Clairvoyance is the psychic ability of a person to see objects not normally visible. Clairvoyance is a combination of two words, Clair – meaning ‘clear’ in 17th century French, and Voyant – meaning ‘seeing.’ It is generally referred to as a form of extra sensory perception (ESP). ESP also includes phenomena, such as telepathy, precognition, retro-cognition, clairaudience, and psychometry, among others.

Clairvoyance has been known to exist throughout history, and through all cultures. In most cases, clairvoyance has been associated with religious figures, and according to the ancient Hindu texts, - texts as old as 2000 to 1500 BC - this ability can be acquired through discipline and meditation.

There have been numerous cases of people knowing spontaneously, of an event, or a death in the family, before receiving the news normally. These are instances of spontaneous clairvoyance.

Clairvoyance is often called the sixth sense, as it is the ability to ‘see’ beyond the use of the five normal senses. These are the images we see with our ‘mind’s eye,’ irrespective of whether our eyes are open or closed. The mind’s eye is what we commonly refer to as the ‘third eye.’

According to the mystics of the ancient past, the pineal gland – which looks like an eye – made it possible for humans to keep in touch with their abilities of clairvoyance. Over the millenniums, it degenerated due to disuse, and stopped evolving. The pineal gland is known as the “atrophied third eye.”

As the ability of clairvoyance can be acquired, there is a need for persistent effort to awaken this latent ability, which most are born with. As they grow, children quickly lose this ability when they are trained to follow the societal norms. Though adults can be trained to develop their latent clairvoyant abilities, it is easier to train children to revive the lost abilities.

As they have the ability to ‘see,’ clairvoyants are mistakenly taken to be fortunetellers and their tribe of seers. This is far from the truth, as the clairvoyants can ‘see,’ but not necessarily the future. A clairvoyant has the ability of precognition, premonition, or prediction – that is the ability to see or sense something before it happens.

Types Of Clairvoyance

There are two basic types of clairvoyance: the positive kind, and the negative kind. The positive type of clairvoyance is also known as voluntary clairvoyance, and is the ability of the person to see things at will and has full control over what he/she is doing. This type of clairvoyance needs to be carefully developed.

The other, the negative kind, is also known as involuntary clairvoyance. Here, the clairvoyant does not have the ability to control things, and only sees what is shown to him or her. The clairvoyant with this type of abilities is open to discarnate entities – entities without physical or material body, and he or she may not be safe.

Developing The Latent Ability

Most are born with this latent ability of clairvoyance, but gradually lose it, as they grow older. Through persistent effort, this latent ability can be awakened, and revived through training, and spiritual practice. The spiritual awakening allows us to ‘see’ with a greater degree of clarity.