Clairaudience, Clairvoyance, Clairsentience, and Claircognizance

This post began as “Precognitive Blues, Part 3: Astrology, Tarot, Synchronicity, and the Trickster.” My description of “The Clair’s” grew so long that it demanded its own post before Part 3 shows up. (I also discovered a Part 4, so that series will continue until I learn otherwise. You can find Part 1 here, and Part 2 here.)

By “The Clair’s,” I Mean:

Clairaudience: hearing sounds or words beyond “normal” frequency, usually with greater insights into the apparent reality. Telepathy and animal communication also fall under the heading of clairaudience.

In sessions, for me, clairaudience comes as a specific word, name or phrase, either right before the call, when I scan a client, or as the client speaks. Sometimes what they don’t say shouts much louder than their voice. Other times it comes to me as a kind of stage whisper or voiceover. When I bring up the word, name or phrase, it clicks in all sorts of insights for the person.

Clairaudience happens to me outside of sessions, too, but at least in a session I have permission to share intuitive hits! Not everyone welcomes that information, and conversations with liars or those in denial become especially boisterous inside my head. When someone lies to me, the true words echo louder and louder until I need to decide what to do with them. In the absence of “real world” evidence, it feels nasty to accuse someone of lying. For this reason, I do my best to avoid habitual liars or those in deep denial.

Fruitless confrontation or blaming myself for having “negative thoughts about someone” feels bad either way. Autoimmune reactions are very common in this scenario! I have many, many clairaudient Lyme clients turning against themselves their anger, frustration and negative thoughts about the narcissists or gaslighter’s in their lives.

It takes courage to allow yourself to live and hear from a place of truth rather than beating yourself up because you hear something so different from the spoken words. Of course, this creates other complications: if you suspect you have clairaudient awareness, then you need to make sure you examine your own Shadow and projections. An old post called “Rejection, Projection and Reflection,” can help with this.

My favorite method of clairaudience occurs most mornings in the hypnagogic state between sleep and waking. I hear song lyrics or a melody. When I search the full lyrics of those songs I find exact answers to my questions or concerns.

This can also happen with “radio roulette” where songs playing in stores or the car shock you awake because they seem to answer an internal question you just asked. The “random” play of Pandora, Alexa, or Spotify gives recently passed loved ones a way to send love or other messages to those they left behind. This is very, very common! Although not technically clairaudience (since the music plays in “normal reality”), the messages coming through the music bring a deeper resonance and awareness than ordinary listening. If this happens to you, you’ll sense it: goosebumps, an inner “Whoa!” or a delightful wonder help to flag clairaudient messages. If you keep hearing the same song over and over, you might also want to explore why.

Clairaudience does not always involve words. Sound is a frequency. Language speaks to us through vibration as much as the dictionary meaning of words. Sometimes words get in the way. Pay attention to any unusual sounds, positive or negative. Does something sound like a bell or an alarm? A knock? Cornish and Welsh miners in the Wild West relied on “the knockers” to guide them to veins of silver or gold, or to warn of danger.

In 2008 when my then husband and I moved to Petaluma, California, a persistent rattle followed me around. It moved through our dishwasher, washing machine, dryer, fan, and finally to a loose piece of siding outside our apartment. Each time, the repairman fixed one rattle source, it moved to the next one. Da-da-da-da-ret, da-da-da-da-ret. Over and over, it was maddening! Tania Marie and I spent Halloween Weekend with our friend Karen at her family’s vacation home in Bodega Bay.

This story is told much more completely in my chapter of Stories from the Messengers, but the upshot is that as I was telling Karen and Tania about this mysterious rattle, I sensed Tania’s tortoise Gaia tapping her cage in time with the rattle. At first, no one else heard it, and then Gaia started tapping in the 3D world, not just internally tapping. Then I heard a loud rattle from the kitchen. I ran out to find the clock stopped at 11:11, even though that was not the time. Recognizing this as some kind of message about my then in progress novel, Schizandra and the Gates of Mu, I said, “Thanks for the insights, but I don’t speak rattle! Give it to me in a dream or in a book.”

After that weekend, I had a series of dreams and insights that brought my manuscript “down to earth.” That Monday, our maintenance man just happened to walk by as the piece of rogue siding rattled. He fixed this loudest and most insistent “da-da-da-da-ret,” and I never heard it again. In other words, if you receive a sound or clairaudient message you don’t understand, you can ask for a revised delivery method. You can say, “I don’t speak rattle. Give it to me some other way.” You can request a translation. Just don’t ignore the message.

Clairvoyance: seeing objects, events, people or visions not present in the “normal” range of vision.

Clairvoyance is also used as a catchall term for the various clair’s, indicating acute intuitive or psychic awareness. For me, clairvoyance most often appears in dreams or during past life readings. In both cases, I “see” the situation as a movie. Many times I later learn that dream “symbols” were actually remote views of future events, either for me or for someone else. Other times I “see” an image, glyph, or Tarot card that acts as shorthand for a lengthy message.

I have clients who “see” internet search terms. Some clients and I also see colors, auras, energies, or visions. Since childhood, I’ve seen “flashes” of people together who later become a couple. While I can focus my inner sight for medical intuitive readings, my flashes, visions, colors, auras and energies usually arise spontaneously. This seems common even with practicing psychics — you can focus the camera, but you don’t know what you’ll see until you see it.

Most people are visual learners, with vision as their primary sense. When I “see” for someone else, whatever I see tends to reflect that person’s symbol code. Not always, but often: the vision won’t make sense to me, so I describe it as well as I can. Sometimes I see a map with circled or flashing location. When I mention the location, it means something to the person — either they came from there, know someone there, or have considered moving there.

If I see a Tarot card or other meta-symbol in a dream, it often flashes or sparkles like a silly cartoon, in order to call more attention to itself. When doing actual Tarot or Astrology Readings outside of dreams, my eyes fixate on specific points. In the case of Tarot, repeating patterns in the cards jump out at me. In a natal or transit chart, my eyes dart right to what turns out to be the key element that provides the answer.

Sometimes this happens in “real life,” too. I’ll look at someone supposedly very sick, and see them glowing or radiating health, and I recognize the deeper healing in process. Other times, I see someone considered “beautiful” by society’s standards, but need to control my own revulsion due to the distortions and grotesque movements of energy. These people later get busted as major pedophiles, rapists or murderers. Society says, “I can’t believe it,” but clairvoyant people often see the energies or superimposed faces of their victims or crimes.

Just like “hearing voices in your head,” “seeing things that aren’t there” can make you feel a little nuts. If you have no context for these visions, the contrast between intuitive insights and accepted reality can drive you crazy. It helps in these cases to find at least one spiritually aware friend, confidant or professional intuitive/psychic who can hold space for you to explore your Second Sight. Having another person spontaneously validate your vision or offer clarity on it can make the difference between isolation and confidence, between gratitude for guidance and a trip to the loony bin. Trust your intuition on whom to tell, though. Telling the wrong person can undermine you, damage your self esteem or worse.

If you find yourself troubled by suspected clairvoyance, I recommend some easy prayers and mantras. Ask for signs, but also ask to recognize and receive those signs. Too many people ask for signs and then miss the pileup of synchronicities, dreams and over-the-top efforts to get their attention. If your answer involves something part of you would like to remain blurry, then you’ll probably miss some of the signs. Also, if you have extreme attachment to one answer or meaning, then you need to emphasize the “recognize and receive those signs” part. Otherwise, you can twist signs to mean whatever you want them to mean, then face a crisis of faith when things don’t pan out the way your “Guides” told you they would.

I’ve mentioned before how useful I find the Serenity Prayer: “God grant me the Serenity to accept the things I cannot change, Courage to change the things I can, and the Wisdom to know the difference.” You can modify that to reflect your spiritual beliefs, addressing your own subconscious, Higher Self, the Universe or whoever you trust. The important part is asking for spiritual guidance in the form of non-attachment (Serenity), Courage and Wisdom. Some visions come to help you shift the future. Others come to prepare you for an upcoming challenge or opportunity. It pays to pay attention.

Literally, it pays to pay attention. If you find yourself strapped for cash, start looking for signs and symbols in your life. Abundance and free flowing energy is your natural state. If you feel a pinch right now, you’re either processing something in a “not yet” phase, or you’re blocking prosperity and opportunities trying to reach you. Looking at waking life as a dream, filled with symbols and each person also representing an aspect of yourself can free your flow again.

Clairsentience means clear sensation.

Less recognized than clairaudience or clairvoyance, clairsentience actually occurs more often. You feel things in your body, heart and soul. People who say, “You could cut the air with a knife” are clairsensing the energy residue of whatever happened in that location before they arrived. A fight, a murder, a tryst: when you get that funny feeling of something different than the apparent reality, your clairsentience has kicked in. Some people refer to this as “Spidey Senses.” Other people receive a jolt of information when they touch someone.

Empaths are extremely clairsentient. By definition, empaths feel and take on the energies, emotions, illnesses or moods of their environment. Although you can use empathic awareness as a gift, it doesn’t always feel like a gift! I highly recommend Dr. Judith Orloff’s The Empath’s Survival Guide. I’ve also written many articles for Empaths. Understanding how and when you pick up information through your feelings and body gives you needed clarity on what to do with that information. Otherwise, you become a psychic sponge, sopping up anything and everything around you.

As with clairaudience, I find most of my clients with autoimmune issues are extreme Empaths. Both of my guided journals help people discern “what’s mine and what’s not?” Lyme Journal: A Guided Recovery Workbook speaks more to people with autoimmune issues, Lyme Disease, co-infections and/or Chronic Fatigue. The Second Chakra Healing Journal supports people whose body presents challenges with fertility, hormonal balance, sexuality, bladder/UTI/kidney issues, prostate health and/or creative flow. I ask different questions in different ways, but both guided journals help you untangle the complex web of clairsentience disguised as symptoms.

As with the rattle example in the clairaudient section, you can ask for messages to arrive in other ways. Keep in mind that guidance tends to come in subtle ways first. Symptoms appear when you’ve ignored the whispers, shouts, nudges, signs, and symbols. The body steps in and says, “I’ll get her attention!” If you pay more attention to the subtle feelings and biofeedback mechanisms of your body, then symptoms can fade away. They can become like those inflatable lane guards for kids in bowling alleys. “Bumper bowling” can keep you on track if you honor your symptoms to bounce you back to striking range.

It also helps to pay attention to good feelings, especially if you prefer to live in an “ease and please” world rather than a trauma/drama tragedy or thriller. Love heals. If you find yourself comfortable, soft and secure, cultivate relationships with whoever or whatever triggers those feelings in you. Explore how you might strengthen those qualities in yourself, but do pay attention to unusual feelings. For example: if something would normally scare you but you feel strangely calm, that’s significant. If something would normally make you huff off in anger, but compassion floods your heart, this, too, tells you something.

As always, discernment remains key, but your body tells you many things. One caveat: a healing crisis or Herxheimer reaction, in which symptoms flare up when you address the root cause, does not mean you’re on the wrong track. It does mean slow down. Be gentler with yourself. Your body wants you to take your time with this; find out why.

Of the clair’s clairsentience often feels the least clear, because it intertwines so much with our own lived experience. Having a word or vision flash through your mind announces itself, whereas many people blame a stomachache on bad food combining or nerves. When in doubt, assume a symptom means something. If you auto-blame or judge yourself for anxiety or health issues, try giving yourself the benefit of the doubt. Read the Empath posts on this blog. Practice good energy hygiene. Ask, “Is this mine?” Then pay attention to the answer. If it’s not yours, let it go. If it is yours, ask for more clarity. Again, I designed the guided journals to assist with this, because clairsentience is often not so clair.

In case anyone wonders, I am an off the charts Empath. It allows me to do my work, to feel someone in Australia from my living room in Kalamazoo, Michigan, but I’ve spent my entire life learning how to manage this “gift.” I learned the information I share in the articles and journals from the School of Hard Knocks, and some of those knocks were reallllly hard! You don’t need to do things the hard way. 😉

Claircognizance refers to knowing the future or the hidden truth without any evidence or clues to lead you there. You just know what you know.

Claircognizance often occurs in combination with at least one of the other clair’s, but it doesn’t need to. For me, claircognizance arrives as an irrevocable, unshakable inner clarity about a situation, person or event. I don’t know how I know what I know. The visions, words or feelings come after the knowing. They support it, but they don’t trigger it. Sometimes I just know.

I find claircognizance occurs more often in people with strong Uranus, Aquarius, Mercury, Gemini, and Virgo placements in their natal chart. Neptune/Pisces can also bring claircognizance, but Neptune/Pisces has a reputation for illusions/delusions/Glamour/deception, so you need to be careful with Neptune/Pisces. If you’ve done your own Shadow Work and you don’t have a Neptune Square Venus transit, you can often glean major insights from Neptunian claircognizance. If everything seems dreamy and fantasy-like, then your message probably means something bigger and truer in the cosmic sense. The real life details blur with Neptune/Pisces.

The most claircognizant people I know happen to have very prominent Pholus placements in their natal charts. I’ve written on Pholus before as it relates to me, but I’ve since gathered more information as it relates to clients and friends. Pholus is a Centaur associated with “small thing, BIG EFFECT.” People with very strong Pholus placements, or who have exact aspects to Pholus either through transits or synastry with someone else, tend to extrapolate the BIG EFFECT from the small thing. We do this so rapidly that we cannot explain why or how the small thing exploded in our heads into the BIG EFFECT; we just know, and we can’t un-know.

Pholus and Uranus feel volatile. The kind of knowing that comes with them explodes into consciousness. Whereas Scorpio’s can be very psychic, they tend to know in a more emotional, clairsentient way. Mercury, or quicksilver in alchemy, also brings sudden mental changes. Virgos, ruled by Mercury, tend to have less precognizance than Gemini’s simply because the Virgo process moves slower. When the big picture clicks in for a Virgo, though, that effect can be sudden. Gemini’s tend to flit so fast among different streams of information and details that sometimes the answer slips past the filters: boom! The common thread with claircognizance as distinguished from the other clair’s is the sudden awareness that comes “out of nowhere.”

Living with the Clair’s

A 1998 traumatic brain injury removed my rational side for four years. Some people might argue it removed it forever, but I do operate with whole brain awareness. Most of Western society favors the left brain, rational, “show me” realm and ignores or mocks the Unseen or Unknown as fantasy or mental illness. Context makes a huge difference. If you surround yourself with doubters, then you will doubt yourself. If you imbibe in fear and paranoia, then any intuitive awareness you experience will carry that fear/paranoia vibe. At some point, you need to decide how you wish to live your life. What brings better results for you? How do you feel operating at the various levels?

Aim for authenticity, but also when you open to other levels of awareness, your own Shadow seeps out. Awakening the clair’s can feel scary, isolating and in some cases does trigger nervous breakdowns. I like Robert Moss’s advice in his dream books, “Ask, ‘What do I need to know? What do I need to do?” Then follow that advice. Keep a journal, but keep it private. You need a safe place to unload your thoughts, fears, hopes and dreams, free from other’s projections.

It also helps to talk with someone who walks this path. Pray for guidance on with whom to share your story and experiences. A shaman, priest, astrologer, intuitive coach, psychic, or Jungian psychoanalyst could all offer a variety of support. Lee Harris offers monthly YouTube videos , books and other resources. My blog contains so many articles on fringe topics. I also recommend Robert Moss’s book, The Three Only Things. If your clair’s came as a result of UFO, owl or ET encounters, you might find support in the Messengers series. If you’d like a private intuitive reading from me, please feel free to contact me.

Wherever you are in your life, then I wish you well on the spiral journey. The clair’s can enhance and improve that journey, especially when you learn more how to engage the gifts.