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.

Clairvoyance involves, usually, a clairvoyant. A clairvoyant has the ability of knowing about what is happening at the moment, but that is far away from their physical senses. There are documented cases of clairvoyants viewing events that happen either in the future or in the past. It has been considered that clairvoyance is a form of prophecy or precognition because of this ability.

The means by which a clairvoyant learns this information varies, but as a general rule can be broken down into one of six forms or types. It is clairvoyance that is most associated with this first type or form, the remote viewing phenomenon. The clairvoyant, in remote viewing, sees an object, location, event or person hidden from them. Sometimes this is in the form of visual hallucination, other times the clairvoyant viewing something using 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 form or type is called clairsentience. With clairsentience an individual gains their knowledge with feeling and touch. This may include the feeling an object that are not present. This is more of a feeling or ‘vibe’ that a clairvoyant gets from events, locations or people that are out of the clairvoyants visual view.

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 is the sixth and the last form of clairvoyance and the most difficult to explain or to define. In this form of clairvoyance the individual has knowledge of a object, location, person or event that is out of their viewing range. They cannot explain where they have gained this knowledge. They just know it. Claircognizance, to some extent, is a catch-all description of clairvoyance.

Clairvoyance is known around the world and is something which figures into every one of the world’s cultures. It is also something which makes up a part of many major 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 has often been considered as miraculous in Catholicism. Five hundred plus years ago, a disciple of Saint Frances name Saint Claire, had a vision of Saint Frances’s death. Even though she was miles during that time. The Catholic Church sainted Saint Claire making her the patron saint of television. Literally television means seeing over a distance.

However, no one has been able to definitely prove the non-existence of clairvoyance and the evidence in favor of its existence is mounting. Overall, the public is becoming more accepting of the idea that clairvoyance is a real phenomenon.

We might not quite understand how it works, but this doesn’t mean that clairvoyance should be discounted. Many believe that with the proper training and effort, anyone can develop clairvoyance and other psychic abilities.