What Is Extrasensory Perception? (The 9 Major Types Explained and Made Simple)

types of extrasensory perception

Photo: flickr/Ceneje Jeftinije

Extrasensory perception is often identified as having a sixth sense.

It’s the gift to discern information without the need to use any of the five physical senses.

There are multiple, different kinds of ESP that an individual can be gifted with.

These abilities include telepathy, clairaudience, clairvoyance, and precognition.

Let’s take a closer look at the primary types of extrasensory perception:

  • Clairvoyance: The ability to perceive events without physically being present to discern them.
  • Retrocognition: The gift to be able to see far back into the past.
  • Mediumship: The ability to interact with the spiritual realm and communicate with individuals who have since passed on.
  • Precognition: The gift of foreseeing the future.
  • Clairaudience: The ability to obtain information and message via psychic hearing.
  • Clairsentience: The gift of being able to perceive other people’s emotions through heightened intuition.
  • Clairalience: The ability to obtain a psychic reading purely through the sense of smell.
  • Telepathy: The gift of being able to read other people’s minds and perceive what they’re truly thinking and feeling.
  • Clairgustance: A paranormal gift that allows you to taste something without ever actually putting it in your mouth.

Updated 2/11/2020

The 9 Types of ESP Explained

If you want to learn more about the different kinds of extrasensory perception, you’ve come to the right place.

Keep reading for a detailed explanation of each of the 9 types of ESP.

Precognition

The first type of ESP I’d like to delve into further with you is precognition.

Simply put, precognition means that you can perceive and foresee what will happen in the future.

Much of the scientific world rejects the notion of precognition because they claim there is a lack of discernable proof to support it.

With that said, there is, in fact, scientific data that explains the gift of precognition.

The Parapsychology Laboratory at Duke University conducted a series of experiments revealing that the subconscious mind has both the tendency and capacity to make predictions regarding the future outcome of events.

The mind makes these predictions simply by reviewing present circumstances and making subconscious projections for future occurrences.

If these predictions come to fruition, they are directly linked to precognition.

Nostradamus was one of the most renowned individuals famed for his precognitive abilities.

He made several predictions throughout his lifetime regarding various historical events, all of which came to fruition long after his passing.

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Retrocognition

Retrocognition is the gift to be able to look deep into the past.

A person with the unique ability of retrocognition might be able to discern an individual, place, or event in the past that they were not connected to in any way.

A common example of retrocognition is that feeling of deja vu that many of us experience when we feel as if we recognize or have lived through an experience before.

Someone with the gift of retrocognition could potentially tell you in the present what it was like to live through an event like the 1912 sinking of the Titanic.

Telepathy

Another important type of supernatural perception is telepathy, which occurs when someone has the ability to perceive someone else’s thoughts.

With telepathy, the gifted individual can communicate with more than one individual solely through mind perception.

Have you ever grown so close to another person that you felt as if you could read their very thoughts?

While this doesn’t necessarily mean you are a telepath, this gives you a general idea of how this kind of ability works in practice.

Clairvoyance

Clairvoyance is a kind of ESP with which an individual can see situations that are happening to another person.

Closely aligned with telepathy, clairvoyance allows someone to acquire information about an object, scenario, or individual without any sensory aid.

Clairvoyance is generally purported to be at its strongest when the gifted individual is meditating, which allows the person to glean information and clarity about past, present, and future events.

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Clairaudience

Clairaudience is a gift of extrasensory perception that allows someone to hear a scenario or event that is happening to another person but without any further sensory input.

As with the gift of clairvoyance, it is said that clairaudience is most potent when the person is meditating.

Just bear in mind, that true clairaudients can glean information in a range of environments, and not merely when they are meditating.

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Clairsentience

If someone has the ability of clairsentience, this means they can experience a feeling that permeates their entire body, without any outside stimuli.

Some individuals gifted with clairsentience are thought to be clairempaths because they can psychically perceive the emotions that animals, people, and even places are experiencing.

Clairsentience is a form of psychic perception that borders on telepathy, in which the psychic can not only detect, but actually feel the emotions of other individuals, places, or animals.

Clairsentients can connect with an environment’s vibrations and sense the surrounding aura to make an accurate reading.

Mediumship

Individuals gifted with ESP and the ability of mediumship can get in touch with the dead, channeling the spirits to establish a line of communication.

The majority of mediums leverage a variety of different kinds of extrasensory perception, such as clairaudience, to communicate.

Clairalience

Another form of heightened perception, albeit less common, is clairalience.

Clairalience is the psychic gift of smell.

While we can all smell, this clairalience is when someone can detect smells that others are unable to.

These mysterious aromas are thought to be released into the aura by spirits.

Clairgustance

While all humans can taste, clairgustance refers to the gift of being able to taste without the need to actually put something inside your mouth.

Many psychics believe that the ability of clairgustance enables the individual to detect certain essences from form the spiritual world by taste.

What Should You Do If You Think You Might Have Extrasensory Perception?

After reading this guide, do you suspect that you might have this gift?

Many psychics believe that most people have some ability to leverage ESP through one form or another.

There are 9 different kinds of ESP

How is this possible?

Well, as humans with intuitive senses, we often have a natural ability to detect the various energies and auras that surround us and flow to us from the spiritual world.

However, most of us don’t know how to grow these psychic abilities and put them to use.

There are a number of routes you can take to grow and increase your natural psychic powers, but you must first be ready and willing to invest the time required for practice.

Also, you must trust the process and fully believe that it is possible to develop ESP abilities.

If you feel that you exhibit signs of psychic perception that are sharper than average or border on exceptional, you may want to consider getting tested for the 9 types of perception noted above.

If you’re unsure of your abilities or simply want to learn more, you can easily get in touch with psychics online to find out more about and understand your past, present, and/or future.

Alternatively, you can get a phone psychic reading.

Just know that a reputable psychic won’t merely tell you what could occur in your future.

Instead, a skilled psychic or clairvoyant can offer you valuable information, insight, guidance, and answers to the questions you might be facing so you can set yourself on the right path to reach your ultimate future peace and happiness.