Editing Scrying (section)

==Definitions and terminology==
There is no definitive distinction between scrying and other aids to [[clairvoyance]], [[augury]], or [[divination]], but roughly speaking, scrying depends on impressions of visions in the medium of choice. Ideally in this respect it differs from augury, which relies on interpretations of objectively observable objects or events (such as flight of birds); from divination, which depends on standardized processes or rituals; from [[oneiromancy]], which depends on the interpretation of dreams; from the physiological effects of [[psychoactive drug]]s; and from clairvoyance, which notionally does not depend on objective sensory stimuli. Clairvoyance in other words, is regarded as amounting in essence to [[extrasensory perception]].
 
Scrying is neither a single, clearly defined, nor formal discipline and there is no uniformity in the procedures, which repeatedly and independently have been reinvented or elaborated in many ages and regions.{{sfnp|Thomas|1905}}<ref name="LAC">{{cite book |last=Lang |first=Andrew |title=Cock Lane and common-sense |publisher= Longmans, Green, and Co. |date=1894 |url= https://archive.org/details/cocklanecommonse00langrich}}</ref> Furthermore, practitioners and writers coin terminology so arbitrarily, and often artificially, that no one system of nomenclature can be taken as authoritative and definitive. Commonly terms in use are [[Latinisation of names|Latinisations]] or [[Wiktionary:Hellenisation|Hellenisations]] of descriptions of the media or activities. Examples of names coined for crystal gazing include 'crystallomancy', 'spheromancy', and '[[catoptromancy]]'. As an example of the looseness of such terms, catoptromancy should refer more specifically to scrying by use of mirrors or other reflective objects rather than by crystal gazing. Other [[Methods of divination|names that have been coined]] for the use of various scrying media include [[Methods of divination|anthracomancy]] for glowing coals, turifumy for scrying into smoke, and hydromancy for scrying into water. There is no clear limit to the coining and application of such terms and media.<ref name="Robertson1991">{{cite book |first=John G. |last=Robertson |title=Robertson's Words for a Modern Age: A Cross Reference of Latin and Greek Combining Elements |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RFqlPtTSB2kC&pg=PA186 |year=1991 |publisher=Senior Scribe Publications |isbn=978-0-9630919-0-1 |pages=184–194}}</ref>

Scrying has been practiced in many cultures in the belief that it can reveal the past, present, or future.<ref name="Regal 2009">{{cite book |last=Regal |first=Brian |year=2009 |title=Pseudoscience: A Critical Encyclopedia |publisher=Greenwood |pages=55–56 |isbn=978-0-313-35507-3}}</ref><ref name="Guiley 2010">{{cite book |last=Guiley |first=Rosemary |year=2010 |title=The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft and Wicca |publisher=Facts on File |pages=319 |isbn=978-0-8160-7103-6}}</ref> Some practitioners assert that visions that come when one stares into the media are from the [[subconscious]] or [[imagination]], while others say that they come from [[deity|gods]], spirits, [[demon|devils]], or the [[psychic]] mind, depending on the culture and practice. There is neither any systematic body of [[Empirical evidence|empirical support]] for any such views in general however, nor for their respective rival merits; individual preferences in such matters are arbitrary.<ref name="Regal 2009"/>