Mysteries and the Unexplained in Credo: Unexplained Mysteries

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
Strictly, the claimed ability to see things which are not normally visible. However, the term is more generally used to include any form of discerning information that is beyond the normal range of sense or perception.

From The Concise Corsini Encyclopedia of Psychology and Behavioral Science
Awareness of information that occurs independently of known sensory channels such as sight, hearing, taste, smell, or touch, is referred to as extrasensory perception (ESP).

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The lifting into the air of people or objects without any visible physical means.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The supposedly direct mental accessing of thoughts within the minds of other individuals.

Prophecy has played a significant role in world religions, laying the groundwork for fulfillment of both religious and secular expectations of the future.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The healing of one person by another by psychic means, without the use of any conventional curative agents such as drugs.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The movement of material objects, or the influencing of mechanical systems, using only the power of the mind.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
A process involving attempts at ‘seeing’ places from a distance, using psychic powers.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The movement of objects through paranormal or psychic powers.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
Direct mind-to-mind contact with another individual so that thoughts and images can be shared.

From the Encyclopedia of Consciousness
In altered states of consciousness (ASCs), the patterns of conscious experience are different from usual, and the contents of consciousness do not reliably reflect the immediately surrounding world.

From the Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
Known to the American public as the “sleeping prophet”, Edgar Cayce became an influential forerunner of New Age spirituality [ New Age Movement] through the voluminous body of clairvoyant “readings” he left behind at his death in 1945.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
French physician and astrologer, also known as Michel de Nostredame. His enigmatic predictions, written in rhymed quatrains, have established him as one of the most famous prophets in history.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
A shrine in ancient Greece where prophecies were made.

Conspiracy theories are sets of often erroneous beliefs that people use to explain malevolent and/ or unlawful acts that are perceived to be directed by and in favor of a small and powerful group that works in secret against a larger group of unwitting victims.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
A hoax is an act deliberately intended to deceive or trick others.

From Encyclopedia of Archaeology
In popular culture, the archaeologist is a hero and role model, competent and resourceful, serving the interests of society and occasionally of humanity through new discoveries and important revelations.

Genre in which a background of science or pseudoscience is an integral part of the story. Science fiction is the literature of the scientific age. Born in adventure pulp magazines during the first half of the twentieth century, the science fiction genre began to mature in the 1940s and 1950s.

From Continuum Encyclopedia of American Literature
To understand the origins of the supernatural in American literature we must consider the widespread interest in the occult or unseen world during the very inception of the colonies.

From The Christmas Encyclopedia
Popular, Emmy Award-winning, fantasy/science-fiction/suspense/horror anthology series that aired weekly on the CBS television network from 1959 to 1964. Created and narrated by Rod Serling, the series also had television incarnations in the 1980s and briefly in 2002-03.

From Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable
A term current from the 1980s to describe a piece of modern folkore in the form of a widely known story, often macabre in nature. Such stories are called urban because they relate to modern urban society.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The popular 1990s fictional US television series, The X-Files, was based loosely on the many conspiracy theories surrounding alien abductions and ufos. The plots leant heavily towards the idea that there was a governmental cover-up of details relating to an alien presence on earth and to secret experiments being conducted on hapless victims.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The code name for a top-secret facility located at Groom Lake in the Nevada desert where it is reputed that alien technology has been stored and analysed.

From The Classical Tradition
Legendary submerged island-continent. Plato introduced the Atlantis legend in two of his dialogues, composed in the mid-4th century BCE.

An area in the Atlantic where ships and aircraft are alleged to have disappeared.

Locality in Phocis, Greece, near the foot of the south slope of Mt. Parnassós, c.6 mi (10 km) northeast of the port of Cirrha. It was the seat of the Delphic oracle, the most famous and most powerful of ancient Greece. The oracle originated in the worship of an earth-goddess, and later legend ascribed it to Gaea.

An isolated volcanic island in the Pacific, 3700 km (2300 miles) west of Chile, of which it is a dependency: discovered on Easter Sunday, 1722; annexed by Chile in 1888; noted for the remains of an aboriginal culture. Easter Island is famous for its hieroglyphs and for hundreds of remarkable monolithic stone heads (moais) whose origin and meaning have been widely debated. Carved from soft volcanic tufa, the statues are from 10 to 40 ft (3-12 m) high, some weighing over 50 tons.

One of the great cultures of mesoamerica, Maya civilization extended throughout southern Mexico and northern Central America. The Maya territory included what are now the southernmost Mexican states of Yucatán, Campeche, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, and Chiapas, as well as all of Belize and Guatemala and the westernmost parts of Honduras and El Salvador.

Prehistoric stone monument of the late Neolithic (New Stone Age) or early Bronze Age. A number of explanations have been put forward for the building of megaliths during the Neolithic period in areas including Denmark, Ireland, northeastern Scotland, England, western France, and Spain. These range from economic reasons to expressions of dominance (neo-Marxist) and symbolism.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The Nazca lines is the name given to a series of ground markings discovered in the Nazca Desert, a high, arid plain in coastal Peru.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The largest of the Egyptian pyramids, built by Cheops.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
Site of the most famous UFO case in the world, around which many myths and legends have grown. The story includes the discovery of unexplained debris by a rancher in 1947 – the debate as to whether this came from an alien spacecraft or something more mundane continues to this day.

Megalithic monument on Salisbury Plain, 3 km/1.9 mi west of Amesbury in Wiltshire, England. The intriguing mysterious prehistoric stone circle known as Stonehenge is one of the world’s oldest and most famous holy sites. While much about Stonehenge remains unknown, it is best understood as the culminating product of the stone-building culture that produced these many monuments across the British Isles.

Ancient commercial and religious center in the central valley of Mexico, c.30 mi (48 km) NE of Mexico City. The largest (c.7 sq mi/18.1 sq km) and most impressive urban site of ancient America. Once thought to be the great religious center of the Toltec, it is now held to be the relic of an earlier civilization.

From Culture Wars in America: An Encyclopedia of Issues, Viewpoints, and Voices
From the end of World War II to the present, the proliferation of conspiracy theories has been a prominent part of American culture, contributing to the polarization of society while undermining confidence in public leaders.

Teachings and practices of the secret fraternal order officially known as the Free and Accepted Masons, or Ancient Free and Accepted Masons.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
An occult society founded in 1888, which incorporated elements of Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry and the kabbalah, and focused on both practical and ritual magic; although short-lived, it was probably the most influential Western magical order of modern times.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
A name adopted by various philosophical or religious societies which claim enlightenment, and especially used to refer to an 18th-century group of German free-thinkers known as the Bavarian Illuminati. Since its abolition in the late 18th century, this organization has been the focus of numerous claims that it survives and continues to work towards a goal of world domination.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
The Knights Templar was the largest and most powerful of the Christian military orders. Founded in c.1119 in the aftermath of the 1096 Crusade, its purpose was to help the new Kingdom of Jerusalem to defend itself against its hostile Muslim neighbours, and to protect the large numbers of pilgrims who travelled to Jerusalem after its conquest by the Crusaders. Additionally, this religious and military order was aimed to protect the Holy Sepulchre and pilgrims visiting it; suppressed 1307–14.

From The Literature of Propaganda
First published in 1903 and widely disseminated in the early twentieth century, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion purports to be the minutes from a nineteenth-century meeting of Jewish rabbis elaborating a secret plot to take over the world. While widely debunked as a fabrication, the text, which is also known as The Protocols of the Meetings of Learned/Sage Elders, is still presented as a legitimate document in print and online and has been used to promote anti-Semitism and to justify crimes against Jews.

Members of an esoteric society or group of societies, who claim that their order has been in existence since the days of ancient Egypt and has over the course of time included many of the world's sages. Their secret learning deals with occult symbols—notably the rose and the cross, the swastika, and the pyramid—and with mystical writings containing kabbalistic, Hermetic, and other doctrines.

From Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained
Secret societies can be divided into three broad categories – spiritual, criminal and political – though these may overlap (in the case of some terrorist groups they could be all three).

Organization of initiated persons whose members, purposes, and rituals are kept secret.