Clairvoyance vs Clairsentience: Know Your Psychic Type

Understanding Your Dominant Psychic Sense

Not all psychic abilities manifest the same way. Just as some people are naturally visual learners while others learn best through feeling or hearing, psychic information comes through different sensory channels for different people. The two most common psychic abilities are clairvoyance (clear seeing) and clairsentience (clear feeling)—and understanding which is your dominant gift is the key to developing your abilities effectively.

Most people have one primary psychic sense that comes most naturally, along with secondary abilities that can be developed over time. Trying to force yourself to receive information in ways that don't align with your natural gifts leads to frustration and self-doubt. When you understand and work with your dominant psychic type, your abilities flourish rapidly.

This guide will help you identify whether you're primarily clairvoyant, clairsentient, or a combination of both, and show you how to develop your specific gifts.

What Is Clairvoyance?

Clairvoyance means "clear seeing"—the ability to receive psychic information through visual images, symbols, colors, and visions. Clairvoyants perceive information with their "mind's eye" or third eye, seeing things that aren't visible to ordinary physical sight.

How clairvoyance manifests:

• Seeing mental images, symbols, or scenes in your mind
• Perceiving auras, energy fields, or colors around people and objects
• Receiving visions of future or past events
• Seeing spirits, guides, or non-physical beings
• Observing symbolic imagery that conveys messages
• Experiencing vivid, prophetic dreams with clear visual details
• Seeing flashes of light, orbs, or movement in peripheral vision
• Visualizing distant locations through remote viewing

Clairvoyant information can appear in your mind's eye (internal vision) or occasionally as external apparitions that seem to exist in physical space. Most clairvoyants experience internal visions—like watching a movie screen in your mind.

What Is Clairsentience?

Clairsentience means "clear feeling"—the ability to receive psychic information through emotions, physical sensations, and energetic impressions. Clairsentients feel information in their bodies and emotional centers rather than seeing it visually.

How clairsentience manifests:

• Feeling other people's emotions as if they were your own
• Sensing the energy or "vibe" of rooms, places, and situations
• Experiencing physical sensations that convey psychic information (tingling, pressure, temperature changes)
• Having strong gut feelings or intuitive knowing in your body
• Absorbing the emotional atmosphere of crowds or environments
• Feeling when something is "off" even when everything looks fine
• Experiencing others' physical pain or illness in your own body
• Reading energy through touch (psychometry)
• Sensing spirits or non-physical presences through feeling rather than seeing

Clairsentients are often highly empathic, sometimes to the point of overwhelm. They process the world through feeling and sensation rather than visual imagery.

Key Differences Between Clairvoyance and Clairsentience

How to Identify Your Dominant Psychic Type

You're Likely Clairvoyant If:

• You think in pictures and visualize easily
• Your dreams are vivid, colorful, and visually detailed
• You notice visual details others miss
• You see colors, lights, or movement in your peripheral vision
• When you meditate, you see images, symbols, or scenes
• You're drawn to visual arts, photography, or design
• You remember faces better than names
• You get psychic information as mental images or symbols
• You can visualize places you've never been
• You see auras or energy fields around people
• Your intuition comes as visual flashes or "seeing" outcomes

You're Likely Clairsentient If:

• You feel other people's emotions intensely
• You get strong gut feelings that prove accurate
• Crowded places drain your energy quickly
• You can sense the "vibe" of a room immediately upon entering
• You experience physical sensations when receiving psychic information
• You're highly empathic and absorb others' moods
• You know when someone is lying by how it feels
• Your body reacts to energy shifts (tingling, pressure, temperature)
• You need alone time to recharge after social interactions
• You feel spirits or presences rather than seeing them
• Your intuition speaks through feelings, not images

You Might Be Both If:

Many psychics have multiple abilities. You might receive some information visually and other information through feeling. This is completely normal. Most people have one dominant sense and one or two secondary abilities.

Developing Your Clairvoyant Abilities

If you're primarily clairvoyant, these practices will strengthen your gift:

1. Third Eye Activation

Focus on your third eye chakra (between your eyebrows) during meditation. Visualize an indigo sphere of light growing brighter with each breath. This activates your clairvoyant center.

2. Visualization Exercises

Practice detailed visualization daily. Close your eyes and imagine objects, places, or people in vivid detail. The more you exercise your inner vision, the stronger your clairvoyance becomes.

3. Symbol Interpretation

Keep a journal of symbols and images you see during meditation or dreams. Learn to interpret your personal symbolic language—your subconscious communicates through consistent imagery.

4. Scrying Practice

Use crystal balls, black mirrors, or water to practice scrying. Gaze softly at the surface and allow images to form. This trains your clairvoyant sight.

5. Aura Reading

Practice seeing auras by looking at people or objects against plain backgrounds. Soften your gaze and look slightly past them. With practice, you'll begin to see colored energy fields.

6. Work with Visual Divination

Tarot cards, oracle cards, and other visual divination tools strengthen clairvoyance by giving your psychic sight a framework to work through.

Developing Your Clairsentient Abilities

If you're primarily clairsentient, these practices will enhance your gift:

1. Body Awareness Meditation

Practice scanning your body for sensations. Notice where you feel tension, warmth, tingling, or other physical cues. Your body is your psychic antenna—learn its language.

2. Energy Sensing Exercises

Rub your palms together, then slowly pull them apart. Feel the energy between your hands. Practice sensing the energy of objects, plants, and people by holding your hands near them.

3. Emotional Discernment

When you feel an emotion, pause and ask: "Is this mine, or am I picking up someone else's energy?" Learning to distinguish your emotions from absorbed ones is crucial for clairsentients.

4. Psychometry Practice

Hold objects and notice what you feel. Jewelry, photographs, and personal items carry energetic imprints. Practice reading these impressions through touch.

5. Grounding and Protection

Because clairsentients absorb energy easily, daily grounding and energetic protection are essential. Visualize roots growing from your feet into the earth, and shield yourself with white light.

6. Heart Chakra Work

Clairsentience operates primarily through the heart and solar plexus chakras. Meditate on your heart center, visualizing green or pink light expanding with each breath.

Challenges for Each Type

Clairvoyant Challenges:

• Seeing disturbing images or spirits unexpectedly
• Visual overwhelm from too much psychic input
• Difficulty distinguishing imagination from genuine vision
• Becoming ungrounded from focusing too much on visual realms
• Headaches or eye strain from third eye activation

Solutions: Practice closing your third eye after sessions, ground regularly, use psychic protection, and learn to control when you're "open" versus "closed."

Clairsentient Challenges:

• Absorbing others' emotions and carrying them as your own
• Energy depletion from crowds or negative environments
• Difficulty setting emotional boundaries
• Physical symptoms from picking up others' pain or illness
• Overwhelm from constant empathic input

Solutions: Master grounding techniques, create strong energetic boundaries, practice cord cutting daily, limit time in draining environments, and learn to shield effectively.

Using Both Abilities Together

While you likely have a dominant sense, developing your secondary abilities creates a more complete psychic toolkit. Clairvoyants benefit from developing feeling-based intuition to add depth to their visions. Clairsentients benefit from visual skills to give form to the energies they feel.

Integrated practice:

1. When you receive a psychic impression, notice how it comes to you
2. If it's visual, ask: "What does this feel like?"
3. If it's a feeling, ask: "What would this look like as an image?"
4. This cross-training strengthens both abilities

Other Psychic Senses

Beyond clairvoyance and clairsentience, you may also have:

Clairaudience (clear hearing): Receiving psychic information through sounds, words, or music. You hear messages, voices, or guidance.

Claircognizance (clear knowing): Instant knowing without visual or emotional input. Information simply downloads into your awareness.

Most psychics have a combination of abilities, with one or two being dominant. Understanding your unique psychic profile allows you to develop your gifts authentically rather than trying to force abilities that don't come naturally.

Honoring Your Unique Psychic Signature

There's no "better" psychic ability. Clairvoyance isn't superior to clairsentience, and vice versa. Each gift offers unique advantages and challenges. What matters is understanding how you naturally receive psychic information and developing those channels fully.

Stop comparing yourself to other psychics or trying to receive information the way they do. Your psychic signature is as unique as your fingerprint. When you honor your natural abilities and work with them rather than against them, your gifts will flourish beyond what you imagined possible.

Whether you see, feel, hear, or simply know—your psychic abilities are valid, valuable, and waiting to be developed. Trust your dominant sense, practice consistently, and watch your natural gifts expand into their full potential.