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Applied Kinesiology (AK) is a practice of using manual muscle-strength testing for medical diagnosis and a subsequent determination of prescribed therapy. It purportedly gives feedback on the functional status of the body.
AK is a practice within the realm of alternative medicine and is therefore different from "kinesiology," which is the scientific study of human movement. AK has been criticized on theoretical and empirical grounds, and characterized as pseudoscience. With only anecdotal accounts providing positive evidence for the efficacy of the practice, a review of peer-reviewed studies concluded that the "evidence to date does not support the use of [AK] for the diagnosis of organic disease or pre/subclinical conditions."

This article is about the paranormal concept. For the electronica musical group, see Astral Projection (group).
Artist's illustration of an astral projection.
Artist's illustration of an astral projection.

Astral projection (or astral travel) is an esoteric interpretation of a type of out-of-body experience that assumes the existence of an "astral body" separate from the physical body and capable of traveling outside it. Astral projection is experienced as being "out of the body". Unlike dreaming or near death experiences, astral projection is practiced deliberately.

Astrology (from Greek ἄστρον, astron, "constellation, star"; and -λογία, -logia) is a group of systems, traditions, and beliefs in which knowledge of the apparent relative positions of celestial bodies and related details is held to be useful in understanding, interpreting, and organizing information about personality, human affairs, and other terrestrial matters. A practitioner of astrology is called an astrologer or an astrologist. Numerous traditions and applications employing astrological concepts have arisen since its earliest recorded beginnings in the 3rd millennium BC. It has played a role in the shaping of culture, early astronomy, and other disciplines throughout history.

In parapsychology and many forms of spirituality an aura is a field of subtle, luminous radiation surrounding a person or object like the halo or aureola of religious art.[1] The depiction of such an aura in religious art usually connotes a person of particular power or holiness.

According to the literature of movements (such as Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Archeosophy, etc.) each color of the aura has a precise meaning, indicating a precise emotional state. A complete description of the Aura and its colors was provided by Charles Leadbeater, a theosophist of the 19th century.[2] The works of Leadbeater were later developed by Palamidessi[3] and others.

Automatic writing is the process, or product, of writing material that does not come from the conscious thoughts of the writer. Practitioners say that the writer's hand forms the message, with the person being unaware of what will be written. In some cases, it is done by people in a trance state. Other times the writer is aware (not in a trance) of their surroundings but not of the actions of their writing hand.

non-physical mediumship is a form of channeling in which the channeler goes into a trance, or "leaves their body" and then becomes “possessed” by a specific spirit, who then talks through them. In the trance, the medium enters a cataleptic state marked by extreme rigidity. The control spirit then takes over, the voice may change completely and the spirit answers the questions of those in its presence or giving spiritual knowledge.

Clairvoyance (from 17th century French with clair meaning "clear" and voyance meaning "visibility") is the apparent ability to gain information about an object, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception. A person said to have the ability of clairvoyance is referred to as a clairvoyant ("one who sees clear").

In the field of parapsychology, clairsentience is a form of extra-sensory perception wherein a person acquires psychic knowledge primarily by means of feeling. The word is from the French clair, “clear,” + sentience, “feeling,” and is ultimately derived from the Latin clarus, “clear,” + sentiens, derived from sentire, “to feel”.
In addition to parapsychology, the term also plays a role in some religions. For example: clairsentience is one of the six human special functions mentioned or recorded in Buddhism. It is an ability that can be obtained at advanced meditation level. Generally the term refers to a person who can feel the vibration of other people. There are many different degrees of clairsentience ranging from the perception of diseases of other people to the thoughts or emotions of other people. The ability differs from third eye in that this kind of ability cannot have a vivid picture in the mind. Instead, a very vivid feeling can form.
Psychometry is related to clairsentience. The word stems from psyche and metric, which means "to measure with the mind".

Clairaudience (hearing/listening)

In the field of parapsychology, clairaudience [from late 17th century French clair (clear) & audience (hearing)] is a form of extra-sensory perception wherein a person acquires information by paranormal auditory means. It is often considered to be a form of clairvoyance.[20] Clairaudience is essentially the ability to hear in a paranormal manner, as opposed to paranormal seeing (clairvoyance) and feeling (clairsentience). Clairaudient people have psi-mediated hearing. Clairaudience may refer not to actual perception of sound, but may instead indicate impressions of the "inner mental ear" similar to the way many people think words without having auditory impressions. But it may also refer to actual perception of sounds such as voices, tones, or noises which are not apparent to other humans or to recording equipment. For instance, a clairaudient person might claim to hear the voices or thoughts of the spirits of persons who are deceased. Clairaudience may be positively distinguished from the voices heard by the mentally ill when it reveals information unavailable to the clairaudient person by normal means (including cold reading or other magic tricks), and thus may be termed "psychic" or paranormal

In the field of parapsychology, clairalience [presumably from late 17th century French clair (clear) & alience (smelling)] is a form of extra-sensory perception wherein a person acquires psychic knowledge primarily by means of smelling.

In the field of parapsychology, clairgustance is defined as a form of extra-sensory perception that allegedly allows one to taste a substance without putting anything in one's mouth. It is claimed that those who possess this ability are able to perceive the essence of a substance from the spiritual or ethereal realms through taste.

In the paranormal and some works of science fiction and fantasy, empathy is described as a paranormal or psychic ability to sense the emotions of others, as opposed to telepathy, which allows one to perceive thoughts as well. A person who has that ability is also called an empath or telempath in this context. Occasionally these empaths are also able to project their own emotions, or to affect the emotions of others. As a result, empath is a term coming into common usage to refer to a person with a feeling expanded sensitivity or clairsentience. This may also include Hypersensitive personalities.

Extrasensory perception (ESP) is the apparent ability to acquire information by paranormal means independent of any known physical senses or deduction from previous experience. The term was coined by Duke University researcher J. B. Rhine to denote psychic abilities such as telepathy,the sensing of thoughts or feelings without help from the 5 known senses, precognition, the knowledge of future events, and clairvoyance, the awareness of people, objects or events without the help of the 5 known senses. ESP is also sometimes casually referred to as a sixth sense, gut instinct, a hunch, a weird vibe or an intuition. The term implies sources of information currently unexplained by science. Popular belief in ESP is widespread, but skeptics are still not persuaded that there truly is a sixth sense because of the lack of reliable theories and information.

Defined broadly, faith healing is the attempt to use religious or spiritual means such as prayer to prevent illness, cure disease, or improve health. Those who attempt to heal by prayer, mental practices, spiritual insights, or other techniques say they can summon divine or supernatural intervention on behalf of the ill. According to the varied beliefs of those who practice it, faith healing may be said to afford gradual relief from pain or sickness or to bring about a sudden "miracle cure", and it may be used in place of, or in tandem with, conventional medical techniques for alleviating or curing diseases. Faith healing has been criticized on the grounds that those who use it may delay seeking potentially curative conventional medical care. This is particularly problematic when parents use faith healing techniques on children.

Levitation (from Latin levitas "lightness") is the process by which an object is suspended against gravity, in a stable position, without physical contact.
It is also a conjuring trick, apparently raising a human being (or other object) without any physical aid. The illusion can be produced by clever mechanics, lighting arrangements and other means.

Mediumship is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism, Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candomblé, Louisiana Voodoo, and Umbanda which is believed by its adherents to be a form of communication with spirits. While the Western movements of Spiritualism and Spiritism account for most Western media exposure, most traditional African and African diasporic traditions include mediumship as a central focus of religious practice.

A near-death experience (NDE) refers to a broad range of personal experiences associated with impending death, encompassing multiple possible sensations ranging from detachment from the body, feelings of levitation, extreme fear, total serenity, security, or warmth, the experience of absolute dissolution, and the presence of a light, which some people interpret as a deity or spiritual presence. Some cultures and individuals revere NDEs as a paranormal and spiritual glimpse into the afterlife.

Numerology is any of many systems, traditions or beliefs in a mystical or esoteric relationship between numbers and physical objects or living things.

Numerology and numerological divination were popular among early mathematicians, such as Pythagoras, but are no longer considered part of mathematics and are regarded as pseudomathematics by most modern scientists. This is similar to the historical development of astronomy out of astrology, and chemistry from alchemy.

Chiromancy or cheiromancy, (Greek cheir (χειρ), “hand”; manteia (μαντεία), “divination”), is the art of characterization and foretelling the future through the study of the palm, also known as palmistry, palm-reading, chirology or hand analysis. The practice is found all over the world, with numerous cultural variations. Those who practice chiromancy are generally called palmists, palm readers, hand readers, hand analysts, or chirologists.

Phrenology (from Greek: φρήν, phrēn, "mind"; and λόγος, logos, "knowledge") is a defunct field of study, once considered a science, by which the personality traits of a person were determined by "reading" bumps and fissures in the skull. Developed by German physician Franz Joseph Gall around 1800, the discipline was very popular in the 19th century. In 1843, François Magendie referred to phrenology as "a pseudo-science of the present day." Phrenological thinking was, however, influential in 19th-century psychiatry and modern neuroscience.

Precognition (from the Latin præ-, “prior to,” + cognitio, “a getting to know”) denotes a form of extrasensory perception where in a person is said to perceive information about places or events through paranormal means before they happen. A related term, presentiment, refers to information about future events which is said to be perceived as emotions. These terms are considered by some to be special cases of the more general term clairvoyance.

Prophecy, generally, describes the disclosing of information that is not known to the prophet by any ordinary means. In religion, this is thought to be a divinely inspired revelation or interpretation. Although the concept is found throughout the religions of the world, the term has found popular acceptance through the work and influence of the Hebrew prophets.

Psychic surgery is a procedure typically involving the apparent creation of an incision using only the bare hands, the apparent removal of pathological matter, and the seemingly spontaneous healing of the incision.
Psychic surgery has been condemned in many countries as a form of medical fraud.

The term psychokinesis (from the Greek ψυχή, "psyche", meaning mind, soul, heart, or breath; and κίνησις, "kinesis", meaning motion; literally "movement from the mind"),also known as telekinesis (Greek τῆλε + κίνησις, literally "distant-movement"), sometimes abbreviated PK and TK respectively, is a term coined by Henry Holt to refer to the direct influence of mind on a physical system that cannot be entirely accounted for by the mediation of any known physical energy. It has been called the most powerful of psychic powers, essentially the power of a god. Examples of psychokinesis could include distorting or moving an object, or influencing the output of a random number generator.
The study of phenomena said to be psychokinetic is an aspect of parapsychology. Some paranormal researchers believe that psychokinesis exists and deserves further study, pointing to experimental results such as those done using random number generators.
There is no scientific evidence that this phenomenon exists.

Psychometry (Greek: ψυχή, psukhē, "spirit, soul"; + μέτρον, metron, "measure") is a form of extra-sensory perception in which a psychic is said to be able to obtain information about an individual through paranormal means by making physical contact with an object that belongs to them. In recent years, the term has been superseded in favor of "token-object reading" so as to avoid potential confusion with the psychological term, "psychometry".

The term pyramid power was coined by Patrick Flanagan in 1973, to describe alleged supernatural properties of the ancient Egyptian pyramids and scale models thereof.

Pyramid power is one of the several alternative theories regarding pyramids, commonly referred to as pyramidology

Reality shift is a term used by proponents of anomalous phenomena to describe enigmatic changes in physical, spatial, or temporal reality. This may include unaccountable physical changes of reality perceived, the unexplained appearance or disappearance of objects of any size, spontaneous healing, added or missing time, and forms of synchronicity. Causes of these proposed anomalies are frequently disputed by both proponents and detractors.

The term is marginally used. There are very few published cases where a sudden reality change has been considered objectively real, and even those are considered to be controversial. In these cases, more popular terms would be anomalous phenomena or paranormal. In many cases, however, the experience is considered by skeptics to be a subjective hallucination stemming from a mental distortion of reality. The cause of these shifts are subject to debate and opposing theories are discussed below. Reality shift as a term, as opposed to anomaly, paranormal occurrence or hallucination, has not gained widespread acceptance.

In spirituality including religion, visions comprise inspirational renderings, generally of a future state and/or of a mythical being, and are believed (by followers of certain religions) to come from a deity, sometimes directly or indirectly via prophets, and serve to inspire or prod believers as part of a revelation or an epiphany. Many mystics take the word vision to be synonymous with apparition

Remote Viewing (RV) refers to the attempt to gather information about a distant or unseen target using paranormal means or extra-sensory perception. Typically a remote viewer is expected to give information about an object that is hidden from physical view and separated at some distance. The term was introduced by parapsychologists Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff in 1974

Telepathy (Greek τηλε, tele meaning "distant" and πάθεια, patheia meaning "to be affected by",) describes the purported transfer of information on thoughts or feelings between individuals by means other than the five classical senses (See Psi). The term was coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Fredric W. H. Myers, a founder of the Society for Psychical Research, specifically to replace the earlier expression thought-transference. A person who is able to make use of telepathy is said to be able to read the minds of others. Telepathy, along with psychokinesis forms the main branches of parapsychological research, and many studies seeking to detect and understand telepathy have been done within the field.

Therapeutic touch (TT), also called Non-Contact Therapeutic Touch (NCTT) or Distance Healing, is an energy therapy claimed to promote healing and reduce pain and anxiety. TT practitioners say that by placing their hands on or near the patient they can detect and manipulate the patient's putative energy field. Although there are 251 articles on TT on PubMed quality of controlled research is variable. One study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that TT practitioners could not detect the presence or absence of a hand placed a few inches above theirs when their vision was obstructed. The existence of a "biofield" or "bioenergetic field," a necessary component of TT theory, directly contradicts many principles of modern physics, chemistry, and biology