Clairvoyant vs. Medium — What's the Difference?
By Tayyaba Rehman & Maham Liaqat — Updated on March 28, 2024
Clairvoyant refers to someone who claims to have the ability to see events or objects beyond normal sensory contact, while a medium is believed to communicate with spirits of the deceased.
Difference Between Clairvoyant and Medium
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Key Differences
A clairvoyant is an individual who possesses or is believed to possess the psychic ability to see things that are hidden or to predict future events, a skill known as clairvoyance. This term specifically refers to obtaining information about an object, person, location, or physical event through means other than the known human senses. On the other hand, a medium is someone who serves as an intermediary between the living and the spirits of the dead. Mediums claim to receive messages from the spirits of deceased individuals, often to provide closure or guidance to the living.
Clairvoyants may use their abilities in various contexts, such as helping to find lost items or persons, providing insights into personal dilemmas, or even assisting in law enforcement investigations. While clairvoyance involves "clear seeing," mediums engage in several forms of communication with the dead, including hearing (clairaudience), feeling (clairsentience), and even smelling (clairalience) spirits or spiritual messages.
The abilities of clairvoyants are centered on perceiving or predicting future events and obtaining information about the present or past that is not apparent to the average person. Mediums, conversely, focus on communicating messages from the spirit world, often involving specific information or emotions from the deceased, which can provide comfort or guidance to their living relatives or friends.
While both clairvoyants and mediums are considered to have psychic abilities, the scope of their practices differs. Clairvoyants are not necessarily mediums, as they do not all claim to communicate with the dead. Conversely, mediums often possess clairvoyant abilities as part of their broader range of psychic skills, enabling them to receive more detailed and specific messages from beyond.
The practice of both clairvoyancy and mediumship has been subject to skepticism and scientific scrutiny. Nonetheless, individuals who seek out clairvoyants or mediums often do so for personal insight, closure after a loss, or curiosity about the spiritual world, and many report finding comfort and answers through these consultations.
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Comparison Chart
Definition
Claims to see beyond the normal senses, often predicting the future or revealing the unknown.
Claims to communicate with spirits of the dead.
Abilities
Seeing hidden or future events (clairvoyance).
Communicating with the deceased (mediumship).
Methods
Uses psychic vision.
Uses various senses: hearing, feeling, smelling spirits.
Focus
Future events, hidden knowledge.
Messages from the deceased for the living.
Intermediary Role
Does not necessarily act as an intermediary.
Acts as an intermediary between the living and the dead.
Common Practices
Finding lost items, personal guidance, assisting in investigations.
Providing closure, conveying messages from the dead to the living.
Psychic Skills
Specific to "clear seeing."
Often includes clairvoyance among other psychic senses.
Skepticism
Subject to skepticism and scrutiny.
Also faces skepticism, especially regarding verifiability of messages.
Compare with Definitions
Clairvoyant
A person believed to have the ability to see events or objects beyond the scope of normal vision.
The clairvoyant predicted the location of the missing heirloom.
Medium
An individual who claims to mediate communication between the living and the dead.
The medium conveyed messages from her deceased relative, offering comfort.
Clairvoyant
Utilizes extrasensory perception for obtaining information.
A clairvoyant provided crucial details that were not previously known.
Medium
Often seeks to bring closure to grieving individuals.
He visited a medium to find peace after his partner's sudden death.
Clairvoyant
Known for predicting future events with claimed accuracy.
Many seek the guidance of a clairvoyant for insights into their future.
Medium
Engages in spirit communication sessions, known as séances.
At the séance, the medium communicated with spirits on behalf of attendees.
Clairvoyant
Can offer guidance on personal or professional matters.
She consulted a clairvoyant to make a difficult career decision.
Medium
Provides specific information or messages from the deceased.
The medium shared details only known to the deceased and their family.
Clairvoyant
Sometimes assists in criminal investigations.
Clairvoyants have been approached by law enforcement for leads on unsolved cases.
Medium
Can experience spiritual presence through various senses.
The medium reported feeling the presence and emotions of spirits during readings.
Clairvoyant
Of or relating to clairvoyance.
Medium
An agency or means of doing something
Using the latest technology as a medium for job creation
Their primitive valuables acted as a medium of exchange
Clairvoyant
Having the supposed power to see objects or events that cannot be perceived by the senses.
Medium
The intervening substance through which sensory impressions are conveyed or physical forces are transmitted
Radio communication needs no physical medium between the two stations
Clairvoyant
A person, such as a medium, possessing the supposed power of clairvoyance.
Medium
A particular form of storage material for computer files, such as magnetic tape or discs.
Clairvoyant
Of, relating to, or having clairvoyance.
Medium
The material or form used by an artist, composer, or writer
Oil paint is the most popular medium for glazing
Clairvoyant
Able to see things that cannot be perceived by the normal senses.
Medium
A person claiming to be in contact with the spirits of the dead and to communicate between the dead and the living.
Clairvoyant
Able to foresee the future.
Medium
The middle quality or state between two extremes; a reasonable balance
There is a medium between being modest and boastful
Clairvoyant
Having great insight; sagacious.
Medium
About halfway between two extremes of size or another quality; average
Medium-length hair
Plan for the medium term
John is six feet tall, of medium build
Clairvoyant
(computing) Relating to a form of parallel processing algorithm given advance information about the problem.
Medium
Something, such as an intermediate course of action, that occupies a position or represents a condition midway between extremes.
Clairvoyant
A person able to see things that cannot be perceived by the normal senses
Medium
A substance that propagates energy or signals through space via changes in its own state
Air acts as a medium for the transmission of sound waves.
Clairvoyant
A person able to foresee the future
Medium
The sparsely distributed gas and dust subsisting in the space between stars.
Clairvoyant
Pertaining to clairvoyance; discerning objects while in a mesmeric state which are not present to the senses.
Medium
Clairvoyant
One who is able, when in a mesmeric state, to discern objects not present to the senses.
Medium
An agency by which something is accomplished, conveyed, or transferred
The train was the usual medium of transportation in those days.
Clairvoyant
Someone who has the power of clairvoyance
Medium
A means of mass communication, such as newspapers, magazines, radio, or television.
Clairvoyant
Perceiving things beyond the natural range of the senses
Medium
Media(used with a sing. or pl. verb) The group of journalists and others who constitute the communications industry and profession.
Clairvoyant
Foreseeing the future
Medium
Pl. media(Computers)Any of various kinds of storage devices, such as hard drives or digital audiotape.
Medium
Pl. mediums A person thought to have the power to communicate with the spirits of the dead or with agents of another world or dimension. Also called psychic.
Medium
A surrounding environment in which something functions and thrives.
Medium
The substance in which a specific organism lives and thrives.
Medium
A culture medium.
Medium
A specific kind of artistic technique or means of expression as determined by the materials used or the creative methods involved
The medium of lithography.
Medium
The materials used in a specific artistic technique
Oils as a medium.
Medium
A solvent with which paint is thinned to the proper consistency.
Medium
(Chemistry) A filtering substance, such as filter paper.
Medium
Occurring or being between two degrees, amounts, or quantities; intermediate
Ordered a medium coffee.
Medium
The material of the surrounding environment, e.g. solid, liquid, gas, vacuum, or a specific substance such as a solvent.
Medium
The materials or empty space through which signals, waves, or forces pass.
Medium
A format for communicating or presenting information.
Medium
(microbiology) A nutrient substance, commonly a solution or solid, for the growth of cells in vitro.
Medium
(biology, horticulture etc.) A substance, structure, or environment in which living organisms subsist, grow or are cultured.
Medium
A means, channel, agency or go-between through which communication, commerce, etc is conveyed or carried on, or by which an aim is achieved.
Medium
(engineering) The materials used to finish a workpiece using a mass finishing or abrasive blasting process.
Medium
A liquid base which carries pigment in paint.
Medium
(painting) A means of expression, in the arts, such as a material (oil, pastel, clay, etc) or method or style (expressionism, jazz, etc).
Acrylics, oils, charcoal, and gouache are all mediums I used in my painting.
Medium
Someone who supposedly conveys information from the spirit world.
Medium
An item labelled or denoted as being that size.
Medium
One who fits an item of that size.
Medium
A half-pint serving of Guinness (or other stout in some regions).
Medium
(countable) A middle place or degree.
A happy medium
Medium
An average; sometimes the mathematical mean.
Medium
The mean or middle term of a syllogism, that by which the extremes are brought into connection.
Medium
(obsolete) Arithmetically average.
Medium
Of intermediate size, degree, amount etc.
Medium
Of meat, cooked to a point greater than rare but less than well done; typically, so the meat is still red in the centre.
Medium
That is medium the manufactured size.
Medium
To a medium extent.
Medium
That which lies in the middle, or between other things; intervening body or quantity.
The just medium . . . lies between pride and abjection.
Medium
See Mean.
Medium
A substance through which an effect is transmitted from one thing to another; as, air is the common medium of sound.
Whether any other liquors, being made mediums, cause a diversity of sound from water, it may be tried.
I must bring togetherAll these extremes; and must remove all mediums.
Medium
An average.
A medium of six years of war, and six years of peace.
Medium
A trade name for printing and writing paper of certain sizes. See Paper.
Medium
The liquid vehicle with which dry colors are ground and prepared for application.
Medium
A source of nutrients in which a microorganism is placed to permit its growth, cause it to produce substances, or observe its activity under defined conditions; also called culture medium or growth medium. The medium is usually a solution of nutrients in water, or a similar solution solidified with gelatin or agar.
Medium
A means of transmission of news, advertising, or other messages from an information source to the public, also called a news medium, such as a newspaper or radio; used mostly in the plural form, i. e. news media or media. See 1st media{2}.
Medium
Having a middle position or degree; mean; intermediate; medial; as, a horse of medium size; a decoction of medium strength.
Medium
A means or instrumentality for storing or communicating information
Medium
The surrounding environment;
Fish require an aqueous medium
Medium
An intervening substance through which signals can travel as a means for communication
Medium
(bacteriology) a nutrient substance (solid or liquid) that is used to cultivate micro-organisms
Medium
An intervening substance through which something is achieved;
The dissolving medium is called a solvent
Medium
A liquid with which pigment is mixed by a painter
Medium
(biology) a substance in which specimens are preserved or displayed
Medium
A state that is intermediate between extremes; a middle position;
A happy medium
Medium
Someone who serves as an intermediary between the living and the dead;
He consulted several mediums
Medium
Transmissions that are disseminated widely to the public
Medium
An occupation for which you are especially well suited;
In law he found his true metier
Medium
Around the middle of a scale of evaluation of physical measures;
An orange of average size
Intermediate capacity
A plane with intermediate range
Medium bombers
Medium
(of meat) cooked until there is just a little pink meat inside
Common Curiosities
How do clairvoyants receive their information?
Clairvoyants claim to receive their information through extrasensory perception, specifically through visual images or visions that are not perceivable by the average person.
Can clairvoyants communicate with the dead?
Clairvoyants primarily focus on "seeing" events or information beyond the normal senses, not specifically on communicating with the dead, which is the realm of mediums.
Do mediums predict the future?
While mediums may receive messages that pertain to future guidance, their primary focus is on communicating with the deceased, unlike clairvoyants who often predict future events.
What are the main differences between a clairvoyant and a medium?
The main differences lie in their abilities and practices: clairvoyants "see" beyond the normal senses, often predicting the future, while mediums facilitate communication between the living and the dead.
Are there scientific bases for clairvoyance and mediumship?
Both practices have been subjects of skepticism and scientific scrutiny, with researchers exploring phenomena like extrasensory perception, but conclusive scientific evidence remains elusive.
Can anyone become a clairvoyant or a medium?
Some claim that these abilities can be developed with practice and training, while others believe they are innate gifts.
How can someone consult a clairvoyant or a medium?
Individuals can consult clairvoyants or mediums through private readings, public demonstrations, or spiritual centers, often seeking personal guidance, future predictions, or communication with deceased loved ones.
How do practitioners of these abilities protect themselves from negative energies?
Many practitioners claim to use various spiritual or psychological techniques to protect themselves from negative energies or emotional tolls associated with their practices.
What role do ethics play in clairvoyance and mediumship?
Ethical considerations are significant, as practitioners must navigate sensitive personal information, privacy concerns, and the emotional well-being of their clients, emphasizing honesty, integrity, and compassion.
Is mediumship accepted by all cultures or religions?
Mediumship varies in acceptance across different cultures and religions, with some viewing it as a legitimate spiritual practice, while others may see it as contradictory to their beliefs.
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Written by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
Co-written by
Maham Liaqat
