Afterimage
A visual impression that continues after the original stimulus has gone. Bright lights can leave shapes or motion in vision that are mistaken for something still present.
Field lexicon
Glossary of Strange Research
Plain-language definitions for reports, evidence, folklore, perception and the history of unusual claims.
Working definitions
Describe first. Interpret second.
These definitions explain how a word is used in a report or investigation. A label such as apparition, cryptid or UAP describes the claim or the state of the evidence; it does not prove a cause.
76 terms
Anomaly
An observation or result that does not fit the current account. An anomaly identifies a question; it is not, by itself, evidence for any particular extraordinary explanation.
Apparition
A reported figure or presence seen without an obvious physical person present. The word describes the experience without deciding whether its cause was environmental, psychological or unknown.
Apport
An object said to appear, disappear or move through paranormal means, especially during a séance. Investigation depends heavily on controlled conditions and an unbroken record of who handled the object.
Automatic writing
Writing produced while the writer feels that the words arise without deliberate control. It has been interpreted as spirit communication, unconscious composition, dissociation or performance.
Ball lightning
A rare report of a luminous, usually short-lived sphere associated with storm conditions. The label is sometimes applied too broadly to any unexplained light near the ground.
Banshee
A figure in Irish tradition whose cry is associated with an approaching death in a family. Accounts vary by locality, family history and the period in which they were recorded.
Black dog
A spectral or uncanny dog associated in British and Irish traditions with roads, churchyards, boundaries, storms or death omens. Similar motifs do not make every local story the same tradition.
Case file
A structured record that separates the original claim, chronology, witnesses, evidence, later interpretation, sources and current status. A case file should preserve uncertainty rather than hide it.
Chain of custody
The documented sequence showing who collected, stored, copied, tested and transferred an object or recording. Gaps make alteration, contamination or mistaken identity harder to rule out.
Claim
The specific statement being proposed, such as “a figure crossed the room” or “this object is ancient.” A useful investigation tests the precise claim rather than a larger story built around it.
Close encounter
A classification used for reported nearby encounters with an unusual aerial object or its alleged effects. It organises testimony; it does not certify that the reported object had an extraordinary origin.
Cold reading
A technique in which broad statements, observation and feedback are used to produce an impression of specific personal knowledge. Successful guesses are often remembered more strongly than misses.
Collective memory
The shared way a community remembers an event or place. Commemoration, tourism, news coverage and repeated storytelling can reshape that memory over time.
Confirmation bias
The tendency to notice, seek and remember information that supports an existing expectation while giving less weight to conflicting details. It can affect believers, sceptics and investigators alike.
Contemporary account
A record made at or near the time of an event. It is usually more useful for chronology than a later retelling, although it can still contain error, bias or second-hand information.
Correlation
A pattern in which two things vary together. Correlation can suggest a question to investigate, but it does not show that one caused the other.
Crisis apparition
An apparition report associated with a distant person’s death, danger or severe distress. Timing is central, so the earliest dated account and when the witness learned of the crisis matter greatly.
Cryptid
An animal or animal-like being reported in testimony or tradition but not established by accepted zoological evidence. The term covers very different claims and should not be treated as a biological category.
Cryptozoology
The search for animals known mainly through reports, traces or folklore. Useful fieldwork can document testimony and habitat, but a species claim ultimately requires reliable physical evidence.
Debunking
Testing a claim against evidence, source quality and ordinary explanations, particularly where a claim has been exaggerated or falsely presented. Good debunking explains the evidence rather than mocking the witness.
Dowsing
The claimed detection of water, objects or other targets through the movement of rods or pendulums. Controlled tests must account for unconscious movement and prior knowledge of the search area.
Ectoplasm
A substance that physical mediums claimed was produced during séances, sometimes forming faces or limbs. Historical photographs and exposures frequently revealed fabric, paper and other ordinary materials.
Electronic voice phenomenon
Speech-like sounds perceived in recordings where no voice was noticed at the time. Radio interference, compression, background speech and expectation should be checked before interpretation.
Evidence
Information that changes how strongly a claim should be accepted. Its value depends on relevance, reliability, independence, preservation and whether competing explanations predict it too.
Eyewitness testimony
A person’s account of what they experienced. It can be sincere and important while still being affected by attention, viewing conditions, memory and later discussion.
False memory
A memory that feels genuine but contains events or details that did not occur as remembered. Suggestive questions, repetition and information learned later can all contribute.
Folklore
Knowledge, customs, beliefs and stories shared through communities and informal transmission. Folklore changes in use and retelling; it is evidence of tradition, not automatic proof of the event described.
Folklore motif
A recurring element such as a forbidden room, vanishing traveller or omen animal. Identifying a motif helps compare stories without assuming that one tale directly copied another.
Ghost light
A recurring local tradition or report involving unexplained lights, often near roads, marshes, railways or water. Different locations may involve different mixtures of environment, traffic and legend.
Grimoire
A book or manuscript containing magical instructions, prayers, symbols, recipes or spirit catalogues. Its age, authorship and use must be established through the particular copy, not its reputation alone.
Haunting
A pattern of unusual experiences attributed to a place, including apparitions, sounds, movement or sensed presences. A location log is more informative than treating every incident as one cause.
Hoax
A deliberate attempt to make false evidence or a false story appear genuine. A hoax can still become culturally important, but its later influence should not be confused with the original claim.
Hypnagogia
The transition from wakefulness into sleep, when vivid images, sounds, movement sensations and a sensed presence can occur. The experiences may feel as if they are happening in the room.
Hypnopompia
The transition from sleep into wakefulness. Dream imagery and bodily sensations can briefly continue while awareness of the bedroom has returned.
Ideomotor effect
Small movements made without conscious intention, often shaped by expectation. It can move pendulums, dowsing rods and talking-board pointers without deliberate fraud.
Infrasound
Sound below the usual range of human hearing. Some sources can cause vibration or discomfort, but it should be measured at a location rather than used as a universal explanation for unease.
Legend
A traditional narrative presented as connected to real people, places or history, whether or not every element is factual. Legends often carry local values and warnings.
Legend trip
A visit to a place associated with a frightening or uncanny story, often to test, perform or experience the legend. The visit can generate new stories that feed back into the tradition.
Liminal place
A boundary or transitional setting such as a crossroads, doorway, shore, bridge or edge of settlement. Such places gather stories partly because they sit between familiar categories.
Mass psychogenic illness
The spread of real symptoms through a group without an identified physical cause sufficient to explain the pattern. Stress, observation and social communication can influence how symptoms travel.
Medium
A person who claims to communicate with the dead or other non-ordinary agents. Historical study distinguishes mental mediumship from physical performances involving objects, sounds or material effects.
Misidentification
A real object, animal, sound or event interpreted as something else because identifying information was limited. Distance, darkness and unfamiliar angles commonly remove useful scale and context.
Missing time
A period that a witness cannot account for, often identified by a clock discrepancy or incomplete memory. Fatigue, routine travel, sleep and the reliability of the timing evidence require examination.
Nocturnal light
A light seen in the night sky whose structure or distance cannot be established from the report. The description is deliberately narrower than assuming a solid object.
Occult
A broad historical label for hidden or esoteric knowledge and practices, including divination, ritual magic and spirit communication. Meaning varies sharply by period and community.
Oral history
A recorded interview about remembered experience, usually created with attention to the speaker, context and purpose. It is a source to interpret, not a transcript of the past without mediation.
Ostension
The acting out of an existing legend or traditional motif in real life. A prank, ritual visit or crime may imitate a story and then be retold as evidence that the story was true.
Out-of-place artefact
An object claimed to be inconsistent with its archaeological context or accepted chronology. Secure provenance, dating and excavation records are essential before the label has meaning.
Parapsychology
The study of claimed telepathy, precognition, psychokinesis and related experiences using experimental or statistical methods. Results and methods remain disputed, making replication especially important.
Pareidolia
The perception of a meaningful form, especially a face or figure, in ambiguous patterns. It is a normal feature of perception and becomes stronger when an expected shape has already been suggested.
Placebo effect
A change in symptoms or experience associated with expectation and the context of treatment rather than a treatment’s specific proposed mechanism. It does not mean that a person is pretending.
Poltergeist
A cluster of reported noises, object movement or disruption traditionally attributed to an unseen agency. Cases require attention to household dynamics, access, building conditions and witness timing.
Premonition
A feeling, dream or impression later interpreted as anticipating an event. A dated record made before the outcome is much stronger evidence than a recollection shaped after it.
Primary source
Material close to the event or subject, such as an original letter, photograph, recording, official file, object or firsthand account. “Primary” describes proximity, not guaranteed accuracy.
Provenance
The documented history of an object’s origin, ownership, location and handling. A dramatic claim with weak provenance cannot reliably establish where or when an object came from.
Pseudoscience
A practice presented as scientific while avoiding reliable testing, correction or disconfirming evidence. The label should be supported by examining methods, not used as a substitute for argument.
Psychokinesis
The claimed influence of mind on matter without ordinary physical action. Experiments must exclude handling, air movement, vibration, selective reporting and procedural leakage.
Psychometry
The claimed ability to obtain information about a person or event by touching an associated object. Testing must conceal ordinary clues about the object and its owner.
Retrocognition
A claimed perception of a past event not learned through ordinary means. Later historical research can unintentionally reshape the remembered detail, so early records are crucial.
Ritual
A repeated, structured action carrying social, religious or symbolic meaning. Similar-looking actions can have very different meanings, so local and historical context is essential.
Secondary source
A later work that interprets, summarises or analyses primary material. Good secondary sources reveal their evidence and make it possible to trace important claims back.
Sleep paralysis
A temporary inability to move while falling asleep or waking, sometimes accompanied by pressure, fear, vivid imagery or a sensed presence. Cultural expectations influence how the episode is interpreted.
Source criticism
The examination of who created a source, when, why, from what information and through what later copies or edits. It helps separate early evidence from repetition.
Spiritualism
A religious and cultural movement centred on communication with the dead, especially influential from the nineteenth century onward. It developed churches, publications, rituals and competing forms of mediumship.
Suggestion
Information or expectation that influences what a person notices, remembers or reports. Even a well-meant question can introduce details that were not in the first account.
Synchronicity
A coincidence experienced as meaningfully connected despite no demonstrated causal link. Its personal significance is separate from the statistical question of how surprising the coincidence was.
Séance
A gathering intended to communicate with spirits, usually through a medium, table movement, voices or other signs. Lighting, access and the exact procedure matter when evaluating physical claims.
Telepathy
The claimed transfer of information between minds without known sensory communication. Controlled tests must prevent ordinary cueing and define success before results are examined.
Time slip
An experience interpreted as a brief encounter with another historical period or altered version of a place. Route, timing, fatigue, expectation and when the account was recorded are central evidence.
Trance
An altered state of attention or awareness associated with ritual, mediumship, hypnosis or absorption. The term describes many states and does not establish their cause.
UAP
Unidentified anomalous phenomenon, a broad label for an observation not identified from the available information. Unidentified describes the state of the evidence, not an origin.
UFO
Unidentified flying object, historically used for an aerial observation that remains unidentified at the time of reporting. In popular culture it often implies a spacecraft, which is a separate claim.
Urban legend
A contemporary story circulated as something that happened to a friend, neighbour or nearby stranger. Versions migrate between places while keeping a recognisable warning, shock or twist.
Witness contamination
The alteration of an account through discussion, leading questions, news reports or exposure to other versions. Recording witnesses separately and early reduces the problem.
Witness statement
A recorded account attributed to a particular witness at a particular time. The original wording, questions asked and edits are part of the evidence and should be preserved.
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