What is Your Intuitive Type? (With Quizzes!)

Psychic intelligence–The Clair-Abilities

The clair abilities are the different modes in which we receive intuitive information. We all usually have one or two at which we are the most skilled, but we can receive information through any of the different modes. It is helpful to know how you are most dominantly oriented, in order to pay attention for guidance.

When I first began meditating in my energy work program, I didn’t see myself as an intuitive person, even though I was receiving a bombardment of intuitive information every day. I just didn’t interpret and recognize the information as intuitive. I simply thought I was confused! As I began to meditate, I started to feel into the subtleties of how my body was actually sensing and receiving information.

I often see this phenomenon with my clients, as well. They are receiving information through a clair ability and often not recognizing it. They don’t think of themselves as intuitive, yet I can see their fifth or sixth chakra lighting up as they are asking themselves a question. They then interpret and judge the information coming in, and the intuitive guidance is never allowed to penetrate into their lives.

Clairvoyance, or clear seeing, gets the most hype out of all the clair abilities and is what is most commonly thought of when someone is considered “psychic.” Yet, the other clair abilities are just as “psychic” as this one. Unfortunately, many people think that if they are not seeing images, they are not receiving intuitive information. This couldn’t be further from the truth. For example, you can also sense, feel, hear or just “know” a spirit is in the room besides seeing it visually. I tell you this because you may feel that you have none of these abilities, but I guarantee you are receiving information in one, if not more, of these modes.

At the beginning of each section, I have included some questions to begin the process of inquiry so you can start to recognize which of the clair abilities you most utilize.  You will probably not answer all questions in one section as a yes or no, but you will start to notice you are leaning towards one type of clair ability over another.

Clairvoyance: Clear Seeing

• Do you tend to think in images or metaphors?
• Are you a visual person?
• When you close your eyes can you see images with your imagination? (For example, visualize a frog. I can see it in my mind’s eye.)
• When you recall your dreams do they sometimes feel vivid and colorful?
• Have you ever thought you might have seen a spirit?
• Do you notice and are you affected by the aesthetics of the room you are in?
• Do visualization techniques feel natural to you? Have you ever seen lights or someone’s energy (an aura) around them?
• Would you rather learn by being shown something as opposed to being told?
• Do you notice flashes out of the corner of your eye and upon closer look there is nothing there?
• When planning something, do you sketch it out or see an image of it in your head?
• Do you say, “I see” when listening to someone explain something?
• Are you an artistically creative person?

Clairvoyance is the ability to use visual metaphors and images to translate energetic information. Clairvoyance, literally translated as clear seeing, is utilized through the sixth chakra, otherwise known as the third eye. Sometimes this information comes as a dream like image that we can translate, similar to the way we guess for meaning while playing charades. Sometimes it is more distinct, with a clear word or phrase being presented, like reading a billboard. Clairvoyants sometimes also see literal energies such as auras, chakras guides and other entities, in the external world and not only in their mind’s eye. When they do appear in the imagination, the images appear in the mind like a vivid dream and can even be as realistic as watching a movie or seeing a photograph.

Clairsentience: Clear Feeling

•  Are you highly empathic? Sometimes to the point of feeling someone else’s emotions as your own?
•  Do you find yourself saying, “I feel…” in conversations?
• If you are imagining the possibility of an angry confrontation with someone do you experience a “butterflies in the stomach” feeling?
• When you enter a room, especially with a group of people, are you aware how it “feels?”
• Do you and others consider yourself to be a sensitive person?
• Are you influenced by the emotions of other people?
• When holding items that are antiques, do you sometimes feel a mood come over you when imagining the history of the item?
• Are you an F type in the Myers-Briggs personality inventory?
• Do you often feel casual touching in social situations to be an intense experience?
• Do you make decisions based on how the separate options make you feel?
• Do you get emotionally overwhelmed at highly charged events like weddings or in hospitals?
• Do you feel deeply?
• Do you need to recharge with time alone to avoid feeling overwhelmed and suffocated?

Clairsentience, or clear sensing, is when the individual feels or senses things emotionally. This ability is utilized through the second chakra. Clairsentients can literally feel the emotions or physical pain of others. The energetic information is translated through the sense of feeling. Individuals that are sensitive with the ability of clairsentience are most at risk for energetic codependency.

Clairsentience also puts individuals at risk for burning out, becoming depressed or anxious. The challenge with clairsentience is distinguishing your own feelings from others. Because the individual feels them so strongly, it is often written off as something they ate, or they didn’t get enough sleep. The challenge of clairsentience is identifying when you are receiving intuitive information from feeling, versus actually feeling yourself.

It is important if you discover you are clairsentient to have a regular meditation practice of checking in to clean out excess energies from your space and keep up with energetic hygiene. If we try to emotionally process someone else’s energetic information we are robbing them of their karmic purpose and also creating a health issue for our own physical bodies, because we can never truly process or integrate another Soul’s energy into our own field.

The most common issue I see with clairsentients is an overworked second chakra, which often goes hand in hand with an overworked third chakra. The second is inflamed with other people’s energy and the third chakra is overwhelmed and anxious, not trusting in the natural flow of life.

Clairgnosis: Clear Knowing

• Did you ever just “know” someone was lying to you without any proof or evidence to the contrary?
• Do you ever wake up right before the alarm clock goes off?
• Do you find yourself saying “I know” when listening to someone?   
• Do you know things about people before you have been told?
• Are you sometimes struck suddenly with an inspirational idea while showering, driving or exercising?
• Do you tend to just know things without knowing exactly how you know something to them. (i.e. An answer to a math question, who someone voted for in an election
• Have you ever just “known” something is going to happen that later did happen?

Clairgnosis is literally translated as clear knowing and is utilized through the seventh chakra.  This is when we know something directly and clearly but without awareness of how we know.  We know without facts, proof or external validation.  It is a strong feeling of grounded knowingness, as opposed to forced or manic projective knowing.  There is no need to prove or convince because the knowing is strong and connected.  We know the way we know anything: the way we know we are sitting on a chair or standing on the ground beneath us.

A subgroup of clairgnosis is claircognizant, which means clear recognition.  These people tend to be fairly analytical and logical in their reasoning.  Yet they still receive seventh chakra downloads which are clear blocks of thought beyond the information we can access through only our rational mind.

Clairaudience: Clear Hearing

• Have you ever overheard voices as you fall asleep like you are eavesdropping on other people talking?
• Do you say, “I hear” when listening to someone speak? (For example, “I hear what you are saying” or when referring to your intuition “I heard my intuition…”)
• Do you sometimes wake up with a song in your head and the words feel like it may have a message for you?
• When talking with friends, do you sometimes know what they are going to say before they say it?
• Can you sometimes hear the tone of a voice in your head and recognize it as a friend or family member that sounds like they are talking to you?
• Have you ever heard your name being called to you as you fall asleep?
• Do you sometimes hear light buzzing or ringing sounds in your ears?
• Do you sometimes hear songs playing in your head?
• Do you hear key phrases or words in your head that feel like comforting guidance in your life?
• Does the phrase “inner voice” make inherent sense to you, as you feel like you are hearing your intuition speak to you?
• Do calming sounds, like waves, bird calls or rain comfort you?

Clairaudience is the ability to hear intuitive information.  Sometimes people can feel it coming from their inner ear with a tingling or a voice that sounds like it is whispering something to them.  It can also appear just like a thought, but has a quality of “listening” to the information that might distinguish it from other thoughts.  It is also immediate and not the type of thought that comes from the forehead between the temples, where the logical analyzer is located.  I can see when a client is receiving clairaudient information because it comes directly in and lights up the entire spine, and then they have their answer.  They will then often argue with the information they have just received because it isn’t rational or logical, so the analyzer is not comfortable with receiving this directly at times.

Besides a voice, clairaudience can also come as the form of hearing inner sounds such as a tone, bell music or song.  Often I get information through song messages my Soul has sent me.  When I first moved to San Francisco and was scared to stay, I kept hearing Annie singing “I think you’re gonna like it here.”  This is not the same as having a song stuck in your head.  I had to check what song it was and was surprised because I barely remembered that song from the Annie musical.  The Soul can use any form it sees fit to get the message across to you.

Clairaudients can also potentially hear the voices of other spirits communicating with them.  As I was growing up, I noticed that as I feel asleep I could hear many voices chattering to each other having conversations that I felt I was eavesdropping on.  They were not talking to me, but it sounded like when your phone line crosses with another and you can overhear another conversation.  The words often came come in quickly, as opposed to the feeling if you are imagining a conversation.  Clairaudience is different than what happens during schizophrenia.  That is not to say, though, that some schizophrenics are not also clairaudient.  But clairaudience does not, in and of itself, imply or predict mental illness.

Clairscentist: Clear Scent (Smelling)

• Are you sensitive to smells like perfume in an elevator?
• Have you ever smelled a smell that has reminded you of someone else?
• Have you ever been overwhelmed by a sense of smell (like smoke out-of-the-blue) that reminded you of someone you once knew (like a grandpa who smoked?)

One of the lesser known of the clair abilities, clairscentist means clear smelling. Someone who is a clairscentist has the ability to smell into other dimensions or receive intuitive information through the sense of smell. There are many accounts of people being overcome by the smell of roses during visitations from Mary Magdalene, as the rose is her symbol. Lilacs are another common smell that comes through with loving spirits. Others can smell perfume, smoke, food, coffee, alcohol and other strong odors. For example, an intuitive might be picking up on a fire that is about to happen near by and be overcome with the smell of smoke and a choking feeling.

Clairgustant: Clear Tasting

• Are you sensitive to taste?
• Have you ever noticed a bitter taste in your mouth out of nowhere and then had a negative experience shortly afterward?
• Do you sometimes feel you can taste foods from your childhood in relation to a thought about a specific person? (e.g. Grandma who made amazing speghetti and meatballs?)
• Have you found yourself saying the phrase, “That left a bitter taste in my mouth…” when referring to an event that occurred (and not solely referring to food?)

Another less common but worth mentioning is clairgustant, or clear tasting. Clairaugstants can receive information through their taste buds. Without having the substance nearby they may taste food, drink or cigarettes. They can even drink a neutral substance like water, then tune in, and receive taste from a person that they are reading. One example I saw recently on a blog was a woman who said, “Once I was confronted by a woman who was possessed. As she spewed hatred out of her mouth, I could taste it in mine. I hurried and left, hoping she would overcome the evil.   That was my first experience with taste.”  That is a beautiful example of clairgustant.