Spiritual Senses and Discernment
Understanding the Spiritual & Physical Connection
Spiritual Scientists recognize that human beings have five physical senses and their spiritual counterparts. Not all spiritual senses are active at once. They emerge as needed, offering insight, guidance, and sometimes challenge, depending on the situation or spiritual need.
What I share here is not something I learned from books. It is based solely on my own personal experience.
My sense of touch is constantly active. I can feel vibrations, both near and far. This falls under clairsentience—the ability to perceive spiritual impressions through feeling.
For many years, I had no name for what I was experiencing. While studying Alice Bailey’s Esoteric Healing, I learned about vibrations, but I continued using the phrase “feeling energy.” That often led people to label me as an empath. The label never fit my experience. I wasn’t sensing other people’s emotions—I was perceiving vibrations and thought patterns.
Over time, I realized I needed to describe my sensitivity differently because the common understanding of “feeling energy” points to emotional empathy rather than the tactile experience I was actually having. For me, it has always been about the direct awareness of vibrations.
Unbeknownst to me, the first time I experienced these vibrations was during a phone conversation with an aunt in 1987 or 1988. Looking back, I now recognize that moment as the first sign of this gift.
Vibrations come in many forms. They can feel suffocating, tingling, gentle, light, or airy. I can perceive the vibrations of a person’s aura, an object, thoughts such as anger or hatred, and even places. Again, this is not emotional empathy—it is vibrational sensitivity.
My sense of smell activates only when needed. This is commonly referred to as clairsalience, or spiritual smell. At times, I may detect fragrances, smoke, or other scents that have no physical source but carry spiritual meaning or a connection to someone who has passed.
When necessary, I also hear or see spirit. Hearing spirit is known as clairaudience, while spiritual sight is called clairvoyance. Both are ways of receiving information beyond the physical senses. Personally, however, I prefer to keep certain senses—especially sight and hearing—dormant unless they are truly needed.
One spiritual sense I have yet to experience is taste—and honestly, I don’t think I would want that gift, especially when it first emerges. Spiritually, this ability is known as clairgustance, the perception of taste without a physical source.
Someone experiencing clairgustance might suddenly taste something comforting, such as a peach pie their grandmother used to bake, or something unpleasant—even downright gross. Each taste carries symbolic meaning that the individual must learn to interpret. Unlike vibrational awareness, this form of perception communicates through symbolic taste. For now, it is not a door I feel called to open.
What Happens When Emotions Take the Driver’s Seat
In the next part of this series, we’ll explore how emotional turbulence can create thought forms, how those thought forms attach themselves, and what it takes to release what isn’t yours.
We’ll also examine the subtle—and sometimes not-so-subtle—emotional patterns that become energetic residue, and what every Spiritual Scientist should understand to remain clear, grounded, and aligned with truth.
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A Spiritual Science Reflection by Rev. Starlene Joyner Burns
President & Founder, National Spiritual Science Center Historical Society
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