Clairvoyance is considered to be a paranormal term that originated in the French language. In the French language the word ‘clair’ means ‘clear’ and ‘voyance’ translates to ‘vision’, so a ‘voyant’ would be known as a visionary. Therefore, ‘clairvoyance’ translates to ‘clear vision’ and a ‘clairvoyant‘ would be known as an individual that is a ‘clear visionary.’ However, the literal translations are neither very helpful nor accurate.

When the word clairvoyant is used to describe a person, it means that this person has exhibited some form of psychic ability. This is a rather broad reading of the word; more specifically, a clairvoyant is someone with the ability to perceive or know things without the use of their five physical senses � the terms clairvoyance and ESP are largely interchangeable.

Clairvoyance normally involves a clairvoyant individual knowing about something that is taking place at that time or in a far away location out of the range of any physical sense. There have been plenty of cases documented about a clairvoyant having knowledge of something that occurred in the future or in the past. Many people consider clairvoyance to be a form of precognition or prophecy.

There are many different ways that a clairvoyant may gain their knowledge, but there are six in particular which are the most common. Five of these are analogous to our physical senses and one is unique to clairvoyants. Remote viewing is the most well known of these methods, where the clairvoyant has a visual perception of something out of reach of their physical vision.

Clairaudience refers to the clairvoyant receiving knowledge in the form of sound. They will hear sounds and voices which only they (and only they) can hear.

Thirdly, this type of clairvoyance is clairsentience. In this form the individual gains information through feeling and touch. Some clairvoyants may need to actually touch an object that is not present. In other cases a feeling or vibration maybe felt by a clairvoyant from a remote distance from a person, location or event.

Clairalience is an extrasensory ability to perceive smells. A clairvoyant will smell the scents of another place (for instance, grass and flowers in a field). These scents cannot be smelled by anyone else and come from no apparent source.

The fifth form is called clairgustance and in this case an individual who has not eaten or drank anything can taste different flavors with no apparent source. They can also describe the taste of these things at a distance from where they are.

Finally the sixth type or form of clairvoyance is Claircognizance. The most difficult to explain or define. With this type of clairvoyance the individual knows information about an event, object, place or person at a remote distance and can�t explain how they know this information. They just know it. This category is a catch-all for clairvoyance.

There are numerous documentations of occurrences of individuals with clairvoyant abilities historically within many cultures worldwide. The instances of clairvoyance have been found in many of the worlds widespread religions.

Clairvoyance is part of the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam as well. In the Abrahamic religions clairvoyance is believed to be a miraculous experience granted to the clairvoyant by divine intervention. In Catholic tradition, St. Clare is believed to have had a vision of the death of St. Francis of Assisi, even though she was many miles removed from the event. In honor of this vision, the Catholic Church named St. Clare the patron saint of television. It�s a fitting assignment; after all, the word television literally means to see at a distance.

In the Catholic religion, clairvoyance often been considered to be miraculous. Saint Francis had a disciple, Saint Claire that had a vision of his death even though she was miles away. This case took place over 500 hundred years ago. As a result, the Catholic Church made her the patron saint of ‘television’ which means ‘seeing over a distance.’

Of course there are people that are skeptical of clairvoyants. It is normal human nature for individuals to deny that something exists just because it is not understood. For example, even the existence of magnetism and electricity was denied by ‘scientists’ not that long ago historically.

No matter what is said by the skeptics, no one can disprove clairvoyance and there are increasing amounts of evidence to show that there are many clairvoyants among us. In general parapsychologists, scientists and the general public are becoming increasingly open-minded and are ready to accept the reality of clairvoyance.

In spite of the fact that we do not really understand how clairvoyance works, is no reason to dispute its existence. It has been suggested that, in the distant past, all humans were clairvoyant. But the ability has been lost. It is though that the ability is still there, and is dormant, but can be natured and developed by anyone who wants to develop these powers.