Clairaudience is the hearing of sounds, music, and voices not audible to normal hearing. The term clairaudience comes from French for “clear hearing.” In yoga, it is an astral sense, which is experienced when the fifth chakra, located at the throat, is activated. Clairaudience is a psychic ability used in the practice of Magic.

Clairaudience manifests as an inner sound or voice that is clearly distinguishable from one’s own inner voice. Sometimes it seems to be external, emanating from the space around a person. It may be recognized as the voice of a dead relative or interpreted as the voice of a spirit, such as an angel , a guide, a disembodied adept , or even God. It occurs in dreams, especially when important messages are given, and in the mystical and trance experiences of oracles, shamans, priests, prophets, mystics, saints, and others. In the late 17th and early 18th centuries, practitioners of mesmerism observed that magnetized subjects experienced clairaudience, particularly the voices of the dead, as well as other psychic phenomena. Messages from the dead, received by a medium clairaudiently, became an integral part of many Séances.

In magical work, clairaudience is employed in travels to the astral plane and in communication with various spirits. According to  Franz Bardon, advanced beings existing on the mental plane use clairaudience to communicate.

FURTHER READING:

• Bardon, Franz. Questions & Answers. Salt Lake City: Merkur Publishing, 1998.
• Butler, W. E. How to Develop Clairvoyance. 2nd ed. New York: Samuel Weiser, 1979.

The Encyclopedia of Magic and Alchemy Written by Rosemary Ellen Guiley Copyright © 2006 by Visionary Living, Inc.

A form of extrasensory perception, clairaudience (which means “clear hearing”) is the ability to hear things that would be impossible to hear through normal means. Among the best-known people claiming to have this psychic gift are John Edward and James Van Praagh, both of whom say they hear voices from the spirit world.

Other clairaudients hear mysterious sounds, such as music that seems to come from nowhere. No matter what clairaudients claim they have heard, however, sceptics dismiss their reports as the result of mental or physical illness.

SEE ALSO:

• John Edward
• Extrasensory Perception;
• James van Praagh

SOURCE:

The Greenhaven Encyclopedia of Paranormal Phenomena – written by Patricia D. Netzley © 2006 Gale, a part of Cengage Learning