Theresa Cheung - The Element Encyclopedia of the Psychic World - The Ultimate A–Z of Spirits, Mysteries and the Paranormal

An ancient method of divinationbelieved to have originated in Babylon but also used by the Druids. In capnomancy, people interpreted the movements of smoke rising from a fire, especially from sacrificial offerings. If the smoke rose straight to the clouds it was a good sign, but if the smoke hung about and did not disperse it was an unfavourable sign.

A psiclinical testing procedure for ESPin which the test subject guesses the identity of cards randomly selected from a pack of playing cards. Typically the subject is blindfolded so that it is impossible to see the pack of cards.

Lewis Carroll (real name Charles Dodgson), best remembered as the author of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, was a celebrated poet, mathematician, logician, photographer and paranormalinvestigator. As one of the original members of the Society for Psychical Research, Carroll was interested in ghostly phenomenon. He was also fascinated by psiabilities such as telepathyand convinced that they would one day become accepted and valued by the scientific community. In a letter dated 4 December 1882, Carroll wrote on this subject to his friend James Langton Clark:

I have just read a small pamphlet, the first report of the Psychical Society on ‘thought reading’. The evidence, which seems to have been most carefully taken, excludes the possibility that unconscious guidance by pressure will account for all the phenomena. All seems to point to the existence of a natural force, allied to electricity and nerve-force, by which brain can act on brain. I think we are close on the day when this shall be classed among the known natural forces, and its laws tabulated, and when the scientific sceptics, who always shut their eyes till the last moment to any evidence that seems to point beyond materialism, will have to accept it as a proved fact in nature.

A form of divinationusing cards. The practice of cartomancy is ancient and is often associated with gypsies. It is used to predict the future and interpret the past and present.

Tarotcards are the most popular form of cartomancy, but a set of ordinary playing cards can be used in much the same way: they are in fact said to be derived from the Tarot, and indeed there is a great deal of similarity between them. Both have four suits: the swords of the Tarot are the clubs of an ordinary playing pack, the pentacles diamonds, the cups hearts and the wands spades.

If you have a reading with cards, you will be asked to shuffle the pack, cut it and think of a question as the cards are dealt out. Common methods of laying out the cards are the star formation, the wheel of fortune or the quick seven. Each card has a meaning and a significance, and having laid out the cards the reader will use intuition to answer the question. There is an overall pattern for each of the suits, typically interpreted as follows: a dominance of hearts shows happiness and strong relationships. Hearts can suggest sensitivity (both sorrow and joy) and also strong emotions and ambitions realized. Spades are the cards of obstacles and challenges and can show where you might need to be creative in your approach to life. Diamonds are more concerned with everyday matters, particularly finances and hard work. Clubs are the cards of loyal and trustworthy friends or people, but can also mean disappointment and betrayal depending on where they are placed.

A practice of divinationusing bowls of brass - a metal thought to protect against evil spirits- which were filled with water or ink and used as focal points in scryingor capturing glimpses of the future in scenes and images appearing in the bowl. The diviner would stare at the liquid without blinking until a trancelike state was entered and visions experienced. Said to have been the practice by which Nostradamuscame about his knowledge of the future.

A thin membrane of amniotic fluid that sometimes covers the head of a baby at birth. Since the time of the ancient Romans those born with a caul are considered to be blessed with good luck and supernaturalpowers, such as the ability to see into the future and to communicate with ghostsand spirits.

See also Amniomancy.

In English folklore the Cauld Lad of Hilton is a spiritwho is half brownieand half ghostand who is alleged to have haunted Hilton Castle in Northumbria. Hilton Castle is now in ruins.

According to legend the spirit was supposed to have been that of a stable boy killed by a past Lord of Hilton in a rage because the boy didn’t immediately obey his order to fetch a horse. The boy was killed with a hayfork and his body was tossed into the pond. The spirit, a young naked boy, was supposedly heard working about the kitchen at nights. Usually he would tidy up and do chores, but sometimes he would toss things about and disarrange whatever had been left tidy.

He was an unhappy spirit who could be heard singing sadly. The servants eventually banished the spirit one night by laying out a green cloak and hood for him. At midnight he put them on and frisked about ’til cock-crow singing,

Here’s a cloak and here’s a hood,

The Cauld Lad of Hilton will do nae mair good!

And with the coming of the dawn it is said he vanished forever.

A form of divinationthat involved placing objects on a fire. If the object burned slowly or failed to ignite, it was taken to be a bad omen. If the object ignited and burned quickly, it was considered a good omen .

A psychic reader and ESPresearcher who arguably did the most in the twentieth century to advance psychicknowledge. Born in rural Kentucky, Cayce was close to his grandfather, Thomas Jefferson Cayce, who was said to be psychic. One day tragedy struck; Cayce witnessed the horrific death of his grandfather in an accident with a horse. After this incident, and encouraged by his mother and grandmother, the young Cayce claimed to visit his grandfather’s spirit in the barns.

Cayce experienced other traumas in his youth. At 15 he was hit from behind by a baseball and began to feel dizzy. His father sent him to bed, and he entered into a hypnotic trance, telling his father exactly what needed to be done to make him better. His father followed these instructions, and Cayce recovered within a day. When he was in his early twenties he lost his voice. Helped by a travelling hypnotist, Cayce again entered into a trance. While in the trance he was once again able to diagnose a cure. He coughed up some blood, and his voice returned.

In 1901, Cayce started to give psychic readings to clients, and over the next 40 years he gave and recorded in writing over 12,000 readings on health, past lives, ancient mysteries and predictions of the future. These readings are still being studied today.

In 1933 Cayce and his supporters formed in Virginia Beach (where it still remains today) the Association for Research and Enlightenment for the purpose of studying, researching and providing information about ESP, as well as life after death, dreamsand holistichealth. Three other programmes or organizations were also established around Cayce’s work: a master’s degree in transpersonal studies at Atlantic University, Virginia Beach, was set up in 1930; the Edgar Cayce Foundation, also at Virginia Beach, was set up in 1948 to provide custodial ownership of the Cayce readings and documents; and a diploma in preventive health care based on Cayce’s readings was set up in 1986 at the Harold Reilly School of Massotherapy