What is a psychic, and what can a psychic do? Believe it or not, that's a complex question to which I can only respond: It depends. There are many types of psychics, mediums, and sensitives. Not all psychics are mediums, necessarily, but most mediums do have one or more psychic abilities. Not all psychics or mediums have the exact same abilities or the same strength of abilities. They might be stronger in one area and weaker in others. It's a fascinating world to explore, so let's dive in!

Types of abilities.

Here, I'm going to describe abilities that are primarily intuitive or mind-centered. These abilities, or gifts, are associated with cognition and perception. There's a whole other world of psychic abilities that are more physical, such as psychic healing, aura reading, astral projection, etc. I consider these manifestations of gifts one might have. I won't go into deep depths here, but this should give you a general sense of each type of ability.

Claircognizance.

Claircognizant literally means "clear knowing." A person with this ability is often called a psychic knower or intuitive. This is a gift of precognition or premonition. A person with this ability knows through extrasensory perception (ESP) information about the past, present or future without being present to witness the events. The person may not know how they know things; they just do. It can also take the form of profound wisdom, inspiration, and a sense of "just knowing" something without knowing how they know it. This is often what people mean when they use the word "psychic."

Clairsentience.

Clairsentient literally means "clear sensing." A person with this ability can sense things beyond what one can see in the physical world. This might manifest as sensing supernatural energies, such as spirits, ghosts, elemental energies, etc. It might also manifest as psychometry, which is the practice of picking up information from physical objects by touching them. Most commonly, a person with this ability might be known as empathic. This person is able to sense emotions and energies, or sometimes thoughts, from a person or spirit. Empathic individuals generally have a sense of knowing about a person's motivations or intentions and can clearly discern aspects of a person's personality. The empath may even be able to mimic exactly the person's mannerisms or other manifestations of that person's aspect in their own bodies.

Clairvoyance.

Clairvoyant literally means "clear seeing." This is one of my favorites. There is some overlap here with claircognizance. Both involve ESP, but clairvoyance involves actually seeing the events, typically through dreams, daydreams, visions, etc., and thereby obtaining information about an event, person, or location. People with this ability often describe it as seeing a movie in their minds. The ability can also manifest in quick flashes, like pictures in the mind's eye. I believe everyone has this ability to some extent since it often manifests through dreams for most people. Images seen in visions or dreams are often symbolic. Writing down one's dreams to see patterns is the best way of learning how to hone this ability.

Clairaudience.

Clairaudient literally means "clear hearing." A person with this ability can hear things a normal-hearing person cannot or beyond the known level of awareness. This includes voices of spirits of all kinds and even inanimate objects (or seemingly inanimate, including things in nature). This ability also includes phantom sounds from other realms, such as music, crying, singing, etc. Sounds or voices may have a phantom-like, ethereal quality to them, or they might sound clear, just as if it were in the physical world. It's not known, of course, where these sounds originate, but we can speculate that they are from other dimensions or consciousnesses or spirits in this physical realm.

Clairgustance and Clairolfaction.

These are the senses of taste and smell. Psychics can receive information through phantom smells or a taste in their mouths, and these often have symbolic meanings. For instance, a certain flower might represent love or friendship. Tastes like rust may have some reference to blood.

As for me, I have all of these abilities, with weaker senses of clairgustance and clairolfaction (taste and smell). My strongest abilities are clairvoyance, claircognizance, clairsentience, and clairaudience, in no particular order. I do, however, find that I rely on clairaudience and clairvoyance more than others. It can also depend greatly on the environment I'm in.

So, what do you think? Do you identify with any of these? Leave a comment! Let's talk!

If you have a question about any of these, please feel free to contact me!