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.

Complicating the definition further is the title ‘clairvoyant’ and has been used as a reference to other things in the years past. The word clairvoyant was gradually developed to apply to an individual who exhibited a number of psychic or paranormal abilities. The only total encompassing definition that truly fits is that a clairvoyant is an individual who has clairvoyance powers, i.e. the ability, outside of the five senses, to know things about an object, event, person or a location. And refers to a form of (ESP) extra-sensory perception.

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.

The second form is clairaudience. In this form the clairvoyant receives information remotely by sound of the event. Hearing noises or voices which other people and recording equipment cannot. Such as hearing voices of the dead and this phenomenon may cross over into the realm of mediums.

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.

The fourth type is clairalience. In clairalience, the person gains knowledge of remote locations and events through their sense of smell. For example, they may smell the grass and wildflowers of a spring meadow, followed by gunpowder and the tang of blood. Of course, no one else around can smell these things, and there is no apparent source for the 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 sixth and final form of clairvoyance is claircognizance. This is perhaps the most hard to define or explain. In claircognizance, a person knows something about a remote person, object, location, or event, but can’t explain how they gained that knowledge?they just know it. To some extent, claircognizance is a catch-all category of clairvoyance.

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.

In Catholicism, clairvoyance has often been considered miraculous. Over five hundred years ago, Saint Claire, a disciple of Saint Francis, had a vision in which she witnessed Saint Francis’s death, despite the fact that she was miles away at the time. Interestingly, the Catholic Church made Saint Claire the patron saint of television. ‘Television’ literally means ’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.

Technorati Tags: , , , , ,