Glossary of Terms

Some of the terms used on Afterlifeforums.com may be unfamiliar to readers and posters. This thread is meant to give you some of this website’s most commonly used terms, and to suggest their general meanings.

This listing will be updated as we receive better information. If you would like to see a change in any definition given here, or if you would like to see an additional term defined, please respond to this thread.



After-Death Communication (ADC) – Any communication that a living person has from or with a dead person.

Astral Body – The body that temporarily leaves our material body during sleep and during out-of-body experiences, and that permanently leaves our material body at death. When seen on the material level of reality, the astral body appears to be made of energy.

Astral Plane – Generally, the non-material plane(s) of existence or the afterlife levels.

Astral Projection – The movement of one’s astral body outside and away from one’s physical body.

Astral Travel – Out-of-body travel, whether in this level of reality or in the non-material levels.

Aura – The energy outline which is visible around a living thing in certain lighting conditions. Human auras may be of various shades, depending on that person’s current emotional state and general level of spiritual development.

Clairaudient – Able to hear communications from disembodied or dead beings.

Clairsentient – Able to sense the emotions of other people, living or dead, often by touching objects owned or used by them.

Clairvoyant – Able to see without the use of material eyes, and sometimes at long distances.

Communication – When used in connection with the dead, any form of contact whatsoever between the living and the dead.

Consciousness – This term is often used as a near-synonym for human mental activity and awareness. There is strong evidence that consciousness is a kind of universal base energy, and it may in fact be the only thing that is real.

Control – As a noun, a dead person with psychic abilities who regularly assists a living medium in communicating with the dead.

Cross-Correspondence – In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, some dead people eager to prove their existence would communicate parts of a single message through several widely-scattered mediums.

Death – The permanent cessation of life functions in a physical body.

Deep-Trance Medium – Someone who is able to go into trance, withdraw from his or her body, and allow a dead psychic (called a control) to take over and speak to the living using the medium’s vocal cords. Because development of this skill seems to require long periods of silent darkness, deep-trance mediums were most active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but a few deep-trance mediums exist in each generation.

Drop-In Communication – (still awaiting a good definition)

Earthbound – Generally, the spirit of a dead person who has not successfully transitioned to the afterlife levels, and therefore remains on the material level as a disembodied being. Some earthbounds are unaware that they are dead, some are only dimly aware of their condition, while some are aware that they are dead but have refused to transition because they are addicted to earth-pleasures or for some other material-based reason. Eventually, all earthbounds will be rescued.

Ectoplasm – In certain forms of physical mediumship, certain substances from a medium's body are 'borrowed' by the spirit-team working with the physical group and mixed with materials from the immediate etheric dimensions. This new material is termed 'ectoplasm' and can take various forms from rod-like rigid structures to free-flowing soft material which may be moulded. Sometimes this is used to create human parts such as hands or faces but sometimes to create voice boxes to enable a discarnate to speak. At the end of the seance, the borrowed materials are always returned to the medium's body.

Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP) – Recognizable communications from dead people which are electronically recorded.

Evidence – Any reliably generated facts which suggest that people survive bodily death, which explain how their survival is possible, or which give some indication of what the afterlife is like.

Extrasensory Perception (ESP) – The process of perceiving information by means other than the bodily senses.

Ghost – A popular term for any disembodied spirit which is perceptible on the material level of reality.

God – the Supreme Being. Evidence is overwhelming that God is not material, but is instead infinitely powerful and infinitely loving Spirit. It now appears quite likely that God is all that exists.

Haunt – The process by which a disembodied person makes its presence perceptible by living people, often with the intention of inspiring fear in the living.

Heaven – The religious term most commonly used for the beautiful parts of the afterlife.

Instrumental Transcommunication (ITC) – Any sound made or recorded in any mechanical manner which was produced or affected by a disembodied spirit.

Jesus – A perfected Being who incarnated 2000 years ago to teach Iron Age Jews about God, the nature of reality, and the nature of death and the afterlife.

Kirlian Photography – The process of photographing auras around living things.

Light Being – This term generally refers to a very advanced spiritual being who appears to human beings on this level and generally glows with light.

Medium – A person with psychic abilities who is able to assist in our communications with the dead. Most mediums are either psychic mediums who are able to read the thoughts of their (dead) controls who are in direct communication with our dead loved ones, or they are trance-mediums, able to withdraw from their bodies while in trance and allow a psychic dead person (also called a “control”) to speak using the medium’s body.

Mediumship – The gift of being able to communicate with the dead.

Modern Spiritualism - is often termed a philosophy and a science. It is a legally recognised religion in several countries, the most notable ones being the UK, the USA and Australia. It's fundamentals are the message of survival beyond physical death and communication via mediumship between incarnates and discarnates. It has its roots in Hydesville, New York, from where it spread to many countries including the UK. It is still widely followed in the UK, less so in the USA and Australia, but it is far less well-known or popular than in its heyday several decades ago.Spiritualism has no formalised worship or celebration but does recognise a supreme creative force, often called The Great Spirit or God and embraces its 'Seven Principles' in its formal structure and in many churches and centers.

Near-Death Experience (NDE) – A wide range of experiences which may or may not be associated with a health crisis, and which generally involve extraordinary aspects that may include separation from the body, a tip through a tunnel, and meetings with dead friends and relatives and even very advanced Beings.

Non-Locality (of Consciousness) – Scientific research is showing more and more conclusively that conscious is not generated by or centered in our brains, but it is more of a general grid on which all of reality hangs. Afterlife evidence confirms this, and further suggests that all of consciousness actually radiates from a Source.

Out-of-Body Experience (OBE) – An experience during which the astral body and its sense of place and awareness become separated from the physical shell. Most OBEs involve simply seeing the physical body as separate and at a distance, but some more advanced OBE experiencers are able to explore the afterlife and other non-material areas of reality.

Outer Darkness – The non-physical level of reality with a vibratory (or energy) level closest to that of the material universe, and therefore the darkest and grimmest post-death level of reality.

 

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Paranormal – A term suggesting that anything that science cannot explain is not normal. As human understanding progresses, we are coming to understand ever more clearly that everything that we used to think of as “paranormal” is actually normal!

Parapsychology – the scientific study of “paranormal” aspects of psychology and human abilities, which includes the study of psychokinesis, telepathy, clairvoyance, precognition.

Physical Medium – A medium who is able to produce on the material level physical manifestations of afterlife-related objects and people.

Poltergeist – A disembodied spirit who is able to move objects and in other ways affect material reality.

Possession – The process by which a disembodied spirit can occupy and either partially or completely take over a living person’s body. This phenomenon has been little studied, but there is evidence that many ailments that we think of as mental – from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to substance addition, depression, and even schizophrenia – can be improved or cured if the dead people possessing the sufferer can be persuaded to leave and enter the afterlife.

Prior Personality – A person whose violent death freed his spirit, which spirit soon after occupied a developing fetus. Once born, the child may have detailed memories of the prior personality’s lifetime.

Psi – A broad category of non-materiality-based skills and abilities which will need further study, but which have been demonstrated to be aspects of our powerful, eternal minds.

Psychomanteum – An ancient form of communication with the dead which involves the use of a mirror or a body of still water, and which is now being re-established with considerable success.

Reincarnation – The process by which a single human soul or spirit occupies different bodies during successive earth-lifetimes.

Rescue – The process of helping disembodied people who have gone off-track after their deaths to complete the process of satisfactorily transitioning to the middle afterlife levels. Spirits who need to be rescued include earthbounds, those in hollow heavens and other illusory afterlife realities, and those who have condemned themselves to the outer darkness of the lowest afterlife levels. Rescuers may include dead people living in the middle afterlife levels, but most of them tend to be more spiritually advanced beings.

Scientism – The belief that the scientific study of materiality will sufficiently answer every question.

Scole – During the 1990s in the village of Scole in Norfolk, England, the Scole Experimental Group conduced a series of highly successful experiments in communicating with the dead which are documented in The Scole Report.

Séance – Any attempt by more than one person working together to communicate with the dead (at least one of whom is a medium) can be termed a séance.

Silver Cord – A glowing and highly elastic energy tube which connects the brain of a material body with the brain of its astral body during earthly life - thereby enabling astral travel, especially while the material body sleeps – and which breaks at the moment of death and frees the astral body to enter the post-death levels of reality.

Soul – A religious term which generally refers to the spiritual aspects of the mind-energy of a human being.

Spirit – A self-aware being composed of mind-energy.

Spirit Guides – Each embodied person has the assistance of at least one spirit guide at all times. Some of us have one primary spirit guide for our entire lives, while others may have their spirit guides change as their needs and tasks change through a lifetime. When we are attempting something that is spiritually difficult, we might have several guides helping us at once. We communicate with our spirit guides while our bodies sleep, so if you have particular questions or requests it may help for you to go to sleep with the intention to get answers firmly in your mind.

Spirit Photography – The act of photographing a disembodied spirit which probably is not visible to the naked eye but can be seen in the resulting photograph. Spirit photographs are often faked, but some are indisputably genuine.

Spirit Possession – When a disembodied spirit enters the body of a living person and expresses to some extent through that person, we are witnessing a case of spirit possession. Such possession can be brief or of long duration, and can express in a limited way or can entirely dominate and suppress the living person.

Spiritism - (whose adherents are 'Spiritists') is most widely known in South America. It is similar in many ways to (Modern) Spiritualism but the notion of reincarnation is to be found in Spiritism much more than Spiritualism.

Spiritualism – A religion which was prominent in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and which involves communication with dead loved ones as part of its worship and celebration.

Summerland – The middle afterlife levels, commonly considered to be levels three through five, which are as solid as the earth-level but much more beautiful, including gorgeous scenery and colors (especially of flowers) which are not limited by the visible-light spectrum.

Survival – A commonly-used shorthand term for the survival of bodily death.

Trance Medium – A person able to withdraw from his or her body while in trance in order to allow a dead “control” to take over the body and speak through it directly. This process can yield more detailed and precise information than typically comes through psychic mediums. Trance mediums generally awaken from their trance state with no memory or awareness of what was said by their control.

Walk-In – In the unproven theory that very advanced beings can take over the bodies of people who wish to leave early, and can then finish the tasks of the person leaving before accomplishing important additional tasks, the walk-in is the person taking over the body. There is some indication that Benjamin Franklin in his later life may have been a walk-in.

Xenoglossy – The speaking of an unlearned language, perhaps as a result of reincarnation.

Yeshua – The Aramaic name of Jesus.


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