What is psychic ability?

4th August 2024. Reading Time: 7 minutes General, Stuff paranormal investigators need to know. 1392 page views. 0 comments.

A look at psychic ability and the different kinds.

When you first start diving into the world of paranormal investigation, you may start to notice that you feel or sense things. People soon wonder if they might be a little bit psychic. Then of course there are people that feel they have had psychic abilities since they were born. Then there are people like me that feel like they are psychic repellants where not much seems to happen at all. To further explore psychic abilities and how we can potentially access them, it is important to first understand exactly what psychic ability is. Most psychic abilities are referred to as a form of extrasensory perception (ESP), otherwise known as a sixth sense. Be it through sight, sound, smell, taste, touch or other ways, it means that a person can obtain information they would not have otherwise known by using this sixth sense.

There are thought to be 4 main intuitive senses. Some people have all of these abilities, while others only have one. Some of us don't think we have any at all. Maybe when reading this, you may resonate with some of these, or you have had an experience with similar components. The common ground is that most people that I have spoken to who have these abilities will tell me that they all were born with them and that they have had these abilities all their lives. Some can even remember experiences from when they were a child. Many of you will agree in saying that a lot of people believe that everyone is capable of accessing these abilities, and that it is something within all of us. It seems to be more of a case that some people just find it easier than others. I will be exploring the specifics of these senses in a lot more detail in the following chapters, however, the basis of the main intuitive senses is:

Clairvoyance (clear seeing)

A person may see things manifest with their own eyes. Sometimes they can’t tell the difference between a psychic vision, and what is real life. They often have precognitive dreams and images with information are presented in their minds. A precognitive dream shows the dreamer a vision of the future. There are many accounts all over the world of people dreaming of a certain place they have never seen or heard of before. Months later they suddenly find themselves in that exact same place. Some people believe they are warned about future events in their dreams. There are reports of people who dream of natural disasters days before they occur. Another form of a precognitive dream is considered to be a sign that you are on the right path. Some take it as a message from spirit or spirit guides. Some consider it just a coincidence. When the event itself happens and you experience it in waking life, you have a sense of déjà vu because everything is familiar.

Clairaudience (clear hearing)

A person may audibly hear a message physically in their ear or mentally within their mind. Some may confuse this with a disembodied voice. The difference here would be that this voice is not something that could be caught on a recording as it is not heard by another person in the room. The person is hearing it within their mind. As it is quite literally a voice in your head, some people can become confused and feel that they are experiencing some form of psychosis. Psychotic episodes are a form of escaping reality whereas psychic experiences are described as adding an additional function to your existing reality. A lot of people with psychic abilities will tell you they often feel outcast or told they are crazy because people don't understand. When you hear someone saying they are hearing voices in their head, it is the natural conclusion we jump to. While it is something that should be considered in certain circumstances, it is important to look at the bigger picture.

Clairsentience (clear feeling)

A person can physically feel and sense the emotions of another person or unseen energy including pain. Usually, they will describe themselves as an empath. We all have empathy on a certain level. When our friend cries, we often cry too. If our children are hurting, we feel every tear regardless of if we are an empath or not. We all have some element of empathy programmed into us. It is just more sensitive in some than it is in others. With this in mind that it would make sense that people can feel the emotions of a spirit. Remember a lot of people believe that a spirit is the energy or soul of a person who was once living. How many times have you been on an investigation, and someone will suddenly become very emotional or upset? You ask them “what is wrong?” They can’t explain it. They feel sadness, grief and may even shed physical tears. All they can tell you is that it is not their grief. It is like they are picking it up from someone else. It is referred to as emotional transference.

Claircognizance (clear knowing)

A person just knows information almost like a gut feeling that they feel deep within their soul is correct. A gut feeling at times is also described as a form of intuition. It is just knowing what is going to happen. While some people believe they have a psychic gift that allows them to pick up on these things, Science tells us that everyone is capable of intuition in some capacity. Often these feelings, emotions and predictions are made from the brain processing information and comparing it to what is already in your subconscious. The brain has made its decision, but you are not consciously aware of it yet. It is referred to as intuitive thinking. It is described as a very fast process and again it is something that happens on an unconscious level. Intuitive thinking is thought to be quite reliable as it is judging a situation based on your own experiences and comparing them to what is happening now. An important thing here is that once your experience in a particular area increases, your brain has more of a reference point and your intuition improves. This makes sense when you think of psychics who work with intuition. They are constantly training and working on their abilities and therefore their experiences, so is this how they get better with accuracy over time?

While the above 4 are considered to be the main intuitive senses, there are other ways in which people say they can receive messages from the other side. One of these ways is what is called Clairscent.

Clairscent (smelling)

This is the ability to smell something that is not what the physical nose is smelling. It is a smell a person suddenly picks up on mentally that is completely out of place and is often considered to be from a spirit or a type of psychic impression. Quite often this presents in the form of perfume, cigar smoke and cooking. Most importantly it is something that would be significant to the spirit and the message they are trying to communicate. I remember my Grandfather smelling of old spice aftershave. After he passed, there were occasions when I would out of the blue suddenly smell his aftershave. To me, it gave me comfort that he was around and making himself known. If he was really around or if my brain was simply giving me comfort, in that moment, it didn't really matter. While I do not have the ability of clairscent, most people will have had similar experiences. Smell of course can be a very tricky thing to distinguish, especially on a subconscious level.

For some people with these abilities, things just happen. They feel their mind’s eye or their sixth sense is open all the time and that spirits visit them and are always around making themselves known. For others, they have had to work a bit harder to be able to focus on their abilities - which is not uncommon as again people have different levels and sensitivities. A lot of people use meditation to not only focus on their abilities but also to develop and become more in tune. There is a belief that anyone is capable of accessing these abilities and this what the field of parapsychology often goes on to test.

So now that we have the basics of psychic ability, I want to hear from you! Do you have any of these abilities? Do you think we are all a little bit psychic?

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