Claircognizance, Clairsentience, and Clairalience

"Third Eye Chakra" - by Melen @ deviantART

Claircognizance, clairsentience, and clairalience are the lesser known clairs. They tend to be a bit confusing since names and definitions seem to change from source to source. We just selected the names/definitions we resonate most with.

If you're looking for information on how to develop these skills, check out our article: "Developing Your Psychic Skills."

Claircognizance is a very useful but unpopular skill. It means "clear knowing." In short, you have a knowing about things; the only problem is, you never seem to know HOW you know. You just do. It seems to come from nowhere. Some people mistake claircognizance for intuition or gut feelings, but there's a difference between the two. Intuition is more based on feelings or emotions, whereas claircognizance is focused more on specific bits of knowledge, such as knowing details of a stranger's relationship situation or knowing deep down that you have lived in another world. Claircognizance usually comes to you from spirit. It's basically your guides or other higher entities dumping information into your head. 

Clairsentience is a tricky clair because there are a handful of different definitions. Some people describe it as a synonym for empathy, but clairsentience - or "clear feeling" - revolves more around the senses, rather than the emotions. Those with the skill tend to experience a lot of sensations such as tingles, goosebumps, and hair rising on the back of the neck; these sensations usually indicate the presence of a spirit or spirit energy. Some may even feel things associated with the spirit, such as pain from a certain disease or injury they had. Clairsentience in its more developed state allows the individual to extend his or her senses beyond the range of a normal human, therefore being able to pick up on certain things at a distance.

Clairalience is probably the least known and least popular clair since it doesn't give as much information as clairvoyance, clairaudience, claircognizance and clairsentience. In short, it means "clear smelling," and is therefore the ability to receive impressions of certain smells from spirit. This skill is really only used as a "bonus," to help the reader come up with a bit of extra information. A frequent example is that of smelling cigarette smoke around a deceased grandfather who smoked, or smelling a certain perfume associated with a grandmother. There are also many reports of people smelling flowers, in which case they associate the scent with the presence of higher beings such as angels. 
Different smells can arrive unexpectedly, so it can be difficult to determine their meaning at first. When this happens, consult your intuition or perhaps even speak out to the scent and see if you get any response from the spirit attached to it. Smell is very subjective, so you need to spend time figuring out what it means to you.

Our next article will discuss how to actually develop these skills.

Lulu and Finny xx