Understanding Clairsentience – The Foundation of Mediumship
Learning to Feel, Recognise and Expand the Communication
By Donna King – Spiritualist Medium & Mediumship Teacher
When we talk about mediumship, we often talk about the different clair senses. Clairvoyance, clairaudience, claircognizance and clairsentience.
But one of the areas I particularly encourage students to explore is clairsentience.
Why? Because feeling can provide us with such a wonderful foundation for understanding the communication we experience through mediumship.
What Is Clairsentience?
Clairsentience is often described as clear feeling.
It is the ability to experience information through feelings, emotions and sensations.
Within mediumship, this may be experienced as an awareness of somebody's personality, their emotional characteristics, their temperament or the way they interacted with the people around them.
It isn't necessarily about feeling sad when somebody in Spirit is communicating, or happy when they are happy.
It can be much more subtle and much more detailed than that.
You may become aware of somebody's character, their habits, their sense of humour or even the way they approached everyday life.
Feeling Is More Than an Emotion
We mustn't limit our understanding of feeling to simply recognising an emotion.
There is so much more information available through the experience of feeling.
Imagine becoming aware of somebody who was incredibly independent.
As you remain with that impression, it may develop into an awareness of somebody who liked things done their own way.
Perhaps they were strong-minded, perhaps a little stubborn, but underneath that character was an enormous amount of love.
You begin to experience more than one characteristic.
The feeling expands.
And as it expands, you may become aware of further aspects of their personality.
This is why I encourage students not to move away from an impression too quickly.
Stay with it.
Allow yourself to experience it.
Learn to recognise how that information develops.
The Wave of Information
Sometimes I describe clairsentience as being like a wave.
An initial feeling may come forward, and as you remain within your power, that feeling can develop into something much more detailed.
It might begin as a sense of warmth.
Then perhaps you become aware of somebody's very gentle nature.
That may expand into an awareness of how they treated their family, how they showed affection or how they approached relationships.
You may then receive a picture, a word or a sudden knowing that adds another dimension to what you are experiencing.
One sense can open the door to another.
This is why I don't believe we should look at the clair senses as separate little compartments.
They can work together, each contributing to the communication.
Allowing an Impression to Develop
Let me give you an example.
Imagine you become aware of a lady in Spirit who loved knitting.
You might initially feel that knitting was an important part of her life.
But rather than simply passing that information forward and immediately looking for something else, allow yourself to remain with the impression.
Perhaps you become aware of her sitting in her favourite chair.
You may see the knitting needles moving in her hands.
You might become aware that she knitted for her grandchildren, or that she always had something on the go.
Then perhaps you begin to feel that making things for other people was one of the ways she expressed her love.
Look at how much information can develop from that initial impression.
You haven't needed to force anything.
You have remained within your power and allowed the communication to expand.
Of course, we mustn't add details simply because they seem to fit. We allow the information to come forward as we experience it.
The Importance of Remaining in Your Power
This is where sitting in your power becomes so important.
When you are familiar with your own energy and your own awareness, you can begin to recognise the feelings and impressions that come forward during mediumship.
But when you move into the thinking mind, wanting to work something out or trying to make the information fit, you move away from that natural state.
I often encourage students to stay with what they feel.
Don't question every impression.
Don't try to work out why it is there.
And don't decide in advance what the feeling should mean.
Allow the information to unfold.
The meaning of the information is for the sitter to recognise. Your role is to pass it forward.
Developing Your Clairsentience
Like every aspect of mediumship, developing clairsentience requires time and practice.
Begin by becoming familiar with your own power.
Sit regularly.
Become aware of the subtle changes in your feelings and sensations.
Allow yourself to explore how information develops rather than rushing from one impression to another.
And remember that feeling is not necessarily a lesser sense or simply the starting point before you develop clairvoyance or clairaudience.
It can be a wonderfully rich source of communication in its own right.
Don't underestimate what you can receive through feeling. Sometimes one simple feeling can open up an entire communication.
Donna King
Spiritualist Medium & Mediumship Teacher
