What is clairsentience?

Answer  
  

Clairsentience is the perception of what is not normally perceptible. Clairsentience is to have “clear feeling,” just as [clairvoyance](Bible-clairvoyance.html) is to have “clear seeing.” It is a person’s ability to acquire psychic knowledge by means of a feeling or sensation. A person who claims to be clairsentient will claim to feel “vibrations” or “energies” emanating from certain objects, persons, or locales. He or she will claim to sense the difference between “good vibrations” and “negative vibes.”  
  

Such psychic powers may be real, or they may be a clever con game. Most of the time, there is no spiritual significance to be found in [goosebumps](goosebumps-significance.html); feeling a “chill” does not mean one has psychic ability. At the same time, it’s possible that someone attuned to such uncanny feelings is being granted power from the evil one. Satan has a certain amount of power, but he is kept on a short leash (see Job 1:6–12; Luke 22:31\). Those who experiment with the dark world of witchcraft or who pursue psychic powers are walking away from God’s source of power and entering the realm of demonic counterfeits.  
  

God strongly condemned [fortune\-tellers](psychics-Christian.html), diviners, magicians, astrologers, and any who practiced witchcraft (Exodus 22:18; Deuteronomy 18:10; Leviticus 19:31\). The messages delivered through such means were unreliable: “For idols speak deceit and diviners see illusions; they tell false dreams and offer empty comfort. Therefore the people wander like sheep, oppressed for lack of a shepherd” (Zechariah 10:2\). Any attempt to divine information through telepathic power, clairsentience, or ESP is to open oneself to a power that opposes God.  
  

Clairsentience is not the same as Christian discernment. God gives wisdom to those who ask (James 1:5\), and spiritual insight comes with being filled with the Spirit. But it has nothing to do with tingling sensations, sensing the presence of angels, or using feelings to validate truth. It is, rather, “the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives” (Colossians 1:9\).  
  

Satan may indeed manifest through vibrations, voices, noises, or other useless actions designed to thrill the gullible and lead them astray. Such experiences are akin to the “lying signs” mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:9\. Clairsentience and psychic vibrations are not from God and are spiritually dangerous to those who desire such “gifts.”  
  

Clairsentience and all its cousins are largely figments of people’s imaginations. Yet there are some who have allowed Satan to have such control of their minds that they appear to “feel” the unseen. The Bible warns us to stay away from things associated with clairsentience, clairvoyance, and [ESP](extrasensory-perception-ESP.html). Persons claiming to have any type of extrasensory perception or who call themselves clairsentients are involved in either a hoax or a trap, and it’s likely they themselves are being deceived.  
  

