by Psychic-Magic staffer Renji
There are several terms that are frequently misunderstood and incorrectly used: apparition, apportation, apport, asport and materialization are a few.
Another word for apparition is ghost. There are numerous reports of apparitions appearing at the moment of death, but not all apparitions are of the dead. An apparition is the physical appearance of a person who is not physically present at the time the apparition is seen. Unlike a filmy, ethereal ghost, an apparition looks real.
A friend of mine offered a great example of an apparition. She and her mother were sitting at home one day. Her mother looked out the window and said, “Go open the front door. Sally’s coming up the walk.” When my friend opened the door, there was no one there. In a phone call later in the day, Sally said she had been thinking of them at that exact time. Sally wasn’t dead but had appeared as an apparition.
An apport is something that appears out of thin air and with no explanation. Apports were big news early in the 20th Century when séances were popular. Spirit Guides would bring items into the séance, sometimes placing them in the hands of one of the sitters. Frank Herne and Charles Williams were two mediums who specialized in apports, and on one occasion reportedly apported a woman, who was just as surprised as the sitters to suddenly find herself at the séance.
The opposite of apport is an asport; something taken away, supposedly by a spirit. I know a lot of us would like to blame spirits for stealing pens off our desks. I don’t think it works that way, but like our missing pens, asports don’t always reappear and are lost forever.
Materialization was another biggie in séances held during the late 19th and early 20th Century. A materialization (also called a manifestation) is something (usually the form of a person) that is made evident to the senses—can easily be seen and actually photographed. In séances, it was usually the spirit of a dead relative or friend. Bible readers may be familiar with the story in Matthew 17 where Moses and Elijah materialized to Jesus and three Apostles.
Other words that are frequently confused and used interchangeably are precognition and premonition. Prediction can be added here just for fun.
Precognition is knowing beforehand, or foreknowledge. “Pre” (before) “cognition” (knowing). It is full awareness of what’s going to happen. A famous example is Abraham Lincoln’s dream about seeing his own body lying in state. People sometimes dream of an event and know that it’s really going to happen. And that’s what explains precognition: a person has details of what will happen.
A premonition, on the other hand, is vague. There may be a feeling that “something’s going to happen”, but no clear idea of what, when or how. There are no visions, and there is no certainty; just a feeling that something (no idea what) might (no surety) happen. Many people act on their premonitions—they don’t get on a plane that they later learn has crashed. Or not.
Prediction and prophecy are related. In one issue of Psychic-Magic I told the story about author Jonathan Swift accurately describing the moons of Mars in 1726, 151 years before they were discovered. We’re also familiar with all yearly predictions about who will win the World Series or the Oscar for Best Motion Picture. These are predictions, many based on statistics (who’s got the best record in baseball, for example), but some are based on dreams or visions.
Here’s something to seriously consider when you think about precognition, premonition, prediction and prophecy. When we see, dream or feel something will happen, are we tapping into the future and seeing what will (or could) happen? Or have we put the thought in motion and actually caused it to happen? That’s unnerving when you think about it.
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