It may be useful to attempt a classification scheme for reports of the paranormal or anomalous. For the sake of including as many types of observation reports as I can, I will use the broad term "paranormal or anomalous," which includes not only phenomena that are currently inexplicable but also various types of unusual observations that might be explained within the framework of mainstream science. I will propose a numerical system in which integer numbers such as 3 stand for a particular class of experiences, and decimal numbers such as 3.1 or 3.2 stand for particular types of experiences within such a class.
The classifications below are intended to be moderately exclusive, but not totally exclusive. A particular anomalous experience may simultaneously be an example of two or more of these types.
First I will present the classes and types of this classification without any examples, and without sentences clarifying the names I use. Then I will give the same classification scheme with explanations and examples.
Class 1 Extrasensory Perception (Non-Hypnotic)
1.1 Telepathy
1.1.1 Experimental Telepathy
1.1.2 Spontaneous Telepathy
1.2 Clairvoyance
1.2.1 Spontaneous Clairvoyance
1.2.2 "Traveling" Clairvoyance
1.2.3 "X-Ray" Clairvoyance
1.3 Precognition
1.4 Retrocognition
1.5 Transposition of the Senses
Class 2 Trance Phenomena and Hypnotic Phenomena
2.1 "Past-Life" Recollections
2.2 Hypnotic Insensitivity to Pain
2.3 Amnesia of Hypnotic Experience
2.4 Hypnotic Insensitivity to Sound
2.5 Hypnotic Hyper-Suggestibility
2.5.1 Hyper-Suggestibility While Hypnotized
2.5.2 Post-Hypnotic Suggestions
2.6 Hypnotic Clairvoyance
2.6.1 Hypnotic "Traveling" Clairvoyance
2.6.2 Hypnotic "X-Ray" Clairvoyance
2.7 Hypnotic Transposition of the Senses
2.8 Trance Exaltation of Thinking
2.9 Anomalous Healing Under Hypnosis
2.10 Hypnosis at a Distance or Telepathic Knockouts
2.11 Anomalous Time-Keeping Abilities
2.12 Hypnotic "Community of Sensation"
2.13 Suspended Animation
2.14 Hypnotic Induction of Bodily Changes
Class 3 Out-of-Body Experiences (OBE)
3.1 Spontaneous OBEs Without Being Near Death
3.2 Willed OBEs
3.3 Near-Death OBEs
3.3.1 Veridical Near-Death OBEs.
Class 4 Near-Death Experiences (NDE)
4.1 Near-Death Experience With OBE
4.2 Near-Death Experience Without OBE
4.3 Shared-Death Experience
4.4 Terminal Lucidity
Class 5 Apparition Experiences and ADC (After-Death Communication)
5.1 Wraith Sighting
5.2 Apparition of Person Who Died Long Ago
5.3 Shared Apparition Sighting
5.3 Deathbed Apparitions and Visions
5.3.1 Veridical Deathbed Apparitions and Visions
5.3.2 Luminous Anomalies Occurring at the Time of Death.
5.4 Miscellaneous Spontaneous Manifestations Attributed to Deceased
5.5 Apparitions of the Living
5.6 Angelic Apparitions
5.7 Marian Apparitions or Saint Apparitions
5.8 Aiding Apparitions
5.9 Mysterious Orbs Seen With the Unaided Eye
5.10 Apparitions of the Self
5.11 "Haunted House" Apparitions and Auditory Phenomena.
5.12 Premonitory Apparitions
Class 6 Cryptozoology Experiences
6.1 Bigfoot and Yeti Sightings
6.2 Monster Sightings
6.3 Miscellaneous Creature Sightings
Class 7 UFO Experiences
7.1 Visual Sightings of UFO
7.2 UFO "Close Encounters"
7.3 Reported "Alien Abductions"
7.4 Earth-lights, Spook-lights or Ghost-lights
Class 8 Anomalous Photographic Experiences
8.1 "Spirit" Photography
8.2 UFO Photography
8.3 Ghost Photography
8.4 Orb Photography
8.4.1 Photography of Colored Orbs
8.4.2 Photography of "Speeding" Orbs
8.4.3 Photography of Striped Orbs
8.4.4 Photography of Orb Pattern Repetitions
8.5 Thoughtography
Class 9 Psychokinesis, Apports and Poltergeist Activity
9.1 Intentional Psychokinesis
9.2 One-Event Psychokinesis or "Poltergiest" Activity
9.3 Recurrent Mysterious "Poltergeist" Activity
9.4 Apports
Class 10 Anomalous Healing Activity
10.1 Unexplained Disease Reversals
10.2 Sudden Healing Events
10.3 Psychic Healing and Psychic Diagnosis.
10.4 Faith Healing
Class 11 Mediumistic Events
11.1 Medium Readings Showing Hard-to-Explain Knowledge of the Deceased
11.2 Levitations
11.3 Materialization
11.31 Partial Body Materializations
11.32 Full-body Materializations
11.4 "Spirit Controls"
11.5 "Disembodied Voices"
11.6 Automatic Writing
11.7 Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP)
11.8 Instrumental Trans-Communication
11.9 Ouija Board Activity
11.10 Raps and Other Inexplicable Sounds
11.11 "Spirit Lights"
11.12 Table Tipping
11.13 Mediumistic Precognition
11.14 Inexplicable Musical Phenomena
11.15 Anomalous Smells
11.16 Temporary Body Distortions
11.17 Sense of Presence Corresponding to a Deceased Person
11.18 Sense of an Unseen Unidentified Presence
Class 12 Seemingly Supernatural Events
12.1 Public "Miracles"
12.2 "Angelic Appearances"
12.3 "Spirit Announcements"
12.4 Warnings From Mysterious Voices
12.5 Inexplicable Sounds or Voices
12,6 Inexplicable Object Movements or Displacements
12.7 Inexplicable Device Activity
12.8 Reported Teleportations
12.9 Transfigurations
12.10 Rainfall Selectivity
12.11 Bilocation
12.12 Mysterious Images Arising on Walls or Floors
Class 13 Possession and Similar Phenomena
13.1 Long-term "Body Borrowing"
13.2 Temporary "Possession"
Class 14 "Past-Life" Recollections
14.1 Childhood "Past-Life" Recollections
14.1.1 Childhood "Past-Life" Recollections With Birthmarks
14.2 Recollections Suggesting the Non-Earthly Pre-Existence of the Soul
Class 15 Visionary Experiences
15.1 Premonitory Visions
15.2 Mediumistic or ADC-type Visions
Class 16 Dream Phenomena
16.1 Premonitory Dreams
16.2 Visitation Dreams
16.3 Dream Telepathy
16.4 Lucid Dreaming
16.5 Death Notification Dreams
16.6 "Notification From the Dead" Dreams
16.7 Clairvoyant Dreams
16.8 Dream Series Repeating Themes of Death and Life After Death
16.9 Pre-Birth Dreams and Visions
Class 17 Premonitions While Awake
17.1 Premonitory ESP
17.2 Premonitions of Danger
Class 18 Mystical Experiences
18.1 "Cosmic Consciousness"
18.2 Christian Mystical Experiences
18.3 Buddhist Mystical Experiences
18.4 Muslim Mystical Experiences
18.5 Hindu Mystical Experiences
Class 19 Linguistic Anomalies
19.1 Xenoglossy
Class 20 Skin and Sensation Anomalies
20.1 Mirror Touch Synesthesia
20.2 Exteriorization of Sensibility
20.3 Phantom Limb Pain
20.4 Stigmata and Skin-writing
20.5 Mysterious Scents
20.6 Anomalous Insensitivity to Heat
20.7 Anomalous Chills
20.8 Synesthesia
Class 21 Tool-Assisted or Object-Assisted Psychic Abilities
21.1 Dowsing
21.2 Crystal Gazing
21.3 Psychometry
21.4 Slate Writing
Class 22 Synchronicity Phenomena
22.1 Clocks Stopping at the Time of Someone's Death
22.2 Unaccountable Sensations at the Time of Someone's Death
22.3 Unaccountable Sounds at the Time of Someone's Death
22.4 Unaccountable Fallings at the Time of Someone's Death
Class 23 Anomalous Mental Influence on Living Systems
23.1 Anomalous Change in Mental States After a Person Silently Wished Such a Change.
23.2 Anomalous Change in Physical States After a Person Silently Wished Such a Change
23.3 Anomalous Detection of Observation of the Self by an Unseen Observer
Now let me give the same classification with some links, explanations and examples.
Class 1 Extrasensory Perception
1.1 Telepathy
1.1.1 Experimental Telepathy. Some examples of ESP under experimental conditions are discussed here, here and here.
1.1.2 Spontaneous Telepathy. Louisa Rhine was one of the leading researchers of cases of spontaneous telepathy. Her book Hidden Channels of the Mind can be read here. Another book focusing on such experiences can be read here. Some examples from Mark Twain can be found here.
1.2 Clairvoyance
1.2.1 Spontaneous Clairvoyance. An example is when someone reports the approach of an unexpected unseen visitor who very soon arrives at her doorstep. Some examples can be found here.
1.2.2 "Traveling" Clairvoyance and Remote Viewing. See 2.6.1 below for a discussion of "traveling" clairvoyance in hypnotized subjects. Remote viewing may be described a kind of "traveling" clairvoyance that can occur with training for subjects who are not hypnotized. As discussed here and here, research into remote viewing was long funded by the US government, with many successes reported.
1.2.3 "X-Ray" Clairvoyance. This type of clairvoyance involves things such as the ability to correctly read through heavy blindfolds, or to correctly describe the contents of sealed letters and closed boxes, or to see within a human body. Some examples can be found here, here and here. Below is a quote from Alfred Russel Wallace, on page 245 of the December 22, 1876 edition of The Spiritualist:
" Dr. Edwin Lee, a well-known physician, in his book on Animal Magnetism, has given, from personal observation, a minute account of the clairvoyance, of Alexis [Didier] at Brighton, which occupies twenty-five pages. Among a great variety of most remarkable tests, he frequently read passages in books brought at random a number of pages in advance of the page opened, but at the level of a line indicated. Numbers of these tests are recorded, the words read always being found at the level indicated, but not always at the exact number of pages in advance asked for. The evidence for this, as well as for many other forms of clairvoyance, is overwhelming, and the tests applied of the most varied and stringent character."
1.3 Precognition. See my 16 posts here for some examples.
1.4 Retrocognition. Retrocognition can be an inexplicable knowledge or sensing of things that occurred in the past. In my interesting post here, I discuss the topic, stating this:
"What I find is that for every case in which one of my dreams seems to match well something that soon happens (which may be an example of precognition), there are roughly an equal number of cases where one of my dreams seem to match well something that happened one day or a few days previously (but which I had no knowledge of). The latter examples may be cases of what is called retrocognition, which means an anomalous knowledge about something that happened in the past."
1.5 Transposition of the Senses. See the six posts here for examples in which someone seems to be able to see through some part of his body (such as his fingers) other than his eyes.
Class 2 Trance Phenomena and Hypnotic Phenomena
2.1 "Past-Life" Recollections. Some related books can be read here. Perhaps the most well-known work on this topic is The Search for Bridey Murphy, which can read here.
2.2 Hypnotic Insensitivity to Pain. See the "Phenomenon #2" section of this post for a discussion. The main relevant work on this is the book here by Dr. James Esdaile, who reported that hundreds of major operations occurred in India under his supervision, involving subjects who had no anesthesia but reported no pain during amputations or removals of large tumors, because they had been told to feel no pain while hypnotized. Another book documenting the same thing is the book "Numerous cases of surgical operations without pain in the mesmeric state" by John Elliotson MD, which can be read here.
2.3 Amnesia of Hypnotic Experience. This is the phenomenon of not remembering what happened when you are put under hypnosis. See the "Phenomenon #1" section of this post for a discussion.
2.4 Hypnotic Insensitivity to Sound. See the "Phenomenon #3" section of this post for a discussion.
2.5 Hypnotic Hyper-Suggestibility
2.5.1 Hyper-Suggestibility While Hypnotized. See the "Phenomenon #5" section of this post for a discussion.
2.5.2 Post-Hypnotic Suggestions. See the "Phenomenon #6" section of this post for a discussion.
2.6 Hypnotic Clairvoyance
2.6.1 Hypnotic "Traveling" Clairvoyance. Nineteenth century literature on hypnotism contains many accounts of people under hypnosis who (when guided on a kind of mental journey by someone familiar with a place) could correctly list all kinds of details of places they had never physically seen. Some examples can be found here, here, and here.
2.6.2 Hypnotic "X-Ray" Clairvoyance. Such clairvoyance may involve an ability to detect the contents in sealed envelopes, locked boxes or even a human body. Some examples can be read here and here.
2.7 Hypnotic Transposition of the Senses. This occurs when someone under hypnosis may appear to be able to see with the fingers, the stomach, or some part of the body other than the eyes. Quite a few examples are discussed in the posts here. See the "Phenomenon #7" section of this post for a discussion.
2.8 Trance Exaltation of Thinking. See the "Phenomenon #10" section of this post for some examples.
2.9 Anomalous Healing Under Hypnosis. Such a case is discussed here. When hypnotism was called Mesmerism, animal magnetism and artificial somnambulism (between 1780 and 1850), there were innumerable reports of anomalous healings under hypnosis. Referring to cures under hypnosis, page 20 of the 1907 document here states the following: "The following is a list of celebrated European doctors from 1784 to 1837 who produced personal magnetic phenomena reported, with their processes and cures, in their published books :— Dr. Orelut; Dr. Gardanne ; Dr. W urty ; Dr. P aulet; Dr. Peletin ; G. Baldwin, English consul at Alexandria; Count Panin, ambassador of Russia; Count de Redern ; Dr. d’Eslon, of the Academie of Medicine of Paris ; General de Puys6gur ; Prof. Deleuze ; Dr. A. Bertrand ; Dr. A. Roullier; Prof, de Lausanne ; Colonel Masson ; Major Pitman, of the English Army ; Prof. Corbaux ; Dr. de Villem et; Dr. T hiriat; Prof, du Commun ; Baron du P o te t; *Dr. Cheron, Prof, and Chief Director of the Val-de-Grace, Paris ; Dr. Lullier; Dr. Fournier; General de Prescy ; Dr. A. C. Savary; Dr. Foissac, Acad. Med., P aris; Dr. Husson, A.M.P. ; Dr. Bourdois, A.M.P. ; Dr. Fouquier, A .M .P .; Dr. de Mussy, A.M.P. ; Dr. Guersant, A.M.P. ; Dr. Hard, A .M .P .; Dr. Leroun, A .M .P .; Dr. Mare, A.M.P. ; Dr. Thillaye, A.M.P. ; Dr. Oudet, A .M .P .; Dr. J. Cloquet; Dr. C. W. Hufsland, Physician-in-chief to the King of Prussia; Dr. Klein, Physician-in-chief to the King of Wurtemburg ; Dr. R e il; Dr. Broekm ann; Dr. W ienholt; Dr. Nordkoff; Dr. Wolfart, Prof. Academy of Berlin ; Dr. Kieser ; Dr. W. A rn d t; Dr. van Echenniayer, p rof.; Dr. J. Weber ; Dr. Stieglitz, physician to His Majesty the King of England, at Hanover ; Dr. F. H. Hufsland, prof, at Yena ; Dr. Hermann ; Dr. Heine ; Dr. Kohler ; Dr. Schmidt, physician to the court of Germany ; Dr. Formey ; Dr. O ppert; Dr. Kluge ; Dr. Sprengel; Dr. Marcard ; Dr. de Cederschold, of the court of Sweden; Dr. Malfatti, of the court of Vienna; Dr. Muck, of the court of Bavaria ; Dr. Fischer ; Dr. Joerdeus ; Dr. J. Hamel, physician to the Emperor of Russia ; Dr. Muller, physician to the Emperor of Russia ; Dr. de Stoffregen, physician to the Empress of Russia; Dr. Brosse; Dr. Lichtenstaedt; Dr. de Koerber; Dr. de Themmen ; Dr. G. Barker ; Dr. Hendriksz ; Dr. Crosne ; Dr. Siemons ; Dr. Vitringa-Coulon ; Dr. van der Plaats ; Dr. van Houten ; the chemist Boler ; etc., etc., etc."
2.10 Hypnosis at a Distance or Telepathic Knockouts. A phenomenon in which a hypnotist can induce a trance in an unseen person is reported here and here. On the page here we are told, "In 18 of 25 trials Janet and his colleague Gilbert were able to induce a trance in their hysterical subject Leonie at distances varying from 1/4 to 1 mile." The page here tells us the experiments of L. Vasiliev at the University of Leningrad were overwhelmingly successful in producing trances at a distance in subjects, with a 90% success rate, with most of the people trying to produce the trances being in different rooms, and the trance almost always occurring within a few minutes of the remote attempt to make the person entranced. .
2.11 Anomalous Time-Keeping Abilities. See the "Phenomenon #8" section of this post for a discussion.
2.12 Hypnotic "Community of Sensation." It has been very frequently reported that a hypnotized person may instantly feel sensations felt by the person who hypnotized him. A set of experiments on this effect is reported in the "First Report of the Committee on Mesmerism" pages 225-229 of Volume 1 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (April, 1883), a committee including the illustrious names of Frederic Myers, Edmund Gurney, Frank Podmore, George Wyld M.D. and the eventually knighted physicist W.F. Barrett. We read this on page 226: "Thus out of a total of 24 experiments in transference of pains, the exact spot.was correctly indicated by the subject no less than 20 times." Similar results were obtained by Dr. Edmund Gurney and reported in his paper "An Account of Some Experiments in Mesmerism," published on page 201 of Volume II of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research ( June 1884). As reported on page 205, a hypnotized subject identified with high accuracy tactile and taste sensations occurring in a hypnotizer sitting behind him.
2.13 Suspended Animation. It has often been reported that certain mystics or holy men in India have an inexplicable ability to suspend their normal bodily functions, and live for long periods without food, water or air. An example of such a claim can be found at the link here, where we read the following:
"This same fakir was buried by the Rajah of Lahore, in a grave dug in the earth, the soil pressed down around his coffin, a foot of soil covering it, which was afterwards sown with barley. At the end of four months he was taken out alive, to the surprise of the rajah himself."
2.14 Hypnotic Induction of Bodily Changes. Pages 199-208 of the book Irreducible Mind gives some fascinating examples in which bodily changes such as skin marks and bleeding and breast enlargement were apparently produced by mere hypnotic suggestion.
Class 3 Out-of-Body Experiences (OBE)
3.1 Spontaneous OBEs Without Being Near Death. This would be the rare case of suddenly seeming to be outside of your body, in an effect that you did not will and was not a response to being near death. A case of a subject reporting many such spontaneous OBE experiences is described here. We read this on page 694, in which the text uses SAC to mean "state of accreted consciousness":
"Mr. M reported his SACs occurred multiple times daily spontaneously or at will, while in a waking or active state such as standing, working at a computer, driving a car, etc., or when resting such as sitting or lying down. Mr. M reported he would be walking or performing regular daily activities at work, when suddenly he would spontaneously slip out-of-body and into the SAC. The SAC experiences would be extremely vivid, real, and a clear sense of separation between the Self and the physical body would accompany each SAC. The surroundings as described by Mr. M, when in SAC, would appear in brighter colors than what is considered normal under a regular state of consciousness. 'Under SAC I perceive colors that are not visible when in the physical body.' Moreover, with each SAC, Mr. M reported feelings of disembodiment experienced in varying intensities, and an enhanced perception of reality."
3.2 Willed OBEs (Astral Projection). Willed out-of-body experiences are often called astral projection. A relevant book is "The Projection of the Astral Body" by Sylvan J. Muldoon, which can be read here.
3.3 Near-Death OBEs. It is very common in near-death experiences for people to report viewing their bodies while kind of floating above them.
3.3.1 Veridical Near-Death OBEs. A veridical near-death OBE is when someone having a close encounter with death reports moving out of his body, and is able to recall observational details that are later verified. Some interesting examples can be found here.
Class 4 Near-Death Experiences (NDE)
4.1 Near-Death Experience With OBE. Many near-death experiences include an out-of-body experiences (OBE) in which someone may report floating out of his body and observing it from above. A scientific survey of a group of hospital patients found that 10% of patients with cardiac arrest had a near-death experience (NDE), with 19 of these 27 patients who reported an NDE reporting an out-of-body experience (OBE). A different study found that "Of the 30 interviewable survivors of cardiac arrest, 7 (23 percent) described experiences classified as NDEs by scoring 7 or more points on the NDE Scale." Of these reporting a near-death experience in this study (11), 90% reported out-of-body experiences. A Dutch study found 18% of cardiac arrest survivors reporting a near-death experience, but with only a minority of these reporting an out-of-body experience.
4.2 Near-Death Experience Without OBE. Many other near-death experiences do not include any element of the observer seeming to be out of his body.
4.3 Shared-Death Experience. Dr. Raymond Moody Jr. has coined the term "shared-death experience" to refer to a near-death experience in which more than one observer reports anomalous or mystical events. His book on this topic can be read here. A vivid eyewitness account of such an experience can be found on pages 56-61 of the master's thesis here.
4.4 Terminal Lucidity. Terminal lucidity occurs when someone who had long suffered from dementia suddenly seems to return to a normal, lucid state of mind just before dying. An example can be read on this page and the next page. On page 410 of the book Irreducible Mind we read this:
"Myers (1892b) had referred to the 'sudden revivals of memory or faculty in dying persons' (p.316)...The eminent physician Benjamin Rush...observed that 'most of mad people discover a greater or less degree of reason in the last days or hours of their lives' (p. 257). Similarly, in his classic study of hallucinations, Brierre de Boismont (1859) noted that 'at the approach of death we observed that ... the intellect, which may have been obscured or extinguished during many years, is again restored in all its integrity' (p. 236). Flournoy (1903, p. 48) mentioned that French psychiatrists had recently published cases of mentally ill persons who showed sudden improvements in their condition shortly before death. In more recent years, Osis (1961) reported two cases, 'one of severe schizophrenia and one of senility, [in which] the patients regained normal mentality shortly before death' (p. 24)."
Class 5 Apparition Experiences and ADC (After-Death Communication)
5.1 Wraith Sighting. A wraith is defined as "a ghost or ghostlike image of someone, especially one seen shortly before or after their death." Examples can be found here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here. In a large fraction of these cases, the person reporting the apparition did not even know that the person corresponding to the apparition was very sick or near death.
5.2 Apparition of Person Who Died Long Ago. An example is given here, and other examples are given in my posts here and here.
5.3 Shared Apparition Sighting. Some examples when an apparition was seen by multiple people can be found here, here, here, here, here, here and here.
5.3 Deathbed Apparitions and Visions. Some examples can be found here and here and here. A survey of family members of deceased Japanese found that 21% reported deathbed visions. A study of 103 subjects in India reports this: "Thirty of these dying persons displayed behavior consistent with deathbed visions-interacting or speaking with deceased relatives, mostly their dead parents." A study of 102 families in the Republic of Moldava found that "37 cases demonstrated classic features of deathbed visions--reports of seeing dead relatives or friends communicating to the dying person."
A 1949 book states this:
"It is a commonplace truth, observed by many physicians and clergymen, that a dying person, when conscious near the moment of death, acts or speaks as if he saw standing near loved ones who have already died. Dr. Russell Conwell told Bruce Barton in the interview quoted earlier in another connection, that he had witnessed this phenomenon 'literally hundreds of times.' "
5.3.1 Veridical Deathbed Apparitions and Visions. Also called "Peak in Darien" deathbed visions, these are cases in which some dying person (or someone on his deathbed) sees an apparition or vision of someone he should not have known was dead, who later is found (by someone else) to have been dead at the time of this vision or apparition. Some cases of the type are discussed in my post "They Seemed to Know of Deaths They Should Not Have Known Of." A very interesting case of this type is described by Elizabeth Kubler-Ross on the page here.
5.3.2 Luminous Anomalies Occurring at the Time of Death. For some examples, read my post here. An example is found on page 48 of the document here, where we read a physician describe seeing this when a patient died:
"The head of the body became suddenly enveloped in a fine, soft, mellow, luminous atmosphere. . . . The brain began to attract the elements of electricity, of magnetism, of motion, of life and of sensation into its various and numerous departments. The head became intensely brilliant; and I particularly remarked that just in the same proportion as the extremities of the organism grew dark and cold, the brain appeared light and glowing.”
5.4 Miscellaneous Spontaneous Manifestations Attributed to Deceased. Examples can be found here and here.
5.5 Apparitions of the Living. Some examples of people who claimed to see apparitions of other living people can be found here.
5.6 Angelic Apparitions. A book called Seeing Angels (which can be read here) tells us that "hundreds of British people claim to have experienced visions of angels."
5.7 Marian Apparitions or Saint Apparitions. Literature of the Catholic Church contains accounts of people reporting sightings that they or others identified as visions of the Virgin Mary or some saint, including events at Lourdes, Fatima (see here), and the Zeitoun area of Cairo, Egypt (see here for a description of the latter).
5.8 Aiding Apparitions. Very rarely an apparition may appear to offer assistance to the living.
5.9 Mysterious Orbs Seen With the Unaided Eye. Not counting mysterious orbs showing up in photos, there are many cases of mysterious orbs seen by eyes only. 35+ examples can be read by using the link here and continuing to press Older Posts at the bottom right of the page. Looking up "ball lightning" will give additional cases.
5.10 Apparitions of the Self. A very rare phenomenon involves seeming to see an apparition of yourself. Such a thing was reported by the German writer Goethe, and is reported in the February 1905 Annals of Psychical Science, page 136, in which a man on a platform about to make a speech is surprised to see an apparition of himself, who makes the speech for him.
5.11 "Haunted House" Apparitions and Auditory Phenomena. Examples of such phenomena are discussed in the article beginning on page 309 of the document here.
5.12 Premonitory Apparitions. On page 16 of the document here, we read this: "A similar case is the one of the Lady in White, who is said to appear in the royal castle of Stockholm whenever a death at the Court is about to take place." We then read an account of such a sighting. On page 27 of the document here, we read an article describing quite a few premonitory apparitions reported as being warnings of a death soon to come, with the apparitions often having an animal form.
Class 6 Cryptozoology Experiences
6.1 Bigfoot and Yeti Sightings. It is very easy to find accounts of witnesses seeing mysterious hairy creatures, particularly in dense forests.
6.2 Monster Sightings. The most famous are reports of seeing the Loch Ness Monster in Scotland.
6.3 Miscellaneous Creature Sightings. Other examples of cryptozoology experiences can be found here.
Class 7 UFO Experiences
7.1 Visual Sightings of UFOs. The literature on visual sightings of unidentified flying objects (UFOS), also called UAPs (unidentified aeriel phenomena) is extremely large. One place to go for information is the MUFON site here.
7.2 UFO "Close Encounters." The UFO literature includes some famous "close encounter" cases such as the famous Betty and Barney Hill case.
7.3 Reported "Alien Abductions." Some books on this topic can be read here.
7.4 Earth-lights, Spook-lights or Ghost-lights. These terms have been used for various types of anomalous lights that may be associated with a particular location. An example can be found in the Marfa Lights associated with Marfa, Texas. An author of the book on the topic says that after eight years of investigation, he is convinced that some of these lights are mysterious lights that cannot be explained by simple explanations such as distant headlights.
Class 8 Anomalous Photographic Experiences
8.1 "Spirit" Photography. The term "spirit photography" refers to photos of humans seeming to show some mysterious or identified figure not physically present when the photos was taken. Arthur Conan Doyle's book on this topic can be read here.
8.2 UFO Photography. The literature on UFO photography is very extensive. A recent interesting development was the US government's release of military photography of aerial phenomena it could not identify, such as the "GoFast" UFO, the "Tic Tac" UFO, and the "Gimball" UFO, which can be seen here.
8.3 Ghost Photography. This includes photos showing mysterious unidentified figures which may have a vaporous, shadowy or luminous appearance. An example is the famous photo described as the "Ghost of Raynham Hall," appearing in the December 26, 1936 edition of the British magazine "Country Life."
8.4 Orb Photography
8.4.1 Photography of Mysterious Colored Orbs. Use the links here, here, here, here, here and here to see thousands of photos I took showing mysterious orbs with colors of blue, green, pink, orange, yellow and purple (keep pressing the Older Posts link at the bottom right of the page to see the entire series). All the photos were taken in clean dry air.
8.4.2 Photography of Mysterious "Speeding" Orbs. To see 770 photos I took of mysterious orbs that appeared to be speeding, use the link here and keep pressing the Older Posts link at the bottom right of the page. A subset with a "string of pearls" appearance can be seen here.
8.4.3 Photography of Mysterious Striped Orbs. 800+ photos I took of mysterious striped orbs can be seen here.
8.4.4 Photography of Mysterious Orb Pattern Repetitions. The page here shows some dramatic examples taken in clean dry air. Even more dramatic orb pattern repetitions can be seen in the long book that can be read online here.
8.5 Thoughtography. What is called thoughtography is a claimed ability to produce photographs directly on photographic film, without the use of any camera. The book Clairvoyance and Thoughtography by Tomokichi Fukurai (which can be read here) offers some interesting photos in this vein. Page 18 of the document here is an article with some very interesting examples. The World of Ted Serios (which can be read here) is one of the main works on this topic.
Class 9 Psychokinesis, Apports and Poltergeist Activity
9.1 Intentional Psychokinesis. The most famous examples include accounts of spoon-bending by Uri Geller and mind-over-matter by Ninel Sergeyevna Kulagina, who was sometimes referred to under the pseudonym of Nelya Mikhailova, and also referred to as Nina Kulagina. Her case is discussed here.
9.2 One-Event Psychokinesis or "Poltergiest" Activity. An example may be when I captured on video my camera taking 300 photos by itself, in 13 separate bursts. You can watch the video here.
9.3 Recurrent Mysterious "Poltergeist" Activity. Some cases are discussed here, and a case is discussed on page 260 of the document here.
9.4 Apports. Apports include objects that seem to mysteriously appear out of nowhere. Examples can be found here and here and here. At the 10:00 mark and the 25:14 mark in the video here, mainly involving reports of radio messages from the deceased, we have witnesses describing finding objects that they interpreted as apports from the deceased.
Class 10 Anomalous Healing Activity
10.1 Unexplained Disease Reversals. There are many cases of hard-to-explain disease reversals in the medical literature. Some can be found here and here.
10.2 Sudden Healing Events. Some examples can be read here.
10.3 Psychic Healing or Psychic Diagnosis. The case of Edgar Cayce (who seemed to make innumerable good diagnoses while entranced) is a very remarkable one in this category.
10.4 Faith Healing. Events at Lourdes, France are an example. Other examples are described on pages 132 to 139 of the book Irreducible Mind, which on page 136 gives an example of how mainstream authorities have acted to suppress evidence of faith healing.
Class 11 Mediumistic Events
11.1 Medium Readings Showing Hard-to-Explain Knowledge of the Deceased. See here and here for examples.
11.2 Levitations. Examples are discussed here and here and here and here. In Chapter 2 of his book Miracles: A Parascientific Inquiry Into Wondrous Phenomena (which can be read here), D. Scott Rogo describes at length earlier reports of levitations occurring with saints such as St. Theresa of Avila or St. Joseph of Copertino (1603-1663). Many people reported seeing such events.
11.3 Materialization
11.31 Partial Body Materializations. One of the best examples of evidence for such materialization is the book "Materialisations-Experimente mit M. Franek-Kluski" by Gustave Geley and Albert von Schrenck-Notzing M.D. The book is in German, but with the help of Google Translate it is fairly easy to get an English translation of any page.
11.32 Full-body Materializations. Some examples are given in the chapter here, and in the posts here, here, here and here.
11.4 "Spirit Controls." A leading example is discussed here.
11.5 "Disembodied Voices." A long account reporting disembodied voices during seances can be read in The Voices by Vice-Admiral William Usborne Moore. Other such cases are described in my post here. The book The Psychic Riddle by Isaac Funk has a long section (pages 86 - 151) describing such voices occurring at seances of the medium Emily S. French.
11.6 Automatic Writing. Automatic writing is when someone (often in a trance-like state) holding a pen produces text that he or she says was not consciously produced. The case of Leonora Piper (who produced much of her output in such a way) is a prominent example discussed here.
11.7 Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP). EVP involves mysterious voices arising in audio recordings. One of the principal works on this topic can read here.
11.8 Instrumental Trans-Communication. Instrumental Trans-Communication involves reports of getting electronic messages from deceased people, mainly radio messages. An Italian researcher (Marcello Bacci) reported successes in such attempts for many years. See the links here and here and here for some of these reports.
11.9 Ouija Board Activity. The most interesting case is that of Patience Worth/Pearl Curran, discussed in the books here and here. Another interesting case is discussed on pages 313 and 314 of the document here. An ouija board message of "pray for the soul of Hugh Lane" was apparently received by persons who soon learned that on the same night Hugh Lane had died in the famous sinking of the Luisitania.
11.10 Raps and Other Inexplicable Sounds. Reports of mysterious raps were extremely abundant in the second half of the nineteenth century. For a contemporaneous history including many such accounts, you can read the book here. In his Researches Into the Phenomena of Modern Spiritualism, the leading scientist Sir William Crookes stated the following about anomalous sounds he heard when testing mediums such as Daniel Dunglas Home:
"The popular name of 'raps' conveys a very erroneous impression of this class of phenomena. At different times, during my experiments, I have heard delicate ticks, as with the point of a pin ; a cascade of sharp sounds, as from an induction coil in full work ; detonations in the air ; sharp metallic taps ; a cracking like that heard when a frictional machine is at work ; sounds like scratching ; the twittering of a bird, etc. These sounds are noticed with almost every medium, each having a special peculiarity ; they are more varied with Mr. Home, but for power and certainty I have met with no one who at all approached Miss Kate Fox. For several months I enjoyed almost unlimited opportunity of testing the various phenomena occurring in the presence of this lady, and I especially examined the phenomena of these sounds. With mediums, generally it is necessary to sit for a formal seance before anything is heard; but in the case of Miss Fox it seems only necessary for her to place her hand on any substance for loud thuds to be heard in it, like a triple pulsation, sometimes loud enough to be heard several rooms off. In this manner I have heard them in a living tree — on a sheet of glass — on a stretched iron wire — on a stretched membrane — a tambourine — on the roof of a cab — and on the floor of a theater . Moreover, actual contact is not always necessary ; I have had these sounds proceeding from the floor, walls, etc., when the medium's hands and feet were held — when she was standing on a chair — when she was enclosed in a wire cage — and when she had fallen fainting on a sofa. I have heard them on a glass harmonicon — I have felt them on my own shoulder and under my own hands. I have heard them on a sheet of paper, held between the fingers by a piece of thread passed through one comer. With a full knowledge of the numerous theories which have been started, chiefly in America, to explain these sounds, I have tested them in every way that I could devise, until there has been no escape from the conviction that they were true objective occurrences not produced by trickery or mechanical means."
For many accounts of mysterious raps, use the link here, and read all of the posts in the resulting series, continuing to press the Older Posts link at the bottom right. The series of blog posts includes many accounts of mysterious raps including a discussion of the earliest reports of this phenomenon.
11.11 "Spirit Lights." Reports of inexplicable lights during seances are extremely abundant. The following report of such lights was made by the eminent scientist Sir William Crookes:
"These, being rather faint, generally require the room to be darkened. I need scarcely remind my readers again that, under these circumstances, I have taken proper precautions to avoid being imposed upon by phosphorised oil, or other means. Moreover, many of these lights are such as I have tried to imitate artiftcially, but cannot.
Under the strictest test conditions, I have seen a solid self-luminous body, the size and nearly the shape of a turkey's egg, float noiselessly about the room, at one time higher than any one present couid reach standing on tiptoe, and then gently descend to the floor. It was visible for more than ten minutes, and before it faded away it struck the table three times with a sound like that of a hard, solid body. During this time the medium was lying back, apparently insensible in an easy chair.
I have seen luminous points of light darting about and settling on the heads of different persons ; I have had questions answered by the flashing of a bright light a desired number of times in front of my face. I have seen sparks of light rising from the table to the ceiling, and again falling upon the table, striking it with an audible sound. I have had an alphabetic communication given by - luminous flashes occurring before me in tlie air, whilst my hand was moving about amongst them. I have seen a luminous cloud floating upwards to a picture. Under the strictest test conditions, I have more than once had a solid, self-luminous, crystalline body placed in my hand by a hand which did not belong to any person in the room. In i/w /ig/it 1 have seen a luminous cloud hover over a helio- trope on a side table, break a sprig off, and carry the sprig to a lady ; and on some occasions I have seen a similar luminous cloud visibly condense to the form of a hand and carry small objects about."
11.12 Table Tipping. Also called "table turning," this phenomenon (discussed here) was well-documented by nineteenth century writers, in works such as this one (and the William Stainton Moses article mentioned below).
11.13 Mediumistic Precognition. A case is discussed on this page and the preceding pages.
11.14 Inexplicable Musical Phenomena. As discussed here, Sir William Crookes very carefully documented a phenomenon he described as "the playing of tunes upon musical instruments (generally an accordion, for purposes of portability) without direct human intervention, under conditions rendering contact or connection with the keys impossible." This was witnessed long before any technology allowed the possibility of such a thing. The long article "A Defence of William Stainton Moses" in pages 75-130 of the February 1905 Annals of Psychical Science contains many examples of inexplicable musical phenomena occurring at seances, particularly beginning on page 94. Referring to a time when all musical reproduction equipment was extremely bulky and impossible to conceal, we read this about Moses (who died in 1892):
"The principal controls accustomed to manifest through Mr. Moses were in the habit of announcing their presence by means of a given musical sound, which was always the same for each of them, and served to identify them. These sounds generally imitated those of the best known musical instruments, such as the violoncello, the mandoline, the harp, the lyre, the timbrel, the double-bass, the drum, the trumpet, the trombone, the pianoforte. It will at once be understood that these instruments were not all in the seance-room. It may also be pointed out how impossible it is to imitate by fraudulent means the special sound of each of these very dissimilar instruments ; all the more when we consider that the spirit-sounds sometimes rose to such a pitch of intensity as to far surpass those emitted by the corresponding instruments. Now, to accomplish this would involve at least the possession of various material instruments, and thus it is impossible to suppose that Mr. Moses could have secretly introduced into the room, and again removed, apparatus of this kind, much less have hidden it on his own person, from which it follows that the sounds described could have no other origin than that of mediumship."
11.15 Anomalous Smells. On page 270 of Volume 9 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (1893), we read about an anomalous odor phenomenon occurring at seances:
"When we first observed this manifestation, it was attended by a great peculiarity. The odour was circumscribed in space, confined to a belt or band, beyond which it did not penetrate. It surrounded the circle to the extent of a few feet, and outside of that belt was not perceptible ; or it was drawn across the room as a cordon, so that it was possible to walk into it and out of it again—the presence and absence of the odour and the temperature of the air which accompanied it being most marked. Judge Edmunds [in his book on Spiritualism] especially notes the presence of an odour which was not diffused through the room. He describes the sensation as being like a flower presented to the nostrils at intervals. I should rather describe what I observed as a scented zone or belt, perfectly defined and not more than a few feet in breadth. Within it the temperature was cool and the scent strong, outside of it the air was decidedly warmer, and no trace of perfume was perceptible. It was no question of fancy. The scent was too strong for that. And the edges of the belt were quite clearly marked, so that it was possible, instantaneously, to pass from the warm air of the room to the cool perfumed air of this zone. I do not remember ever hearing of a precisely similar case to this, which occurred repeatedly."
11.16 Temporary Body Distortions. Around page 125 of the July 1889 Journal of the Society for Psychical Research (Volume 4, Number 62), a witness describes paranormal elongations of the body of the medium Daniel Dunglas Home. We read this:
"I watched, and saw his whole body elongated as much as nine inches or a foot....He again was elongated, and I could feel his flesh stretch and again shrink. It was most extraordinary to see him gradually lengthen."
11.17 Sense of Presence Corresponding to a Deceased Person. A person not seeing any apparition of a dead person may report feeling a strong sense that the person is there with him. Erlendur Haraldsson did a survey in which 100 people (out of about 900 polled) were interviewed about psychic experiences. 16 of the people claimed to have a contact with a deceased person consisting only of a sense of presence. One respondent describes it like this:
"I was running into the bedroom to look at my baby when I suddenly felt my deceased mother-in-law standing behind me. It was so clear that I thought it was my (living) mother, but no one was there. Somehow I felt this in a very convincing way."
11.18 Sense of an Unseen Unidentified Presence. In Chapter 4 of Patricia Pearson's very interesting book Opening Heaven's Door: What the Dying Tell Us About Where They're Going, we read about quite a few people having a sense of an invisible presence near them, one they could not identify. In his interesting book The Third Man Factor,. John Geiger compiled quite a few cases of people in great danger who felt an extraordinary feeling that an unseen person was present, a person urging them to make the extraordinary effort needed to survive.
Class 12 Seemingly Supernatural Events
12.1 Public "Miracles." Events reported as public miracles include the events in Fatima, Portugal in 1917.
12.2 "Angelic Appearances." Chapter 9 of the book here has some World War I accounts claiming angelic appearances, including the "Angels of Mons" incident. Reports of deathbed appearances of angels are discussed in Chapter 10 of the book.
12.3 "Spirit Announcements"
12.4 Warnings From Mysterious Voices. An example can be found here..
12.5 Inexplicable Sounds or Voices. An example of a mysterious voice announcing a death that occurred on the same day can be found here. An equally spooky event involving a voice is described here and here and here.
12,6 Inexplicable Object Movements or Displacements. Examples are given here and here.
12.7 Inexplicable Device Activity. A video example of such activity (an untouched camera taking 300+ photos in 13 separate bursts) can be seen here. Also in this category we can put reports of mysterious behavior by lights and electronic devices. Some examples can be found here and here and here and here and here.
12.8 Reported Teleportations. An Italian newspaper's reports of claimed teleportations of two small boys is quoted on page 17 of the document here. An account of human teleportation appeared in the December 5, 1873 edition of the publication Medium and Daybreak, which you can read using the link here. The account of the teleportation of Mrs. Elizabeth Guppy (to the ire of materialists) has the hallmarks of first-class observational evidence. The original source of such claims is the June 15, 1871 edition of The Spiritualist, a weekly newspaper. On page 170, we have a report by numerous witnesses claiming to have seen this case of human teleportation. The scientific paper here reports witnesses claiming a teleportation of inanimate objects.
12.9 Transfigurations. On page 159 of a 19th century book, we have an account in which it is claimed that a young girl "hundreds of times" took on the appearance of her brother who had died years before. A doctor supposedly weighed the girl, and found that during these transfigurations her weight was almost doubled. In other accounts of transfigurations, it may be reported that some person's face becomes inexplicably illuminated. In the Sept 17, 1875 edition of The Spiritualist, page 142, we have an account by A. Joy claiming that a medium named Mrs. Crocker in Chicago underwent transfigurations in which "her face entirely changed its form, size and character," to match those of certain deceased figures, such as a man with a beard. In a book on hypnotism, Professor William Gregory seems to describe a kind of transfiguration that may occur under deep hypnosis. Using the term "mesmeric sleep" for a hypnotic state, he states this: "In the highest stages of the mesmeric sleep, the countenance often acquires the most lovely expressions, surpassing all that the greatest artists have given to the Virgin Mary, or to Angels, and which may fitly be called heavenly, for it involuntarily suggests to our minds the moral and intellectual beauty which alone seems consistent with our views of heaven." It seems that certain mediums call themselves "transfiguration mediums," and claim to produce a phenomenon in which their faces transform to resemble the faces of departed persons, possibly with the help of ectoplasm. You can find some examples by following the links after using this search query, which searches for the word "transfiguration" in the archives of the Psychic News periodical.
12.10 Rainfall Selectivity. This is the phenomenon of raindrops seeming to fall in a very non-random way at one particular location, as if the raindrops had some preferred target area. Were you to see raindrops falling heavily on the left half of your open swimming pool, but much less frequently on the right half of that swimming pool, that would be an example of rainfall selectivity. An example of this phenomenon (very well documented with photographs) can be found in my post "When Raindrops Fall Non-Randomly: A Marvel of 'Rainfall Selectivity.' "
12.11 Bilocation. Chapter 4 of D. Scott Rogo's book Miracles: A Parascientific Inquiry into Wondrous Phenomena discusses reported cases of bilocation, in which someone seemed to be in two different places simultaneously. The phenomenon may be related to astral projection (mentioned above). A book states this:
"Many Christian saints and monks were famous for bilocation, such as St. Anthony of Padua, St. Ambrose of Milan, St. Severus of Ravenna, and Padre Pio of Italy. In 1774 St. Alphonsus Maria de’Ligouri was seen at the bedside of the dying Pope Clement XIV, when in fact the saint was confined to his cell in a location four days’ journey away."
12.12 Mysterious Images Arising on Walls or Floor. An impressive example of this type is documented on page 214 of the October, 1923 edition of Psychic Science, which can be read here. We see an image of Dean Liddell that appeared on a church wall very gradually years after he died, just above a plaque relating to Dean Liddell. The image bears a striking resemblance to the appearance of Dean Liddell, which you can see here.
Class 13 Possession and Similar Phenomena
13.1 Long-term "Body Borrowing." Some very interesting examples are discussed here.
13.2 Temporary "Possession." This is when someone claims to be possessed by the spirt of another person, often a dead person. An example of such a claim can be found in the "Tsunami Spirits" episode of the new version of the Unsolved Mysteries series available on Netflix. Around 35:30 a woman says, "More and more victims of the tsunami started to enter my body."
Class 14 "Past-Life" Recollections
14.1 Childhood "Past-Life" Recollections. One of the main works discussing such cases can be read here.
14.1.1 Childhood "Past-Life" Recollections With Birthmarks. A child may report a past life, and may have a birthmark matching the death wounds of the person he claims to have been. Ian Stevenson's Reincarnation and Biology (which can be read here) is the main work documenting such cases.
14.2 Recollections Suggesting the Non-Earthly Pre-Existence of the Soul. Some young children claim to remember a non-earthly existence before they were born. An example of such accounts can be found in the scientific paper "Paranormal Aspects of Pre-Existence Memories in Young Children" which can be read here or here. One PhD using hypnosis on adults has claimed to have found evidence for the non-earthly pre-existence of the soul. For more information, see the book Journey of Souls: Case Studies of Life Between Lives by Michael Newton PhD (which can be read on www.archive.org using this link).
Class 15 Visionary Experiences
15.1 Premonitory Visions. An example of an accurate premonitory vision is described here. The article "Premonitory Visions Fulfilled" on page 308 of the document here discusses some remarkable cases of premonitory visions that seemed to come true. On page 45 of the document here, we read this account:
"Some years ago, when I was staying in Colorado Springs, Colorado, U.S.A., I saw, four weeks before it actually occurred, the great fire which destroyed the town of Cripple Creek, and I described it all to some friends with whom I was having tea....I saw suddenly a number of houses on fire and the flames rapidly spreading from street to street, making a tremendous conflagration. The place I recognized as Cripple Creek, a rising mining city amongst the mountains several thousand feet higher up (altitude 10,600 feet), where I had been staying a few weeks previously, when prospecting for gold. I described the progress of the fire to my friends, and how it destroyed nearly the whole city, and where it first commenced, and the principal buildings it consumed. It was about a month after this vision that the fire occurred, exactly as I had foreseen and described it....Another instance of my foreseeing a great fire was when I was in Prescott, Arizona, U.S.A., eight years ago. I told the vision to friends at the moment of seeing it, and they asked me many questions concerning the disaster, which I answered (as it proved two weeks later) quite correctly. This time I saw the town of Prescott almost entirely destroyed by fire...Three weeks later, after my return to England, I received a letter from my friend, the Rev. Frederick Bennet (St. Luke’s Rectory, Prescott), telling me that the greater part of the town had been destroyed by fire, and there had been most exciting scenes."
15.2 Mediumistic or ADC-type Visions. A spontaneous example not involving a medium may be found here.
Class 16 Dream Phenomena
16.1 Premonitory Dreams. Examples of dreams that seemed to foretell a death are discussed here, here, here and here. Premonitory dreams or visions are discussed here and here and here. A theory of warning dreams in the last year of life is discussed here.
16.2 Visitation Dreams. What are called visitation dreams are dreams (seemingly unusually vivid) in which you may see a deceased love one.
16.3 Dream Telepathy. See here for some anecdotal examples.
16.4 Lucid Dreaming. There is a large literature on how to have dreams in which you are aware that you are dreaming. In such dreams a dreamer may have some ability to dream as he wants to dream
16.5 Death Notification Dreams. There are many people who seemed to have a vivid dream that served to announce someone's death. Examples can be found here and here and here and here.
16.6 "Notification From the Dead" Dreams. An example can be found here, one in which a father gives a complex notification in a dream of a financial matter.
16.7 Clairvoyant Dreams. Examples can be found here and here.
16.8 Dream Series Repeating Themes of Death and Life After Death. See here for my very long and fascinating account of having more than 200 dreams (over a period of more than 18 months) that seemed to symbolize life after death, along with 300+ dreams about deceased people.
16.9 Pre-Birth Dreams and Visions. Some claim to have dreams or visions involving children yet to be born, as discussed here. Dreams of this type are sometimes called "announcement dreams."
Class 17 Premonitions While Awake
17.1 Premonitory ESP. Two examples may be found on this page and the next. Another example can be found on page 254 of the document here.
17.2 Premonitions of Danger. An example is here.
Class 18 Mystical or Semi-Mystical Experiences
18.1 "Cosmic Consciousness." The classic work on this topic is Richard Bucke's book, which can be read here.
Class 19 Linguistic Anomalies18.2 Christian Mystical Experiences. In some Protestant churches, mysticism is prominent, related to "born-again experiences." The Catholic Church has had notable mystics such as St. Teresa who Bernini depicted in his sculptural masterpiece "The Ecstasy of St. Teresa."
18.3 Buddhist Mystical Experiences. A scholar of Buddhism will find many reports of extraordinary mystical experiences within this very old and diverse religion which takes very many different forms.
18.4 Muslim Mystical Experiences. Mysticism plays a large role for some Muslims called Sufis.
18.5 Hindu Mystical Experiences. A scholar of Hinduism will find many reports of extraordinary mystical experiences within this very old and diverse religion which takes very many different forms. On pages 177-179 of the book Irreducible Mind we have accounts of Hindu yogis (practicioners of yoga) who seem to have shown incredible control over their breathing, heart rate or temperature, in a way suggesting the mind has greater control over the body than normally imagined.
19.1 Xenoglossy. Some cases of people seeming to speak in languages they never learned are discussed here and here.
Class 20 Skin and Sensation Anomalies
20.1 Mirror Touch Synesthesia. Mirror touch synsethesia is a rare effect by which people seem to feel tactile sensations of nearby people. The phenomenon is so well-documented that is not even disputed by some who claim to be skeptical of all paranormal phenomena.
20.2 Exteriorization of Sensibility. See here for some interesting accounts in which a person's sensitivity to touch seems to be outside his body.
20.3 Phantom Limb Pain. A search for "phantom limb pain" will find many matches in mainstream sources, including assertions that most amputees experience such pain (mysteriously arising as if the amputated limb still existed).
20.4 Stigmata and skin-writing. Stigmata is a phenomenon where certain religious people get mysterious bleeding wounds that may be reminiscent of the crucifixion wounds of Jesus. A superficial discussion of the phenomenon is here, in a magazine with a poor record of scholarly reporting on anomalous phenomena. Claims of extraordinary healings and other supernormal phenomena (as well as stigmata) occur in a discussion of Padre Pio here. Chapter 3 of D. Scott Rogo's book Miracles: A Parascientific Inquiry into Wondrous Phenomena has a long discussion of evidence for the phenomena. A possible explanation is one of non-miraculous (but still paranormal) mind over matter. The term "stigmata" is also sometimes used for any paranormal appearance of marks on the skin. A 19th century writer uses the term in reference to a report of words mysteriously appearing on the skin of the medium Foster. The writer then sates this: " Of this phenomenon of stigmata on the flesh, the instances are numerous and thoroughly authenticated. Ennemoser, Passavent, Schubert, and other eminent German physiologists, admit the fact as not only established as regards many of the so-called saints of the Catholic Church, but in undoubted modern instances, as in the case of the ecstaticas of the Tyrol, Catherine Emmerich, Maria Dorl, and Domenica Lazzari, all of whom exhibited the stigmata....We have witnessed repeatedly under circumstances where to doubt would have been to reject all rational proof as worthless." The article here discusses reports that Olga Kahl had a mind-over-matter ability to will letters to appear on her skin, an ability that can be called skin-writing.
20.5 Mysterious Scents. Witnesses sometimes report mysterious floral scents arising around the time of someone's death. Some examples are given on pages 128 to 134 of the book here. In other cases people report smelling a scent associated with a person, arising mysteriously after the person died. An example might be a perfume smell or a distinctive cigar smell.
20.6 Anomalous Insensitivity to Heat. Countries such as India have provided innumerable reports of bare-footed "fire walkers" able to walk over hot coats without being burnt. A famous similar case was reported by Sir William Crookes, who reported the ability of the medium Daniel Dunglas Home to pick up hot coals in his hands, without injury. On page 103 of the Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research (July 1889), Crookes gives this account:
"Mr. Home again went to the fire, and after stirring the hot coal about with his hand, took out a red-hot piece nearly as big as an orange, and putting it on his right hand, covered it over with his left hand so to almost completely enclose it, and then blew into the small furnace thus extemporised until the lump of charcoal was nearly white-hot, and then drew my attention to the lambent flame which was flickering over the coal and licking round his fingers; he fell on his knees, looked up in a reverent manner, held up the coal in front and said: 'Is not God good ? Are not His laws wonderful?' "
20.7 Anomalous Chills. A book states this:
"Another point of interest is the sensation of deadly chill, felt sometimes as a breeze and sometimes only inwardly. This phenomenon is by no means the invariable concomitant of the apparition but it IS noted often."
Sir William Crookes noted that some spooky movements of objects "are generally preceded by a peculiar cold air, sometimes amounting to a decided wind," and that on some occasions "the cold has been so intense that I could only compare it to that felt when the hand had been within a few inches of frozen mercury." Page 188 of the October 1923 edition of Psychic Science (which can be read here) documents inexplicable large temperature drops occurring during the seances of a medium (Stella C.), including a drop of 20 degrees during a seance of April 12.
20.8 Synesthesia. Synesthesia refers to anomalous sensory experiences that involve a kind of merging or blending of separate senses. For example, someone may report seeing particular colors when he hears a particular word. Other interesting examples may be found in Chapter 5 of the book "Varieties of Anomalous Experience," which can be read here.
Class 21 Tool-Assisted or Object-Assissted Psychic Abilities
21.1 Dowsing. Read here about how a physicist got good evidence for the reality of this phenomenon, in which a person may mysteriously may be able to find underground bodies of water using a mere wooden branch.
21.2 Crystal Gazing. Certain people claim visions when looking into crystals or crystal balls. On page 195 of the document here, you can read about a woman who is described as being neither intellectual or spiritual in a normal state, but who (apparently under hypnosis) could enter into a supernormal state in which she could use crystals or crystal balls to help her make psychic pronouncements of stunning accuracy. We read this:
"In tracing past events with the aid of the crystal, she has never made a mistake or a false statement. Once or twice she has met people whose past she could not see at all, but she has never had a false vision of the past. Of the future events that she has foretold, the few that have had time to come to pass have proved the truth of her vision, though the possibility of one or two of them happening was denied repeatedly by the persons interested up to the day before they did happen."
21.3 Psychometry. A writer defines psychometry as "a psychic power possessed by certain individuals which aiables them to divine the history of, or events connected with, a material object with which they come in dose contact." In the chapter beginning here, the writer discusses some astonishing accounts of such an ability. A long work on psychometry was written by Joseph R. Buchanan MD, and can be read here.
21.4 Slate Writing. Slate writing is the appearance of apparently inexplicable writing on slates. The physics professor Zollner presented evidence for the phenomenon (and other paranormal phenomena) in his work Transcendental Physics which can be read here.
Class 22 Synchronicity Phenomena
22.1 Clocks Stopping at the Time of Someone's Death. An example of such a thing is reported here, by a witness claiming that when a family member died at 9:30 pm, all clocks stopped at 9:30 pm on the day of the death, and also at 9:30 pm on the next day.
22.2 Unaccountable Sensations at the Time of Someone's Death. An example can be found on page 245 of the document here, where we hear of a wife who said, "I felt all at once as if somebody had taken a bucket of cold water and thrown it over me, or as if a great wave had struck me, and I was drenched from head to foot," with this sensation occurring at the same her husband drowned far away. On pages 176 to 182 of the very interesting book A Glimpse of Heaven by Carla Wills-Brandon, we are given two accounts of young healthy people experiencing sudden sickly sensations at the same time a relative far away died. In one the famous actor Jack Lemmon recalls how a young friend of his suddenly was struck by nausea and dread while playing tennis with Jack. He later found out that his mother had died at the same time, 2000 miles away.
22.3 Unaccountable Sounds at the Time of Someone's Death. At page 126 of the document here, we read the following: "At the time at which my old nurse died, to whom I was much attached, I was sitting at 9.30 in the morning after breakfast within a yard of a glass door, on which a crashing bang was suddenly struck, there being no one present in the flat at the time except myself and nothing normal which could possibly have caused it."
22.4 Unaccountable Fallings at the Time of Someone's Death. At page 126 of the document here, we read the following: "Other forms of death-warnings, such as the stopping of clocks, the falling of pictures, loud and unaccountable knockings and the apparent dropping of heavy weights the material counterparts of which do not exist, are common enough, but I do not know that any of these warnings are peculiar to specific families." Within an hour of learning of a sister's death, I witnessed an inexplicable kind of "leaf shower" in which leaves at a park fell in great abundance, even though there was no strong wind, and it was not even yet autumn when the leaves tend to fall.
Class 23 Anomalous Mental Influence on Living Systems
23.1 Anomalous Change in Mental States After a Person Silently Wished Such a Change. On page 230 of the book Irreducible Mind, we hear of an experiments in which one person attempted to produce mental changes such as excitation or calming in another unseen person located elsewhere. We are told on the next page that such experiments have been highly successful. We read, "In an overview of 19 studies conducted at three labs, Schlitz and Braud (1997) found an overall success rate of 37%, when 5% would be expected by chance (p = .0000007, effect size = .25)." In popular culture, millions believe that one person can cause another person to feel better simply by praying for such a person.
23.2 Anomalous Change in Physical States After a Person Silently Wished Such a Change. In popular culture, millions believe that one person can cause another person's health to improve simply by praying for such a person. On page 228 of the book Irreducible Mind, we are told that six out of 13 "distance healing" studies produced significant results. Doing a Google search for "power of prayer"+"scientific study" will give more information.
23.3 Anomalous Detection of Observation of the Self by an Unseen Observer. It has been reported that better-than-chance results have occurred in "sense of being stared at" tests, in which a person is asked to judge whether a person he cannot see is staring at him.
In my studies of the anomalous, I will surely learn about additional types of anomalous phenomena that should be added to this list. I will be updating this post, and I will attempt to add only new items, rather than changing any numbers I originally used.
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