This article is the second in a series on Clairvoyance for Psychic Empowerment, by Carl Llewellyn Weschcke. To read the first article in the series, click here.

Dr. Joe Slate and I are currently at work on Clairvoyance for Psychic Empowerment, the next book in our series on contemporary evolutionary empowering psychic techniques. This article is the second in a series providing background to the important issues being discussed in the book, while the book itself focuses on proven techniques for developing innate psychic powers into genuine Clairvoyance and empowering applications with specific, practical benefits.

Seeing Beyond the Physical Senses
As pointed out in the first article, Clairvoyance literally means "clear vision," the ability to see beyond the limitations and distortions of ordinary sensory perception. It refers to the psychic ability to gain information—or knowledge—about an object, person, place, event, situation, and even Deep Insight into Cosmic Realities.

As a psychic ability, this involves obtaining information by means other than the basic five physical senses, i.e. extra-sensory perception by means of the two senses beyond the five physical ones, and the ability to expand awareness or alter consciousness to "see" beyond the physical dimension.

Seeing is Believing
I emphasize "seeing" because—even though we do also use our other physical senses of hearing, feeling, smelling, and tasting—we are primarily "visual" creatures. Touch, and, to a somewhat lesser extent, Sound are mainly tools for measuring and manipulating what we visually perceive (see) to accomplish goals. Think of how we use a computer: Information is seen on the screen that we access and control by touching the keyboard, while sound is secondary in providing alerts and alarms, and sometimes to complement the visual screen with a video.

We "see" the physical world. Sound, touch, taste, and smell are mostly related to our "enjoyment" of our physical environment as accessed by means of sight—everything from enjoying music, good food and conversation, reading a good book, playing with children, making love, travel, etc.

Other Dimensions
We live in the physical world to work and play, and to grow, and to add our personal growth to the evolution of future generations. It is the three familiar dimensions of the physical that provides the foundation for our ever-expanding understanding of the ultimate reality. As we extend our being into higher worlds, we add one dimension after another to our perception. When we eventually master the astral realm, we add a fourth dimension to our perception; when we master the mental realm we add a fifth dimension; when we master what is variously called the essential or unity realm we add a sixth dimension, and so on for as many as forty-nine realms according to most esoteric systems.

We exist in a very extensive and seemingly complex multi-dimensional universe. In our present evolutionary status we are just at the beginning of our journey to fulfill our ultimate, unimaginable, potential. It is through our physical experience and in the development of what we term "psychic" or "spiritual" powers that we grow on The Path.

The "Supra" Physical
Psychic abilities provide perception of non-physical dimensions, and also of what we might call the "supra" physical—like having an overview of the physical world perceived through more highly tuned senses than our normal limited senses. It is the "supra" ability that can give us insights into the energy dimensions of the minute cells of the physical body, into the sub-atomic dimension of the physical world, into the emotional nature of our relationships, and into past and future of our lives. And, as we grow, other dimensions will unfold for us as we enter higher and higher realms.

Two Extra Dimensions
Clairvoyance also refers to acquiring "knowledge," and knowledge is more than just information. From a physical perspective, knowledge is the organized and systematic foundation for understanding and insight. Clairvoyance expands the same knowledge by means of these Extra-Sensory and Supra-Sensory Perceptions. It’s like seeing the same things but with the addition of two extra dimensions.

The general misconception is that only a few people are born with psychic abilities, and that’s all there is to it.

Birth Talents
Anyone may be born with particular talents—artistic, athletic, musical, language aptitude, a great singing voice, dramatic abilities, leadership, and so on. Some will credit these to genetics, others to past lives, still others to early parental guidance. And a few will proclaim special abilities as a gift from "Divine Spirit." Even those innate special abilities should be further developed not only for the greater benefit of the individual, and perhaps the cultural appreciation of the many, but because every development also benefits the future of all of us. Every development is reflected, howsoever minutely, in the supra-physical matrix opening the potentials for all future births.

The Next Step
Returning to the specific subject of psychic abilities—of any kind—many of us (including Joe Slate and myself) believe that we all have innate psychic powers that can be developed into psychic skills. We believe that it is the development of these psychic skills that actually is the Next Step in Human Evolution through the expansion of sensory awareness and the enlargement of personal consciousness.

Sensory Awareness & Personal Consciousness
Keep those two phrases, "the expansion of sensory awareness" and "the enlargement of personal consciousness" in mind from this point on in our discussion.

Only recently has science moved beyond the purely materialist and mechanical view of the physical universe, itself seen as defining and limiting everything and all life to a "clockwork" concept in which mind is limited to brain, emotion to hormones, belief to illusion, and destiny to dust. Birth and Death are the boundaries of the materialists’ concept of life in which there is no room for soul or spirit, and anything preceding the Universe’s creation is not only ignored but basically denied. By this view, the universe began with a Big Bang and will end in a soundless whimper.

Origins of Esoteric Knowledge
Long before there was "physical science," long before there was any "revealed religion," and long before shamans and prophets offered glimpses of something behind physical existence, there were beings from higher dimensions who delivered fragments of a system of "esoteric" knowledge to a limited few people. Over the eons, more fragments were added and the number of people having access to esotericism slowly expanded. Today, the few are the many—and any seeking access may easily obtain it both through published material and the teachings of various esoteric groups.

Esoteric Knowledge reveals an immensely complex human entity consisting of far more than the visible physical body and a presumed world of spirit. Within the immediate essential being dominated by the permanent "Soul," we have five "bodies" (or vehicles) functioning separately and together (I’ll explain that in a moment):

1. The Physical Body: Dominated by physical consciousness. Within the physical body, various neurological and chemical actions do provide certain basic energies, but without subtle energies and the structural matrix provided by the etheric double, the physical body would neither live nor function. Subjective conceptions of the brain consist of emotional illusions and mental fictions.

1. The Etheric Double: Really the subtle energy portion of the physical/etheric complex through which we experience supra-sensitivities. We feel emotions, and we think and try to make rational decisions.

1. The Astral Body: More accurately described as the Emotional Body. "Emotion" is confused with "Love," which is not emotion at all except at the highest, near spiritual, level. Love is very often confused with Lust, just plain sexual needs and desires leading toward the same kind of erroneous definition if physical health was identified with hunger or the pain of severe starvation. There the need for food would totally supplant any judgment about nutritious meals.

When we are young, the sudden flow of sexual hormones dominate a young adult with the lust for sex and the yearning for closeness with another, complicated by the physical unconscious drive to reproduce—all leading to youthful illusions of Love and Romance.

By its very nature, emotional consciousness is dominated by desire manifesting as largely uncontrolled impulses. Man’s emotional life is mainly one of illusions, leaving him a victim of desires, wishful thinking, and emotional drives leading to irrational behavior and judgment. Unrestrained emotion is responsible for crime and violence, and our goal is to learn to harness its powerful energies on behalf of rational and spiritual goals. Illusions are emotionalized mental conceptions that have turned into permanent convictions—including all political ideologies and religious dogma.

As evolution continues, the mental vehicle is influenced by vibrations from the emotional (astral) vehicle and becomes woven with it and is thus awakened to life. Desire and Thought begin to merge.

• The Mental Body: The lower part of a complex with the Causal Body. Mental fictions include all the fancies, guesses, superstitions, assumptions, hypotheses, and theories of science—all being mental constructions without being based on the "facts" of our limited physical senses. Knowledge is a perfect mental system of the necessary facts perceived in the higher dimensions.

• The Causal Body: The Mental/Causal complex itself, dominated by the Soul. It is from the Causal Level that “Will” is exercised to finally clear away all the illusions of the lower planes.

These five levels are also referred to as "planes" or "worlds." Each is characterized by its own unique substance and laws. While the Physical/Etheric complex and the Mental/Causal complex do function together they also each have separate functions. And even though we have these five distinct bodies with separate characteristics and functions, they all function together through the Higher Self and under dominion of the Soul.

All higher vehicles have their special organs that provide for function and motion, and these organs are in contact with each other. Man identifies his self with that vehicle in which is active at the time. We are a unity of five levels of substance and consciousness functioning sometimes separately and sometimes together.

It is important to state that there’s nothing bad about astral fantasies & illusions, nor about mental creations. On the contrary, the astral and mental realms are our worlds of creativity. They are where art, fashion, drama, literature, theater, architecture, scientific experimentation, and all personal expression are possible. They are where we exercise the power of imagination to create better things—from the beautiful to the cures for illness, from buildings that can collapse under duress to ones that can safely withstand hurricanes and earthquakes, from dangerous fuels to clean energy, and more.

But, we need to see through the illusions and remember the real person beneath the costume, to not substitute fantasy for reality, and not to let the façade we create cover up structural weakness in the building we design. A scientific theory is explored and developed through experiments designed in the imagination, but then we further test theory through new experimentation to avoid "establishing" outdated theory and belief as truth.

Sometimes clairvoyance empowers us to the reality we’ve forgotten and sometimes it will enable us to see and explore the foundations of reality to move forward in science and technology, to see ignored details, and build more complete "pictures" of what otherwise can only be speculations in history, anthropology, archaeology, and religious myth.

At the same time, "supernatural powers" are not always necessary. Rational thinking can penetrate distortions and superstitions, logic can point to gaps in speculation, and common sense can remind us that behind the ornate regalia and expensive playthings of politics and religion ordinary people are just ordinary.

To start off as simply as possible, you have a physical body that is part of a complex with the etheric double.

Meridians & Chakras
One particular characteristic and function of the etheric double is its various subtle energy channels, or meridians, and the chakras that have very specific functions important to the health of the physical body and to our understanding of psychic abilities. The chakras are duplicated in the astral and mental bodies, and all are connected to the physical body through the etheric double.

As we will discover in later studies, the chakras are themselves existential factors to our overall interdimensional health, well-being, and purposeful existence—physical, etheric, astral, mental, and causal.

Yes, we can say you are a physical/etheric being, and we also say you are an emotional (astral) being, and a mental being, and a causal being that can—inaccurately—be referred to as your spiritual being. Each body is a unique expression of consciousness—physical, etheric, emotional, mental, and causal. Our goal is to have all function together, but the reality is that bringing that about is the work of many lifetimes.

Emotional Beings in a Physical Body
Most people today are primarily emotional beings in a physical body. Our immediate job is to place our emotional nature under the "rational management" of Mind.

Physical Consciousness
While I’ve emphasized the complexity of the human entity, and shown that we have five vehicles, we do have to go back to the Physical Body as the starting point. The plan of human evolution is also the plan for all life in this physical world—not just our planet but the entire physical plane. All life began is a tiny something—something less than a cell, less than even an atom—and that something was imbued with a spark of consciousness that is the Soul charged with an evolutionary plan. As Souls evolved, they diversified into everything we know in the physical plane—mineral, plant, animal, human, and beyond human.

The Great Plan
At the point of becoming human, the Soul individualized: at the core of each human consciousness is a Soul. In contrast, each animal species is characterized by what has been called a "group soul"—and likewise yet more broadly with plant life and mineral life. Yes, everything has life and consciousness through which Souls (also called monads) "incarnate" to learn and grow as part of the "Great Plan."

In this article we are not concerned with these other life forms, except to respect them as all "sparks of the Divine."

Why we Incarnate
Humans incarnate into a physical body in order to learn and grow in ways only possible in the physical world. And as physical beings we have physical consciousness founded in physical reality defined by our sensory perceptions, and the subjective apprehensions of the etheric double. At the same time, we have astral (emotional) consciousness that is grossly affected by desire and imagination unbound by physical reality. This is the basis for the Hindu assertion that "all is illusion."

We learn mostly by seeing the consequences of our actions and learning from our mistakes. Our immediate job is to understand physical reality in order to avoid being the victim of emotionally-based illusions, fictions, and ideologies perpetuated by irrationally-founded human institutions supporting out-dated philosophies and sciences, erroneous interpretations of myths as reality, and the various religious sects using ancient and mystical theologies to seek dominion over the hearts and minds of all humanity. Our ultimate goal is to rise above the planes of illusion and fiction, and that is the role of higher clairvoyance.

We’re back to the starting point.

Clairvoyance is more than just a psychic ability. On the one side, it is the extension of "awareness" that adds dimension to all sensory perceptions, to all life experience, and to all divinatory practices. On the other side, it is the enlargement and alteration of consciousness to take us into the higher dimensions beyond the physical body and the physical realm.

Three Primary Levels of Clairvoyance
Referring specifically to those five vehicles of consciousness, we have three primary levels of clairvoyance:

1. Etheric Clairvoyance
2. Astral Clairvoyance
3. Mental Clairvoyance

It is astral clairvoyance that is the most familiar, and there are seven kinds of emotional objective consciousness that we will be exploring in further articles.

The entire emotional world is an objective product of the cumulative imagination of all mankind. Emotional consciousness is immune to common sense, living in its own "world of illusion." Only critical reason can overcome the deceptive nature of emotional matter. Rebirth in the physical world is required for man to free himself from emotional illusions and mental fictions.

The Three Lower Regions of Emotional Consciousness The emotional world has six successively higher regions. Most people are objectively conscious from the beginning in the three emotional regions that correspond to the three lower regions of the physical world. Objects in those regions are material counterparts of the material forms of the physical world. In the three higher regions of the emotional world, the existing material forms are imaginative creations made by individuals from the slightest hint from consciousness.

Direct Perception
In future articles we will discuss other forms of Direct Psychic Perception by means of Extended Consciousness:

• Astral Projection: The intentional acquiring of information while Out-of-Body using the astral vehicle.
• Aura Reading: The perception and interpretation of the auric field usually involving some degree of etheric or even auric vision.
• Etheric Projection: Projection, or more communally, extension of part of the etheric vehicle (sometimes perceived as ectoplasm) to obtain information by touch or to move objects.
• Intuition: A somewhat vague term for a non-verbal "feeling" message from the Higher Self.
• Mental Projection: Projection of the mental vehicle. (It should be clarified the all projections involve more than just the etheric, or just the astral, or just the mental vehicle but rather are inclusive but with one substance and level of consciousness predominant.)

Have a beautiful life journey.

Carl Llewellyn Weschcke