What Is Clairsentience?
Clairsentience is the ability to get intuitive information through your emotional body, the part of you that feels. It’s clear feeling, and it’s the skill we most associate with empaths.
Sometimes it’s a gut feeling. You’re leaving for a hiking trip and you feel a sinking in your stomach, a sense of dread. That’s odd, because you usually love time outdoors. You shrug it off and head out. Hours later, your car breaks down on a gravel road. You knew, clairsentiently, that something unpleasant was going to happen. You just didn’t listen.
Or a friend tells you about their engagement, and you suddenly feel chilled even though the room is warm. Months later the wedding is called off. Looking back, you remember that something didn’t feel right. That “feeling” was a clairsentient message.
How Clairsentience Shows Up
Most people only recognize clairsentience after the fact: “I sensed something was wrong,” or “I had a feeling about that.” It gets filed under unexplained, so they never realize they’re using an ability.
It can show up in all kinds of ways: a weight on your chest or shoulders, tingling, butterflies in your stomach, an electric feeling along your nerves, a quick change in temperature. It can even come as a smell or taste that appears out of nowhere. Your body has its own clairsentient language. Like any language, the more you listen, the more you understand.
Clairsentience and Empaths
For some people, clairsentience can feel overwhelming. Sensitive people pick up information all day, most of which has nothing to do with them. It can feel like being barraged with sensations without any rhyme or reason. Sometimes people attribute these sensations to illness or stress, never knowing they’re on the receiving end of a whole lot of clairsentient spam.
If that’s you, the first step is to clean out your inbox and start unsubscribing. Once you make space from the clutter, you can choose what messages you want to receive. (If this sounds familiar, read Signs You’re an Empath (and What to Do About It).)
Signs Your Clairsentience Is Already Working
You feel the mood of a room the moment you walk in.
You pick up other people’s emotions and sometimes can’t tell which are yours.
You get strong gut feelings, and they’re usually right.
You feel drained after time with certain people.
You’re the friend people come to when they’re hurting.
You notice physical sensations, like chills or heaviness, that match what’s happening around you.
How to Develop Clairsentience
Clear out what isn’t yours
You can’t read your own clairsentient messages if your space is full of everyone else’s energy. Grounding and clearing come first.
Ask how much of it is yours
When a strong feeling hits, picture a dial from 0 to 100% and ask, “How much of this is mine?” Take the first number. You’ll be surprised how often it’s low.
Learn your body’s language
Start noticing what your sensations mean. Maybe a tight chest means you’re around someone else’s fear. Maybe chills mean “pay attention.” Keep track and you’ll see your patterns.
Pair it with seeing
Feeling tells you something’s up. Clairvoyance tells you why. Combining the two gives you information without having to carry it.
Quick Answers
Is an empath the same as being clairsentient?
Very close. Being an empath is a form of clairsentience. The difference is that clairsentience is a skill you can learn to direct, so you’re not the effect of everyone else’s energy.
Can clairsentience be turned off?
You don’t need to turn it off. You can learn to tune it down, clear what isn’t yours and choose what you receive.
Where to Start
Learning to create a safe space for yourself is one of the most essential skills we teach. If you’re just starting to explore your energy, Energy Essentials, our five-week class (live or self-paced), is a great place to begin. You learn to ground, clear and recharge your energy. If you’re ready to go deep, Healer Training is where clairsentience really lives. It’s a year-long, hands-on training where you strengthen your empathic boundaries so feeling (and healing) becomes fun again, and practice in our monthly Healing Clinics.
Your clairsentience is a treasure trove of information, but you can’t use it if you’re not aware of it. So next time, follow your gut feeling and let the results speak for themselves.