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PARANORMAL The word paranormal comes from the words “para” meaning beyond, and normal. So the term paranormal really means something that is beyond the normal scope of science or being beyond a scientific explanation or pertaining to parapsychology; pertaining to forces or mental processes, such as extrasensory perception or psychokinesis, outside the possibilities defined by natural or scientific laws; as, paranormal phenomena. Hypnosis is generally understood to be a psychological condition in which an individual may be induced to exhibit apparent changes in behavior, thought, or affect. Although some individuals experience an increase in suggestibility and subjective feelings of an 'altered state of consciousness', this is not true for everyone. The applications of hypnosis vary widely. Currently, two distinct applications of hypnosis include its use in entertainment and in health applications. The popular perception of the hypnotic experience is that of the entertainment version. The stage hypnotist uses a variety of methods to relax and focus the subjects eventually making it appear to the audience that the subject is asleep or, popularly termed, in trance. During the performance, the subjects seem to obey the commands of the hypnotist to engage in behaviors they might not normally choose to perform.On the other hand, hypnosis applications in the medical and health-related fields are often experienced very differently. Evidence supports the clinical use of hypnosis for pain control, for weight control, in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome, and as an adjunct to cognitive behavioral and other therapies. Hypnosis is not a therapy in-and-of-itself but is effectively used as an adjunct to other therapies; hence "hypnotherapy" is less preferable than the use of hypnosis-related techniques as part of an integrated psychological package. An out-of-body experience (OBE) typically involves a sensation of floating outside of one's body and, in some cases, seeing one's physical body from outside oneself (autoscopy). Approximately one in ten people claim to have had an out-of-body experience at some time in their lives. Astral projection is an interpretation of forced out-of-body experiences achieved consciously, via lucid dreaming or deep meditation. Proponents of astral projection maintain that their consciousness or soul has transferred into an astral body (or "double"), which moves free of the physical body in a parallel world known as the "astral plane," which is said to exist via the "collective conscious". Unlike the typical OBE, astral projection does not typically posit that one's consciousness or soul actually travels through the day-to-day physical realm. Remote viewing. In some instances, astral projectors have described details of the outside world whilst in projection that they could not have known beforehand. This has been studied extensively and is known as remote viewing. In remote viewing, however, the viewer does not leave his or her body, but "sees" remote sites by other means.In some instances, such as patients during surgery, people describe OBEs in which they see something they could not possibly have seen while under anesthesia (for instance, one woman accurately described a surgical instrument she had not seen previously, as well as conversation that occurred while she was clinically dead). Near death experiences : Another form of a spontaneous OBE occurs during a near death experience (or NDE). The phenomenology of an NDE usually includes physiological, psychological and transcendental factors (Parnia, Waller, Yeates & Fenwick, 2001) such as subjective impressions of being outside the physical body (an out-of-body experience), visions of deceased relatives and religious figures, transcendence of ego and spatiotemporal boundaries and other transcendental experiences (Lukoff, Lu & Turner, 1998; Greyson, 2003). Typically the experience follows a distinct progression, starting with the sensation of floating above one's body and seeing the surrounding area, followed by the sensation of passing through a tunnel, meeting deceased relatives, and concluding with encountering a being of light (Morse, Conner & Tyler, 1985).
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