Clairsentience

All my life, I felt like an empath. I feel the emotions of people, the energy of places, the tension of the environment, and also the energy of what's to come. If you can relate to this and you're someone who is sensitive to energy, you may have clairsentience traits. Clairsentience is intuition. It is perception. Sensitivity. Vibration. We're called "clear-seers" and sense emotion, feeling, energy, and vibration. Clairsentience does not just carry bodily sensations (gut feelings) but it is also a bridge to emotions. It is the gift of "clear knowing." A person who is a Clairsentient is someone who is able to sense the past, the presence, and also the future. As empaths, we see through our emotion and our feelings. Our shamans guides reveal messages to us through feeling. When I started my journey, Hmong shamanism didn't have a term for these kinds of feelings or gifts. But every single Hmong shaman is skilled in something. It is something we receive from our ancestors and shaman guides. Some shamans are better at certain skills than others, but no shaman is better than the other. Some shamans, like me, receive messages through dreams and through feelings/energy. Others hear the spirits. Others are able to see spirits. Some have a little bit of everything. Energy, as we know it, doesn't just go away after someone dies. Hmong believe in reincarnation. We believe in Karma. So it's this belief that energy is recycled and can take up different forms. Some Hmong shamans, like my master and I, are able to communicate with those who are deceased. We can feel and communicate through recycling (deceased) energy. Their energy takes a possession of our physical body. We cannot control when they're going to do this, but we can feel when it's going to happen. We have to teach ourselves and control our intuition so that this doesn't happen during unpredictable places or situations like driving a car or while at work. The possession takes form through trance. It is an involuntary possession of energy that takes over and uses our body. It uses our voice to deliver a message. It is clear-seeing and this is Clairsentience.

Most Hmong shamans are Clairsentients. During a healing ritual, we go through a trance. We channel and see with our intuition. Our shaman guides reveal messages and answers to us through these feelings. Clairsentients are sensitive to the energy of the room. We read the energy of our surrounding and the energy of people. If there are malevolent spirits near us, we feel it. If there someone with bad intentions, our guides make us feel it too. Clairsentients may have the need to spend a lot of alone time to recenter their energy and find some quiet time. Clairsentients are quick to be overwhelmed in big groups because there's a lot of energy. We are sensitive to places like funeral homes, hospitals, rest stops, and cemeteries because those places are heavily centered with spirits, people dying, and triggers strong emotions in people.

Clairsentients follow our gut feeling. It is our guide. When we have a bad feeling about something, it's usually true. When we have a great feeling about something, we're all here for it too. Clairsentients are people who usually observe and we are listeners to our friends and family. People usually feel comfortable telling us things that are personal and intimate to them. Clairsentience is the ability to know when someone is lying. It is our intuition that tells us. We're able to read very well people's intentions. We feel people's trauma. Although we do not know what exactly is the trauma, we know that it's there.

Much of my shaman journey and healing work relies on Clairsentience. Clairsentience is very important for the work of a shaman because we need to be able to connect to not only people or our surroundings, but to our shaman guides as well. We connect and feel spirits to discern its messages and subtle energy. Since I started my journey, I've lost track of the many, many instances where spirits have come through me. Some I have been able to reject, while others I was not able to do so. We usually feel when it's going to come. It is a sudden slap of energy. We feel like we can't breath. We feel very emotional, usually overwhelmed with sadness and grief for no reason. We always hyperventilate and feel a strong shock run through our body. My hands and feet clench and my eyes close shut. Being in a big crowd or gathering increases our chances of experiencing this energetic possession. The more people I am around, the more spirits there are. If a friend or family member experiences a loss of a loved one, the deceased loved one can and sometimes come through as well. When this happens, I've learned that leaving my environment helps stop it from continuing. During rituals, shamans will receive messages and communicate with spirits and loved ones.

In some cases, Clairsentience is also the ability to feel past life connections. When you experience a strong feeling when you're around someone, and you don't know why, there may be a past life connection. When you feel like a person is very important to you and get a splurge or emotions when they're around, this can also be a past life connection. In addition, when you talk to a person or hear their voice and you're overcome with a strong emotion, such as happiness, love, peace, or anger and hostility, this may also be a past life connection. These are felt through Clairsentience. Not everyone is able to feel a past life connection. Not all feelings are past life connections. Some feelings towards people are just feelings. There are many people I have met in my lifetime that I have a past life connection with. Do I do anything about it? No, because a part of this life is to focus on this life. I cannot change the past, let alone another lifetime ago. Energy is recycled in this way and we must learn to be present with it.

Being Clairsentient has impacted my life in many ways, in the same way being a shaman has. It has allowed me to develop deep meaningful connections with people in my life. It's allowed me to help people through their own hardships. It's allowed me to connect and work with the LGBTQIA+ youths in my professional life. However, it can also become isolating as I've cut off many relationships with people and am hesitant to start new friendships. I tend to avoid big crowds or groups because the energy is taxing. I avoid going to places where there are negative or dark energy and not being able to explain this to people. Being Clairsentient means we just "know things" and we don't have an explanation to it. Most importantly, being Clairsentient has served as a daily reminder that we are spiritual energies having a very human experience. From this, we'll have traumas. We'll go through things we don't like or things that cause us harm and pain. Being Clairsentient allows me to feel the present moment.

tfl Hmong Shaman