Is Clairvoyance Real?

What Is Clairvoyance?

Before we can decide if clairvoyance is real, we need to establish exactly what clairvoyance is.

The term clairvoyance originates from two French words, Clair meaning ‘clear’ and ‘voyance’ meaning vision. It is claimed that people who possess the gift of clairvoyance can discern information about an object, place or person through an extrasensory perception, or vision.

Similar terms exist for Clairaudience, which is the phenomenon whereby people can allegedly hear extrasensory information from objects, places or people.

Is There Any Scientific Proof Of Clairvoyance?

The claims of the clairvoyant’s abilities to see visions of other people, places or events are not backed up by scientific data. Some experiments have been done with CIA funding even. Perhaps one of the most interesting things about the available scientific evidence is that some studies show the possibility of clairvoyance being real – and yet others debunk it in its entirety.

With this in mind, one of the studies, performed in 1974 notes that their “experiment strongly suggests the possibility of telepathy, but does not prove it”^[1].

Similarly perhaps, lots of modern experiments strongly suggest the possibility of dark matter, but don’t actually prove it. Scientists find new things all the time to prove or disprove old experiments.

CIA Remote Viewing Programme

In 2017, the American CIA declassified an enormous number of documents from the 1970s. Some of these documents revealed a plan known as Project Stargate^[2] which involved the now famous Uri Geller. Some of the participants in this research programme, which continued until 1995, were allegedly responsible for helping the US Army locate hostages in Iran and finding a shortwave radio in the pocket of a captured KGB Agent in South Africa.

Another remote viewer, in 1989, helped the US Customs agency track down a former customs agent who had gone on the run. She noted that he was located in a town in Wyoming called Lowell – customs actually apprehended the agent 100 miles west of a town called Lovell, Wyoming.

The Mind Machine

Another experiment, conducted in Great Britain over the course of 11 months and involving over 27,000 people indicates that ESP or Clairvoyance has no better likelihood of revealing anything remotely compared to chance^[3]. The experiment involved the participants guessing the outcome of 4 electronic coin tosses. The experiment also looked at whether a person’s belief in clairvoyance had an bearing on the outcome as well as their gender. Neither had any effect and the result was statistically consistent with chance.

Scientific Conclusion

It’s fair to say, that from a scientifically reproducible experimentation perspective the data is inconclusive at best, and downright damning at worst. James Randi, who died aged 92 in 2020^[4], dedicated much of his later life to debunking so called Clairvoyants and other alleged psychic abilities in people. What Mr Randi hated the most was the dishonesty of people who would cheat and misinform others. It’s interesting to note that James Randi did not disbelieve the existence of paranormal powers, labelling himself as a ‘skeptic’ or ‘investigator’^[4]. His view was that paranormal powers are unlikely, and that most people who profess to possess them in fact do not.

With this in mind, and the lack of reproducible scientific experiments, it’s difficult to say that Clairvoyance is indeed real.

However…

At this point we’ll be accused of being a pseudo-science publication. That’s OK, perhaps we are. We like to put together a healthy dose of scepticism when researching and writing our articles. But we also believe that science doesn’t know all the answers yet. It’s also very important to note that ‘no evidence of’ does not mean something doesn’t exist. Prior to the mid 1800’s the existence of dinosaurs had no scientific evidence available yet many scholars from across the ages believed they might.

By this I mean that it’s possible that Clairvoyance does exist but cannot be studied in the way that science requires. There are too many anecdotal stories of some form of Clairvoyance to accept that it’s complete bunkum.

Most of the famous, rich, clairvoyants are nothing more than charlatans who extract vulnerable people from their money. That much is demonstrable. But does this mean that you, as an individual don’t possess any clairvoyant or other psychic powers? No, it doesn’t.

Scientific Discoveries Through Possible Clairvoyance

Although perhaps a tenuous link, there’ve been many scientists who’ve attributed their discoveries to what could be described as a form of clairvoyance.

The Structure Of Benzene

Perhaps the most famous of these is August Kekule von Stradonitz^[5] who is alleged to have discovered the cyclical structure of the aromatic hydrocarbon Benzene through a day-dream or semi-meditative state. Previous chemists knew the chemical formula of benzene but could not determine how it was possible. Kekule is alleged to have been thinking of the problem for some time before seeing a snake eating its own tail during a daydream.

From where did that inspiration arise? Is it luck, or was Kekule spoken to from somewhere beyond the 3D realm?

The Periodic Table

Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev was attempting to categorise the chemical elements according to their chemical properties in or around 1869. He is quoted as saying that in a dream he saw a table where all the elements fell into place as required. When he awoke he wrote it all down on a piece of paper, with only one correction being required^[6].

The Australian Readers Digest lists multiple occasions of similar experiences. Whilst many of these experiences come while the scientist or inventor is asleep, it’s difficult to postulate how or where the information came to them from.

Are dreams an outlet for Clairvoyance?

How To Practice Clairvoyance

So, putting aside the notion that all Clairvoyants are fake charlatans whose only aim is to separate you from your hard earned cash, let’s look at how you can improve your own clairvoyance. Or intuition if you prefer to call it that.

Step 1, Decide What It Is You Need To See

Obviously, if you don’t have anything you’re particularly interested in discovering then in all likelihood you’ll be completely successful and see nothing…

So the first step in practising your Clairvoyance will be to decide what it is you require help with. This could be some kind of item you want to manifest into your life and don’t know how to go about it. Or it could be the answer to a specific problem you’re encountering at this time, such as the scientists above. It could be simply the answer to a challenging crossword puzzle. It doesn’t matter what it is.

Step 2, Quiet Your Mind

Shhhh. A busy mind will see no clairvoyance. There’s a reason that so many answers come to people during sleep, slumber, day-dreaming or meditation. A busy mind does not have the capacity to reveal images or answers from elsewhere. There is too much ‘channel noise’ drowning out the signal.

Learning how to meditate might help with this. Even if you can’t fully meditate (for example you’re trying to solve a complex problem at work, or during an exam, or in a high pressure situation) you can still quiet your mind for a few moments. The answers you seek, for whatever it is, will require a quiet mind to come to you.

Step 3, Let The Images Flow

Don’t try to force anything in or out of your mind once you’ve quieted your mind sufficiently. Don’t try to analyse anything that you see. Just let the imagery come and go as it pleases without you exerting any control.

Once you have meditated and let the images come and go, when you feel ready to return to normal behaviour, thank your subconscious or your guides or whatever it is you feel grateful to for this experience and return to normal thoughts.

Write down what you saw (it will help you remember later) and now that you’re back in rational thought you may see something in the images that you didn’t realise was the answer to your question!

That’s All Wonderful – But Is Clairvoyance Real?

Our opinion is that Clairvoyance is real, on some level whereby you yourself can tap into some form of extra-sensory-perception for yourself. But it’s almost certainly not real when someone else is attempting to tap in on your behalf. In other words, you can gain answers through some mechanism that either is clairvoyance, or presents itself in a way that we would consider to be.

But legitimate clairvoyants who can ‘remote-view’ or see spirits of our dead relatives would seem to be few and far between. Those that charge large sums of money to tell you things that allegedly come from alternative realms are likely to be charlatans and you would be better off investing that money in some form of meditation course so you yourself can tap into your own subconscious – which could well be communicating with other realms without you knowing what’s actually happening.

At the very least, it seems as if clairvoyance is very difficult to switch on and off at will and almost impossible under a high pressure situation.

Feedback

If you have any feedback, such as study you’ve found that makes the case one way or the other, or an anecdotal story of your experiences with clairvoyance, please leave a comment below. Comments without substance (such as ‘it just doesnt exist so get over it’) are unlikely to be approved but if you have a reasoned opinion one way or the other it’ll be approved 🙂

References

1: Moss, T., Eveloff, H. H., & Chang, A. F. (1974). A laboratory investigation of telepathy: the study of a psychic. Behavioral neuropsychiatry, 6(1-12), 71–80. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4468763/)

2: Sarah Pruitt (2018). The CIA Recruited ‘Mind Readers’ to Spy On The Soviets in the 1970s. The History Channel. Fetched from https://www.history.com/news/cia-esp-espionage-soviet-union-cold-war on 14th September 2021.

3: Wiseman, R., Greening E. (2010). The Mind Machine: A mass participation experiment into the possible existence of extra-sensory perception. British Journal Of Psychology, Vol. 93, Issue 4, pp487-499. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712602761381367

4: Fox M. (2020). James Randi, Magician Who Debunked Paranormal Claims, Dies at 92. The New York Times. Oct 21, 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/obituaries/james-randi-dead.html

5: Rocke A. J. (2021), August Kekule von Stradonitz German Chemist, Encyclopedia Britannica. Sep 2021. https://www.britannica.com/biography/August-Kekule-von-Stradonitz

6: Sharpe M. E. (1967). The Soviet Review Translations. Vol VIII No. 2. http://digitalcollections.library.cmu.edu/awweb/awarchive?type=file&item=33706