One of our team members specializes in photo analysis, using software tools to carefully examine images for authenticity and potential anomalies. This process helps determine whether a photo may contain unexplained elements or if there’s a more ordinary explanation—such as light reflections, lens artifacts, or environmental factors. We also take steps to confirm that submitted images have not been altered or manipulated, ensuring the integrity of our review. 

• Astral Body – The body that a person occupies during an out-of-body experience.

• Astral Plane – A world that is believed to exist above our physical world.

• Astral Projection – The intentional act of having the spirit leave the body, whereas an out-of-body experience will happen involuntarily. (See out-of-body experience).

• Astrology – The study of the movements and relative positions of celestial bodies interpreted as having influence on human affairs and the natural world. 

• Aura – An invisible emanation of light that seems to surround a person or thing; this is often thought to reflect a person’s personality.

• Automatic Writing – A method of obtaining information from disembodied spirits, often used by mediums. The spirit takes control over the medium causing them to translate unconscious information on paper without being aware of the contents.

• Automatism – An unconscious or involuntary muscular movement caused by spirits. (See automatic writing)

• Autoscopy – Meaning seeing oneself. A phenomenon where a person experiences a visual hallucination of their own body image projected into an external space. This means they see themselves, often as a double, from an outside perspective.  (See out-of-body experience).

• Ball Lightning – A rare form of lightning in the shape of a glowing ball that can last anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes. Typically associated with Thunderstorms, these spheres are thought to consist of ionized gas.

• Case Study – An in-depth investigation of an individual subject.

• Channeling – In this modern-day method of spirit communication, a spirit will pass information directly to a medium or channeler who will then relay the information to the listener(s).

• Clairaudience – An auditory form of ESP, paranormal information is received outside the range of normal perception through voices, whispers, and auditory impressions.

• Clairsentience – A general term for clairvoyance and clairaudience. Clairsentience typically occurs in the form of ESP through physical sensations or smells.

• Clairvoyance – An acute insight or perceptiveness that enables you to see objects or events that cannot be perceived by the senses in the form of mental imagery and intuition. (See ESP)

• Control – This is a procedure in paranormal psychology that ensures that the experiment is conducted in a standard fashion so that the results will not be influenced by any extraneous factors.

• Collective Apparition – A rare type of sighting in which more than one person sees the same apparition or phenomena.

• Crisis Apparition – An apparition that is seen when a person is seriously ill, seriously injured, or at the point of death.

• Déjà vu – An impression or dull familiarity of having seen or experienced something before.

• Demon – An inferior deity often spoken of in religious text as pure evil.

• Direct Voice Phenomenon (DVP) – A disembodied voice that is spoken and heard without the use of electronic equipment.

• Doppelganger – An exact spirit double or mirror image of a person, considered to be very negative.

• Earthbound – A term referring to a ghost or spirit that was unable to cross over to the other side at the time of death and is, therefore, stuck on Earth.

• Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP) – Voices and sounds from beyond that are captured and recorded on magnetic tape.

• Elementals – Spiritualists commonly refer to this term to describe mean or angry spirits; sometimes also called “Earth Spirits”.

• EMF Detector – (See Magnetometer)

• Extra Sensory Perception (ESP) – Communication or perception by means other than the physical senses.

• Exorcism – The banishment of an entity or entities, i.e. spirits, ghosts, and demons, that are thought to possess or haunt a location, human being, or animal. The ritual, which can be religious in nature, is conducted by an exorcist who will call upon a Higher Power to cast away any evil forces that may reside there.

• False Awakening – The event in which a person believes they are awake, but they are actually dreaming.

• Ghost – A generic term referring to a form of apparition or supernatural entity which is typically the visual appearance of a deceased human’s spirit soul.

• Ghost Hunting – A carefully controlled research project in which various methods and equipment are used to investigate reports of ghosts and hauntings.

• Ghoul – Demonic or parasitic entity that feeds upon human remains.

• Hallucination – The perception of sights and sounds that are not actually present.

• Haunting – Reoccurring ghostly phenomena in a location. 

• Hellhound / Black Shuck– A spectral death omen in the form of a ghostly dog.

• Hypnosis – A technique that induces a sleep-like state in which the subject acts only on external suggestion.

• Illusion – A delusional perception between what is perceived and what is reality.

• Intuition – Non-paranormal knowledge that is gained through a perceptive insight.

• Levitation – To lift or raise a physical object in apparent defiance of gravity.

• Life Review – A flashback of a person’s life that is typically associated with near-death experiences.

• Lucid Dreaming – A dream state in which one is conscious enough to recognize that one is in the dream state, and is then able to control dream events.

• Magnetometer (EMF, Gaussmeter) – An instrument for measuring the magnitude and direction of a magnetic field typically used by paranormal researchers to detect a ghost’s magnetic energy.

• Marian Apparitions – The event in which the Virgin Mary is seen.

• Materialization – The act of forming something solid from the air. One of the most difficult and impressive materializations is when part or all of a ghost or spirit can be seen, especially if the face is recognizable.

• Medium – Someone who professes to be able to communicate with spirits on behalf of another living being, acting as a midway point halfway between the worlds of the living and the dead.

• Mesmerism – A hypnotic induction of a sleep or trance state (See Hypnotism).

• Mist – A photographed anomaly that appears as a blanket of light. There is no substantial proof that these are related to a paranormal phenomenon.

• Motor Automatism – Bodily movement or functions that are accompanied but not controlled by consciousness (See automatic writing).

• Near Death Experience (NDE) – An experience that is reported by people who clinically die, or come close to actual death and are revived. These events often include encounters with spirit guides, seeing dead relatives or friends, life review, out-of-body Experiences (OBE), or a moment of decision where they are able to decide or are told to turn back.

• Orb – A photographed anomaly that theoretically represents the “spirit” of a deceased person. It will appear as a ball of light on film though is some cases; they are not seen at the time of the photo. Since there are many reasonable circumstances (dust, snow, rain, insects, reflection, lens flare, etc.) orbs still remain a highly controversial subject.

• Out-of-body experience (OBE) – A sensation or experience in which one's self or spirit travels to a different location than their physical body (See Astral Projection).

• Paranormal – Referring to something that is beyond the range of normal human experience or scientific explanation.

• Parapsychology – The study of the evidence for psychological phenomena, inexplicable by science.

• Percipient – A person who sees an apparition.

• Phantom – Something that is seen, heard, or sensed, but has no physical reality (See Ghost).

• Poltergeist – a non-human spirit entity which literally means “noisy ghost” but is usually more malicious and destructive than ghosts of dead human beings. Traditional poltergeists activities are thumping and banging, levitating or the moving of objects, stone throwing and starting fires. It is thought that poltergeist activity in some instances may be brought on subconsciously by an adolescent agent or females under the age of 25.

• Precognition – The ability to predict or have knowledge of something in advance of its occurrence, especially by extrasensory perception (See Clairvoyance).

• Psychic – A person who is responsive to psychic forces with above-average ESP abilities.

• Psychokinesis (PK) – The power of the mind to affect matter without physical contact, especially in inanimate and remote objects, by the exercise of psychic powers.

• Psychometry – The ability or art of divining information about people or events associated with an object solely by touching or being near to it.

• Radio Voice Phenomenon (RVP) – Receiving the voice of a deceased human being through a regular radio.

• Retrocognition – An experience in which a person finds themselves in the past and can see and experience events during which they had no prior knowledge.

• Shaman – A member of certain tribal societies who acts as a medium between the visible world and an invisible spirit world and who practices magic or sorcery for purposes of healing, divination, and control over natural events.

• Simulacra – This is a word used to describe the seeing of faces, figures, and images in ordinary, everyday objects such as rocks, foliage, etc.

• Sleep Paralysis – A nocturnal phenomena that involves a feeling of immobilization, suffocation, odd smells, and feelings, and is sometimes accompanied by intense fear.

• Specter – A ghostly apparition; a phantom (See Ghost).

• Spiritualism – The belief system that the dead can communicate with the living through an intermediary or medium.

• Stigmata – Unexplained bodily marks, sores, or sensations of pain corresponding in location to the crucifixion wounds of Christ.

• Subjective Apparitions – Hallucinations of apparitions or other phenomena that are created by one's own mind.

• Supernatural – Of or relating to existence outside the natural world. As opposed to paranormal, the term “supernatural” often connotes divine or demonic intervention.

• Telekinesis – The paranormal movement of objects by scientifically inexplicable means.

• Telepathy – Communication from one mind to another through means other than the senses.

• Thought Form – An apparition produced solely by the power of the human mind.

• Trance – A hypnotic, cataleptic, or ecstatic state in which one becomes detached from their physical surroundings.

• Vortex – An anomaly that appears as a funnel or rope-like image in photographs. These images are sometimes thought to represent ghosts, collections of orbs, or gateways of travel to a wormhole in time-space. There has been no substantial scientific evidence to support any of these theories.

• White Noise – An acoustical or electrical noise of which the intensity is the same at all frequencies within a given band.