The paranormal term clairvoyance originated in the French language. And can be broken down as, in French, ‘clair’ meaning clear, ‘voyance’ meaning vision and ‘voyant ‘ being a visionary. Therefore being a clairvoyant is one who has clear vision. This is, however, a literal translation and not really accurate or very helpful.

To complicate the meaning further the word clairvoyant has be used in reference to other different things during the years. The term clairvoyant has emerged gradually and applied to an individual displaying a range of abilities in the psychic or the paranormal. An all around definition which fit’s a clairvoyant is and individual who has the ability to know information about places, events, objects or people without using the five physical senses. Clairvoyance, however, does refer to a form of extra-sensory perception, also known as ESP.

A clairvoyant is usually involved in clairvoyance and that individual knows when something is happening at the moment and far from the range of that clairvoyants physical senses. There are, however, documented cases of a clairvoyant knowing of things happening either in the past or the future. Resulting in clairvoyance being considered by some as a form of prophecy or precognition.

A clairvoyant may receive this knowledge through various channels, but there are six means which are the most common. The most common of all and the one with which clairvoyance is most strongly associated is known as remote viewing. This consists of seeing a person, place or thing beyond the range of their five senses. This could be a vision or a mental image.

The second type is call clairaudience. In this particular for a clairvoyant receives their information by remote event by sound. The individual may hear noises or voices that other people or recording equipment cannot. The clairvoyant may sometimes hear the voices of the dead and in this case that phenomenon may cross the line and be the form of a medium.

Thirdly, this type of clairvoyance is clairsentience. In this form the individual gains information through feeling and touch. Some clairvoyants may need to actually touch an object that is not present. In other cases a feeling or vibration maybe felt by a clairvoyant from a remote distance from a person, location or event.

A fourth type is clairalience. In this form an individual gets the knowledge of places and events through their sense of smell. An example, they smell flowers and grass of a meadow in the spring, scent of blood or gun powder and no one around them can detect these smells and there is no apparent source to account for these smells.

Clairgustance refers to information in the form of taste. The clairvoyant may taste flavors which come from no apparent source and taste things from a distance.

Claircognizance refers to a clairvoyant ‘just knowing’ something without any explanation for their having received this knowledge. There is no sensory analogue to claircognizance, making it a difficult phenomenon to explain.

Many documentations of occurrences of people considered clairvoyants exist throughout history. From different cultures worldwide and has been incorporated into some religions of the world.

For example, in Buddhism, clairvoyance is considered achievable to all humans at advanced levels of meditation. And it also refers to the ability of feeling vibrations put out by others.

There are many skeptics who scoff at the possibility of clairvoyance, just as there are with other psychic abilities. It’s a natural inclination