Exploring the Five Supernatural Senses: Do You Have Them?

Posted on November 04, 2014

Everyone is a little psychic. What supernatural superpowers do you have?

It’s kind of a trick question, because everyone has them, or at least one of them, to a greater or lesser degree. If you’re just entering the world of ESP—extra-sensory perception—then you might think that being a psychic and being a clairvoyant are pretty much the same thing. After all, that’s how Hollywood portrays it, right? It’s really not that simple.

To be psychic, or to use psychic powers, means that you can seemingly get information from outside the realms of reality. It’s easy to see how a psychic can be confused with a clairvoyant. Now, many psychics do use clairvoyance to get their information, but the two really are very separate methods.

What are the 5 senses?

Clairvoyance is rooted in the French language and means ‘clear seeing,’ and it wasn’t until the mid-1800’s that it started being interchanged with having psychic gifts. Clairvoyance is its own skill or talent, and only one way that a psychic can use to retrieve information from other realms.

Just as we have five senses—sight, sound, sense, taste, smell—there are five heightened senses too: clairvoyance (sight, or clear seeing), clairaudience (sound, or clear hearing), clairsentience or claircognizance (clear sensing or clear knowing), clairgustance (clear tasting), and clairalience (clear smelling).

Have you ever seen something, but went to take a closer look at it, and it wasn’t there? That could have been clairvoyance. Perhaps you have heard something, even though you were alone; that could have been clairaudience. If you’ve ever had deja vu, or sensed something before it happened, that could be clairsentience or claircognizance.

Have you smelled someone’s perfume or aftershave, maybe the scent of pipe tobacco, or someone cooking? Perhaps you’ve had a taste in your mouth that reminded you of something, even though you haven’t been eating. Those could be clairalience or clairgustance. The latter two are more rare, I’ll admit, but they’re still very real super-senses, and people do have them. Which one of these do you think you have?

We all have psychic senses to a greater or lesser extent, but that does not mean we are all going to be great visionaries. Like painting a picture, you can learn the mechanics of color and brushwork, but that doesn’t mean you are going to be Picasso. These are talents, and like any other talent, they have to be honed. Some of you will have more of a natural flair for it than others. Some of you will be more passionate about wanting to learn, and grow. Let’s take a closer look.

Clairvoyance and clairaudience are psychic senses that involve seeing and hearing from a different realm. Have you ever experienced this?

What is Clairvoyance?

Some people say that clairvoyance is associated with the pituitary gland, while others say it is the pineal gland. Both of these glands are part of the endocrine system, which is a group of glands that helps the body function efficiently. It’s not really known exactly what the pineal gland does, although light does activate it, and it does help to keep the body’s natural rhythms regulated. Some say this is the third eye, the eye clairvoyants use to see things.

The location of the third eye is often shown to be on the forehead, between and slightly higher than the eyebrows. This is the position of the brow chakra. Basically, the ‘third eye’ is the mystical way that clairvoyants can see things. Its precise location isn’t as important as being able to open it and use it to ‘see’ things.

What is Clairaudience?

This is another form of channeling, or receiving information from other realms. Remember, a clairvoyant sees things, a clairaudient hears them. Sometimes clairaudience has a logical explanation; perhaps your hearing is just extra sharp, and you can hear very high or very low frequencies that other people cannot hear.

Clairaudience can be external or internal. External clairaudience is when the sounds are actually there, but most people cannot hear them. Internal clairaudience is the hearing of messages from other realms, or from the past or the future.

People who bring messages from those who have died are called mediums. Television personalities like John Edward, Lisa Williams, Theresa Caputo, and Colin Fry use internal clairaudience to bring messages to their audiences.

What is Clairsentience?

Clairsentience and claircognizance are different aspects of the same thing. With this skill, you don’t see or hear things, so much as you sense or know them. The easiest way to try to explain this is that it is like knowing how something looks but you’ve never seen it before, or clearly remembering something that didn’t happen to you.

You don’t need to be holding a banana to know how it is shaped, or what color it is, or even how it smells or tastes. You just know. Clairsentience works like that.

Often, someone who has this skill will hold an object that belonged to someone else to connect with the information. This type of work is called psychometry. People who are clairsentient are very good at reading atmospheres, too. Have you ever walked into a room and sensed that there’s been an argument? You didn’t see or hear the argument, but you can sense the tension.

That kind of experience is an example of clairsentience at work. People who sense things in this way are often called empaths. An empath can feel other people’s feelings—and if you are an empath, it is very important that you learn how to shield yourself from those feelings, so that you can discern what emotions are yours, and what are coming from someone—or somewhere—else.

Clairalience is the psychic sense that allows you to smell something from a different realm. Your late grandfather\'s pipe tobacco or a meal being cooked in a different country.
Clairalience is the psychic sense that allows you to smell something from a different realm like your late grandfather’s pipe tobacco or a meal being cooked in a different country.

What are Clairalience and Clairgustance?

These two are probably the least known of the supernatural senses, but they do exist, and there are those who use them. Perhaps you have experienced one of them, too. Some people say that our sense of smell is the strongest of all of our senses; a whiff of a scent can often invoke a memory recall faster than anything else. Someone using clairalience can smell things from other realms.

If you watch supernatural films, you may hear the characters talk about smelling sulfur or other odors. That’s a form of clairalience. Another is, as I mentioned earlier, when you smell a scent associated with someone who is not with you. It may be that they are in a different geographical location, and their spirit is close, or it may be that they have died, and they are sending their scent to let you know that they are close to you.

Clairgustance is probably the hardest one to pinpoint, but it is still a supernatural sense. Chefs taste their dishes as they prepare them not only to determine how palatable they are, but also to see how the energies combine. I know a potter who licks her clay. She says the clay doesn’t have a flavor in and of itself—other than being earthy—but she can tell whether the work is going harmoniously or not as she sculpts by the way that the clay ‘tastes’ to her.

Can you think of other areas where supernatural smells and tastes might be used?

All of these things are really cool, and you probably recognize some of them in your own life. If you do, there are ways that you can start to practice using them, to strengthen them. Just remember that in using these skills, you’re also agreeing to the responsibility that comes with them.

You may see or hear something that is undesirable. You may have dreams that foretell of things that are less than pleasant. That’s all part and parcel of working with the supernatural.

Next time you are in a group of people, try a few experiments to see what one of your senses may be supernatural. Look at people, and see if you can see their energy field, or their aura. If you can, you may be able to develop clairvoyance. In conversation, try to see if you can determine what people are going to say next, or where the thread of the conversation is going to go.

If you can do that, you may be able to develop clairaudience. When standing in line, or sitting behind someone who has their back to you, see if you can with your thoughts, get them to turn around. If you can, then you may be able to develop clairsentience. Another thing you can do with clairsentience is hold something that belongs to someone, and see if you can pick up facts you didn’t know about that person.

Finally, with cliaralience and clairgustance, pay attention to what you smell, and what you taste, and examine whether those aromas and flavors are in the here and now, or if you are picking them up from somewhere else.

If you do find that you start to know things that are beyond the normal sensory perception, be sure that you don’t just blurt out what you know. Not everyone will welcome your insight. To tell someone what is ahead of them or what you sense around them before they are ready to receive the information may not only be upsetting for both of you, it’s just plain bad manners. Not everyone believes in the supernatural senses, and even some who do may be frightened of them. Trust me—I learned the hard way!


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