Clairvoyance is a paranormal term originating in the French language. In French, ‘clair’ means ‘clear’, and ‘voyance’ means ‘vision’, so a ‘voyant’ is a visionary. Therefore, ‘clairvoyance’ means ‘clear vision’ and a ‘clairvoyant‘ is someone who is a ‘clear visionary.’ Unfortunately, this literal translation is neither helpful nor really accurate.
Further complicating the definition is that the term ‘clairvoyant’ has been used to refer to different things over the years. ‘Clairvoyant’ gradually emerged as a term applying to someone who displayed a range of paranormal, or psychic, abilities. The only all-encompassing definition that really fits is that a clairvoyant is someone with the ability to know things about a location, object, person, or event by means others than the five physical senses. In other words, clairvoyance refers to a form of extra-sensory perception (ESP).
Clairvoyance usually involves a clairvoyant person knowing about something that is happening right then, but far away or otherwise out of range of their physical senses. However, there have also been documented cases of a clairvoyant knowing of something that happened in either the past or the future. Because of this, clairvoyance is considered by some to be a form of precognition, or prophecy.
The clairvoyants means of retrieving this hidden information is varied. But generally it can be broken down into one of six categories. The remote viewing phenomenon is where clairvoyance is most associated. With remote reviewing a clairvoyant views a person, place, object or event. This can take the form of visual hallucination or at other times the individual will view a place, person, object or event with their minds eye.
A second form of clairvoyance is clairaudience. In clairaudience, a clairvoyant gains their information of the remote event by sound. They may hear voices or noises that other people (and recording equipment) can not. In some cases, the clairvoyant may her the voices of the dead, in which case that phenomenon may cross the line into mediumship.
The third type is called clairsentience and in this form the individual receives knowledge by touching or feeling. This may be the act of touching an object which is not present and in other cases it may be a feeling or vibration the clairvoyant may feel from another person or event or place.
Clairalience is the fourth type or form. This form, clairalience, involves the sense of smell of the clairvoyant. The knowledge, for example, of the individual (clairvoyant) is gained through the smell of flowers and grass of a meadow, the ordor of blood and gunpowder. An it is unlikely anyone else near them can detect these smells and there is no source for these various scents.
The fifth form of clairvoyance is called clairgustance. With this form an individual who has no food within their mouth can taste various flavors, even though there is no apparent sauce. The clairvoyant can also identify the flavors from a distance.
The final and sixth sense of clairvoyance is the form of Claircognizance and it is also the most difficult to explain and define. An individuals ability with this form is to have the knowledge of a person, place, object or event at a distance, but they cannot explain how they have this knowledge. They just do. The catch-all category of clairvoyance is, to some extent, considered to be Claircognizance.
The occurrences of individuals who are clairvoyant have been documented throughout history, by different cultures worldwide. Clairvoyance has been accepted into some of the worlds most widespread religions.
In Buddhism, for instance is it believed that clairvoyance is capable for humans to achieve in an advanced level of meditation. It is referenced to the ability to feel vibrations projected by others.
Clairvoyance in Catholicism has been consider a miraculous ability. A disciple of Saint Francis, Saint Claire, had a vision over five hundred years ago. In this vision she witnessed the death of Saint Francis while she was miles away at the time. She was made the Saint of television. The literal meaning of television is seeing over a distance.
There are many skeptics, of course, about the existence of clairvoyance. But it is part of human nature for individuals to deny the existence of something because they do not understand it. Not too far back in our resent history the scientist denied there was such a thing as electricity and magnetism.
Whatever the skeptics say, they haven�t been able to disprove clairvoyance. The increase in evidence shows there exist many genuine clairvoyants in the world. Scientist, parapsychologist, and the public have become more open minded and accept the existence clairvoyance.
Despite the fact that we do not quite understand how it works, this is no reason to ignore its existence. It has been suggested that in the distant past, all humans used to be clairvoyant but for some reason lost their powers. It is thought that everybody could again become clairvoyant if they make the effort and choose to develop these powers.
