Clairsomatica or psychic somatosensation is a valuable form of psychic perception that until now has been largely underestimated and misunderstood. These profound psychic 'sensations' are perceived by gifted psychics, mediums and energy healers as mental impressions and psycho-physical embodiments of touch, pressure, vibration, temperature, proprioception, pain, and various other medical symptoms and bodily sensations.
The supernatural perception of physical sensations and bodily symptoms has traditionally never been adequately acknowledged as a distinct psychic phenomenon — to the extent that it did not even have an appropriate name. Instead, this remarkable psychic perception preference was mistakenly referred to either as clairtangency (psychic touch) or psychometry, or merely considered to be a ‘subtype' under the ill-conceived ‘clairsentience' umbrella.
The term ‘clairtangency’ is totally inadequate in this context, as it linguistically refers to only one aspect of physical sensation, namely touch or tactile perception. Psychic sensation is however not only perceived as impressions of ‘touch,’ but also as perceptions of pain, temperature, proprioception, and pressure. Labelling all psychic sensation impressions as ‘clairtangent’ is therefore a misnomer.
I have devised the more sensible psychic term of clairsomatica, to elevate this class of psychic impression from its traditional underestimation as merely being a clairsentient ‘subtype.’
The lack of an appropriate term for this type of psychic impression does the psychic abilities of some of the world’s most gifted medical mediums, energy healers, and forensic psychics a gross injustice. For this reason I have devised the more sensible psychic term of clairsomatica, to elevate this class of psychic impression from its traditional underestimation as merely being a clairsentient ‘subtype.’
The term clairsomatica distinguishes somatosensory or somatic perception from all the other psychic perception preferences. Somatic means ‘pertaining to the body.’ It derives from French somatique and directly from the Latinized form of Greek sōmatikos, ‘of the body,’ as well as from sōma or sōmatos meaning ‘the body.’
The somatosensory system in the human body involves the perception of touch, pressure, pain, temperature, position, movement, and vibration. It is spread throughout the body and consists of sensory receptors and neurons in the skin, muscle, and organs, as well as the central nervous system. Somatosensation is a mixed sensory category of physical sensations, which includes:
mechanoreception (touch, pressure, vibration)
thermoreception (temperature)
proprioception (motion, body position)
equilibrioception (balance)
nociception (pain)
Clairsomatica therefore encompasses all forms of psychic somatosensation typically perceived by psychics and mediums as impressions or embodiments of touch, pressure, vibration, temperature, proprioception, pain, and other bodily sensations and medical symptoms. Clairsomatic perceptions commonly experienced by clairsomatic psychics and mediums include:
tickling sensations in various areas of the body, but especially the face, back, neck, and hands
pressure on the crown of the head
chills or goose bumps
hair standing on end
sensations of being touched or even pushed
sudden temperature changes
in rare instances sensations of physical trauma, or even ‘blows’ to the body.
A haunting example of clairsomatica is reported in the case of the Stans Poltergeist in Switzerland in the 1860’s.
Suddenly I felt a soft rustling of the hairs on my left temple, as if caused by a playing finger. Thinking that someone wanted to wake me, I grasped at it with my left hand and felt a soft warm little hand - I felt quite distinctly the thumb and finger. As I did, so it softly withdrew in the direction of the window, where I saw, in sharp relief against the shutters, a dark shape moving slowly backwards and forwards.[1]
For awakening clairsomatics these embodied psychic sensations can be unpleasant, disconcerting, even disturbing and traumatic at times. Exceptionally gifted clairsomatics experience all manner of temperature changes, unusual aches and pains, physical discomforts, ‘creepy’ sensations, and a plethora of medical symptoms, including pain, headache, nausea, fatigue, tinnitus, and vertigo.
GHOST SYMPTOMS
For some this psychic preference can create challenges in their personal life, as some clairsomatics, despite being in perfect health, can ‘feel physically sick’ or experience shared ghost symptoms with a partner, close friend or relative who is suffering an actual illness or disease. Clairsomatics sometimes even experience this psychic version of an 'ailment' without being aware of the other person’s condition.
One of the unpleasant ways I sometimes experience this phenomenon is when I do a reading for someone who has a cold, the flu, seasonal allergies, or is simply a heavy smoker. I have, for example, experienced burning sensations in my chest; felt congested and suddenly began to cough inexplicably; and I have even felt my eyelids and nose itching, and so on.
There have been times when I would physically ‘choke up’ as I start talking to a client on the phone; or I might develop a headache; or feel intense anxiety, as I prepare to call them. I recall a funny episode when a client awkwardly apologized to me when this happened: “Sorry, I was so nervous to talk to you, I chain-smoked several cigarettes before you called!’
As a child, I frequently had distressing clairsomatic experiences. For example, I felt physically ill and extremely uncomfortable in the presence of people who were suffering from an illness. I was even hospitalized due to this on at least two occasions that I know of. The doctors’ official explanation at the time was that I suffered from some sort of ‘asthma,’ but today I know it was due to an anxiety response brought on by extreme experiences of clairsomatica.
Some clairsomatics can experience shared ghost symptoms with a partner, close friend or relative who is suffering an actual illness or disease.
I also vividly remember the specific clairsomatic experience that prompted me to consciously begin suppressing these unpleasant impressions. I was attending a children’s theatre performance when I was about ten years old. I was sitting a couple of seats away from a girl about my age, who I later noticed had a broken arm in a cast. It started with me feeling a numb, aching pain and an itching sensation in my right arm, which I perceived for the duration of the show, and quite some time after.
Eventually my discomfort became so unbearable, I leaned forward in my seat, with my aching arm bent under my chest, in an attempt to relieve the discomfort. Then I looked over to the side and noticed a cast on the girl’s arm. I instantly experienced another clairsomatic sensation, in which I felt myself ‘falling,’ and then I clearly felt the ‘cracking’ blow to my arm. It was so vivid, it made me sit back up in shocked surprise!
The incident was a very unsettling experience at a time in my life when I was old enough to realize for the first time that I could physically ‘feel’ what other people feel. I certainly did not want to have another experience like that, so I deliberately began to suppress my clairsomatic perceptions, and somehow became quite skilled at blocking it out as I grew older.
These days, I am less distressed and proactive in managing these experiences, but I generally still make efforts to avoid it. Clairsomatica is something I have never fully embraced, much less attempted to further develop, despite the fact that many clients and friends have told me over the years that they experience a sense of well-being when I’m around, or that I exude some sort of ‘healing energy’ when I channel for them. It certainly explains why strangers tend to follow me around in public places and constantly gravitate towards being in my personal space.
CAUSE OF DEATH
In mediumship readings, I sometimes experience a more tolerable version of clairsomatica, when I perceive the deceased person’s cause of death. For example, I might feel pressure or tension in the area of my chest, which usually indicates a heart attack, or a sensation of discomfort in the lower part of my torso, which signifies a lung condition or difficulty breathing, and so on. I have also felt ‘blows’ to my body, which usually indicates some sort of accident or violent trauma.
I only experience these physical causes of death in ways that are already familiar to me. In other words, I know what chest pain, or the sensation of respiratory inflammation feels like, but I do not have first-hand experiences of what it feels like to be ‘run over by a truck,’ for example. In such cases, I might perceive the information as another type of psychic impression, such as a clairvoyant vision, for example.
I recently did a reading for someone whose mother had been brutally murdered several years ago. The client later explained that the perpetrator not only shot the victim, but also drove over her lifeless body with his truck. I have obviously never experienced anything like this myself, so instead of physically embodying this cause of death, I instead perceived a clairvoyant memory flash of a similar scene in the television series The Righteous Gemstones (2019), which I had been binge watching at the time. Not knowing what had happened to her mother, this unusual vision initially seemed bizarre to me, but the client instantly understood its significance.
BODY PSI
Parapsychology research data for clairsomatic perception is limited and traditionally focused mostly on its role in extreme psi or ‘paranormal’ phenomena, such as spirit possessions, poltergeists, and physical mediumship, as well as mental health pathology – and apparently with much skepticism.
For example, physician William Hammond, an outspoken critic of spiritualism, who considers mediumship a ‘mental illness,’ argues that the psychic impressions of being ‘touched’ that some mediums attribute to spirit activity are “merely symptoms of nervous derangement of some kind.”[2]
Parapsychologist Christine Hardy however confirms data from spontaneous cases and informal investigations suggest that psi information is indeed sometimes ‘felt’ by the receiver. She calls it a tele-empathicsensation that matches the sender's experience. According to Hardy, this concept of ‘body-psi’ has been formally explored in experiments (such as remote staring), to demonstrate the autonomic system reacts to unconscious psi information.[3]
Parapsychologist Dean Radin reports psychophysiology has become increasingly important in the study of various psychic phenomena. Psychophysiology studies mind-body interaction using empirical techniques to identify correlations between inner, subjective experience and objective, measurable bodily responses, such as that of the nervous and cardiovascular systems. Radin says this approach provides objective ways to probe the unconscious mind, which is where psychic information is thought to first arise.[4]
Such impressions, operating below the level of conscious awareness, can manifest as subtle changes in the body and may be noticed in the form of chills, stomach clenching or other visceral sensations, heart palpitations, and the presence of goose bumps.[5]
Radin concludes that studying these types of psi phenomena are challenging, but that it is viable and that there is a growing interest in this research approach in both psychology and the neurosciences.
Detection of unconscious influences in bodily reactions does not provide the same type or level of detail that is available to conscious awareness. But it does provide a way to explore mental activity that is otherwise not available. Using such techniques, telepathy has been explored by looking for correlations in brain activity between pairs of isolated or distant friends. Clairvoyance and precognition have been studied by measuring changes in brain activity, heart rate, skin conductance, and pupil dilation when a person accurately versus inaccurately describes targets distant in space or time. Precognition has been studied by measuring physiological responses before being exposed to unpredictable stimuli.[6]
POLTERGEIST SOMATICA
Clairsomatic symptoms have interestingly been found to have an inverse relationship with poltergeist activity, which modern researchers argue might be evidence of alterations in the psychophysiology of the so-called poltergeist ‘agent.’ A poltergeist is traditionally believed to be a mischievous ghost or a supernatural being that is responsible for physical disturbances, such as making loud noises and moving objects.
The German term poltergeist literally means ‘noisy spirit,’ from poltern ‘make noise, rattle’ and geist ‘ghost.’ The modern hypothesis for poltergeist phenomena is however that it is due to psychokinetic influence by a living ‘agent,’ instead of it being a spirit haunting. Poltergeist phenomena are typically linked to a specific living person, and it usually only happens in the presence of that person.[7]
Parapsychologist William Roll finds that when an agent exhibits certain psycho-physical symptoms, the poltergeist phenomena often tend to calm down, or even subside completely. Roll identified this oddity in at least three poltergeist cases he investigated.
For example, in one case the paranormal activity subsided after the agent had suffered a bout of epileptic seizures that required hospitalization, and only resumed again once he was treated for it.[8] In another case the poltergeist activity abated when the agent suffered migraine headaches and vomiting episodes, and only flared up again once she had received treatment for these symptoms.[9]
PSYCHIC HYGIENE
I find the above poltergeist discovery intriguing in the context of my own psychic practice. I believe psychic channeling, mediumship, and energy healing are a calling, and that regularly practicing these gifts or abilities enhances the health and well-being of the practitioner. In fact, I find it odd when other psychics, mediums, and healers complain about constantly ‘feeling drained’ due to the energy demands of their work.
For me, the experience is quite the opposite. I find psychic channeling rather energizes me and improves my health and well-being (unless I really overdo it by working too much). It is in fact when I am not working for lengthy periods of time that my health and well-being begins to suffer.
I therefore compare psychic work to ‘going to the gym,’ or ‘donating blood.’ It promotes the psychic or medium’s health and well-being. I believe psychic channeling improves auric integrity and balances the flow of chi (universal life force) in the psychic, medium, or healer’s energy field. Psychics and mediums are ‘wired’ to channel or read, and if we do not do it on a regular basis, both our mental and physical health and wellness begin to suffer. In fact, I consider it a functional spiritual necessity, or even a kind of ‘metaphysical hygiene.’
Frequent psychic channeling improves auric integrity and balances the flow of chi (universal life force) in the psychic, medium, or healer’s energy field.
I further suspect this may be an underlying cause of mental and physical health problems for many spiritually ‘gifted’ people, especially those who are lazy and negligent, in denial, or simply resistant to their metaphysical abilities. I know of a few colleagues who experienced a marked improvement in their health and well-being once they embraced their gifts and abilities, overcame their hesitance, or resolved their lack of self-trust and self-worth and began to consistently practice psychic, mediumship, or energy healing work.
I further believe science might discover new avenues of understanding should it begin to approach psychic phenomena more often from a premise of it being adaptive, rehabilitative, purposeful, healing, or even divinely ordained — instead of attributing it to psychosomatic neuroses, psychopathology, or neurological malfunction.
CRISIS SOMATICA
Similar to clairempathic phenomena, clairsomatica is also reported in cases of crisis impression, where subjects experience ‘shared illness’ or ‘dying symptoms’ at the time of the crisis. For example, a man whose father was dying was awakened at the exact time of his passing by intense feelings of ‘suffocation,’ while his father was in fact drawing his final breaths in a distant location.
I remember grabbing my mouth, forcing it open to help me breathe. I was fighting for all I was worth, but the pains were now unbearable.[10]
Author Paul Hawker reports the case of a woman who was awakened one night by the sound of her ‘heart breaking.’
I know it sounds really odd, but that's what it was. I heard it crack and felt my chest sort of splitting.
The next day, while driving to work, she suddenly felt a sensation of 'pressure' on the side of her face.
I distinctly remember the pressure was that of a cheek lightly pressed against mine, sort of cuddling me. The feeling I was filled with at this time was one of love and support — it felt fine. I then felt a hand holding my hand and 'felt' it had no middle finger. I knew this because there was no pressure in this area. And then it dawned on me. I realized it was my dad's hand; he'd lost his middle finger in a building site accident.[11]
Later that day, her husband informed her that her father had passed away during the night from a heart attack.
PSYCHOKINETIC SOMATICA
Clairsomatica has also been documented in a successful series of psychokinesis experiments conducted from 2013 to 2015 in an Argentinian laboratory with a factory worker named Ariel Farias, who had the ability to raise a table’s legs off the floor by simply placing his hands on it.
What makes this study notable in terms of clairsomatica is that Farias reported ‘feeling a sensation of heat’ in his hands whenever he was able to lift the table. However, temperature measurements showed his hands and forearms were in fact cold while he was performing telekinesis, leading researchers to conclude that the experience of heat in his hands is a purely subjective sensation.[12]
Farias also reported feeling as if he was ‘merging with the table’ during successful trials.
The very moment the table began to move, he felt sensations similar to those felt by an airline passenger when the plane takes off. He also said that when the table leg rises, it’s ‘similar to when you put on your shoes; at the beginning you feel the difference between bare and covered skin, but in a few seconds, you forget this difference and begin to feel the shoes as a part of you.’ He also described the inverse sensation (removing one’s shoes) when the force disappears, and the table leg falls down to the floor.[13]
MIRROR-SYNESTHESIA
Scientific evidence for clairsomatica has further been documented in studies of a special form of synesthesia known as mirror-synesthesia or pain synesthesia. Mirror-synesthetes feel a matching sensation in the same part of their body as another person. Seeing someone else being pinched on the cheek, for example, would cause the mirror-synesthete to feel a similar sensation in their own cheek. These studies not only provide unmistakable evidence for the existence of this type of synesthesia,[14] but also that it is not merely a form of vicarious empathy [15] and that it correlates with increased levels of emotional empathy.[16]
Neurologist and researcher Joel Salinas estimates about 1.5% of the general population experiences this phenomenon, which he describes as a neurological trait, instead of it being a ‘disorder.’ Salinas, known as ‘the doctor who can feel your pain,’ is himself a mirror-synesthete. He says it enables him to feel the emotional and physical experiences of his patients. He describes it as a ‘heightened empathic ability’ that offers him invaluable clues about how to see life from other people’s perspective.[17]
Just walking around every day, I feel strangers hurting, and I feel it so thoroughly and completely ~ Megan Pohlman
Journalist Erika Hayasaki reports the case of mirror-synesthete Carolyn Hart who wanted to become a physical therapist, but the pain and discomfort she would have to constantly share with her patients would have been too much for her to tolerate, so she became a massage therapist instead.
Hart describes her “most flagrant mirror-sensorial perception” as “pain shooting down my legs when I see other people’s wounds and injuries.” When she sees another person being touched, she experiences ‘a gentle perception that tickles her skin.’ She also perceives similar sensations whenever she sees another person being bumped or shoved.
But, if the contact becomes more aggressive, for example if I witness a person body-slammed, then I don’t feel that ticklish exteroceptive sensation. Instead, I will feel what I call synesthesia-for-pain…which feels like bolts of electricity coursing down the back of my legs.[18]
Synesthete Maureen Seaberg describes the similar case of Megan Pohlman, a pediatric nurse who literally feels the pain of her young patients. Pohlman says, “just walking around every day, I feel strangers hurting, and I feel it so thoroughly and completely.”
Allan Doctor, a pediatric intensive care physician who has worked with Pohlmann for many years, says her abilities are indeed remarkable. For example, nurses often ask for additional pain medicine or sedation when a child has high blood pressure or heart rate, which then prompts him to investigate whether the cause is, in fact, pain, or something else, like a fever. “Megan’s reliability in sensing when they really are in pain or anxious, versus other causes, is unusually acute.”[19]
© 2022 Anthon St. Maarten
REFERENCES
[1] Joller, M. (2015). Stans (Switzerland) Poltergeist. Psi Encyclopedia. The Society for Psychical Research.
[2] Hammond, W.A. (1876). Spiritualism And Allied Causes And Conditions Of Nervous Derangement. G.P. Putnam’s.
[3] Hardy, C. (2000) Psi As A Multilevel Process: Semantic Fields Theory. The Journal of Parapsychology.
[4] Carpenter, J. (2012). First Sight: ESP And Parapsychology In Everyday Life. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
[5] Beloff J. & Rhine, J. B. (1981). On The Nature Of Psi. Journal of Parapsychology.
[6] Radin, D. (2016). Presentiment. Psi Encyclopedia. The Society for Psychical Research.
[7] Williams, B. (2019). Psychological Aspects In Poltergeist Cases. Psi Encyclopedia. The Society for Psychical Research.
[8] Solfvin, G. F. & Roll, W. G. (1976). A Case Of RSPK With An Epileptic Agent. Parapsychology Review.
[9] Roll, W. G. & Tringale, S. (1983). A Haunting-Type RSPK Case In New England. Research in Parapsychology. Scarecrow Press.
[10] Fenwick, P & Fenwick, E. (2008). The Art of Dying. Bloomsbury Academic.
[11]Hawker, P. (2000). Secret Affairs Of The Soul: Ordinary People's Extraordinary Experiences Of The Sacred. Wood Lake Publishing Inc.
[12] Braude, S. E (2018). Ariel Farias. Psi Encyclopedia. The Society for Psychical Research.
[13] Gimeno, J. & Burgo, D. (2017). Laboratory Research On A Presumably PK-Gifted Subject. Journal Of Scientific Exploration.
[14] Ward J. & Banissy M.J. (2015). Explaining Mirror-Touch Synesthesia. Cognitive Neuroscience.
[15] Rothen N. & Meier B. (2013). Why Vicarious Experience Is Not An Instance Of Synesthesia. Frontiers In Human Neuroscience.
[16] Ward, J. et.al. (2018) The Relationship Between Mirror-Touch Synaesthesia And Empathy: New Evidence And A New Screening Tool. Cognitive Neuropsychology.
[17] Salinas, J. (2017). Mirror Touch: Notes from a Doctor Who Can Feel Your Pain. HarperOne.
[18] Hart, C.C. (2017) Reflecting on Mirror-Touch. Carolyncchart.com
[19] Seaberg, M. (2018). Meet the Nurse Whose Superpower Is Feeling Your Pain – Literally. Glamour.com.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Anthon St. Maarten is a psychic medium and destiny coach with a global clientele of thought leaders, business executives, celebrities, politicians, academics, and luminaries in the arts and sciences in more than thirty countries spanning five continents.
He is also a metaphysics teacher, psychic development coach, podcaster, and spiritual blogger. Anthon is a hereditary psychic medium in professional practice since 2004 and a liberal arts post-graduate with a major in psychology.
Anthon publishes the spiritual life design blog, The S Word, and is the author of Divine Living: The Essential Guide To Your True Destiny and The Sensible Psychic: A Leading-Edge Guide To True Psychic Perception.
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