Outer limits

Saturday, Sept. 14, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

Some basic definitions for the phenomena parapsychologists study, as provided by UNLV's Dean Radin:

* TELEPATHY: Direct communication between two minds.

* PRECOGNITION: Also called premonition. Obtaining information about future events, where the information could not be inferred through normal means. Many people have reported dreams that appear to be precognitive.

* CLAIRVOYANCE: Sometimes called remote viewing; obtaining information about events at remote locations, beyond the reach of the normal senses.

* ESP: Extrasensory perception; a general term for obtaining information about events beyond the reach of the normal senses. This term includes telepathy, clairvoyance and precognition.

* PSYCHOKINESIS: Also called PK; direct mental interaction with physical objects, animate or inanimate.

* BIO-PK: Direct mental interactions with living systems.

* NDE: Near-death experience; an experience sometimes reported by those who are revived from nearly dying. Often refers to a core experience that includes feelings of peace, out-of-body experiences, seeing lights and other specific phenomena.

* OBE: Out-of-body experience; the experience of feeling separated from the body, often accompanied by visual perceptions as though from above the body.

* REINCARNATION: Reports, typically from children, of apparent recollections of previous lives.

* HAUNTING: Recurrent phenomena reported to occur in particular locations that include apparitions, sounds, movement of objects and other effects.

* POLTERGEIST: Large-scale PK phenomena often attributed to spirits, but which are now thought to be due to a living person, frequently an adolescent.

* PSI: A neutral term for parapsychological phenomena. Psi, psychic and psychical are similar terms.