Psychic, Occult and Mystical Definitions

Letter: P

A very ancient divinatory technique, formerly called Cheiromancy or Chiromancy , also known as Palmomancy, Chirognomy and Chirology, consisting of not only of divination but also character interpretation by studying the crease lines and bumps on the palms and fingers.

Palmistry

Pantheism

The doctrine that the universe, taken or conceived of as a whole, is God or that there is no God but only the combined force and laws which are manifested in the existing universe.

The study of the ability of the mind to perform psychic acts. Psychic phenomena, as the term is applied to the human mind, generally fall into two broad categories: extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis (PK), or PSI, as both are collectively known.

Parapsychology

Paracelsus

The name coined for himself by the German physician and alchemist Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim, who was born in Einsieden, Switzerland. Paracelsus was a medical reformer who introduced a new concept of disease and the use of chemical medicines. He studied at several Italian universities and began to practice medicine and surgery in the 1520s. A difficult personality, he created controversy because of his wholesale condemnation of traditional science and medicine. He never obtained a secure academic position or permanent employment. Paracelsus's new concept of disease emphasized its causes to be external agents that attack the body, contrary to the traditional idea of disease as an internal upset of the balance of the body's humors (yellow bile, black bile, blood and phlegm). Therapy, according to Paracelsus, was to be directed against these agents of disease, and for this he advocated the use of chemicals rather than herbs. Alchemy became the means of preparing such chemicals; in this way Paracelsus changed the emphasis of the alchemical art from chasing the elusive Elixir of Life or Philosopher's Stone, to making medicines. In his "Biographia Antiqua", Francis Barrett appends to the name of Paracelsus the following titles of distinction: "The Prince of Physicians and Philosophers by Fire; Grand Paradoxical Physician; The Trismegistus of Switzerland; First Reformer of Chymical Philosophy; Adept in Alchymy, Cabala, and Magic; Nature’s Faithful Secretary; Master of the Elixir of Life and The Philosopher’s Stone," and the "Great Monarch of Chymical Secrets."