What are the spiritual senses and why is it important to know about them?
If you are reading this then it’s highly likely you are on your path (probably a bumpy one) of spiritual awakening.
This can include many layers of un-learning, learning and remembering. You’ll have a curiosity in new topics, not least how the universe works and how we work!
We were all taught about our body’s senses in school. How they help us interact with the world around us.
What if I told you that they are only a fraction of what we can do? We humans have a vast capacity to perceive and interpret messages from our environment. From other people and animals, and beyond to the big Universe and all the higher dimensional energies within it.
It is also likely you are doing the hard but oh so rewarding work of healing yourself and developing your gifts and abilities.
The more you heal yourself, the more this helps those around you as you become happier and healthier. This can then inspire others but also it is your own way to make a difference for you and Earth.
So no pressure, but on we go…
Now, to do this it really helps to know more about the abilities we don’t get taught in school. Although I hope this will one day change. If you want more confidence in decision making, and to feel more aligned and happier in life, then this is for you.
You will have heard of “trusting your gut.” Well, that is listening to your intuition, that little voice or niggle in the tummy that says, “Go a different way home today,” or “Don’t trust that person.”
You don’t logically understand why at the time, but it turns out to be true.
Here are some real life stories of when people listened to their inner voice and it saved them; https://www.buzzfeed.com/alexgurley/people-share-how-intuition-saved-them
For me, I use my intuition and various senses whilst working with clients. I am prompted to go to certain parts of the body with Reiki or ask a certain question, even though in my mind it doesn’t seem relevant.
I also pass on visuals or messages I get from their guides and spirit.
If I hear a message three times quickly, almost at the back of my head on the right side, I now know it is a message to pass on. So many times it relates to something going on for them. It reassures them and also helps build trust in me and the process.
As we go further along the path of spiritual curiosity, self healing and expanding your light, this increases our intuition and way of communicating with spirit and our spirit guides. And ultimately, the Universe / Source.
We can then start to ask questions to help us grow and develop in all areas of our lives.
We are so supported by the Universe and it is always communicating - the question is, are you listening?
Intuition, our sense of knowing, a way of receiving messages can be experienced by people in different ways. Like radio waves, spiritual information is constantly being broadcast around us, so it's really just a matter of learning how to tune in to it.
To interpret what spirit is broadcasting, we use our five senses just like we do in day-to-day life. The clair senses are types of psychic abilities that correspond with those five senses of seeing, hearing, feeling, smelling and tasting.
It is common to have a primary, stronger sense that you notice more than the others. This can be worked on and improved though with practise and time.
Perhaps you are familiar with one of the spiritual senses but want to learn more about others and how to develop those skills too…
Our Clairsenses
Clairvoyance means clear seeing
This is seeing in your mind's eye. For some, with eyes open or eyes closed but seeing as if watching a clear film. This can be visions, images, colours, lights.
If I say, “Picture a tennis ball,” you don’t literally see one right in front of you, but your mind can probably conjure up what it looks like. I have found that to begin with a lot of this sense looks like that.
Many of us are highly visual and able to understand an idea best when we see it written or sketched out as an image on a computer screen. If this sounds familiar, your clairvoyance is most likely a dominant sense.
Clairaudience means clear hearing
To sense something through hearing, whether the inner or outer ear, feels like a thought but at the back of your head (for me, the back right side).
Or it can be like hearing words outside your ear, like a whisper. This is more rare as it takes much more energy from spirit.
Some of us best retain and comprehend information when we hear it spoken aloud. If this feels right to you, clairaudience may be a leading sense for you.
Clairsentience means clear feeling
This entails feeling a person's or spirit's emotions, or feeling another's physical pain.
The ability to pick up what is going on around you, for example as you walk into a room and feel who is upset, even though they say they are fine or who has just had an argument. This is very common for those who identify with being an empath.
This can be a great skill for the healers and carers, but even for others it’s vitally important to protect and clear your energy so you do not become overwhelmed and confuse the emotions of others with yours.
I have been there many times when I was younger and it is not fun. However, now I appreciate this sense so much and use it with my clients a lot to tune into their energy, to help them process, transmute and release their feelings. If you can relate to this, clairsentience is at the top of your senses list.
Clairalience means clear smelling.
This is being able to smell odours that don't have any kind of physical source, could be an actual or inner smell. This could include smelling the perfume or the cigar smoke of a deceased relative, as a sign of their presence around us.
Clairgustance means clear tasting
This is the ability to taste something that isn't actually there. This experience often comes out of the blue when a deceased loved one is attempting to communicate a memory or association we have with a particular food or beverage that reminds us of them. Or a message about a food to eat that will help with a particular problem.
Claircognizance or Claircognition - means clear knowing
This is when we have knowledge of people or events that we would not normally be expected to.
We can receive creative ideas, whole concepts of information, a new plan that seemingly lands in from nowhere. Spirit impresses us with truths and information to help us with our soul mission and purpose.
This is also referred to as downloads, particularly around cosmic planetary events, portals or ceremonies with our guides. For some they receive a premonition: a forewarning of something that will happen in the future which can feel a bit scary or leave you wondering what to do. Claircognizance requires strong trust and faith because there's often no practical explanation for why we suddenly "know" something.
My goal in writing this and much of my work with clients is to help people feel more confident in their own abilities. To help them practise and open up their lines of communication with the universe.
When I was starting to understand my connection to spirit, I thought that because I couldn’t see them or hear them (outside my head) I was not very good, not special enough. But as I learned more, I realised oh, I actually have several of those and phew it is something I can practise and improve. Yay!
Real talk: this doesn't happen overnight. It takes time and practice. But one day something clicks and it starts to flow - so hang in there.
For some people they have always been very open and actually want to switch it off or at least turn it down. One friend could see the deceased everywhere so understandably that is quite unpleasant and quite distracting. To those, I say yes, there are ways to manage this, but that is for another post.
Look out for further posts on ways to practise growing these senses and what might be getting in the way of you opening up.
Let me know which is your strongest sense and which you would like to improve. I love hearing examples of these experiences, so please share if it is comfortable to do so, and let’s normalise these for everyone and encourage more conversation about the abilities we all have but are not taught in school.