The Most Common Psychic Abilities

We all have widely recognized senses, including those of sight, taste, hearing, touch, and smell. However, there are other sense in the psychic world that extend beyond those. These senses are less widely known and include: 

• Clairvoyance or "clear seeing" 
• Clairaudience or "clear hearing 
• Clairsentience or "clear sensing 

• Clairsentinence or "clear feeling" 
• Clairalience or "clear smelling" 
• Clairgustance or "clear tasting" 
• Claircognizance or "clear knowing" 

Within each of these “clear” senses that psychics possess, there are many psychic powers. Some are well known, while others are more obscure. 

We’ll detail many of them in the article below. Keep an eye out for any of these powers that draw parallels in your own life and give a name to what you’ve been conscious of all your life. 

Psychic Abilities 

Apportation – This psychic or paranormal power is the transference of an item or article from one place to another. This can take place instantaneously and has been attributed both to psychics as well as paranormal entities, such as poltergeists. 

Whether wielded by a human or a spirit, apportation boils down to the ability to materialize, vanish or teleport an object. 

Astral Projection or Mental Projection – Astral Projection has been the subject of human fascination for millennia and it has been documented in texts as old as the bible. 

As a concept of spirituality, Astral Projection separates the being's consciousness from its physical form and elevates it to the astral plane. 

This power is often referred to as having an out-of-body experience. Many people from all over the world, across its many cultures, report such experiences. 

Those with the psychic power of astral projection can project, or send, their consciousness to another plane of existence. This plane can involve the world of dreams, the world of the dead, of the world of the divine. 

Automatic Writing or Psychography – This psychic power is utilized by those to produce written words without the need for conscious thought. That is, volumes of work can be committed to paper or, in a modern-day sense, digital document on a subconscious, spiritual, or supernatural level. 

This power has a long history in the ancient cultures of East Asia. In China, it is referred to as Spirit Writing. This power is said to allow mediums to record and share the messages of deities and spirits in the mortal realm. 

Divination – depicted in countless stories and films, divination is the power to garner meaning in a situation by interpreting signs. 

These signs can be in the form of bones cast on the floor or the way a feather floats in a bowl of water. The occult background of the objects, their state, and the messages they help mediums interpret are as varied as the cultures that practice divination. 

The oracles of ancient Greece were famous for their divination and ability to interpret the will of the gods as their chosen mouthpiece on earth. 

Dowsing – Often characterized as a type of divination, Dousing allows an adept user to locate various elements with a few simple instruments and their ability to sense their location. 

The most common depiction of dowsing includes a person and the use of a dowsing rod. The rod can be two separate instruments or two handles that extend and join at a midpoint with a protruding element. A “y-shaped” stick is the most basic form of dousing rod. 

That said, a person adept at dousing can locate everything from water and oil to gemstones and other buried items. 

Energy Medicine – more simply referred to as spiritual healing, energy medicine relies on energy, vibration, or other means of mending a person’s ailments. This can be produced with or without touch, though those participating generally do need to be close. 

In this case, the healer will rely on their empathic etheric, astral, mental or spiritual energy to revitalize themselves or others. 

Levitation or Transvection – Levitation allows the user to levitate themselves, others or objects in a stable position without mechanical aid. 

The power is one that has a long history among religions. The occurrence is often associated with the séance ritual. 

Mediumship or Channeling – a psychic medium or channeling medium is one with the ability to communicate with spirits. In some cases, the medium will be able to interpret the spirit's words and feelings as though they were sitting side-by-side. 

In other instances, the medium may simply act as a vessel for the spirit to inhabit for the duration of the channeling. 

Precognition or premonition – Precognition is a type of divination that allows the psychic to see or perceive future events before they transpire. 

The power is one that has been held in wide belief throughout recorded time. 

Psychic Surgery – Psychics possessing the power of Psychic Surgery are said to be able to perform surgery without tools, making incisions and removing disease, growths, and foreign objects. The wounds of such a procedure are also said to heal instantaneously. 

Psychokinesis or Telekinesis – Psychics who can manipulate physical objects without physically interacting with them are said to be telekinetic. In this case, the manipulation is done using only the power of the psychic’s mind. 

Psychometry or Psychoscopy – A form of extrasensory perception, this psychic power allows the wielder to derive information about a person or object simply by making physical contact. 

Remote Viewing, Telesthesia Or Remote Sensing – Another form of extrasensory perception, those with this psychic power can sense changes and occurrences over great distances. 

Perhaps the most well-known example of this resides in the Jedi, illustrated in the 1977 film Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977) with Ben Kenobi’s famous words, “I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.” 

Retrocognition or Postcognition – Like Precognition, Postcognition is a type of divination that allows the psychic to perceive events, only, in this case, those events occurred in the past. 

Telepathy – The telepath is a powerful psychic with the ability to communicate supernaturally. This is generally thought of as speaking mind-to-mind, but it really is a means of communication using the known means of communication. 

For example, animals can communicate mating readiness through the release of pheromones. Could this be considered a form of telepathy?