Scrying (nonfiction): Difference between revisions

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'''Scrying''' (also called seeing or peeping) is the practice of looking into a translucent ball or other material with the belief that things can be seen, such as spiritual visions, and less often for purposes of divination or fortune-telling.
[[File:The Crystal Ball (John William Waterhouse, 1902).jpg|thumb|300px|''The Crystal Ball'' by John William Waterhouse (1902).]]'''Scrying''' (also called seeing or peeping) is the practice of looking into a translucent ball or other material with the belief that things can be seen, such as visions of distant times and places.
 
== Description ==


The most common media used are reflective, translucent, or luminescent substances such as crystals, stones, glass, mirrors, water, fire, or smoke.
The most common media used are reflective, translucent, or luminescent substances such as crystals, stones, glass, mirrors, water, fire, or smoke.
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The visions that come when one stares into the media are believed by some to come from one's subconscious and imagination, though others believe they come from gods, spirits, devils, or the psychic mind, depending on the culture and practice.
The visions that come when one stares into the media are believed by some to come from one's subconscious and imagination, though others believe they come from gods, spirits, devils, or the psychic mind, depending on the culture and practice.


Although scrying is most commonly done with a crystal ball, it may also be performed using any smooth surface, such as a bowl of liquid, a pond, or a crystal.
== Fiction cross-reference ==


Like other aspects of divination and parapsychology, scrying is not supported by science as a method of predicting the future.
<gallery>
File:Thought camera.jpg|link=Scrying engine|[[Scrying engine]].
File:Lanfranc-canterbury-mandelbrot.jpg|link=Canterbury scrying engine|[[Canterbury scrying engine]].
File:Hamangia-figures-Lorenz-attractor.jpg|link=Hamangia scrying engine|The [[Hamangia scrying engine|Hamangia figurines]] computing the [[Lorenz system (nonfiction)|Lorenz system]].
</gallery>


However, a 2010 paper in the journal ''Perception'' identified one specific method of reliably reproducing a scrying illusion in a mirror and hypothesized that it "might be caused by low level fluctuations in the stability of edges, shading and outlines affecting the perceived definition of the face, which gets over-interpreted as 'someone else' by the face recognition system."
* [[Canterbury scrying engine]]
 
* [[Scrying engine]]
The [[Ganzfeld experiment (nonfiction)]] involves sensory deprivation which might also be seen as comparable with scrying.


== Nonfiction cross-reference ==
== Nonfiction cross-reference ==


* [[Ganzfeld experiment (nonfiction)]]
* [[Ganzfeld experiment (nonfiction)]]
* [[Lorenz system (nonfiction)]] - a system of ordinary differential equation (the Lorenz equations) first studied by [[Edward Lorenz (nonfiction)|Edward Lorenz]].
* [[Perception (nonfiction)]]
* [[Perception (nonfiction)]]
== Fiction cross-reference ==
* [[Canterbury scrying engine]]
* [[Scrying engine]]


== External links ==
== External links ==

Latest revision as of 11:16, 11 February 2018

The Crystal Ball by John William Waterhouse (1902).

Scrying (also called seeing or peeping) is the practice of looking into a translucent ball or other material with the belief that things can be seen, such as visions of distant times and places.

The most common media used are reflective, translucent, or luminescent substances such as crystals, stones, glass, mirrors, water, fire, or smoke.

Scrying has been used in many cultures in the belief that it can divine the past, present, or future.

The visions that come when one stares into the media are believed by some to come from one's subconscious and imagination, though others believe they come from gods, spirits, devils, or the psychic mind, depending on the culture and practice.

Fiction cross-reference

Nonfiction cross-reference

External links