If you’re like me when I was first learning about my intuition, you may be asking yourself how you can develop and grow your intuition. In my opinion, one of the most important factors in developing your intuition is figuring out what your primary Intuitive Modality is. This is so important to me in my coaching practice that I will not start working with a new client until I have assessed what his or her primary Intuitive Modality is.
As a coach, I need to know how my clients receive intuitive information. Once I know how someone best receive intuitive information, I can custom tailor a coaching program to their unique talents and show them how to get to their intuition goals. If I don’t know how they best receive information, I have no way of knowing how to focus their training.
What is an Intuitive Modality?
An Intuitive Modality is the way in which you receive intuitive information. It’s very similar to, and is actually tied to, your learning style. Think about your learning style for a moment. You have information coming into your awareness, and your brain is attempting to assemble the information in a way that makes sense to it. If you are a visual learner, then you will most likely learn best with charts, graphs or visual representations of information. If you are an auditory learner, you will most likely learn best when someone explains to you what is going on. Your intuition works the same way, only instead of information coming to you from the outside, such as someone showing you a graph, it comes to you from the inside, such as a gut feeling. The way that you best receive and recognize that information within your body is your primary Intuitive Modality.
You can think of it like a computer. Your body-mind system is collecting data constantly, and how you best collect information and store it for easy access later is your learning style. Your Intuitive Modality is the reverse of this. When you have a question or want to make a decision with all the information that is in your body-mind, your Intuitive Modality is how the information is presented to you. It could be presented to you in the form of images, sounds, body sensations or a knowing, but you do get the information back. The goal of developing your intuition is to learn how to recognize this and understand what is being presented. Your body-mind system is giving you feedback on what you’re doing all the time, but most of us either understand what is being presented. This information can be very beneficial when making decisions in any area of life and accessing your innate knowing and wisdom.
Why is knowing your Intuitive Modality important?
If you’re serious about developing your intuition, knowing your Intuitive Modality is vital. This is what allows you to streamline your training and learning so you can develop quickly and accurately. Think of it like traveling to a destination. Let’s say you are in Phoenix, AZ and you want to go to New York, NY. There are many ways you can get there. You can drive that distance in about 40 hours. You can fly it in about 6. Think of utilizing your primary Intuitive Modality like choosing which mode of transportation you want to take. If you are primarily clairvoyant, but spend your time developing your claircongizance, in order to get to the same level of precision and accuracy, it may take you 5-10 times as long. This is why it’s important to know what your primary Intuitive Modality is. It saves you time and energy as you develop your skills.
What are the four Intuitive Modalities?
There are actually many more Intuitive Modalities than the ones I’m about to list, but these are the ones that are the most prevalent and the easiest to work with, so I tend to focus on these four.
- Clairvoyance
- Clairaudience
- Clairsentience
- Claircognizance
Clairvoyance means “clear vision.” It refers to receiving intuitive information in the form of visions or pictures. Visions are generally symbolic, although they can be straightforward, too. Information that comes through this modality may come in a variety of forms. It could be a dream-like vision, an impression of color or swirls, a picture or even a visual memory.
You may be clairvoyant if:
* You often “see” the solution in your mind.
* Your primary learning style is visual.
* You prefer to have information presented to you in a visual way, such as graphs or charts.
* You are visually oriented.
Clairaudience means “clear audio” or “clear hearing.” It refers to receiving intuitive information in the form of sounds or voices. For some this is very strong and they hear the voices as though someone were in the room with them talking to them, although for most it is a mental voice. It can be thought of as “the little voice inside” that helps guide us. This is usually literal and doesn’t work with symbolism as much as clairvoyance does.
You may be clairaudient if:
* You often “hear” the answers to your mental questions.
* Your primary learning style is auditory.
* You prefer to have information presented to you in a lecture format.
* You find yourself listening for sound effects in movies.
Clairsentience means “clear sensation” or “clear feeling.” It refers to receiving intuitive information in the form of physical sensations and/or emotions. For some especially clairsentient people, this could mean feeling the pain of a headache that someone else has, or experiencing the emotions that they are feeling. When you get information this way, it is always accompanied by some sort of physical sensation.
You may be clairsentient if:
* You often get a “gut feeling” about people and circumstances.
* Your primary learning style is kinesthetic, and you need to take action or move in order to learn.
* You prefer to role play or to be physically involved in the learning process.
* You tend to have trouble sitting still.
Claircognizance means “clear knowing.” The experience of claircognizance is different than the other modalities, as it does not have a sense that it is directly linked to. It is knowing something by knowing it, and often without knowing where the information came from. When you get information in this way, it may feel like your’e downloading the information from the universe, or that the information came out of nowhere. It may randomly “pop” into your head.
You may be claircognizant if:
* You seem to know the answer to questions without knowing HOW you know it.
* Ideas and solutions will pop into your head from out of nowhere.
* You tend to have a very analytical mind.
* As a child you seemed to have an answer for everything.
If you want to develop your intuition, knowing your Intuitive Modality is vital, as it shows you where you are strongest.What is your primary Intuitive Modality? Leave a comment and let me know!
Did you get something from this article? Donations are always appreciated. <3
What a great article Erin! Very clear (clair!), concise and to the point.
I have never been able to figure out what my primary modality it, is seems to be different depending on the person I’m reading. Or if trying to find a solution to something myself, which one of my guides is communicating with me. I guess I am lucky to be able to use them all!
This is a fantastic guide for anyone trying to determine what works best for them. Very well written!
Thanks, Laura! Some people are blessed with multiple clairs! I’m doing some research into why that is, who knows? Maybe I’ll find out and blog on it. 🙂
Thank you for the free information! I think I have two modalities, but right now all my chakras are closed or weak, so I have to work on those first. I’ve always been a good “guesser” and got through school that way. Sometimes, I just “know”. So, my primary modality is claircognizant. I can’t thank you enough. I am going to start working on this and use your site.
You are welcome, Therese!
Thank you, thank you!
awesome info, after reading through the article three times i still can’t quite figure out my modality, sometimes i just know things, sometimes i feel things, other times i can see a solution and other times it feels like people are whispering the answer in my ear so i guess all of them i learn very easily in school, pretty much every style of teaching worked for me. but for the most part its just a knowing, Claircognizance. i don’t know if that makes it my primary or not because the more i work on it the better the other ones get, just the other day i thought i heard my aunt call me when i was driving away from her house so i stopped and went back, turned out she didn’t and on my way home if i would have been 5 seconds earlier i would have been killed by a drunk driver who was weaving all over the freeway, he weaved into my lane just as i was entering the freeway, he couldn’t see me because of the divider but it was just right in front of me. after thinking on it i realized the voice wasn’t my aunts but my grandmother that passed away a couple of months ago.
i also get these gut feelings all the time, and ive learned to trust them and understand them, one time i was on the freeway and had this gut feeling, i also felt like there was a pressure on my skin so i slowed down, lucky me because the driver in front of me spun out on a patch of black ice and would have hit me because after they spun out they got traction and zipped across the freeway and if i would have been right behind them it would have slammed right into the driver door. im actually starting to think that maybe i shouldn’t get on the freeway anymore.
Not everyone has a primary, although most people do. Based on your previous comments, I believe you are strongly clairsentient with people, but you may get info from your guides or about your life path through another modality. Your modality may depend on the type of information you’re seeking. Most of what you have said seems heavily clairsentient. You can email me personally at ea@erinashleycoaching.com and I’ll email you a quick sheet of info for common clairsentient experiences.
I don’t think you have to worry about the freeway, considering how well your intuition has been guiding you away from the dangerous situations. 😉
Great article, I wanted to develop my own intuition but I wasn’t sure what my primary modality is. Now I’m pretty sure I’m claircognizant. I was thinking about using automatic writing to develop my intuition. I’ve found your Intuitive’s toolbox and from description of AW I know it’s a good technique for me.
Hi Tomek,
Thank you! If you’re claircognizant, Automatic Writing is a fantastic way to explore and develop your claircognizance. I’m glad you’re enjoying the Intuitive’s Toolbox! It’s my favorite thing that I’ve created so far. 😉
Erin-Ashley
I’m still not sure which I am, I can walk into a room and feel the energys of everyone. I can also tell if someone is a good or bad energy without even knowing them, and sometimes I see things not visions but with my physical eyes ill see sparkles out of nowhere or flashes of lights, and bright lighted fog during the nights moving around my rooms of my home. I can also recal a small handful of times spirit has come forward and spoken to me but they spoke so fast and made my ears ring I was frightened and never made sense of what was said. Where I come from finding a person or resorse to help explain why I experience such things or feel as I do is difficult. So I’m rather confused if I’m very intuitive or just crazy lol 🙂
Well i shall say after being told to look at this from a friend which shares the same universal guidance as myself. It seem i have a conection to each type of intuative ability above. Awsome article. I have goosebumps writing this now. Thank you for this information as it gives me understanding.
I have them all and have since I was a child, even though I have stopped using them. Mainly becuase of experiences and stories behind them. For example, “feeling” seemed to only cause pain. So I blocked it. Anyway, my question is, if they all apply to you how do u decide which one to work with 1st? If I am in a place to spiritually to open them back up and make them strong where do I start?
how do i stop feeling other peoples pain? im talking migrains and lower bowel pain. this question raises questions… i know…i am just starting to see things (differently) for the first time. its weird to me.
You’ll want to check out the emapth 101 material and join the Empath Mechanics Course. We go into depth on the techniques that will help you feel like yourself.
Empath 101 is free the Empath Mechanics Course is just $97.
Empath 101: https://www.spiritualmechanic.com/empath/
Empath Mechanics Course: https://spiritualmechanic.mykajabi.com/store/ZGYZoYLn
What a great article. Thank you for the insite. I feel in an clairsentient and also Clairaudient.
I’m not positive, but I believe that I’m the last 3. Sometimes I hear things, but sometimes I just know or feel that something is right.
I hear inside and out , I see people that are passed I see colors I see visions and in dreams to and in meditation ,I feel things , I know things , can pick up things and feel and see from them , I feel the energy in the room , I know when my daughters are pregnant I know when my granddaughter has a blood nose I know when somebody is not nice when I first meet them , I smell things like toast baby powder flowers perfume ,I feel the trees I feel the earth, I see things in photos I see colours around people when they speak I see colours fly out of books I feel energy with my hands I can feel when somebody is hurt or has pain , I can send energy and clear headaches and some pain i’d like to know what the rest of the list is besides for seeing ,hearing knowing ,feeling , touching ,smelling could you tell me what other psychic ability there are ,thank you very much for your explanations of what they all mean
This article is the best for Empath. The way you explain everything so easy to understand and learn how to understand ourselves a bit more. I have been struggling and your article has helped me to want to learn more and understand my gift. Thank you.