In French, a clairvoyant is simply someone with good vision and clairvoyance simply means clear vision. This literal translation of the French word isn�t particularly helpful for our purposes here, since the word has taken on a different meaning in English.

The term clairvoyant is further complicated because of having been used as a reference for different things in the past. The description of someone who uses powers of clairvoyance, has been used to describe an individual who has exhibited abilities in psychic or the paranormal. A total encompassing definition which fits is that a clairvoyant has the ability to know things about an event, object, location or a person. Without using the five physical senses. They use what is considered a form of (ESP) extra-sensory perception.

Clairvoyance normally involves a clairvoyant individual knowing about something that is taking place at that time or in a far away location out of the range of any physical sense. There have been plenty of cases documented about a clairvoyant having knowledge of something that occurred in the future or in the past. Many people consider clairvoyance to be a form of precognition or prophecy.

The means by which a clairvoyant learns this information varies, but as a general rule can be broken down into one of six forms or types. It is clairvoyance that is most associated with this first type or form, the remote viewing phenomenon. The clairvoyant, in remote viewing, sees an object, location, event or person hidden from them. Sometimes this is in the form of visual hallucination, other times the clairvoyant viewing something using their minds eye.

The next form of clairvoyance is called clairaudience. With clairaudience, the clairvoyant is able to gain the information about a remote event through sound. They are able to hear noises and voices that others and recording equipment are unable to. In cases where a clairvoyant hears the voices of the dead, this phenomenon crosses the line and enters into the mediumship.

Clairsentience is analogous to our sense of touch. Also called psychometry, clairsentience refers to information which comes as tactile extrasensory input. The clairvoyant may feel vibrations from people, places, events and things or even be able to feel objects which cannot be perceived by anyone else present.

The fourth one is clairalience. This happens when a person is able to gain knowledge of remote events and locations with their sense of smell. It is possible for them to smell wildflowers or grass of a beautiful spring meadow that is followed by the smell of gunpowder that is followed with the scent of blood. No one else is able to smell these things and there is never an apparent source for the smells.

The fifth form is called clairgustance and in this case an individual who has not eaten or drank anything can taste different flavors with no apparent source. They can also describe the taste of these things at a distance from where they are.

Claircognizance has no analogue among the physical senses. It is the phenomena of a clairvoyant ‘just knowing’ something with no sensory explanation. It�s difficult to explain in any more detail than this.

There are many documented occurrences of clairvoyant people throughout history for various cultures from across the world. Clairvoyance has also been incorporated into various religions across the globe.

Clairvoyance is part of the religious traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam as well. In the Abrahamic religions clairvoyance is believed to be a miraculous experience granted to the clairvoyant by divine intervention. In Catholic tradition, St. Clare is believed to have had a vision of the death of St. Francis of Assisi, even though she was many miles removed from the event. In honor of this vision, the Catholic Church named St. Clare the patron saint of television. It�s a fitting assignment; after all, the word television literally means to see at a distance.

In the Catholic religion, clairvoyance often been considered to be miraculous. Saint Francis had a disciple, Saint Claire that had a vision of his death even though she was miles away. This case took place over 500 hundred years ago. As a result, the Catholic Church made her the patron saint of ‘television’ which means ’seeing over a distance.’

Many, of course, are skeptical of clairvoyance, but it is a part of human nature to deny something�s existence because they have no understanding of it. Not long ago, in our earlier history there were skeptical scientist who had even denied the existence of electricity and magnetism.

Whatever the skeptics have said, no one has disproved clairvoyance exists. And the evidence is increasing that genuine clairvoyants exists worldwide. Generally parapsychologists and scientists along with the general public are being more open-minded on the subject and accept the existence of clairvoyance and that�s it�s real.

Just because we don’t understand how it works, there is no reason to deny its existence. It has been suggested that in the distant past, all humans used to be clairvoyant but for some reason lost their powers. It is thought that everybody could again become clairvoyant if they make the effort and choose to develop these powers.