ghosts  a ghost is the soul or spirit of a

deceased person or animal that can appear, in visible form or other manifestation, to the living

 Certain religious practices—funeral rites, exorcisms, and some practices of spiritualism and ritual magic—are specifically designed to appease the spirits of the dead. 

Although the human soul was sometimes symbolically depicted in ancient cultures as a bird or other animal, it was widely held that the soul was an exact reproduction of the body in every feature, even down to clothing the person wore

BELIEFS ABOUT GHOSTS  widespread belief concerning

ghosts is that they are composed of a misty, airy, or subtle material. Anthropologists link this idea to early beliefs that ghosts were the person within the person (the person's spirit), most noticeable in ancient cultures as a person's breath, which upon exhaling in colder climates appears visibly as a white mist

 ghosts were often thought to be deceased people looking for vengeance, or imprisoned on earth for bad things they did during life. The appearance of a ghost has often been regarded as an omen or portent of death.

SPIRITUALISM Spiritualism is

a monotheistic belief system or religion, postulating a belief in God, but with a distinguishing feature of belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world can be contacted by "mediums," who can then provide information about the afterlife.

Spiritualism developed in the United States and reached its peak growth in membership from the 1840s to the 1920s, especially in English-language countries

Spiritualism is currently practiced primarily through various denominational Spiritualist Churches in the United States and United Kingdom.

OUIJA BOARD

DESCRIPTION OF THE BOARD spirit/fire key board or talking

board, is a flat board marked with the letters of the alphabet, the numbers 0-9, the words 'yes' 'no' 'hello' and 'goodbye', and other symbols and words are sometimes also added to help personalize the board

 It uses a plan che tte (small heart-shaped piece of wood) or movable indicator to indicate the spirit's message by spelling it out on the board during a séance. The fingers of the séance participants are placed on the plan che tte, which then moves about the board to spell out words or become physically manifested

the paranormal or supernatural is responsible for Ouija's action, it may be parsimoniously explained by unconscious movements of those controlling the pointer, a psycho physiological phenomenon known as the ideo motor effect

Ideomotor effect The ideomotor effect is

a psychological phenomenon wherein a subject makes motions unconsciously. As in reflexive responses to pain, the body sometimes reacts reflexively to ideas alone without the person consciously deciding to take action. For instance, tears are produced by the body unconsciously in reaction to powerful emotions. Automatic writing, dowsing, facilitated communication, and Ouija boards have also been attributed to the effect of this phenomenon

The word "subconscious" is an anglicized version of the French subconscient as coined by the psychologist Pierre Janet. Janet himself saw the subconscient as active in hypnotic suggestion and as an area of the psyche to which ideas would be consigned through a process that involved a "splitting" of the mind and a restriction of the field of consciousness

The words hypnosis and hypnotism both derive from the term neuro-hypnotism (nervous sleep) coined by the Scottish surgeon James Braid around 1841. Braid based his practice on that developed by Franz Mesmer and his followers ("Mesmerism" or "animal magnetism")

scm

MILTON H ERICKSON Milton Hyland Erickson, (5

December 1901 in Aurum, Nevada – 25 March 1980 in Phoenix, Arizona) was an American psychiatrist specializing in medical hypnosis

 He is noted for his approach to the unconscious mind as creative and solution-generating. 

Erickson is noted for his often unconventional approach to psychotherapy, such as described in the book Uncommon Therapy,

He was an important influence on neuro-linguistic programming

. Hypnosis is a

psychological process in which creative faculties of the mind are stimulated and a type of concentrated thinking, feeling and perception is established

 four major brain-wave patterns—frequency of electrical impulses firing from the brain—have been identified. The Beta state (alert/working) is defined as 14–32 cycles per second (CPS), the Alpha state (relaxed/reflecting) as the 7–14 CPS, the Theta state (drowsy) as 4–7 CPS, and the Delta state as approximately 3–5 CPS.

hypnocism

Erickson's best-known innovations is the hypnotic handshake induction,. The induction is done by the hypnotist going to shake hands with the subject, then interrupting the flow of the handshake in some way, such as by grabbing the subject's wrist instead. If the handshake continues to develop in a way which is out-of-keeping with expectations, a simple, non-verbal trance is created, which may then be reinforced or utilized by the hypnotist.