The truth is that everyone has some psychic ability, but it might be trapped under some heavy expectations about what you think a psychic ability should look or feel like. Most people think having psychic ability is actually bigger than it is, and that’s their downfall.
Everyone has natural intuitive ability, so it’s not a question of whether you have it or not – it’s a question of how open you are to using it.
As I described it to one of my coaching clients the other day, imagine each of the 8 Clair senses on a sliding scale. Some of ours will be turned up really high, whereas others will be so low that it feels like they’re completely off.
But they’re all still there! We lose touch with our psychic senses when we discredit them for so long or feel shame around them. Religious beliefs and past life trauma (such as being witch hunted) are often the main culprits, as well as any other energy blockages around the third eye and crown chakras. Clearing out and healing these energy centres quickly has a powerful effect on psychic ability – it was after a 3 hour meditation with binaural beats to clear my third eye that I had my first clairvoyant vision.
If you have even the slightest sense that you might be psychic, you are. 🔮
So, it’s just a question of which of your psychic abilities is the strongest…
There are 8 different Clair senses which are described below in detail. Which resonate with you? Which feel familiar? And which of these experiences have you had before?
Clairvoyance is a clear sense of vision, ie, psychic sight.
Let’s start with the most famous one, which is actually one of the least common.
There are even lots of professional psychics who don’t use this sense because they’re stronger in their other Clair senses, despite people often assuming that all psychics are clairvoyants. Those who are clairvoyant will usually advertise themselves as such, or as a “seer” or “remote viewer”.
If you’re clairvoyant, you may have had vivid psychic dreams where you saw premonitions (scenes from the future that came true) or dead relatives who came to visit you. Clairvoyance often manifests like a projector screen that gets pulled down in front of you and plays a movie of the past or future, either out of the blue when you’re fully awake or during meditation.
You can see things with clairvoyance either externally or internally. Sometimes what you’re seeing may appear as though it’s in front of you, outside your body. Whereas, other times it could be something you see in your mind which makes it easier to pass off as your imagination, until you find out later that it was a psychic vision of what was going to happen.
You can even classify your eye being drawn to visual signs such as Angel numbers and white feathers as a type of clairvoyance.
Clairgustance is a clear sense of taste, ie, being able to orally detect psychic information.
After talking about the most well-known psychic sense, I thought I’d move on to the least!
Yes, it really is possible for people to have a psychic sense of taste.
People with this ability might say that they can taste blood when they’re doing a reading for someone whose relative died in a tragic accident, or you might taste garlic when you think of your grandma and the things she used to cook for you.
As you can probably tell from these examples, this sense is most commonly used in mediumship to connect with spirits – rather than in fortune telling.
Clairsalience is a clear sense of smell, ie, being able to nasally detect psychic information.
This psychic sense is very similar to the one above, which is why I’ve listed them next to each other.
Maybe you’ve caught a whiff of your grandmother’s perfume while you were sat on the sofa, or the smell of cooking when no-one was. People report smelling tobacco smoke or cologne, when there’s no-one else around them and no logical explanation for where it’s coming from.
The smells don’t usually linger – they’re there just long enough for you to notice them before they’re gone. It’s also widely known that Angels can leave a floral scent when they visit so you know when they’re near you.
Similarly to clairgustance, this sense is most often used in mediumship rather than in fortune telling, as it can be an effective way for someone to recognise which soul is visiting them.
Clairaudience is a clear sense of hearing, ie, being able to detect psychic information through the ears.
Clairaudience is quite a well-known psychic sense, but it also comes with a lot of common misconceptions about what it’s like to experience it.
Often people will assume that clairaudience always means hearing voices, and yes – a lot of clairaudient psychics and mediums will be able to deliver messages from spirits this way because they can hear words being spoken to them…
But again, this isn’t very common. A lot of people experience clairaudience in different ways, and you’ve probably experienced it too. Have you ever felt your ear/s get hot for no apparent reason? Have you ever noticed words in a song that seemed to be timed perfectly for what you were thinking in that moment? Or thought of a relative and a song that you associate with them started playing on the radio?
When I started to realise that I had some psychic ability, it was through clairaudience. I noticed bangs on the wall that would happen in perfect time with a thought or question I was asking in my head. It seemed too crazy to believe, but it became so obvious that deep down I knew I wasn’t going mad. I went to a psychic day with Katie Helliwell and she said in front of the whole room that I was clairaudient! It was confirmed.
Since then, my clairaudience has developed into the sound of a bell ringing in my ear, like someone has struck a triangle just inside it. I have no control of it, but it will happen in Tarot readings or when I’m thinking about something – like my hopes and plans for the future – as a big YES from the spirit world.
I call it an ‘Angel ring’ when it happens and, in psychic development groups that I’ve been in, many other people there experienced this sound of ringing and feeling of pressure in their ears too. Clairaudience can come in many different forms, but if you’ve ever had a strange coincidence happen related to your ears – it was probably a sign of your clairaudience.
Claircognizance is a clear sense of knowing, ie, psychic insight.
Have you ever just known that something was going to happen, without knowing why?
You were probably experiencing claircognizance. The name of this psychic sense isn’t widely publicised, even though it’s accepted under other guises – such as ‘mother’s intuition’, for example.
Even people who aren’t spiritual can usually accept the fact that sometimes you just know, and you don’t have any outside proof or evidence yet; but you don’t need to, because you’re so sure.
This is a subtle symptom of claircognizance. I’ll often have this sense about past lives, as though I just know where or who I used to be before. This psychic sense can be tricky to distinguish, especially if your others are turned up high, but it’s an amazing one for confirming what the other signs might be telling you.
Clairsentience is a clear sense of feeling, ie, being able to detect psychic information through your body.
This psychic sense is very common in everyday life and with people who would never identify as spiritual – but can still recognise when they’re having a ‘gut feeling’ about something.
Investors use this. Doctors use this. And mothers definitely use this, because their energy is tied so closely to their children.
I always say that our body is an antennae, and for people who are very clairsentient, their antennae is finely tuned to pick up on a lot of vibrational energy. There are two ways that clairsentience can manifest: internally and externally.
Experiencing clairsentience externally is when you feel something cold or goosebumps in one part of your body. This probably means that there’s a spirit nearby, and so, external clairsentience is often used by mediums. I’ve also had it where spirits have given me the feeling of how they died, like a heart attack or cancer in a certain part of the body, which is another example of clairsentience.
Internal clairsentience is more common as it’s that ‘gut feeling’ or sense of dread about something that you can’t explain. It can also be a good feeling about something to come, which helps you to know that it’s going to be the right thing for you.
Clairempathy is a clear sense of emotional feeling, ie, being able to detect psychic information through your emotions.
Clairempathy can be another subtle psychic sense that’s hard to detect, partly because it’s so easy to confuse with being an empath.
Empathy is a normal human emotion and being an ’empath’ – being able to actually feel the emotions of other people – affects about 20% of the population. From my experience of the spiritual community, the vast majority of people who would call themselves spiritual also identify as an empath.
However, clairempathy is different. It means being able to feel emotions in advance, or being able to feel the emotions of others when they’re nowhere near you and you’re not communicating with them.
Mediums might also use this sense to channel the emotions of lost loved ones, and professional psychics might tell you how you felt in your childhood or how you will feel about events in the future.
It can also manifest as knowing that something is wrong with a loved one who’s on the other side of the world, because you can sense their sadness and grief. You can’t explain it, but your energy is so closely linked that you’re able to psychically feel their emotions.
Clairtangency is a clear sense of touch, ie, being able to detect psychic information through your hands.
If you’ve ever held an antique and felt like it had a long story, you might have been experiencing clairtangency.
Some psychics are able to hold an object and tell you how many hands it’s passed through, when and where it was made, and what the last owner was like!
When you go to an in-person reading with a medium, they may ask you to bring an object related to the person that you want to connect with – like a belonging of theirs, a gift they gave you, or even a photo of them. This is because they have such a sensitive sense of touch that they can pick up on the energy stored within an item using their hands.
This is an impressive skill, and people with strong clairtangency will probably avoid having old things in their home because the energy is too much for them to be around all the time. Objects are constantly soaking in energy (and obviously they’re energy too) so there’s a lot of psychic information that can be gained from the homes and belongings we keep around us.
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I hope you can see there are so many ways of accessing the information stored in the Universe, and we all have a unique set of skills to do so.
Our psychic abilities will start to open up when the time is right and we can learn how to harness them through books, psychic development workshops, and courses. Some people will have limited psychic experiences in this lifetime because it’s not necessary for the work they’re meant to do and the role they’re here to play in people’s lives. That’s OK too, and many people will live with psychic senses while never believing that they’re real.
But they’re a part of all of us – whether it’s as simple as a gut feeling and mother’s intuition, or being able to hear your dead Uncle talking to you. You have so many different abilities, and they fall under these categories of extrasensory perception.
50 responses
A much needed post. I would highly recommend that you also make videos on same topics as it is nice to see you on screen sharing information.
And each and every one of your article is always filled with ton of new knowledge and even the writing is very strategic that it makes grasping knowledge easy for the reader.
This was such a great article to read! I could relate to a little of each one. But I feel like I resonate with Claircognizance more so.
This was great! I just LOVE the content you share so freely! I have no idea how the universe brought me to you but I am SO grateful it did!!
Thanks again for all you do!
With love and light, Emily Ing
Which clair is used to describe the ability to feel Sprit’s touch? Spirit is with me and I frequently feel his hands on my shoulders, across my back, and on my face and hands.
This would be clairsentience!
I once felt a distressed feeling, which was not my own, when sitting in the car. I then looked around and noticed an elderly person who had fallen on the sidewalk and was helped by ambulance personnel. I did not see his face, just his arm sticking up with his walking stick in it. Is that clear empathy? I also felt someone having a panic attack or being afraid, every time I got near her. (I think at the time she thought I was having an affair with her husband, which wasn’t me but someone else). I also sometimes feel very sad when walking into a church. Not my own feelings for sure! (maybe residual energy of a funeral service??) Is this all the same thing? I am not aware of feeling people’s feelings when they are near me. I do think I can tell from looking at people if something is wrong, from the way the act. Up till now nobody has been able to tell me what it is called that I have.
Yes it definitely sounds like you have a powerful psychic sense of clairempathy 🙂
People feel happy, joyful, love etc. can you share some of the times of when you picked up some of the enjoyable emotions people are experiencing?
I can feel when an animal is going to die. All that this seems to do is make people angry. They never do anything to help their animals. I don’t know if I’m not telling them right or if it’s just too weird of a thing for them to accept from someone they hardly know. It’s never been wrong and I can’t control when it happens. I don’t understand why I am able to do this without it being useful or helpful.
It seems to be a mixture of claresentience and clarecognizance. But, I do not feel it in my “gut”. It’s in my heart and head. Like I know when I flick a switch the light will come on. I just know. But, if they’re sick it comes with a sadness in my heart like I feel that they know they’re dying. It’s always within 2 weeks. If they are going to choke or something, I still “know” they’re going to die but then it comes with a desperate feeling that I believe comes because I don’t know how to stop it. One time I felt my brother’s guilt when he robbed my grandma. And that is the only time I’ve ever just “known” when it comes to a human.
I’m also highly empathic. And it effects me very negatively. It comes from everyone around me and I can’t block it out.
Is there a way to make any of this a positive? I asked, years ago, for the animal thing to go away and it has only happened once since then. I would like help controlling this stuff.
When feeling overwhelmed by clairempathy imaging you are wearing glasses or sunglasses, or put some on, and stay focused and aware of the frames. This will help pull you out of their energy and back into your own, giving you some increased distance and peace.
When you notice a pet or someone will die do your best to comfort them. If you have tactile healer talents (Laying on of hands), quietly use them if possible. If you have herbalist or natural medicine talents try to get permission to use them. If all you can do is send peace and light to them, do so during meditation. Then let it go. Do not hold onto the feelings.
This was put up a few years ago. I hope you’ve found some peace with your gifts. If not, I’m gonna give you some advice (since you asked, even though not from me ;). The feelings are often perceived as negative or effect negatively when you hold them. It’s best to see them as “information” and let them go. It’s your choice what to do with them. Own whatever choice you make. There is no “right” or “wrong” there. If you’re really interested in doing something with the information you get start asking questions of yourself and the space around you. What might be a joyful way for me to use this information? How can I help others and myself with these gifts? How can I improve my ability to discern positive ways to use my gift?
This path is one of knowing yourself. Control for me has always been about being in the flow, gently guiding. Don’t try to “block” – avoid those frequencies, try paying attention to what or who you want to see or feel. You get more of what you pay attention to.
Clean up your energy. Please know this is said with the best intentions and kindness. Why are you dumping something like that on random pet owners? Did you feel for if that person could do anything about it? Who was the information intended for? Does the pet want some energy work or love instead? Is it just a piece of floating information you ran into? Know thyself. Practice curiosity over your emotional and physical reactions.
Good luck to you.
Hi, great info, thanks very much. Could you clarify if the Clair for smelling is Clairalience or ClairSalience? I thought it was Clairalience with no S. Thanks very much! – Sheila
Hi Sheila,
This is really interesting – after doing some research, it looks like both are used!
Clairolfactance is also used for a psychic sense of smell too.
Liz
I have regularly experienced all but one. I have never experienced clairgustance and I’m quote happy to never experience that one lol.
I feel as though I’m a mix of clairaudient and clairtengant
hey, i wanted to thank you for this post. a few of these resonated, but i had a literal physical reaction reading the entry to clairaudience. my cheeks got hot, i got super happy, and before i knew it i was tearing up HARDCORE. pretty cool to observe this reaction from myself. anyway, thank you!!
That’s awesome!! Thanks for letting me know 🙏🏾
Straight up I’ll ask idfc what if say you jumped location’s kinda astrial but not more like teleporting there and actually being there in person then being able to go back. Didn’t feel odd just was weird.
I’d look into the way that time & space works because all times and realities are happening concurrently – this physics YouTube channel is quite good at explaining it: https://www.youtube.com/c/ArvinAsh
I see words in my head as if someone is speaking to me. I always thought this was claircognizance….
I also receive the same messages in my sleep, and wake up carrying the emotion associated with those messages(sometimes so overwhelming).. Clairempathy? To this day, I am not sure how to classify myself….medium I suppose. I can speak with other beings through those messages in my head..I have a tarot channel but I don’t really know what my purpose is or if this is the right direction for me. Or why I am like this.
I’d say the words in your head is clairaudience! It can be wrapped up within your own thoughts too (internal monologue). Agree that the second one is clairempathy. It sounds like you have wonderful abilities that are here to help heal the world 😊 I don’t know if you’ve seen my group coaching program, Spiritual Coaching Academy, but I think it could help you with this and you’ll have a supportive community of other spiritual people in a similar position to you for 3 months. Here is the link for the next round in September: http://www.lizroberta.com/sca 🔮
I LOVED this artical!! And now I know alot more about me!
Thank you!!
Thank you sincerely for the beautiful, vital information about the Eight (8) Claires. As I read through the list of Claires, my mind returned to various moments in my life when I had experienced some of them. As a child, I would share my experiences with multiple family members that would warn me not to tell everyone about my experiences because people would not understand. As I grew into an adult, some of my Claires became stronger, but I always heard those family members in memory warning me to stay quiet and not discuss the information I would receive inwardly. I am grateful to you for the way that you share this vital information now with the world. I know many people experience them, as I have since childhood, but I never knew this information in your blog as to what is happening until today. Again, thank you!
Does anyone know if it’s super rare to be able to fully use all 8 regularly?
I absolutely LOVED this post and desperately needed to read this out loud for myself. I am new to mediumship and have have been struggling, wondering what Ive been doing wrong in order to use my clair senses. This break down of each has been so beneficial and liberating in allowing me to realize I am doing everything right! Thank you so much!
I’m so glad it helped! I also have a podcast episode where I talk about the 8 Clair senses – https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/lizroberta/episodes/8-Psychic-Senses-That-Come-Online-In-Your-Spiritual-Awakening-e28hd2m
Excellent article. Thank you.
Wow! Amazing article, thank you! I feel like I have experienced all but 2 of these and use 4 of them pretty regularly (clairvoyance, clairempathy, claircognizance, and clairsentinence) with clairaudience working on making itself more known so I can develop it more. I feel like I use clairvoyance the most and clairempathy second, tho it’s definitely stronger/more sensitive with specific people.
i have the ability to use numbers around me to munipulate the future in which i am and the numbers dont lie. i can tell you where you or i or anyone where they will be in years ahead or even days to hours. i have every sense you mentioned here. .
so i have to ask whats the next level of consiousness or frequency after that? is it to be the vibrations or should we say sense ? i belive this is my last existance and im not ever going to be reborn again. like i am imortal in some sense. maybe thats the sense…. hmm
born in cali on 12-03-1989 numerology 33 and i am a Turantula in primal zodiacs
Explain to me what you gon through because I also have all senses and it is a hard life to live being this way. Hang in there.
I think this article was probably posted some time ago — but it is right on time for me! I joined a FB empath group, but was gently (but sternly) encouraged to find a psychic group. I was told in that group that the definition of a psychic is one who talk to dead people (I now know no that’s not true, that’s a medium’s gift). Then when I found a psychic group, they suggested that i familiarize myself with the “clairs”. Your page was the first one I landed on and it is just PERFECT for me (i’m signing up!). Unbeknownst to me, I have many of the clairs — clairempathy, clairvoyance, clairaudience and claircognizance. Now I just need community to help me unravel who I am so that I can do what I came here to do — to help others. Wish me luck! This site is awesome!!!!
I am someone who can hear spirit like I would a living person. I hear every word. I hear the cadence and I even know by the sound if they are upset or happy, however I can hear them clearly. They always are talking about how unique I and that I am the most connected person they have ever seen. I can feel them. It feels like a heavy blanket on me. Goosebumps occasionally, but mostly I feel a heavy weight and they make my muscles jump and twitch. They don’t like me to sleep. Constantly trying to wake me up. I also can see them. I ignore everything as much as I can, but I see them too. They kinda look like a cartoon person or something. That is quite strange. I also know things. My dad committed suicide son he was kept sleeping a very long time, because every time they woke him up he would start freaking out. So he would be put to sleep again. Until he accepted what he had done to himself they would keep him sleeping. I got more. I am just gonna leave this comment here. Inwoild love for someone like me to tell me what I am and why I am this way. I have a white light. The spirits told me that I am white. Whatever that means.
Hi Missie, I just happened upon this article and comments. I have an interest in spirituality and have been taught about the need for spiritual protection and energy hygiene. As to why you are this way, you ask it as though it is a bad thing to be sensitive, many spiritual people grow up feeling different and that this is somehow unacceptable, know you have gifts – that’s what the white light is, the ability to connect to love outside the realm of the physical on Earth. It’s very likely you have been developing these gifts over many lifetimes. However, there’s also a lot of trauma on earth and so I believe it’s important to have a daily practice of self care/meditation and to protect yourself from negative entities/energies that want to feed off your light. You can pray to Archangel Michael for protection, it’s especially important to pray at night since stopping you from sleeping is a common way for unwanted entities to attack. Once protected you can contact the entities you see/hear and ask spirit for guidance on how to help them; for example, maybe they need to be sent to the light if they don’t know they are dead, but you only want supportive entities around you. This is very important as the negative entities know you have the ability to reach levels of higher consciousness and want to distract you. I recommend you connect with like-minded people such as the author of this article so you know you’re not alone. I’ve been taught that evil is real but love is more powerful than fear.
Hello! I came looking for responses and suddenly fell into your page. I do not know if im going insane but I can feel people emotions, nothing fancy but I can literally read the energy in a room. I have been called an empath but I know there is something more. Sometimes I know exactly what event or comment is making me feel sick or even sense a person in another part of the world whom I have no contact with thinking about me…
Is this Clairempathy or I’m just sensitive?
When we feel it, we feel it.
I’ve felt it when two associates died at an old-timey get together. A few yrs apart. One at 3:00-3:30 am. The other at 6:30 am.
And I knew their names.
What claire is seeing light or dark, but not seeing anything else like visions or colors? At least not while awake.
I am guessing it is still clairvoyance, since it has to do with vision, but was wondering if that is an altogether different thing, since it is coming in as light levels not colors or auras or images.
I see a whole room or an area as dark, as if the lights are dimmed, if it’s low or negative energy. It’s not seeing colors. Its seeing levels of light. If it’s really bright light or the colors are just popping in an area, then it’s because the energy is also high and this is confirmation to me. I used to think it was the actual lighting, but have come to realize, it’s not just that. Others are not seeing the lights be dimmer or brighter like I am. It’s as if I SEE energy vibes as light levels.
My memories are affected with this light thing too. If it was a bad memory I am recalling, the colors are dark, even though I am aware that it was bright light at the time. Fun happy memories are popping with colors. If I remember something, some place or someone and I think it is a neutral memory, but the colors are dark in my memory, I know there is something negative or unhappy about it down deeper in my memory.
I also have also always known that the lighting in my dreams has to do with the tone of the dream, even if it’s not obvious by the content. If it is a warning dream it’s dark colors, at night, dimly lit etc. The worst is dark black or murky water. If it is more of a guidance or encouragement dream, it will be brightly lit, mid day, bright colors, sunshine-y. Sometimes it’s even been a colorful cartoon literally a land of oz and me following the yellow brick road with kittens and my Mom. LOL. I am very good at interpreting a dream, but if I am stumped on one, I know the flavor of it just by the lighting and level of color clarity in general. I feel that how I dream is related to how I also receive waking intuition with light. I just didn’t notice that I also did it while waking, until recent years.
I had a psychic once many years ago tell me that my dreams were the key to my psychic abilities and it resonates. Dreams are a seeing thing, at least for me. I have had a lot of prophetic dreams in the past and I would see a thing happening before it did in great details.
I like the way you referred to the clairs as we all have them, they just might be turned up or down differently for each person. I feel like I have all of them to some level but this one might be my most prominent one.
One last observation. Sometimes I will see what looks like a fog or a haze when outside. I think it is also my above ability, only more generally as a heaviness in the area, but it could also be smog or dust that weather channels are not reporting on. Remember I said I live in a very hot and dry place, so mist or fog is not actually it. I tend to dismiss it as a weather type thing, but I’m throwing it out there for observations. That one seems to be suggested in movies, doesn’t it? Bad guy creeping in the fog.
I am a very old person, and throughout my life I have heard voices tell me things, like “this is the man you are going to marry” before even being introduced to my husband. I have had vivid dreams about a family member, who later died. I have been told not to do things ahead of time, and did them anyway, to my detriment. I can sense people if they are happy excited or sad and tired. I carried a child for 9 months knowing he was going to die. I know when something I have been waiting for arrives that day. What I did not know leaves as big a hole as what I have known. I did not know that my daughter was going to die suddenly. The love of my life is currently dying and I have no idea what I am going to do with myself alone after almost 60 years. Knowing is relative…
it’s a gift, and a burden. I understand exactly what you’re saying.
I have often had the sense that someone was coming to visit, (where you don’t even question it, you just tidy up) or show up at a place I was going to be in, and I’ve never been wrong. I can “hear’ the car coming up the driveway, or react to a phone call (it’s the next one, not this one), and have yet to be wrong there, either. “I just knew this was going to happen” I think, but I don’t tell anyone, they’d think I was making it up.
Sometimes as Im falling asleep I can feel someone touch my arm, or my neck, and think, “tomorrow…”
And now and then a dream that is utterly confused (right name wrong person) that sometimes a long time after will ‘happen’.
It hasn’t happened in a long time, but, then, im not dead yet. It could happen again…
Hello, I’m confused on what’s the difference between clairgustance and gustatory synesthesia because aren’t those the exact same thing? Wouldn’t clairgustance just be having a certain type of gustatory synesthesia?
I am also confused on what the difference is between clairvoyance, claircognizance, and clairsentience. I’ve had clairvoyant visions before, but I’ve also had gut feelings that I counted to be visions, so I thought claircognizance was just another way of experiencing visions. And I don’t understand what the difference is between claircognizance and clairsentience.
Hello, could you provide any insight on the following please?
Being able to feel the energy someone gives off like in radio waves repeatedly bouncing off the ground from (up to) kilometres away from the person. Feeling them through your hands and body a bit like standing in the ocean and getting knocked back by waves. And sometimes then feeling their emotion when the energy waves make their way through my body to my heart.
I’ve never been able to find anyone mention or explain anything like this.