Black mirror scrying Continue Looking into a suitable environment in the hope of detecting significant messages or visions Scry redirects here. This should not be confused with Scruy. Part of the series on Paranormal Main Article Astral Projection Astrological Astrology Aura Bilocation Clairvoyance Close Meeting Cold Spot Crystal Looking Spell Of Cryptozoology Demonic Possession Demonology Ectoplasmic Electronic Voice Phenomenon Exorcism Extrasensory Perception Forteana Fortune Telling The Phantom of Hunting Indigo Children Magic Medium Occshipult Orb Ouija Paranormal Fiction Paranormal Television Precognition Preternatural Psychic Reading Psychokinesis Psychometrics Remote View Retrocognition Spirit Photos Spirit of Possession Spirit spirit Spirit Spirit Stone Ribbon Supernatural Telepathy Table turning ufology Reported , haunted places : India United Kingdom United States Of The World Skepticism Cold Committee to read skeptical requests Debunking Hoax James Randy Educational Foundation Magical Thinking Prizes for Evidence of Paranormal Pseudosepticism Scientific Skepticism Associated Anomalies Argument from Ignorance Argumentum ad populum Bandwagon effect of begging issue Cognitive Dissonance Communal Reinforcement Misconception Of The Falsificativeity Fringe Science Groupthink Hypnosis Unwanted Science Protoscience Scientific Evidence Scientific Method Superstition Uncertainty Urban Legend Parapsychology Death and Culture Parapsychology Scientific Literacy vte Crystal Ball John William Waterhouse ( 1902 Scrying, also known by various names such as see or peep, is a practice of searching in a suitable environment in the hope of detecting significant messages or visions. The goal may be personal guidance, prophecy, revelation or inspiration, but over the centuries, scrying in various forms has also been a prominent means of divination or divination. It remains popular in the occult circles discussed in many media, both modern and age-old. Definitions and terminology There is no definitive difference between scrying and other means of clairvoyance, foreshadowing, or divination, but roughly speaking, scrying depends on the imaginary impressions of vision in an environment of choice. Ideally, in this respect it differs from the omens, which is based on the interpretation of objectively observed objects or events (such as the flight of birds); Divination, which depends on standardized processes or rituals; on one-timeism, which depends on the interpretation of dreams; From the physiological effects of psychoactive drugs; and clairvoyance, which is conditionally independent of objective sensory stimuli. Clairvoyance, in other words, is seen as the sum of essentially extrasensory perception. Scrying is neither a single, clearly defined, nor a formal discipline, and there is no uniformity in which have repeatedly and independently been reinvented or or in many age groups and regions. [2] Кроме того, практикующие и авторы монеты терминологии так произвольно, и часто искусственно, что ни одна система номенклатуры не может быть принято как авторитетный и окончательный. The terms of Latinization or Hellenization of media or activity descriptions are commonly used. Examples of names invented for crystal-looking include crystallism, sphereiness and catoptromanism. As an example of the freeness of such terms, catoptromancy should refer more specifically to scrying using mirrors or other reflective objects rather than crystal looking. Other names that have been coined to use various scrying media include anthracomancy for glowing coals, turifumy for scrying in smoke, and hydromantia for scrying into the water. There is no clear limit to the coinage and application of such terms and media. Scrying is practiced in many cultures, believing that it can reveal the past, present or future. Some practitioners claim that the visions that come when one looks into the media from the subconscious or imagination, while others say they come from gods, spirits, devils, or the mental mind, depending on culture and practice. However, there is no systematic body of empirical support for any such views in general, nor their respective competitive merits; individual preferences in such matters are arbitrary at best. The media most commonly used in scribing are reflective, refractive, translucent or fluorescent surfaces or objects such as crystals, stones or glass in various forms, such as crystal balls, mirrors reflecting black surfaces such as obsidian, water surfaces, fire or smoke, but there are no particular restrictions on preferences or scryer prejudices; some can look into the dark, clear sky, clouds, shadows or light patterns against walls, ceilings or pond beds. Some prefer glowing coals or shimmering mirages. Some simply close their eyes, conventionally looking at the insides of their own eyelids, and talk about eyelids scrying. Scrying media tends to either suggest images directly (such as shapes in fire, fluid vortexes or clouds), or they distort or reflect the vision of observers confusingly, so as to be seen in crystals or transparent balls. Such fantasies have long been satirically skeptics, for example, in Hamlet III.ii: The quote is necessary You see there a cloud that is almost in the shape of a camel? In mass, and it's like a camel, really. Methinks is like a weaser. It is supported as a weaser. Or like a whale? It's very similar to a whale. Alternatively, the environment may visual stimuli to thresholds below which any clear impressions can interfere with imaginary visions or free association. Examples include darkened reflections of the night sky, or simple shade or darkness. Techniques Modern scrying experience One class techniques techniques includes a self-induced trance, with or without the aid of environments such as a crystal ball or, even using modern technologies such as a smartphone among other things. Some say it's a sense of drug like, some that different drugs can have the potency of the experience; others categorically rule out any connection with drug use, claiming that it annulls any images observed. Many practitioners say that scrying the environment initially serves to focus, removing unwanted thoughts from the mind in much the same way as repeating the mantra, concentrating on the mandala, causing a relaxation response, or perhaps hypnosis. Once this stage is reached, the scryer can begin a free association with perceived images. The technique of intentionally searching and declaring these original images out loud, no matter how trivial or inappropriate they may seem to the conscious mind, is trying to deepen the state of the trance. In this state some scryers hear their own disparate voices claiming what they see in the cycle of mental feedback. Practitioners apply this process until they reach a satisfactory state of perception in which rich visual images and dramatic stories seem to be projected within the environment itself, or in the eyes of the scryer mind. They claim that the technique allows them to see relevant events or images in their chosen environment. Nostradamus practiced scrying; he looked into a bowl of water or a magic mirror to see the future while he was in a trance. Religion and Mythology See also: Mirrors in Mesoamerican culture Jewish Biblical Divination is briefly mentioned in Chapter 44 of the Book of Genesis. A silver bowl or cup is intentionally planted in Benjamin's bag when he leaves Egypt, will later be used as evidence of theft. It turned out that the cup belonged to Joseph, the Vizier of Egypt, whose steward claimed to have been used for drinking and fortune-telling during his prosecution. This is mentioned to reinforce his disguise as an Egyptian nobleman. Ancient Persia Main article: Jamshid Shahnameh Cup, a 10th century epic work narrating the historical and mythological past of Persia, gives a description of what is called the Jamhid Cup (Jaam-e Jam), which was used by ancient (mythological) Persian kings to observe all seven layers of the universe. It was said that the cup contains the elixir of immortality, but without convincing explanation of any significance of the elixir to the bloody function. The main articles of the Latter-day Saint movement: Seer stone (Latter-day Saints) and Urim and Tummim (Latter-day Saints) In the late 1820s, Joseph Smith founded the Latter-day Saint movement, based in part on what is said to have been miraculously derived from the reflections of the stones of the measure. Smith had at least three separate stones, in that his favorite brown stone, which he found during a neighbor's excavation. First he used these stones stones various searches for digging treasures in the early 1820s, placing a stone in the crown of a hat and putting his face in a hat to read what he considered miraculous reflections from the stone. Smith also said he had access to a separate set of glasses consisting of strait stones, which he called Urim and Tummm. He said that through these stones he could translate the gold plates, which are the stated source of the Book of Mormon. In the folklore rituals of Divination, similar to those depicted on this Halloween greeting card in the early 20th century, where a woman looks in the mirror in a darkened room to catch a glimpse of her future husband's face while the witch is hiding in the shadows, may be one of the origins of the legend of Bloody Mary. This Halloween greeting card of 1904 satirizes divination: a young woman, hoping to see her future husband, sees a reflection of a nearby portrait. Rituals that include many acts similar to scrying in ceremonial magic are preserved in the form of folklore and superstition. Previously, a common tradition has it that young women looking in the mirror in a darkened room (often on Halloween) can catch a glimpse of their future husband's face in the mirror - or skull, officialing death if their fate was to die before they married. Another form of fairy tale, involving the same actions, looking in the mirror in a darkened room, is used as supernatural courage in the tale of Bloody Mary. Here, the motive is usually to test the teen gazers' mettle against an evil witch or ghost, in a ritual designed to give the scryers' easy escape if the visions are caused to prove too scary.