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In parapsychology, clairvoyance denotes a form of extra-sensory perception in which a psychic acquires knowledge about a contemporary object, situation, or event by paranormal means. Clairvoyance is different from telepathy in that the information gained by a clairvoyant is assumed to derive directly from an external physical source, and not from another person's mind. Clairvoyance does not necessarily contain precognitive knowledge. Clairvoyance is also known as remote viewing, although the term "remote viewing" is not as widely applicable and refers to the controlled process.

As with all psi phenomena, there is wide disagreement and controversy within the sciences as to the existence of clairvoyance and the validity and interpretation of clairvoyance-related experiments (see Parapsychology). Skeptics say that clairvoyance is the result of fraud or self-delusion and does not exist as a paranormal power.

Clairvoyance through history

There have been anecdotal reports of clairvoyance and claims of clairvoyant abilities throughout history in most cultures. Most of these episodes are experienced during young adulthood. Often clairvoyance has been associated with religious or shamanic figures, offices, and practices. For example, ancient Hindu religious texts list clairvoyance as one of the siddhis, skills that can be acquired through appropriate meditation and personal discipline. But a large number of anecdotal accounts of clairvoyance are of the spontaneous variety among the general populace. For example, many people report seeing a loved one who has recently died before they have learned by other means that their loved one is deceased. While anecdotal accounts do not provide scientific proof of clairvoyance, such common experiences continue to motivate research into such phenomenon.

Clairvoyance was one of the phenomena reportedly observed in the behavior of somnambulists, people who were mesmerized and in a trance state (nowadays equated with hypnosis by most people) in the time of Franz Anton Mesmer. The earliest record of somnambulistic clairvoyance is credited to the Marquis de Puységur, a follower of Mesmer, who in 1784 was treating a local dull-witted peasant named Victor Race. During treatment, Race reportedly would go into trance and undergo a personality change, becoming fluent and articulate, and giving diagnosis and prescription for his own disease as well as those of others. When he came out of the trance state he would be unaware of anything he had said or done. This behavior is somewhat reminiscent of the reported behaviors of the 20th century medical clairvoyant and psychic Edgar Cayce. It is reported that although Puységur used the term 'clairvoyance', he did not think of these phenomena as "paranormal," since he accepted mesmerism as one of the natural sciences.

Clairvoyance was a reported ability of some mediums during the spiritualist period of the late 19th and early 20th centuries and was one of the phenomena studied by members of the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). Psychics of many descriptions have claimed clairvoyant ability up to the present day.

While experimental research into clairvoyance began with SPR researchers, experimental studies became more systematic with the efforts of J. B. Rhine and his associates at Duke University, and such research efforts continue to the present day. Perhaps the best-known study of clairvoyance in recent times was the US government-funded remote viewing project at SRI/SAIC during the 1970s through the mid-1990s.

Some parapsychologists have proposed that our different functional labels (clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition, etc.) all refer to one basic underlying mechanism, although there is not yet any satisfactory theory for what that mechanism would be.

Developing clairvoyant abilities

Current thinking among proponents of clairvoyance posits that most people are born with clairvoyant abilities but then start to subliminate them as their childhood training compels them to adhere to acceptable social norms. Numerous institutes offer training courses that attempt to revive the clairvoyant abilities present in those early years.

Another school of thought claims that our "sixth sense" grows when we do spiritual practice. With regular spiritual practice done according to basic spiritual principles we increase our "spiritual level" and are able to perceive and experience the "subtle world" to greater degrees. Clairvoyance is one of the abilities that may be gained by such discipline.

According to many Taoist- and Buddhist-related practices, abilities such as clairvoyance and many other 'supernormal' abilities are by-products of spiritual awakening and the elevation of human consciousness. Integral to spiritual and mind expansion is breathing meditation. The vast majority of people only normally use one-third of their brains and one-third of their lungs. In Taoist and Buddhist thought this is not a coincidence. By expanding lung capacity and learning to use the lungs as a 'bellows' to push qi (Chinese: 氣 qì, meaning "air") around the body and open the energy channels we also naturally expand the mind and elevate consciousness. This is how these seemingly miraculous powers develop, though they are not truly miraculous. They are believed to be latent abilities that everyone possesses but need 'waking up.'

Such abilities in some schools of thought are considered distractions from the true path of Enlightenment and can lead to the practitioner falling off the true path. The re-discovery of these energetic abilities relies on the activation of the 'Dan Tien' (Chinese: 丹田 dān tián, meaning "pubic region") that is the central energy reservoir just below the navel. When the practitioner learns to 'turn' it and move it as if it were a fifth limb then qi can begin to be pushed around the body. The Dan Tien is strong as a baby but quickly slows to a crawl as one ages. A major part of Taoist and Chinese Buddhist practice is learning to activate the Dan Tien once again. This may also explain why such abilities are a bit stronger as a child and quickly disappear as one ages but can be awakened again at any time by the proper practice of arts such as Nei Gong and Qi Gong to expand the mind and spirit. There are many abilities that can be developed in this way — telepathy, prediction, astral travel, pyrokinesis, telekinesis, levitation, empty force, and energetic healing.

Science on clairvoyance

Scientific opinion appears divided regarding phenomena such as clairvoyance. As a general rule, while trained scientists may not be as likely to believe in parapsychological phenomena as the general public, they are far from monolithic in their disbelief. Surveys of this group are rare, but in their 1994 paper in the Psychological Bulletin entitled Does psi exist? Replicable evidence for an anomalous process of information transfer Daryl J. Bem and Charles Honorton quote a 1979 survey:

A survey of more than 1,100 college professors in the United States found that 55% of natural scientists, 66% of social scientists (excluding psychologists), and 77% of academics in the arts, humanities, and education believed that ESP is either an established fact or a likely possibility. The comparable figure for psychologists was only 34%. Moreover, an equal number of psychologists declared ESP to be an impossibility, a view expressed by only 2% of all other respondents (Wagner; Monnet, 1979).

Parapsychological research studies have produced favorable results significantly above chance, and meta-analysis of these studies increases the significance to astronomical proportions. For instance, at the Stanford Research Institute, remote viewing experiments undertaken between 1973 and 1988 were analyzed by Edwin May and his colleagues in 1988, and the odds against the results being due to chance were more than a billion billion to one. The SRI results were replicated at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Laboratory. (Radin 1997:91-109)

Skeptics contest, however, that if clairvoyance were a reality it would have become abundantly clear. They also contend that those who believe in paranormal phenomena do so for merely psychological reasons. According to David G. Myers (Psychology, 8th ed.)

The search for a valid and reliable test of clairvoyance has resulted in thousands of experiments. One controlled procedure has invited “senders” to telepathically transmit one of four visual images to “receivers” deprived of sensation in a nearby chamber (Bem & Honorton, 1994). The result? A reported 32 percent accurate response rate, surpassing the chance rate of 25 percent. But follow-up studies have (depending on who was summarizing the results) failed to replicate the phenomenon or produced mixed results (Bem & others, 2001; Milton & Wiseman, 2002; Storm, 2000, 2003).

One skeptic, magician James Randi, has a longstanding offer—now U.S. $1 million—“to anyone who proves a genuine psychic power under proper observing conditions” (Randi, 1999). French, Australian, and Indian groups have parallel offers of up to 200,000 euros to anyone with demonstrable paranormal abilities (CFI, 2003). And $50 million was available for information leading to Osama bin Ladin’s capture. Large as these sums are, the scientific seal of approval would be worth far more to anyone whose claims could be authenticated. To refute those who say there is no ESP, one need only produce a single person who can demonstrate a single, reproducible ESP phenomenon. So far, no such person has emerged. Randi’s offer has been publicized for three decades and dozens of people have been tested, sometimes under the scrutiny of an independent panel of judges. Still, nothing. "People's desire to believe in the paranormal is stronger than all the evidence that it does not exist." Susan Blackmore, "Blackmore's first law," 2004.

Variations on clairvoyance

The word "clairvoyance" is often used to refer to many different kinds of paranormal sensory experiences.

Clairsentience

In the field of parapsychology, clairsentience is a form of extra-sensory perception wherein a person acquires psychic knowledge primarily by means of feeling.

Psychometry is related to clairsentience. The word stems from psyche and metric, which means "to measure with the mind".

Clairaudience

In the field of parapsychology, Clairaudience is a form of extra-sensory perception wherein a person acquires information by paranormal auditory means. It is often considered to be a form of clairvoyance. Clairaudience is essentially the ability to hear in a paranormal manner, as opposed to paranormal seeing (clairvoyance) and feeling (clairsentience). Clairaudient people have psi-mediated hearing. Clairaudience may refer not to actual perception of sound, but may instead indicate impressions of the "inner mental ear" similar to the way many people think words without having auditory impressions. But it may also refer to actual perception of sounds such as voices, tones, or noises which are not apparent to other humans or to recording equipment. For instance, a clairaudient person might claim to hear the voices or thoughts of the spirits of persons who are deceased. Clairaudience may be positively distinguished from the voices heard by the mentally ill when it reveals information unavailable to the clairaudient person by normal means (including cold reading or other magic tricks), and thus may be termed "psychic" or paranormal.

Clairalience

In the field of parapsychology, Clairalience is a form of extra-sensory perception wherein a person acquires psychic knowledge primarily by means of smelling.

Clairgustance

In the field of parapsychology, Clairgustance is defined as a form of extra-sensory perception that allegedly allows one to taste a substance without putting anything in one's mouth. It is claimed that those who possess this ability are able to perceive the essence of a substance from the spiritual or ethereal realms through taste.

References

http://parapsych.org/glossary_a_d.html Parapsychological Association website, Glossary of Key Words Frequently Used in Parapsychology, Retrieved January 8, 2006
http://www.skepdic.com/clairvoy.html Skepdic.com on clairvoyance, Retrieved February 22, 2007
The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena by Dean I. Radin Harper Edge, ISBN 0-06-251502-0
http://parapsych.org/historical_terms.html Parapsychological Association historical terms glossary, retrieved December 17, 2006
http://parapsych.org/historical_terms.html Parapsychological Association website, Glossary of Key Words Frequently Used in Parapsychology, Retrieved January 24, 2006
http://www.ghostvillage.com/resources/2003/resources_10132003.shtml

"What is Sixth Sense" by Spiritual Science Research Foundation

"Is there ESP" by David G. Myers

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