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A Glossary of Terms Used in Parapsychology

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Michael A. Thalbourne's "Glossary of Terms Used in Parapsychology" is a much-needed text for scholars studying parapsychology, or amateurs merely interested in finding the right definition for a paranormal word or term. Perhaps you've heard some unusual words or phrases on a television show like "Ghost Whisperer" or "Medium", or a movie like "The Gift" or "White Noise", and wondered what they meant. Now you can find out. Have you ever described someone as 'telekinetic' when you should have said 'telepathic'? Do you know someone who heard what they thought were paranormal voices, and thought it was 'clairvoyance' when, in fact, it was 'clairaudience'? Did you know that a 'Psychic Shuffle' is not a favourite dance of mediums, but a technique for paranormally sorting a deck of cards into a pre-determined order?

Thalbourne's "Glossary" is extremely useful when you need an exact meaning, but it is one of those texts that work well just browsing through for fun. It is a constant source of new material - even I found many unfamiliar terms like IPA ('Incorporeal Personal Agency') and PQ ('Psi Quotient'), and I have been a practicing parapsychologist for many years now! You'll find every parapsychological word and term and its definition that you are ever likely to need or use in this Glossary, and more, from 'Absent Healing' to 'Zener cards'. This text is a must for parapsychology students or anyone interested in the paranormal.

I read Dr. Storm's review and I completely agree with him. I'm no doctor, but this book, for the lay person such as myself, was very helpful. While for me, many of these terms if not most, are over my head, there were quite a few in the book that I understood, with no problem. That doesn't deter me though! I have just read A Paranormal Casebook, by Loyd Auerbach and am in the process of reading An Introduction to Parapsychology, by Harvey J. Irwin and Caroline A. Watt. A Glossary of Terms used in Parapsychology has come in very handy for the above mentioned books.