Paranormal- The Sixth Sense

par·a·nor·mal (adj.)- Beyond the range of normal experience or scientific explanation: such paranormal phenomena as telepathy; a medium's paranormal powers.

Everyone has heard of paranormal activity, such as ghosts and UFOs but there is also a long list of paranormal abilities (also known as 'psychic abilities').

Just what are paranormal/psychic abilities? Parapsychological Association (PA), an affiliate of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), published an article by Dr. Mario Varvoglis where he defines "psi" as every kind of unexplainable psychic phenomenon that "seem to be related" to the human mind. He further quantifies that by defining what it means to be "psychic".

Dr. Varvoglis calls it an experience that "must involve" interactions that aren't the same as our normal methods of interacting with the world around us.

In other words, the scientific definition of types of "psychic abilities" refers to ant ability that is used to perceive the world through a "sixth sense". All types of psychic abilities are referred to as extrasensory perception (ESP).

Ok, so what exactly is ESP? Well, we have 5 senses: touch, taste, smell, sight and sound. ESP is what we call a "sixth sense". It goes beyond the main 5 senses.

ESP isn't just one type of ability. It is possible to have a talent in more than one area of ESP:

* Precognition: The ability to foretell the future.
* Postcognition: The ability to see past events.
* Clairvoyance: The ability to form impressions about objects or events as a mental picture or a certain type of feeling.
* Clairaudience: The ability to hear sounds, voices, etc., that are outside of the range of normal
human perception.
* Clairsentience (Emapthy): The ability to pick up on other people's feelings.
* Psychokinesis: The ability to move objects solely through the power of one's mind.
* Psychometry: A talent for getting impressions through handling or touching a physical object.
* Remote Viewing: The ability to "see" an object at a distance.
* Telepathy: The ability to communicate thoughts and/or feelings without using spoken language.

The following list of psychic abilities make up entire categories of ability. Some psychics claim to have only one of these abilities, while other psychics say that they have several.

* Astral projection- the ability to cause your conscious awareness to be in a position outside of your physical body. It is also referred to as an out-of-body experience (OBE). Experiencers of this psychic phenomenon report seeing their body on an operating table and watching events unfold as medical technicians work to revive them. Some experiencers wake up later and, to everyone's astonishment, they are able to describe those details to medical staff.

*Aura Reading- the perception that allows a "sensitive" to perceive a disturbance in the air surrounding an individual, animal, or object. Auras are defined differently by different people, with some referring to them in the spiritual terms, while some researchers refer to them in purely scientific terms. Whether these disturbances are caused by spirit or by electromagnetic radiation, reading auras is a very common psychic ability.

*Automatic writing- a technique that many clairvoyants use to pass information from the spiritual world through their subconscious mind and onto paper. The theory is that the psychic's hand is ultimately controlled by the outside intelligence.

*Channeling- similar to automatic writing, except instead of the outside spiritual intelligence
controlling the psychic's hand, it take over the vocal chords of the psychic. People who have this
ability are called "mediums" because they serve as a medium, or vessel, for communication to take place with the invisible entity.


*Clairvoyance- the ability to see visions of events, people and places that are far away, or outside of the normal perceptual range of the psychic. This ability is also most commonly referred to as "remote viewing."

*Clairaudience- very similar to clairvoyance, except it focuses on the ability to hear things that are normally inaudible to regular hearing. This does not refer to hearing voices of invisible spirits; instead, it is the ability to hear the voices of people who are very far away from the psychic, a form of "telepathy".

*Clairsentience- the awareness of a fact, or piece of information that is hidden from the psychic. For example, if a psychic met someone for the first time and knew their name, or their birthday, this would be an example of clairsentience.

*Animal Telepathy- a much less commonly known ability to communicate telepathically with animals. Also known as "pet psychics," some claim to have a psychic connection with the thoughts and feelings of animals.

*Divination- the ability of a psychic to foretell the future, i.e., fortune telling and prophesying.

*Dowsing- the art of using rods or sticks to locate objects. This is a technique is mainly used to locate water. Some people have the ability to dowse other objects. Many older folks swear that it works, but no one can really explain why, but my theory is that some people are more sensitive to electromagnetic disturbances in the ground, caused by flowing water, or buried objects.

*Intuition- a "sense" of events, thoughts, activities or feelings of others that are outside of the
normal human ability to perceive them. An intuitive person has a borderline psychic perception and almost everyone has this ability, though few recognize it.

*Levitation- a rare ability to levitate one's body above the ground. Reported in many cases of demonic possession, as well as spiritual cases, such as the case of St. Theresa of Avila during the 16th century, when witnesses reported seeing her levitating, while she was meditating during mass.

*Postcognition- the ability to see past events. Many psychics who assist law enforcement use this ability. Some psychics are able to go to a location and "see" a past event that ocurred there.

*Precognition- the ability to foretell the future. This particular form of future viewing involves obtaining specific information about an event, instead of a visual "viewing" of the future.

*Psychometry- the ability of a psychic to perceive energies (also known as vibrations or impressions) from an object. This ability has been portrayed often in movies and TV shows where a psychic touches an object and receives flashbacks about the person who last touched it.

*Pyrokinesis- the ability to spark fire with the mind and is a highly specialized form of psychokinesis. Because someone has pyrokinetic ability does not mean they have all forms of psychokinesis.

*Telekinesis, a.k.a. psychokinesis- the ability of a psychic to affect or move objects, solely with the mind. This is probably one of the most commonly portrayed psychic abilities in the media.

*Telepathy- the ability to communicate with others through mental thought alone. The ability to read another person's mind.

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Are psychic abilities real? We humans only use approximately 10% of our brains. Our brains use a biological electrical current to function. Although scientists have studied the human brain, there is still vast quantities of knowledge about the brain, left to learn.

It is quite possible that the human brains' electrical energy can tap into a much larger resource; the world around us, even the vast universe. In this realm of existence, all things are possible.

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