Ghostly Glossary Q-R

From The Parapsychology Foundation www.parapsychology.org
Q-R
QUALITATIVE EXPERIMENT
(i) Any test for extrasensory perception which uses target material and forms of response which do not allow a definite probability-value to be attached to the response items made; examples are most free-response tests, tests of psychometry, mediumistic utterances, and so on; statistical evaluation of such data must therefore proceed in an indirect fashion, by assigning a probability-value to the matching-performance of a judge; (ii) Any attempt to demonstrate qualitative phenomena. Compare Quantitative Experiment. [Ultimately derived from the Latin qualis, “what kind of?”]
QUANTITATIVE EXPERIMENT
Any test for psi which uses targets each of which has a specific prescribed value for the probability of its occurrence; such a test therefore allows for direct statistical evaluation of the results obtained. See also Forced-Choice Test. Compare Qualitative Experiment. [Ultimately derived from the Latin quantus, “how great, how much?”]
RADIONICS
A term which has largely supplanted “radiæsthesia” in English usage.
RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR (RNG)
An apparatus (typically electronic) incorporating an element (based on such processes as radioactive decay or random “noise”) and capable of generating a random sequence of outputs; used in tests of psi for generating target sequences, and in tests of psychokinesis may itself be the target system which the subject is required to influence, that is, by “biasing” the particular number or event output; a binary RNG has two equally-probable outputs; the term “RNG” is increasingly being used to refer to any system which produces naturally random outputs, such as bouncing dice, radioactive decay, or even, perhaps, the brain.
RAPS
Percussive sounds, often tapping out an intelligible message, sometimes said to be produced by paranormal means.
READING
The statements made by a sensitive (or as a result of the process of divination) in the course of an attempt to obtain paranormal information or “messages.”
RECEIVER
An expression which is less technical than “percipient,” used to indicate the subject designated as the “recipient” of telepathic information. Compare Sender.
RECURRENT SPONTANEOUS PSYCHOKINESIS (RSPK)
Expression coined by William G. Roll to refer to paranormal physical effects which occur repeatedly over a period of time, especially used as a neutral description of poltergeist disturbances. See also Psychokinesis.
REINCARNATION
A form of survival in which the human soul, or some aspects of self, is, after the death of the body, reborn into a new body, this process being repeated throughout many lives. See also Rebirth. [From the Latin re-, “again,” + in- “into,” + caro (carnis), “flesh”]
REMOTE VIEWING
A neutral term for general extrasensory perception introduced Russell Targ and Harold Puthoff (1974), especially in the context of an experimental design in which a percipient attempts to describe the surroundings of a geographically distant agent.
ASSOCIATIONAL REMOTE VIEWING (ARV)
As described by Targ (1983), a form of remote viewing in which the area where a desired item might be located is divided up into a finite number of discrete locations; each of the possible locations, or addresses, is associated or
linked with a laboratory-based token object or picture (such as of the Golden Gate Bridge); the viewer is then asked to describe the associated target-object thereby indirectly choosing a particular target-location or address.
RETROACTIVE PK
Psychokinesis occurring in such a way as to be an instance of retroactive causation; to say that event A was caused by retroactive PK is to say that A would not have happened in the way that it did had it not been for a later PK effort exerted so as to influence it. Sometimes abbreviated to “retro-PK;” also referred to as “backward PK” or “time-displaced PK.”
RETROCOGNITION
Term coined by Frederic Myers to refer to a form of extrasensory perception in which the target is some past event which could not have been learned or inferred by normal means. Compare Precognition [From the Latin retro, “backward, behind,” + cognitio, “a getting to know”]
REVENANT
An apparition of a deceased person. [From the French revenir, ultimately derived from the Latin revenire, “to come back”]