Reference

Glossary of Spiritual Science Terms

By The Spiritual Science editors · 2026-10-09 · 9 min read

This glossary gives short, plain definitions of terms that come up across this publication. Where a term belongs to a belief system rather than to established science, the definition says so. Terms are listed alphabetically.

A

Affirmation: A short positive statement repeated to oneself, such as "I am calm and capable." Affirmations are central to New Thought practice; psychological research on them is mixed, and results seem to depend on the person and the wording.
Akashic Records: In Theosophy and related traditions, a supposed nonphysical record of every event, thought and feeling that has ever occurred. It is a belief, not something that has been demonstrated.
Alchemy: A historical tradition, practiced in many cultures, that combined early chemistry with philosophy and spiritual symbolism. Its famous goals included turning base metals into gold, and many later writers read it as a metaphor for inner transformation.
Apophenia: The tendency to perceive meaningful connections or patterns in unrelated or random information. It helps explain why chance coincidences can feel like signs.
As Above, So Below: A phrase summarizing a line from the Emerald Tablet, expressing the idea that patterns at one level of reality mirror patterns at another. It is the basis of the principle of correspondence in later Hermetic writing.
Astral Plane: In Theosophy and other esoteric systems, a level of existence said to lie beyond the physical, associated with emotion, dreams and life after death. Its existence is a matter of belief.
Attention: The mental capacity to select some information for focus while setting other information aside. It is one of the most studied topics in psychology and the main target of concentration and meditation practice.
Aura: A field of light or energy that some traditions say surrounds living beings and reveals their state. Controlled tests have not supported the claim that people can reliably see auras.
Autosuggestion: The practice of influencing one's own thoughts, feelings or behavior through repeated self-directed suggestion. It is strongly associated with the French pharmacist Émile Coué in the early twentieth century.

C

Cause and Effect, Principle of: One of the seven principles in the Kybalion, holding that every cause has an effect and that chance is only a name for a law not yet recognized.
Christian Science: A religious movement founded by Mary Baker Eddy, whose book Science and Health appeared in 1875. It teaches that matter and illness are ultimately unreal and that healing comes through spiritual understanding; it is related to, but distinct from, New Thought.
Confirmation Bias: The tendency to notice, remember and favor information that supports what we already believe. It is a common reason personal experience can seem to confirm a practice that has not been shown to work.
Consciousness: Subjective experience, the fact that there is something it is like to see, feel or think. How consciousness relates to the brain remains one of the major open questions in science and philosophy.
Corpus Hermeticum: A collection of Greek texts attributed to Hermes Trismegistus, generally dated to the first few centuries of the common era. Its Latin translation by Marsilio Ficino in the fifteenth century made it influential in Renaissance Europe.
Correspondence, Principle of: The idea that different levels of reality reflect one another, so that studying one can shed light on another. It appears as one of the seven principles in the Kybalion.

D

Default Mode Network: A set of brain regions that tend to be more active when a person is not focused on an outside task, such as during daydreaming or self-reflection. Researchers named and described it in the early 2000s.
Divine Science: A New Thought denomination that began in Denver in the late nineteenth century. Like other New Thought groups, it teaches the presence of God in all things and the healing power of right thinking.

E

Emerald Tablet: A short, cryptic text attributed to Hermes Trismegistus and known from Arabic sources of the early medieval period. It became a foundational text for European alchemy.
Esotericism: A broad term for traditions that claim hidden or inner knowledge, available through study, initiation or experience. Historians use it as a neutral label for movements such as Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism and Theosophy.

G

Gender, Principle of: One of the seven principles in the Kybalion, holding that masculine and feminine principles operate in everything. The book uses the terms symbolically rather than in a biological sense.
Gnosticism: A modern umbrella term for a range of religious movements in the early centuries of the common era that emphasized gnosis, or direct spiritual knowledge, as the path to salvation. Scholars debate how unified these movements were.

H

Hard Problem of Consciousness: A phrase made prominent by philosopher David Chalmers in the 1990s for the question of why physical processes in the brain are accompanied by subjective experience at all. It is distinguished from the "easier" problems of explaining how the brain processes information.
Hermes Trismegistus: "Thrice great Hermes," a legendary figure combining the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth. Texts attributed to him form the basis of Hermeticism.
Hermeticism: A philosophical and religious tradition based on writings attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. It emphasizes the unity of all things, the divine nature of mind, and the possibility of spiritual knowledge.

I

Idealism: In philosophy, the view that reality is fundamentally mental or dependent on mind. Versions of it have been defended by serious philosophers, and it differs from New Thought's practical claims about thought shaping circumstances.
Intention: A conscious aim or purpose. In spiritual practice it often means a deliberately chosen focus for a meditation, a day or a goal.

K

Kybalion: A book first published in 1908 in Chicago, credited to "Three Initiates" and widely attributed to William Walker Atkinson. It presents seven principles as ancient Hermetic teachings, though it is a modern New Thought work.

L

Law of Attraction: The New Thought belief that thoughts draw matching experiences into one's life. The idea was popularized by early twentieth century writers and revived by The Secret in 2006; it is not a law in the scientific sense.

M

Manifestation: In contemporary spirituality, the process of bringing a desired outcome into reality through focused thought, belief and feeling. It is closely tied to the law of attraction.
Mantra: A word, sound or phrase repeated in meditation or prayer. The practice comes from Hindu and Buddhist traditions and is now used widely as a focus for attention.
Meditation: A family of practices that train attention and awareness, such as focusing on the breath or observing thoughts without reacting. It has been studied extensively, with evidence for modest benefits for some people and many open questions.
Mental Contrasting: A technique developed by psychologist Gabriele Oettingen in which a person imagines a desired future and then the obstacles standing in the way. Her research suggests it supports action better than positive fantasy alone.
Mentalism, Principle of: The first principle of the Kybalion, stating that "The All is Mind" and the universe is mental. It is a metaphysical claim, not a scientific one.
Metaphysics: The branch of philosophy that studies the basic nature of reality, including being, causation, mind and matter. In bookstores the word is also used loosely for spiritual and occult topics.
Mind Cure: A nineteenth century term for healing through mental and spiritual means, associated with Phineas Parkhurst Quimby and his successors. William James used the phrase when he discussed the movement in The Varieties of Religious Experience.
Mindfulness: Paying attention to present moment experience on purpose and without judgment. Drawn from Buddhist practice, it has been adapted into secular programs that are now widely studied.
Monad: From the Greek for "unit," a term for ultimate oneness or a basic indivisible unit. Pythagoreans used it for the number one as the source of all numbers, and later philosophers, including Leibniz, used it in different ways.
Mysticism: The pursuit or experience of direct union with, or awareness of, the divine or ultimate reality. Mystical traditions exist within most major religions.

N

Neoplatonism: A school of philosophy founded by Plotinus in the third century CE, teaching that all reality flows from a single source called the One. It shaped later Christian, Islamic, Jewish and Hermetic thought.
Neuroplasticity: The brain's ability to change its structure and function in response to experience and learning. It is well established, but the word is sometimes stretched in popular writing to support claims it does not cover.
New Thought: A spiritual movement that arose in the United States in the nineteenth century, teaching that mind is primary and that right thinking can improve health and life. Unity, Divine Science and Religious Science are among its organized branches.
Nondualism: The view, found in traditions such as Advaita Vedanta and some forms of Buddhism, that the apparent separation between self and world, or self and the divine, is not ultimately real.
Numerology: The belief that numbers carry mystical significance and can reveal character or predict events, often by converting names and birth dates into numbers. It has no support from controlled research.

P

Panpsychism: The philosophical view that some form of mind or experience is a basic feature of all matter. It has gained renewed attention among some philosophers of mind, though it remains a minority and contested position.
Placebo Effect: An improvement in symptoms that follows a treatment with no active ingredient, linked to expectation and context. It is real and well documented, especially for subjective symptoms such as pain, though it does not cure underlying disease.
Polarity, Principle of: A Kybalion principle stating that everything has two poles and that opposites are the same thing in different degrees. The book suggests one can change a mental state by shifting toward its opposite pole.
Prana: In Indian philosophy and yoga, the vital energy or life breath said to animate living beings. It is a traditional concept rather than a measurable physical energy.
Psychical Research: The study of claimed paranormal phenomena such as telepathy and mediumship, organized formally with the founding of the Society for Psychical Research in London in 1882. Its findings have remained controversial.
Pythagoreanism: The teachings of Pythagoras and his followers in ancient Greece, holding that number underlies the order of the world. It influenced Plato and much later number symbolism.

R

Rhythm, Principle of: A Kybalion principle stating that everything flows out and in, rises and falls, like a pendulum. The book teaches that one can learn to avoid being carried by the backward swing.
Rosicrucianism: An esoteric movement that began with manifestos published in Germany in the early seventeenth century, describing a secret brotherhood of spiritual and scientific adepts. Many later groups have used the name.

S

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: A belief or expectation that leads to behavior which makes the belief come true. The term was coined by sociologist Robert K. Merton.

T

Tetractys: A triangular figure of ten points arranged in rows of one, two, three and four, held sacred by the Pythagoreans. It expressed the idea that the first four numbers together make up the perfect number ten.
Theosophy: A modern esoteric movement founded with the Theosophical Society in New York in 1875 by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Henry Steel Olcott and others. It blended Western occultism with ideas drawn from Hindu and Buddhist thought.
Transcendentalism: A New England philosophical and literary movement of the 1830s and 1840s, led by figures such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. It stressed intuition, the divinity in nature and the individual, and it influenced New Thought.

U

Unity: A New Thought movement founded in Kansas City in the late nineteenth century by Charles and Myrtle Fillmore. It is known for prayer ministry and its publication Daily Word.

V

Vibration, Principle of: A Kybalion principle stating that nothing rests and everything vibrates. In New Thought writing, "vibration" is often used metaphorically for mood or mental state, not in the measurable sense physicists use.
Visualization: Deliberately forming mental images, for example of a goal or a performance. Research suggests that picturing the process and the steps toward a goal tends to help more than picturing only the reward.

W

Will: The capacity to choose and to sustain effort toward a goal. Early twentieth century mind-training books treated will as a muscle to be strengthened through exercises, and the nature of willpower remains debated in psychology.