntings).
Phenomena that are probably paranormal but that are usually studied as exceptional human experiences include:
Reincarnation
Out-of-Body Experiences (OBE)
Near-Death Experiences (NDE)
After Death Communication (ADC)
Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO)
Cryptozoological creatures (Cryptids)
Alternate Realities
See the Opinion “Does Parapsychology Inappropriately Conflate Different Kinds of Phenomena?”
Paranormalist: This term has become useful for identifying people who are more than a little interested in or who are studying or practicing some technique related to Psi phenomena. Examples of paranormalist interests include the study of psi phenomena (telepathy, remote viewing, telekinesis), energy healing (biofield healing, distant healing, healing prayer), hauntings investigation (aka ghost hunting), transcommunication (mediumship, Instrumental TransCommunication, channeling) and survival (the etheric, personality, cosmology).
Parapsychology: A frontier field of study concerned with exceptional human experiences and Psi phenomena. The field is dominated by Anomalistic Psychology which is strict Physicalism and Exceptional Experiences Psychology which is Physicalism but allows for nonlocal mind emergent from the brain. A relatively few researchers agree with some form of the Survival Hypothesis. See the opinion: “Does Parapsychology Inappropriately Conflate Different Kinds of Phenomena?”
Pareidolia: A form of Apophenia (seeing patterns where there are none) in which the person finds meaning in images and sounds when there is none. See the term: Gestalt.
Perception: As illustrated in the Creative Process Diagram, the mostly unconscious aspect of mind reacts to sensed information to produce an expression signal that is probably a version of the sensed information that is modified according to the experiencer’s Worldview. Perception occurs when the conscious self becomes aware of what is expressed. It is important to understand that the preconscious expression signal represents what Worldview agrees is true but not necessarily what is actually true.
Since perception is the conscious byproduct of preconscious expression, it may be that conscious self intends or wants a more actual expression. As shown in the diagram, the conscious self produces a “want” feedback intention signal that has the potential to modify Worldview and thereby modify the expression signal. It is the mental review that enables a person to increase lucidity by persistent moderating feedback to Worldview.
Person: A person is an immortal self entangled with a human in an avatar relationship. This is the “we are spirits having a human experience” point of view. It is a two-mind model of who we are when incarnated as a person. Spirit’s mind is always primary but for most people, the avatar’s mind tends to dominate choices and perspective. “Enlightenment” begins when spirit begins to consciously seek discernment (becoming a seeker).
Personality: Personality is defined here as the unique complex of all the attributes such as behavioral, temperamental, memory and understanding. It is considered the essence of a life field. It functions as a binding influence on the other components of a life field, primarily the expression-perception forming functions (Attention Complex which included Worldview) and the experiencing conscious self functions. Personality represents inherited purpose and acquired understanding.
“Personality” and “self” are often used as more relatable terms to mean “life field.”
Point of View: Point of view is the assumption of truth. This is usually in the form of a system of thought such as Physicalism or Dualism. The point of view followed in Etheric Studies is Strict Dualism which is the idea that we as persons must deal with our humanness and our spiritness.
Potential Field: Events are accompanied by a probability signature referred to here as a potential field. In this concept, an event might exist in the etheric as a potential to occur. Each potential field represents the possible characteristics of an event, so that an event that has occurred may have been preceded by many potential fields representing different potential outcomes.
Practitioner: In Etheric Studies, a person conducting a recording session for EVP or ITC; a person who applies principles intended to cause phenomena; may be instrument-aided or it may be direct as in mental mediumship.
Precognition: Knowledge of something in advance of its occurrence, especially by Psi sensing; clairvoyance.
Presentiment: The sense that something is about to happen in the next few moments as opposed to sometimes in the future. In parapsychology, studies indicate that a person will unconsciously react to a stimulus just before it is delivered. When the response is in reference to an event that occurs in the near future (seconds, minutes), it is referred to as presentiment, however, if the event is relatively more in the future (hours, years)), this is usually referred to as precognition.
Prime Imperative: This is a rather flamboyant way of saying that the one purpose everyone seems to share is to gain understanding from experience. This concept is fundamental to the Pragmatic Model of Reality. That is, the first cause of reality (Source) exists as curiosity about its nature, the nature of reality and its relationship with reality. and reality is an expression of Source. Those are also the three questions of the Seeker’s Way.
Progression: The etheric equivalent of physical time is the degree to which an initial state has been realized by a potential final state. In the Pragmatic Model, curiosity is modeled as the initial state of reality (First Cause or Source). The degree to which curiosity has been satisfied with understanding is considered a measure of progression.
Pseudoscience: A derogatory term coined by skeptics to label the study of subjects with which they disagree. Such disagreement is seldom based on known instances of bad science. In the Skeptic view, the subject is not supported by orthodox science. This term is virtually always used in conjunction with efforts to convince an audience to dislike, mistrust or even fear the subject. See the subjects deemed “pseudoscience” by Wikipedia editors: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pseudoscience_topics
Pseudoskeptic: Pseudoskeptic or false skeptic is a term that refers to people who reject ideas without examination if they do not seem to be supported by mainstream science. The more common term is “Skeptic.”
Psi: Term coined by J. B. Rhine to represent the unknown force involved in Extrasensory Perception and psychokinesis. It is used today to mean psychic. The term is used here to indicate mental expression. It could be used as “The Psi expression as a thoughtform” or as “The Psi expression of intentionality.” “Psi functioning” is used interchangeably with “psychic” as in “Psychic access to information.”
Psi Field (parapsychology): A field of propagation for Psi that is an emergent characteristic of the physical. In the holographic sense that “here is everywhere,” information in the Psi Field is everywhere available. Similar to the Akashic Field in Hinduism, information is thought to be retained in the Psi Field.
Psi Field (metacausal): A field of propagation for Psi that is a local aspect of the etheric (greater reality or reality field). Information in the Psi Field (and the etheric) is accessible in the sense that “everywhere is here.” The Psi Field is modeled here as a dimensionless singularity that is conceptually infinitely large. Information exists only in the worldview of life fields and as expressed as thoughtforms.
Psi Functioning: The expression of intention to either cause a change in reality (via a thoughtform) or access information (represented in thoughtforms).
Psychic: Psi functioning
Psychokinesis (PK): Movement of an object via Psi functioning. This is a term used in parapsychology. Telekinesis is an older, alternative term meaning to have an influence from a distance.
Psychometry: Physical objects and places are thought to retain information about their history as if in a local Psi Field. A person is believed to be able to psychically access the information.
Q
(Blank)
R
Rapport: Relationship, especially one of mutual trust or emotional affinity. Transcommunication messages have emphasized the importance of rapport within a circle wishing to develop physical phenomena.
The attention/intention relationship amongst life fields can be characterized as rapport. Likewise, the link of entanglement between etheric personality and its avatar and between a top organizing field and its subfields might be characterized in terms of rapport.
Reality: Reality is seen in the Pragmatic Model as a fundamental characteristic of all there is. And here, all there is, is defined as the life field referred to in this cosmology as First Cause or Source. That would make Source’s life field the reality field. While there is one reality, experienced reality is relative because it is perceived by individuals as a personal aspect of reality.
Retrocognition: Awareness or knowledge of facts of past events or persons acquired by means of psychic ability.
S
Scientism: The belief that science, the scientific method and work product is the only way to validate reality. In practical terms, scientism holds that if something is not recognized by mainstream science, it is not real and is, therefore, impossible. When people under the cloak of scientific authority advise the public about any subject without analysis of available information about that subject, for instance calling the subject pseudoscience, they are effectively practicing scientism.
Séance: More often, the term Séance refers to a circle of sitters (people) and a competent medium to experience or study communication with discarnate personalities or to experience physical phenomena. The presence of an established physical medium is helpful, but in development circles, the group may seek to have one of their members emerge as a new physical medium. Séances are typically conducted in a completely dark room; however, some choose to work in dim light or red light.
Seeker: In the context of Etheric Studies, a Seeker is a person who recognizes there is a difference between perception of reality and the actual nature of reality, and who seeks to align his or her worldview with that actual nature of reality. Think of the Seeker’s three questions as a way to model this:
- What is my nature
- What is the nature of reality
- What is my relationship with reality?
Self: “Personality” and “self” are often used as more relatable terms to mean “life field.”
Self-apport: An apport is usually considered in terms of a discarnate personality apporting an object from elsewhere into the witness’s physical location. However, it may be possible for individuals to apport themselves from one version of reality to another. In the Seeker’s sense, this would be “movement” from one frame of reference to another. In that model, Bigfoot may be native to its own frame of reference but able to self-apport to other aspects.
Sitter: The attendees of a séance; a person who is the point of attention for a medium or Psi practitioner.
Skeptic: Perhaps the most important trait for anyone involved in the study of frontier subjects is the ability to maintain an open mind while practicing discernment. This attitude is sometimes referred to as skepticism; however, when a person is skeptical of something without reason, that person is popularly known as a “Skeptic.” There are groups of organized Skeptics who proudly refer to themselves as Skeptics. A derogatory term for Skeptics is “pseudoskeptic.”
Skeptic’s Syndrome: The habitual assumption of knowledge based more on faith, belief or popular wisdom than on empirical evidence. The syndrome often includes the assumption that the Skeptic’s understanding of a subject is more correct than that held by others without regard to evidence to the contrary. This attitude is maintained in the face of empirical evidence by referring to unsupported assumptions, belittling those who do not agree and attempting to associate the opposing view with previously discredited concepts.
Spirit: As common usage, spirit refers to the vital principle or animating force of life; the indestructible essence of self-conscious life. The word spirit is often used to describe a discarnate person. The more correct term for a person who has transitioned from a physical lifetime is a personality that is in spirit or a discarnate person.
Spiritual: “Spiritual” relates to the high ideals often associated with being religious. Here, spiritual is intended in a more objective sense of understanding rather than believing. Thus, spiritual maturity means developed understanding about the nature of reality.
Spirituality: Spirituality is the point of view associated with seeking to gain spiritual maturity. It is also the state of spiritual maturity.
Spiritual Healing: See: Healing Intention
Spiritualism: Spiritualism is a system of thought based on the idea that people have an immortal aspect which existed before a physical lifetime and continues to exist after, and which is able to communicate with people still in the flesh. It may be organized Spiritualism such as a society or church (capital “S”) or a philosophical point of view (small “s”).
Story Telling (Witnessing Phenomena): Claiming what was experienced is phenomenal by telling a reasonable story that seems to make the claim sensible.
Story Telling (Worldview): Storytelling is a term used here to describe the way our mind tells us about our environment. It is a subconscious-to-conscious narrative representing how our mostly unconscious mind understands environmental signals. In effect, our mostly unconscious mind does not simply relay sensed information. It explains sensed information and that explanation is only as correct as the contents of our worldview. Here, “Garbage in equals garbage out” is the first truth of storytelling.
Super-Psi Hypothesis: A theory designed to explain observed psychic abilities, but from the perspective that mind is an emergent characteristic of biological brain. Rather than allowing for survived personality as a source of mediumistically accessed information, the Super-Psi Hypothesis depends on the belief that, once created, information exists forever. The hypothesis supposes a vast reservoir of residual conscious energy (fossil or residual memory) which is accessible by people who exhibit the ability to access information that should not be available to them using just the five physical senses.
This point of view is supported in Exceptional Experiences Psychology and is treated as a Physicalist view of survival after bodily death. In some views, the memory of the deceased person held by others is considered a form of survival.
Survival Hypothesis: See: Trans-Survival Hypothesis
T
Telekinesis: An older term to describe the movement of objects without normal, obvious, or perceptible means; usually related to psychic ability. Parapsychology currently prefers psychokinesis or PK.
Temperament: Our predisposition to approach understanding of experiences in a specific way. Just as we are born left or right-handed, we are born with basic personality traits that tend to bias the way we integrate new experiences into our worldview. Traits are referred to here as “temperaments.” Refer to the Temperament Mediated Perception Diagram (below).
Thoughtform: As a rudimentary etheric field, thoughtforms contain information about a specific subject. As an etheric field, they may be nested so that a thoughtform concerned with transportation, for instance, may contain information about all forms of transportation while a red wagon thoughtform would contain information specific to red wagons and would be a subset of the transportation thoughtform.
The expressions of a life field are thoughtforms. They may be information thoughtforms or child life field thoughtforms. How they are experienced is determined by the experiencer’s worldview
Trance: A spontaneous or induced sleep-like condition or altered state of consciousness. Trance may be light in which the experiencer is mostly conscious. It may be deep with the experiencer totally unconscious of the surroundings.
Trans-: A prefix meaning across, from there to here. The prefix is used here to indicate the crossing of the conceptual intention-to-objective experience interface. The trans- prefix is always used here to mean across the veil.
Trans-etheric Influence: The expression of intended order that produces a physical effect. All trans-etheric influences are considered conceptual influences producing objective effects. An incarnated personality is guided by its worldview to assign physical meaning that is in agreement with the collective sense of local reality.
Transform EVP: In Instrumental TransCommunication (ITC), available physical energy is transformed into words or images. That is, the resulting voice in Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) has much the same frequency profile as the background noise. The physical process thought to be involved is stochastic amplification of a weak signal expressed as the psychokinetic expression of intention.
Transition: A term used to describe the process of bodily death and the return of focus of attention to the more natural environment of reality. Spiritualists sometimes refer to this more natural environment as “different atmosphere and awareness.”
Trans-Survival Hypothesis: A theoretical model designed to integrate understanding about the continuation of personality after transition (physical death) with predictions based on the Pragmatic Model of Reality.
U
Understanding: To gain understanding about something is to gain a degree of awareness about the underlying influences, functions and purposes that make that something what it is. The presumed objective of incarnation as a person is to gain understanding about the nature of this local reality as it is imagined as a physical venue for learning. As modeled here, acquisition of understanding is accomplished via many experiences as personality converges on actual understanding.
V
Venue for learning: An aspect of reality visualized by a collective of cooperating personalities with the intention of experiencing different opportunities to gain understanding about the nature of reality.
W
Worldview: Understanding Worldview is central to understanding explanations about the nature of personality. Worldview is modeled here as a database-like functional area in the mostly unconscious.
X
Xenoglossy: Writing in tongues unknown to the medium.
X-Ray Vision: Usually a power that is claimed by some healers. It is the ability to see affected organs within the body. Some sensitives also have claimed this ability and say it is how they read messages that are sealed in envelopes. See: Psychometry and Clairvoyance
X,Y, Z
(Blank)