What Are the Clairs? How Mediums See, Hear, Feel and Know Spirit

Have you ever suddenly pictured something in your mind, heard a word seemingly come from nowhere, felt an emotion that didn't seem to belong to you or simply known something without knowing how?

Experiences like these are often described by mediums and psychics as the clairs — different ways of perceiving intuitive information that can form part of mediumship and spirit communication beyond the ordinary physical senses.

You may have heard terms such as clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience and claircognizance. They are often translated simply as clear seeing, clear hearing, clear feeling and clear knowing.

But those definitions don't really explain what the experience can actually feel like.

Clairvoyance, for example, doesn't necessarily mean seeing a spirit physically standing in front of you. Clairaudience doesn't always mean hearing an audible voice in the room. And claircognizance can be particularly difficult to explain because sometimes the information simply arrives, and you know.

For me, the clairs aren't separate boxes that I switch between. They often work together, and at times the experience becomes completely immersive.

I may be seeing, hearing, feeling and knowing simultaneously. Sometimes I become so immersed in what I'm experiencing that it feels as though I am no longer observing spirit from my physical world — I am joining them in theirs.

That's also why I don't believe there is one correct way to experience the clairs. Another medium's experience may be completely different from mine.

So rather than simply defining the terminology, let's explore what these different ways of receiving information can actually feel like.

What Does “Clair” Actually Mean?

The word clair comes from French and means “clear.” When used to describe intuitive or mediumistic perception, it is paired with another word to describe the way information is experienced.

For example, clairvoyance is commonly described as “clear seeing,” while clairaudience means “clear hearing.”

These terms can make the experiences sound more mysterious than they need to be. In practice, mediums may describe receiving information through images, sounds, emotions, physical sensations, smells, tastes or an immediate sense of knowing.

And these experiences don't necessarily happen one at a time.

A medium might see an image while simultaneously feeling an emotion and simply knowing who or what the image relates to. Another medium may experience one particular clair much more strongly than the others.

The terminology gives us a useful way to talk about these experiences, but it shouldn't become another set of rules about how mediumship is supposed to work.

So let's start with perhaps the best-known of the clairs: clairvoyance.

Clairvoyance — Clear Seeing

Clairvoyance is often described as “clear seeing,” but that doesn't necessarily mean seeing something with your physical eyes.

For me, clairvoyance can happen in many different ways.

Sometimes I see a written word, symbol or image within my mind's eye. At other times, what I receive looks almost like an old film or photograph, sometimes in black and white, sometimes in full colour.

And then there are experiences that become much more immersive.

Instead of simply being shown an image, I can find myself within an entire scene. I may watch what is happening around me as though I am actually there with the spirit communicator, present within their world, but observing what they are showing me.

The closest comparison I can make is a dream.

In a dream, you can find yourself somewhere completely different without consciously constructing the room, the people or the events unfolding around you. You are simply there.

Clairvoyance can sometimes feel like that for me.

This is why the phrase “seeing spirit” can be misleading if we assume every medium is describing a physical apparition standing in front of them. What one medium calls seeing may be an internal image. For another it may be symbols. For someone else it might be an immersive scene.

The experience of seeing can be just as individual as the medium experiencing it.

Clairaudience — Clear Hearing

Clairaudience is commonly described as “clear hearing” — receiving information through words, voices, sounds or other auditory impressions.

But just as clairvoyance doesn't necessarily involve seeing something with the physical eyes, clairaudience doesn't always mean hearing a voice physically coming from somewhere in the room.

For me, it is almost like having another set of ears internally.

The sound can seem to come from a space within me, somewhere near my physical ears, yet I experience it differently from the sounds I hear in the physical world around me.

I may hear individual words, voices, conversations or other sounds. What I hear is often concentrated around whatever is necessary for the communication and what the spirit communicator is trying to convey.

If I am being shown a scene where someone is yelling, for example, I may actually hear the yelling loudly as part of that experience. The visual and auditory information can work together, giving me a much fuller understanding of what I am being shown.

Communication doesn't always feel one-way either. I can speak back internally, almost telepathically, asking questions or responding to what I am experiencing.

At other times, clairaudient information can be much more subtle. A word may suddenly enter my awareness, or a song may spontaneously begin playing in my mind with particular lyrics standing out.

This is another reason the simple definition of clairaudience as “hearing spirit” doesn't tell the whole story. The experience can range from a single word or sound to becoming part of an entire conversation or scene.

And when clairaudience combines with clairvoyance, feeling and knowing, the experience can become much more immersive than any one of those senses alone.

Clairsentience — Clear Feeling

Clairsentience is commonly described as “clear feeling.” For some mediums, information is experienced through emotions, bodily sensations or a physical awareness connected with the person in spirit.

For me, this can mean actually feeling what they are showing me within my own body.

If a spirit communicator is conveying that they experienced depression, emotional pain or hurt during their physical life, I may temporarily feel that emotion as though it were my own.

Physical information can also be communicated through sensation. Rather than simply being told about an experience, the body can become another way of receiving information about what the spirit communicator is trying to convey.

This can make clairsentience feel particularly immediate because the information isn't necessarily arriving as something I am watching or hearing, I am feeling it.

And, just like the other clairs, the experience may not happen in isolation. I might see the person or situation clairvoyantly while simultaneously feeling the emotion or physical sensation associated with what I am being shown.

Claircognizance — Clear Knowing

Claircognizance is commonly described as “clear knowing.” It is the experience of information arriving without necessarily seeing, hearing or feeling where that information came from.

Sometimes it really can be as simple, and as difficult to explain, as suddenly knowing.

For me, claircognizance often works alongside the other clairs.

I might find myself within a scene with a spirit communicator, seeing what is happening around me and hearing or feeling parts of the experience. But at the same time, I can become aware of additional information that hasn't been spoken, shown or physically demonstrated to me.

I simply know it.

It can feel as though I already understand the story behind what I am experiencing, the relationships, circumstances or details surrounding the scene, even though nobody has explained those things to me.

That information can arrive so naturally that one of the challenges is recognising that the knowing itself may be part of the communication.

This is what makes claircognizance different from trying to consciously work something out. There may be no obvious chain of reasoning leading from one thought to another. The information seems to arrive already formed.

And when it happens alongside seeing, hearing or feeling, claircognizance can provide context to the other information being received.

These four clairs — seeing, hearing, feeling and knowing — are some of the most commonly discussed, but they aren't the only ways mediums describe receiving information.

FROM THE TABLE

Blind Medium Kim: Reveals the Secrets of Spiritual Senses

Kim shares how she experiences clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience and claircognizance while living with blindness and hearing loss, and discusses how her own spiritual senses developed.

▶ WATCH ON YOUTUBE

https://youtu.be/cfX_59WCmSI?si=NxKQ_2YNlyq5aqNY

What About Smelling and Tasting?

Seeing, hearing, feeling and knowing are probably the clairs you'll hear discussed most often, but mediums may describe receiving information through other senses too.

Clairalience — clear smelling — refers to experiencing a smell without an obvious physical source. This might be something associated with a person in spirit, such as their perfume, cigarette smoke, flowers, a particular food or another familiar scent.

Clairgustance — clear tasting — refers to experiencing a taste without physically eating or drinking whatever is being perceived.

Neither of these happens particularly often for me, but spirit may use them when there is something specific they are trying to communicate.

I might suddenly experience the smell of perfume or cigarette smoke as though it is physically present. With taste, it can feel as though I have actually eaten or tasted the particular food or flavour being shown to me.

What I find interesting is that these senses don't need to be constantly present to become useful. They may appear simply because, in that moment, a smell or taste is the clearest way for the information to be communicated.

And that raises an important point about all of the clairs: You don't necessarily experience every clair equally.

Do Mediums Have One Strongest Clair?

Not necessarily.

Some mediums describe one particular way of receiving information as much stronger or more natural for them. Someone may primarily see images, while another medium relies much more heavily on feeling or knowing.

Others experience several clairs working together.

That's much closer to my own experience.

Rather than seeing clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience and claircognizance as completely separate abilities, I often experience them as different parts of the same communication.

I may find myself within a scene and simultaneously see what is happening, hear the people or sounds around me, feel the emotions or physical sensations involved and know additional information about what I am experiencing.

At those times, the experience can become completely immersive.

I can become so absorbed in what I am experiencing that I am largely unaware of myself sitting here in physical form. My awareness is with what is being shown to me.

That's why, for me, separating the clairs into individual definitions is useful for explaining them, but it doesn't necessarily reflect how I experience them in practice.

What Does It Feel Like When the Clairs Work Together?

Although we talk about the clairs separately, mediumship doesn't always arrive in neatly divided pieces.

Sometimes one impression leads to another. An image may be accompanied by a feeling. A sound may make sense because of something I simultaneously know. At other times, several forms of information seem to arrive together as one complete experience.

For me, this can become a form of full immersion.

I may no longer simply see a scene within my mind's eye. I can feel as though I am actually within it, seeing the surroundings, hearing what is happening, feeling the emotions or physical sensations and knowing information about the people or circumstances around me.

It can be remarkably similar to being inside a dream, except I am observing and communicating within the experience as it unfolds.

At times, my awareness of my physical surroundings becomes very limited. I can become so immersed in what I am experiencing that I am largely unaware of myself sitting here in physical form.

This is particularly significant in my trance mediumship, where the shift in awareness can become much deeper.

But even outside trance, the clairs can work together in ways that make it difficult to identify where one form of perception ends and another begins.

I might see someone, hear what they are saying, feel what they experienced and simultaneously know details about the situation that haven't been shown or spoken.

To me, it doesn't feel like four different abilities operating one after another.

It feels like one communication being experienced in several ways at once.

Are the Clairs Psychic or Mediumistic?

Clairvoyance, clairaudience, clairsentience and claircognizance are often talked about in relation to mediumship, but they aren't necessarily exclusive to spirit communication.

People who identify as psychic may also describe receiving information through seeing, hearing, feeling or knowing.

So what makes an experience psychic rather than mediumistic?

One useful distinction is to consider where the information is understood to be coming from.

In psychic work, information may be perceived intuitively about a person, situation, relationship or circumstance. In mediumship, the intention is specifically to communicate with someone in spirit and receive information associated with that spirit communicator.

The method of receiving the information may feel very similar.

A psychic may receive an image clairvoyantly. A medium may also receive an image clairvoyantly. Both might experience a feeling through clairsentience or an immediate knowing through claircognizance.

The clair itself doesn't necessarily tell us whether an experience is psychic or mediumistic.

It is the context of the communication that creates the distinction.

In my own mediumship, I may see, hear, feel and know information while communicating with someone in spirit. Those clairs become the different ways through which I experience and interpret that communication.

And sometimes the boundaries don't feel perfectly neat. Different forms of intuitive perception can overlap, which is one reason you may hear someone describe themselves as a psychic medium.

I explore the relationship between these two forms of perception more deeply in Psychic vs Medium: What's the Difference?

If you'd like to explore that distinction more deeply, I explain the difference between psychic ability and mediumship in What Is Mediumship? A Straightforward Guide to Spirit Communication.

Can the Clairs Develop or Change?

The way someone experiences the clairs doesn't necessarily remain the same throughout their life or development.

A person may initially notice one form of perception much more easily than another. Perhaps images come naturally, while hearing feels less familiar. Or physical sensations and emotions may be much easier to recognise than an intuitive knowing.

With experience, people who practise mediumship often describe becoming more familiar with the different ways information appears for them.

That doesn't necessarily mean trying to force a particular clair to work.

Sometimes development is simply about learning to recognise what is already happening.

An image that once seemed like a random thought may become easier to notice. A feeling may be recognised more quickly. Someone may become more aware of the difference between consciously thinking about something and information that seems to arrive spontaneously.

And a person's strongest or most frequently experienced clair may not necessarily be the same as somebody else's.

This brings us back to something that runs throughout mediumship: There is no one-size-fits-all experience.

Development doesn't have to mean making your abilities look like another medium's. It can be about becoming more familiar with your own way of perceiving and interpreting information.

How Do You Know It Isn't Just Your Imagination?

This is probably one of the biggest questions people have when they begin noticing intuitive or mediumistic experiences.

If an image appears within your mind, how do you know you didn't create it yourself? If a thought suddenly arrives, how do you distinguish it from one of your own thoughts?

I don't believe there is a simple test that can prove where every internal experience comes from.

What I can explain is how I have learned to recognise the differences within my own mediumship.

One of the things I notice is the spontaneous nature of the information.

A thought may suddenly appear that has nothing to do with what I was thinking about. A song may begin playing in my mind, with a particular lyric repeatedly drawing my attention. I may see the face of someone I don't recognise or receive words, images or information that I wasn't consciously searching for.

With clairaudience, I may experience words, voices or conversations when nobody is physically speaking to me. Although I experience the communication internally, it feels distinct from deliberately creating a conversation within my own thoughts.

Sometimes several pieces of information arrive together. I may see someone I don't know, hear something associated with them, feel an emotion and simultaneously know something about the situation.

For me, trance mediumship creates an even clearer distinction.

In trance, the shift in my awareness can become so profound that what I experience feels entirely separate from my ordinary awareness of the physical environment. Rather than sitting here consciously constructing images or thoughts, I can feel as though I have been transported into another experience altogether.

Over time, familiarity with these differences has helped me recognise what I understand to be my own thoughts and what I experience as mediumistic communication.

But that recognition is personal.

Another medium may describe the distinction very differently, and an unexpected thought, image, sensation or song isn't automatically evidence that it came from spirit.

For me, discernment has developed through becoming familiar with how my own mind works, how mediumistic information tends to arrive and how those experiences differ from one another.

Is It Intuition, Psychic Information or Spirit Communication?

Not every intuitive impression needs to be interpreted as communication from spirit.

A sudden feeling, image, thought or knowing could be understood in different ways depending on the person experiencing it and the context in which it occurs.

This is where intention and context become important in my own work.

When I am working mediumistically, my intention is to connect with a spirit communicator. I am not simply waiting for random impressions and assuming they must all be coming from spirit.

I pay attention to how information unfolds, whether different pieces begin to connect and whether what I am receiving forms part of a broader communication.

Even then, mediumship involves interpretation. A medium is receiving experiences and attempting to understand and communicate what those experiences mean.

That is another reason I think curiosity and discernment are more useful than trying to create rigid rules around every intuitive experience.

You don't need to experience the clairs the way another person does.

There Is No One Way to Experience the Clairs

If there is one thing I hope you take away from this exploration of the clairs, it is that there isn't one correct way to experience them.

Clairvoyance doesn't have to look the same for every person. Clairaudience doesn't have to sound the same. One medium may experience powerful physical sensations through clairsentience, while another may work predominantly through images or knowing.

Some experiences may be subtle. Others can be incredibly immersive.

For me, seeing, hearing, feeling and knowing often become different parts of one communication. At times I am observing an image or receiving a word. At others, I can feel as though I have stepped into an entire experience unfolding around me.

Another medium may experience something completely different.

And that's why I think understanding the terminology is useful, but trying to make your experiences fit perfectly into those definitions isn't always helpful.

The clairs give us language for describing experiences that can otherwise be very difficult to put into words.

They don't need to become rules.

Mediumship is deeply individual. The way another person experiences spirit communication doesn't have to be the way you experience it.

Perhaps the most interesting part isn't discovering which clair you can label as your strongest. It is becoming curious about the different ways we perceive information, and how much we may still have to learn about the way we experience consciousness, intuition and communication.

KEEP EXPLORING THE MEDIUMS TABLE

The clairs are only one part of the conversation.

If you'd like to understand more about mediumship, spirit communication and the different ways mediums experience connection with spirit, start with our straightforward guide to mediumship.

Or pull up a chair and explore conversations with mediums and experiencers from around the world on The Mediums Table Podcast.

WHAT IS MEDIUMSHIP? →

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