Improve Your Psychic Senses (the Clairs) with These 6 Tips!
- Jo Burke
- Aug 30, 2020
- 7 min read
Updated: Apr 28
We are all born with intuitive gifts.
Some people call them psychic abilities. Others describe them as gut feelings, inner knowing, or those moments when you just know something without being able to explain why.
Over time, many of us quiet these gifts down. We learn to trust logic over instinct, other people over ourselves, and the noise of the outside world over the quiet voice within.
But your intuition never truly leaves.
It waits.
Maybe you’ve felt it before—that strong nudge to call someone, the feeling that something wasn’t right, or a deep knowing that a decision was either aligned… or absolutely not.
That’s your psychic awareness speaking.
As a psychic medium and spirit artist, I work with these energies every day. I’ve seen how powerful it can be when people reconnect with their own intuitive gifts and begin trusting themselves again.
Your psychic senses—often called the Clairs—are the different ways Spirit communicates with you.
They are the pathways through which we receive guidance, insight, healing, and connection on our spiritual journey.
And yes—you can strengthen them.
What Are the Clair Senses?
The word clair means “clear.”
The Clair senses are the six main ways we receive psychic and intuitive information beyond our physical senses.
By learning to recognise and trust your dominant clairs, you strengthen your natural psychic abilities and deepen your connection to Spirit, your higher self, and your own innate inner wisdom.
The truth is—there is no “right” way to be psychic.
One of the biggest misconceptions, and what causes so much angst, is people trying too hard to be clairvoyant because they think psychic ability should look like dramatic visions or movie-style premonitions.
That’s rarely how it works.
As a professional psychic medium, my advice is simple:
Stop trying to receive intuitively the way you think you’re supposed to.
Instead, notice how Spirit already communicates with you.
Your strongest clair is often the one you naturally dismiss.
Let’s explore the six primary psychic senses and how to develop each one.
1. Clairvoyance (clear seeing).
Clairvoyance uses what is referred to as the third eye.
It’s the ability to receive intuitive information through images, symbols, flashes, colours, visions, or mental pictures.
Sometimes it’s subtle—a quick visual impression. Other times it feels like a full scene playing in your mind.
Despite what movies show us, most clairvoyance is quiet and symbolic rather than dramatic.
My Tip:
Use your imagination like a muscle.
Close your eyes and walk yourself through a familiar place—a childhood bedroom, your garden, your kitchen, or think of someone you love
See them in your mind's eye.
Notice the colours, objects, textures, and details your mind shows you, or the lack of them.
Relax and take in the information without judgement!
2. Claircognizance (clear knowing).
This is the “I just know” clair.
Claircognizance happens when information drops into your awareness without logic, proof, or explanation - it's a little bit spooky!
You simply know something is true.
It can feel frustrating because your mind wants evidence—but your soul already has the answer.
This is one of the strongest psychic senses for many people, especially those on a spiritual awakening journey.
My Tip:
Create space for stillness.
Let your thoughts come and go, without forcing them to stop - watch them, observe where they take you.
Sit in the quiet. Even if it is uncomfortable.
Breathe.
Notice what drops in when the mental noise settles - when you let your intuitive awareness emerge without interference (this requires practice - be kind to yourself).
Write your intuitive hits down and reflect later—you’ll be surprised how often they were right.
Trust strengthens this clair!
3. Clairaudience
(clear hearing).
Clairaudience is the ability to hear beyond the physical.
Clairaudience is clear hearing.
This type of psychic information comes in an auditory form.
Clairaudients can receive intuitive sound messages with their inner or outer hearing.
Clairaudience can be a voice that you hear in your head that you can clearly distinguish as not yours, right up to a disembodied voice outside your head.
It is a psychic sense that allows you to hear things other people can’t.
Clairaudience involves Spirit communicating with you through sounds, music, or even words or phrases.
Sometimes through that one sentence, line of a song, jingle of an ad that you cannot stop hearing.
My Tip:
Pay attention to songs.
If you wake up with lyrics in your head or a random song keeps repeating, notice it.
What part stands out?
What message could Spirit be highlighting for you?
Write it down.
Spirit speaks more clearly when we start listening.
4. Clairsentience (clear feeling)
This is the classic gut feeling.
Clairsentience is receiving intuitive information through emotions, physical sensations, and energetic awareness.
You may walk into a room and instantly feel tension.
You may meet someone and sense sadness before they say a word.
You may physically feel what others are carrying.
This is especially common for empaths.
My Tip:
Check in with your body often.
Before entering a room, pause.
How do you feel?
Now step inside.
What changed?
Your body is often your strongest psychic tool.
Learning the difference between your energy and someone else’s is a powerful part of your spiritual journey.
5. Clairalience (Clear Smelling)
This is psychic smelling.
You may suddenly smell perfume, flowers, smoke, food, or a familiar scent with no physical source and you may be the only one who smells it!
Often this is Spirit bringing through reassurance, memories, or connection from loved ones in spirit.
Scent is powerful because it bypasses logic and lands straight in feeling.
My Tip:
Clairalience often comes through familiar smells that have no physical source, like perfume, cigarette smoke, flowers, aftershave, fresh baking, or even hospital disinfectant.
These scents can be strong indicators of a loved one in Spirit, a specific memory, or an important message trying to come through.
For example, the smell of roses may remind someone of their grandmother, while the scent of tobacco could immediately connect to a father or grandfather in Spirit. Fresh bread or cooking smells can often point to someone known for nurturing, family gatherings, or home comfort.
The scent is often the clue—not the full message.
Ask yourself:
Who does this remind me of?
What memory does this bring?
What would this scent mean to the person I’m reading for?
Very often, the answer is already there—you just need to trust the first thing that comes.
6. Clairgustance (Clear Tasting)
Clairgustance is clear tasting.
It’s the ability to suddenly taste something without physically eating it.
Sweetness, salt, metallic tastes, favourite foods of loved ones in spirit—these can all
be ways Spirit communicates.
It’s subtle, but incredibly meaningful.
My Tip:
Pay close attention to unusual tastes that seem to appear out of nowhere—especially during a reading, meditation, or quiet intuitive moment.
Clairgustance often works through symbolic taste. For example, you might suddenly taste metal, which could relate to dental work, health concerns, blood, or even someone connected to dentistry. You may taste something like a hearty roast dinner, fresh bread, or a favourite family recipe—often linking to a loved one in Spirit who was known for cooking, nurturing others, or bringing people together around food.
The taste itself is usually the clue, not the full message.
Ask yourself: What does this remind me of? Who would this connect to?
The more you notice and trust these subtle tastes, the clearer Spirit’s communication becomes.
Strengthening Your Clairs
Most people naturally lead with one or two dominant clairs.
But all of them can be developed.
As a psychic medium, I work with all of the Clair senses in readings and spirit art sessions.
Even after years of this work, I still practice strengthening my psychic muscles.
Because intuition is not something you “arrive at.”
It’s a relationship.
The more you trust it, the stronger it becomes.
Developing your psychic senses helps you:
trust yourself more deeply
strengthen your connection to Spirit
receive clearer intuitive guidance
understand your spiritual journey
move through life with greater clarity and alignment
Psychic development is not about becoming someone else. It’s about remembering who you already are.
Free Download: Discover Your Dominant Clair
If you’re curious about your intuitive gifts and want a gentle place to begin, I’ve created a free guide just for you.
This free quiz + guide helps you explore your psychic senses and understand how Spirit may already be communicating with you.
Inside you’ll discover:
Clairvoyance — seeing through your third eye
Clairaudience — hearing messages from Spirit
Clairsentience — feeling energy and emotions
Claircognizance — knowing without reason
Clairgustance — tasting psychically
Clairalience — smelling scents from Spirit
A beautiful first step if you’re beginning your spiritual journey or wanting to deepen your psychic awareness.
Ready to Go Deeper?
If this blog stirred something in you… trust that.
That spark matters.
Whether you’re just beginning to explore your psychic gifts or you’ve been walking your spiritual path for years, you don’t have to do it alone.
This is exactly the work I support people with through psychic readings, spiritual mentoring, and spirit art sessions.
Psychic Readings
If you’re seeking clarity, guidance, or confirmation, my psychic readings offer a grounded, heart-led space to receive insight into what’s unfolding in your life right now.
Sometimes we simply need validation.
Sometimes we need direction.
Sometimes Spirit has been trying to get our attention.
A reading can help bring that through.
Spirit Art Sessions
My Spirit Art sessions are deeply personal and often incredibly moving.
As a spirit artist, I connect with your spirit guide or loved one in spirit and create an intuitive portrait alongside the messages that come through.
It’s a powerful experience of connection, healing, and remembrance.
Many people say it becomes a turning point in their spiritual journey.
Spiritual Mentoring
If you’re wanting deeper support to trust your intuition, strengthen your psychic senses, and reconnect with yourself, my 1:1 mentoring sessions are designed for exactly that.
This work is personal.
And transformational.
If you're unsure where to begin, reach out.
I’d love to help.
Or contact me directly at hello@creativeempowerment.com.au
Because your growth is your gift.
And when you strengthen your connection to Spirit, you change everything.