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This week’s question comes from Karen:

“What are the four clairs of psychic ability?”

Transcript of the Video:
Hello and welcome to another episode of “Ask Erin Pavlina.” Today’s question comes from Karen. She writes, “Can you tell us what the different clairs are and how we can know which clair we have?”

Karen if referring to clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, and claircognizance, which are the four main clairs. These are psychic faculties, psychic modalities. When you know what your dominant intuitive modality is, it helps you develop that modality better so you can become more psychic. Let’s go over the four clairs very briefly.

Clairvoyance means “clear seeing,” and what happens is in your third eye area, which is your sixth chakra, is where we experience clairvoyance. When I experience clairvoyance, what happens is I’ll tune into my client’s spirit guides, and they will send me a metaphorical image that I need to interpret as it relates to a person’s life. As an example, I might see a clairvoyant image of my client sitting in front of a very, very large tree that is toppled in front of the road, and they’re just sitting against it, unable to overcome it or cross it. In this situation, I would tell my client, “It feels like there’s a really big obstacle in your life right now, and you don’t feel capable of climbing over it or getting passed it.” And we would talk about that. Again, I’m receiving information clairvoyantly. It’s not literal. It’s metaphorical.

With clairaudience, that is “clear hearing,” so when I tune into a client’s spirit guides, they will tell me – they’ll speak to me word for word. When I receive a clairaudient message, I give it to my client word for word. There have been times when I’ve been doing a reading, where I will receive information clairaudiently and the guides will tell me to please express it to the client exactly the way they’ve expressed it to me, so that there’s no differentiation. In those cases, usually what I’m telling the client has significant importance to them. It’s very, very specific and it’s something that they needed to hear exactly that way. As an example, I recall telling one client something – I don’t remember what – and he said to me, “Wow, that’s exactly what I wrote in my journal last night, word for word.” So, again, if the guides hadn’t given it to me clairaudiently, we wouldn’t have had that significance and that impact.

Clairsentience is “clear feeling,” and so that’s when you get sensations in your body that match or mirror something that’s going on in your client’s life. Sometimes when I tune into deceased people, and they indicate to me how they’ve died, I feel it clairsentiently. If a deceased person has shot themselves in the head, for example, I might feel a sudden sharp pain in my head where they’ve shot themselves. One time I can recall doing a reading for a family who was reaching out to a deceased husband, and I felt a crushing sensation in my chest and a crushing sensation in my head, and I felt like I was buried under a lot of rubble or a lot of wood. When I expressed this to them, they confirmed for me that their person had died when a building had collapsed on him. He was an electrician, and while he was working on this new structure, it had collapsed completely on him and crushed him and buried him and he did suffer injuries in the areas that I had detected. For me, when I receive information like that clairsentiently, as soon as I’ve passed on the information, the sensation is relieved inside of my body because I don’t want to feel that for very long. It’s not a pleasant sensation and I don’t really like it, but it is a good way for them to convey that information to me.

Claircognizance is “clear knowing.” That’s when you just suddenly know something to be true, even though you didn’t see it, hear it or feel it. You just know it. As an example, sometimes I’m able to tell a client something – it just kind of comes to me, like, “Oh, you’re pregnant!” and they’ll be like, “Yeah, I am pregnant,” and it’s not something I saw, heard or felt, it’s just something I suddenly knew.

Those are the four clairs, and when you can identify which one is your dominant faculty, then you can work on that, and I do have some articles on my website that discuss that. Check those out. If you want to develop your intuitive abilities, it’s important to know which clair you’re dominant in, so that you can work on that one and strengthen it. A lot of people have abilities with all four clairs, but there’s usually a dominant one. Once you can determine that, you can work on it, and get better at your own psychic abilities. Good question.

Articles:
How to Recognize Your Intuitive Modality
How to Develop Claircognizance

Most people will identify themselves with one of the other three primary intuitive modalities, however claircognizance is a valid and powerful modality because it’s the least likely to be misinterpreted. With clairvoyance, for example, you may receive a metaphorical image or scene and have to interpret what it means, much like you might interpret a dream. A lot can go wrong if you misinterpret that information. With clairaudience you may hear something like “don’t get on the freeway” but not know why, so it’s easy for logic to tell you that you’re imagining things. And with clairsentience, it can be extremely difficult to interpret bodily sensations and translate that into a clear action to take. But with claircognizance, the information comes through so powerfully and with such certainty that logic is kicked to the curb and sent packing.

How do you know if you have claircognizance? You’ll just know. Just kidding. But seriously, you’ll begin to have experiences where you will receive guidance that is so strong, and for which you are so certain, that to go against it will be almost impossible. Or you’ll receive information that is so clear, so accurate, and so strong that you hear yourself speaking it almost before you can analyze what you’re saying.

For example, “I don’t know why I left the party so suddenly, I just knew I had to get out of there.” Or, “I don’t know what it is about that guy, I just know I don’t want to do business with him.” Or, “I just knew I was going to be in an accident today. I don’t know how I knew, I just knew.” There is no rhyme or reason, no logic you can point to, no information gained through regular channels. Just pure knowledge downloaded directly into your brain with no interpretation required, and no room for misunderstanding.

So how do you develop claircognizance? Any intuitive modality is like a muscle, and will improve the more you use it. The reason this is one of the hardest modalities to develop is because it’s hard to practice. How do you practice receiving information instantly? It either comes or it doesn’t. But here are a few ways you can help it come and nurture it once you’ve got it.

1. Ask your guides to give it to you claircognizantly. Literally tell your guides that you’d like to develop claircognizance and ask them to download information to you instantly instead of how you usually receive intuitive guidance.
2. Become aware of when you are having a claircognizant moment. If you hear yourself saying in hindsight, “Ah man, I just knew it,” then try to remember when you received the information in the first place so you can begin to become aware of how claircognizantly transmitted messages feel.
3. Act on your claircognizant transmissions BEFORE it’s too late. Instead of saying, “Ah man, I just knew it,” you want to be saying, “Uh oh, here it comes, I’m outta here.” The more you take action ahead of time, the stronger your ability will become.
4. Trust the ability. If you receive a claircognizant transmission and you ignore it, your muscle will atrophy. Your guides will find other ways of getting you information.
5. Pump up your power chakra. Claircognizance can often be given a boost if you are naturally confident, strong willed, and assertive. It’s the clair that requires the most power, assertion, and confidence to wield. So if you can bump up your power chakra (that’s number 3, your solar plexus, yellow) it’s like creating a container that can house this powerhouse of a clair.

Like I said, claircognizance is very powerful because it requires no interpretation. All of the other clairs are more recognizable and more common, but all of them can fall apart in the interpretation. So if you’ve got claircognizance, consider yourself lucky. And if you don’t, start lifting the claircognizance weights. I just know you’ll do great.

Think of intuition as a guide, someone who is familiar with the path ahead and can warn you of upcoming pitfalls.  Like a scout, your intuition goes on ahead and reports back to you with information you can use to make informed decisions.  Tuning in to your intuition can even save your life.  Wouldn’t you like to be on a first name basis with such a creature?

So how do you recognize intuition?  Intuition is an energetic wave that contains information that you must receive.  The way you tune in and receive intuition depends on your personal dominant psychic modality: clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience, or claircognizance (or any combination if you are skilled in multiple modalities).   Here are some phrases and their associated modalities that will help you determine which is YOUR dominant modality.  Have you ever heard yourself say any of the following phrases?

I Saw This Coming a Mile Away
People with clairvoyance (clear seeing) will often receive intuition as a visual download.  Let’s say your friend says, “Dude, I’m gonna jump my motorcycle over those 5 trash cans.  Watch.”  You get an instant flash in your mind’s eye showing your friend crashing into the 4th can and going down in a heap of grinding metal.   You say, “Don’t do it, man.  You’re not gonna make it.”  He jumps, he crashes, and you say, “Dude, I saw that coming a mile away.”  With clairvoyance, your intuition will often play out like a scene in your mind, sometimes over and over again as it tries to get your attention.   If clairvoyance is your dominant psychic modality, tune in visually when you’re about to do something major and see if you’re getting a scene that shows the outcome.

That Little Voice Said…
People who are predominantly clairaudient (clear hearing) will receive intuition as a voice in their head.  An example of clairaudient intuition in action would be, “Anna, that guy you met at the party the other night is in the news.  Turns out he’s a serial rapist!  You almost went home with him.  What stopped you?”  And your friend says, “I don’t know.  There was just this little voice in the back of my mind that said ‘Danger’ so I just walked away from him.  I’m so glad I listened!”  With clairaudience, intuition will sound like a voice in your mind, the same voice you use when you talk to yourself in your head, only the voice will give you information you probably couldn’t glean from logic alone.  If clairaudience is your dominant psychic modality, tune in to that voice when you’re about to make a major decision and see if it has anything to say.

I Just Got This Sinking Feeling
People who are predominantly clairsentient (clear feeling) will receive intuition as a gut feeling, literally in your stomach area.  Has your significant other ever said these words to you, “Honey, we need to talk” and you get a sinking feeling in your gut?  You can literally feel something falling inside you and landing with a thud in your root chakra.  Your security is threatened.  Your emotions are about to be stepped on.  Your stomach is in knots.  Fear wells up inside you.  You are receiving an intuitive flash clairsentiently.  You don’t even know what the other person is going to say, but you know it’s going to hurt or be quite challenging to deal with.  If clairsentience is your dominant psychic modality then let your gut guide you.  If you’re about to do something and you get that sinking feeling in your gut, your intuition is trying to warn you.  You might say, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…” and that’s clairsentience too.  Your body chemistry will feel altered.  Pay attention when you feel that and think carefully before making your next move.

I Knew It
People who are predominantly claircognizant (clear knowing) will receive intuition as an instant download of information that needs no processing or interpretation.  You’ll hear them say, “Oh man I knew when you told me you were buying that stock that it was a bad idea.”  “How did you know?”  “I don’t know, I just knew it.”  It comes with great certainty but not a lot of logic.  In fact, claircognizant intuition often flies in the face of logic, and can be one of the hardest types of intuition to act on.  Can you remember a time when you did something and you instantly knew it was a mistake even before the actual results were in?  Maybe you heard yourself say, “Shoot, I think I just made a terrible mistake.  Why didn’t I listen to my intuition?” and then later you find out you definitely made a big mistake.

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Once you become aware of your dominant modality, use it consciously to access your intuition.  If you’re about to take a step on your path that you’re uncertain about, tune in and see if you’re getting an intuitive hit on it.  If you’re clairvoyant, allow a scene to unfold in your mind’s eye showing you the outcome of your decision.  If you’re clairaudient, listen to that little voice in the back of your mind.  What is it saying?  If you’re clairsentient, check in with your gut.  Do you have a sinking feeling or do you feel strong and stable?  If you’re claircognizant ask yourself what’s going to happen and without thinking about it too much just let the answer come, yes or no, good or bad, etc. 

Learning to be aware of when you’re receiving an intuitive flash is something that needs to be worked on consciously in order for you to get better at it.  To make your intuition stronger, just keep acting on it and taking note of the outcome.  Was your intuition right or wrong?  Did you misinterpret it or get it right?  The more you work with it, the stronger it becomes, and the more you can rely on it to help you in life.

Answer:  Clairvoyance means clear-seeing.  It is the psychic faculty that goes through the third eye chakra located between your eyebrows.  With clairvoyance you see images in your mind’s eye, the same place you see dreams at night with your physical eyes closed.  It’s the same place you go when you daydream or remember an event from your past.  We all have the ability to see in our mind’s eye.

When you use this ability to do psychic readings, something a little different is happening.   You’re opening your mind to receiving information that will help you or help someone else.  In other words, you’re receiving an energetic download from the universe, guides, Source, angels, etc. which you must interpret so that you can help others, as in a psychic reading, or get greater clarity on your own path.

So if you’re already able to tune in to these images, how do you discern which are from “out there” and which are just fear, logic, or ego-driven?  How do you get to a place where you know for sure when you are receiving an energetic download from spirit or when you are just thinking with your own mind? 

Get High
Not on drugs!  On vibration.  You need to get to a high vibration before opening yourself up to receiving clairvoyant images.  Do this with meditation, deep breathing, or putting yourself in a state of love, joy, and gratitude.  If you do this work in a low vibrational state such as anger, fear, depression, or guilt, you may not connect with the beings who have your highest interest at heart.  It doesn’t have to be a permanent state, just get yourself to a high vibration before you start.  My free ebook, 10 Ways to Raise Your Vibration in Under 10 Minutes will help you with this.

Boot Up Your Chakras
Your chakras are the energy centers in your body.  They’re like the batteries of your soul.  When was the last time you replaced the batteries or made sure they were working?  Read my article on chakras and boot them up before you tune in.  Clearing and opening your chakras will clear away any negative emotional residue that might be clinging to you.  And it’s also a signal to your guides that you’re tuning in.  Think of opening your chakras like extending your antenna.

Climb to Greater Heights
Along with raising your vibration, you need to raise your energetic frequency.  This means sloughing off the daily worries and focusing your mind on connecting with the beings who are going to send you the information you need to help you on your path.  So once you’ve gotten to a deep meditative place and opened your chakras, raise your frequency.  I do this by climbing a staircase in my mind.  I count as I go and continue to do deep breathing.  Counting keeps you from thinking about what you’re going to have for dinner, the bills you need to pay, and the other flotsam and jetsam that invade your mind when you meditate.

Find Your Guides
You don’t want information from just anyone.  That would be dangerous.  If you’re using clairvoyance to do a reading for someone else, you’ll want to connect with your conduit guide (mine is named Bob), so he or she can help you tune in to other people’s spirit guides.  If you’re using your clairvoyance to get information about your own path, just connect with your own spirit guides.  If you haven’t done that yet, get on it.  It’s really important to connect with higher vibrational beings before you open yourself to receiving an energetic download that could affect your life.

Learn to Interpret the Information
Receiving images isn’t that difficult, relatively speaking.  You’ve been using your mind’s eye for years.  Interpreting what you get is what’s difficult.  We’re always receiving information; from other people, from fear, from guides, from expectations and memory.  When you’re receiving information from a spirit guide or other high vibrational being, sometimes they send metaphors.  Symbols.  You have to figure out what they mean, just like you would in a dream.  This takes practice, but it’s critical if you want to get accurate information for yourself or others.

Practice
If you’re planning to use your clairvoyance to do readings for others, nothing takes the place of practice.  I did more than 100 readings with people to make sure I was interpreting the energetic downloads properly.  It wasn’t until I recognized the difference between my own stuff and stuff coming from the guides that I went professional.  Keep practicing until you’re sure when you’re connecting and when you’re not. 

If you’re using clairvoyance for yourself, you still need to practice.  Apply the information you get and see if it worked out the way you expected.  In other words, test the information on yourself.  If you got it wrong, it could be a problem receiving the info or a problem interpreting it. Keep practicing.

Trust
I can’t stress this enough.  You must learn to trust your guides and the information coming through.  I can’t tell you how many times in the beginning I got information that didn’t make any sense to me, but which made perfect sense to the person I was reading for.  One time during a reading I got an image of a woman putting out a place setting (plate, fork, knife, napkin, glass, etc.) but in the image she put the knife and fork on the wrong sides and her boss yelled at her.  So I’m getting ready to interpret the image and she tells me it doesn’t need interpretation.  Turns out she was a set decorator and just a few days prior to the reading she actually did set a place and put the knife and fork on the wrong sides and her boss yelled at her. 

In another reading I saw my client as a 6-year-old girl on a bicycle and she ran into a tree, knocked her tooth out and brought it home to show her mom.  Again I thought it was a metaphor, but she told me that really did happen to her when she was 6.  So I learned that sometimes the images I get are not metaphors at all.  It takes time and experience to know the difference.

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We all have psychic abilities.  Not everyone develops them.  Although the discussion above dealt with clairvoyance, it’s very similar with clairaudience, clairsentience, and claircognizance, or really any psychic tool.  Give your abilities the time and attention they deserve, and before you know it, you’ll have an excellent tool you can use to make your life and the lives of others even better!