Clairgustance (Clear Tasting)
“Taste life, it’s delicious.”
—unknown
Have you ever tasted something even though there was nothing in your mouth? Sounds strange, right? Well, it is. But clairgustance, in its basic form, refers to tasting something that’s not actually in your mouth. This is an unusual psychic sense, but it can also be a helpful one. Unlike the more prominent psychic senses, clairgustance may seem bizarre.
Seldom does clairgustance work by itself. It rarely presents itself alone, without the accompaniment of another intuitive sense. This remarkable gift often serves to enhance our other psychic senses. For example, a taste may evoke a clairvoyant vision (see chapter two) or a clairsentient feeling (see chapter four). Commonly, clairgustance is experienced in tandem with clairalience, or clear smelling (see chapter seven). Our physical sense of smell enhances our physical sense of taste, so it follows suit that the same would hold true in the extrasensory realm.
I was given evidence of just this fact during a phone session I was doing recently with a lovely young woman named Bambi. We’d been talking for about half an hour, and she was able to validate everything I told her. Mostly I was discussing things I’d seen clairvoyantly, felt clairsentiently, known claircognizantly, or heard clairaudiently. The next thing I psychically received was different—I was tasting something.
“I’m tasting citrus—more specifically oranges. What does this mean to you?” I asked Bambi.
“I’m not eating oranges. I mean, I like them, but I can’t imagine what it could be,” she answered.
“Okay, well, now I’m also tasting what seems to be Thanksgiving dinner,” I continued, knowing there had to be a reason for it.
“I don’t know. We don’t usually have oranges during Thanksgiving dinner. I’m not sure what that is,” Bambi said. “Maybe you’re just hungry?”
We chuckled at that. After all, admittedly I was hungry. But I knew there was more to it than something that simple. So, I tuned in to my other senses to fill in the blanks. What I saw was the shape of Florida. I felt myself being pulled from Florida to Connecticut.
“Is someone visiting from Florida?” I asked her. “I feel like your father is trying to let you know he’ll be there for this. I believe it will be before Thanksgiving but in November,” I said. Now I was sure of the orange and Thanksgiving tastes I had.
“Oh, yes! Of course. I don’t know why I didn’t get it! My sister is coming up from Florida before Thanksgiving. It should be a great visit!” Bambi shared, comforted by the validation that her father was still around and able to be with them in spirit.
The clairgustatory impressions I received led me to the location of Florida as well as the November time frame. The phantom tastes introduced me to my next psychic hit. Clairgustance was the primary means to let me share with Bambi what her father wanted her to know: that he would be around them for their family gathering.
Foods have different flavors. Those flavors can be categorized as citrusy, sweet, spicy, savory, sour, etc. One at a time, think of each food collection. Imagine you are eating something that matches that food group. For example, citrus can be oranges or lemons, sweet can be chocolate, and spicy can be a chili pepper. Make your own connection and make it strong. Allow your taste buds to salivate and really believe you are chewing on the food you’ve allocated to each flavor.
Do it again using different foods. Do some tastes come across stronger than others? Are some more prominent? Are some of the flavor groups more difficult to taste? Practicing will help you recognize the different flavors when you actually experience clairgustance.
Cinnamon Spaghetti
One of the most common reasons mediums experience clairgustance is to recognize someone through taste. Imagine trying to determine who you are tuning in to during a séance and you taste chicken noodle soup. This can be translated by thinking symbolically, as in whoever is trying to come through was a “chicken,” but chances are it instead represents Grandma who was known for her chicken noodle soup or whom you’ve regularly shared this soup with.
I was doing a reading for an older gentleman named Tim. He had been in my office for about forty-five minutes and I hadn’t connected to anyone from the other side, per se. It was all about his past, present, and future life. He asked me if there was anything else.
“All of a sudden I am tasting something kind of strange. I want to say I am eating pasta with a normal meat sauce, but there’s more to it,” I told him.
“I don’t know what that means. I haven’t had pasta for quite a while. I’m not having any gluten anymore, so I rarely have macaroni,” he responded. “Unless there’s more to it. Is it because it’s brown rice or gluten-free pasta? My daughter has been making me crazy lately—everything’s all about staying away from anything with white flour,” he said with a smile.
“Hmmm. I don’t think that’s what it is. Maybe my taste buds are off, but I feel like there’s an unusual ingredient in the pasta or the sauce,” I continued. “Does this make sense to you?”
“I’m not really sure. I can’t imagine what it could be,” he said, a bit disappointed that I hadn’t connected to anyone.
“I know this sounds crazy, but I taste nutmeg and cinnamon in the spaghetti sauce,” I said, feeling there was no way this would ring true, at all.
“Oh my goodness! I know exactly what that is!” Tim responded, and I watched a tear roll down his cheek.
“Wow, I’m glad because I’ve never tasted anything like this before,” I told him, feeling confused but happy because it obviously meant something important to him.
“You’ve just connected to my late wife,” he whispered.
“Really? Was that a normal recipe? It seems strange,” I countered.
“On one of our first dates ever she told me she wanted to cook for me. I had asked her if she was any good and she answered that she really wasn’t but she wanted to try anyway. She told me I was worth the effort,” he shared, more tears moistening his eyes as well as his face.
“So were the nutmeg and cinnamon part of the dessert?” I asked.
“No,” he laughed. “She had never made homemade pasta sauce so she didn’t want to go that far. But she didn’t want to serve me just jarred sauce, so she decided she would doctor it up with some spices. She had no idea which ones to use, so she grabbed the ones near the front. Those were nutmeg and cinnamon. When I got to her apartment she had the table set beautifully, candles and all. We sat down and took the first bite and both of us practically spit it out! We were definitely not expecting what we experienced in our mouths! It was an explosion of flavor, but not in a good way! Well, we both cracked up, ate dinner anyway, and the rest is history. We laughed about that quite a bit before she died.”
“What a wonderful story! I definitely think this is her way of coming through to let you know she’s around. She’s also letting us know that she still has her sense of humor!”
“Oh, yes. She had a wonderful sense of humor. I miss that the most, I think,” he told me with a smile.
His connection was made. The love of his life had come through with a private message that only he could have known. This was total validation that his wife was around, continuing their shared experiences and recognizing a pivotal, life-changing time for both of them. Might she have come through in a different way? Of course. But she chose to share something special and made me taste her presence, which became the best part of the reading.
Having a deceased loved one come through is great. Clairgustance can also act as a precognitive tool. Along the same lines as tasting the strange pasta sauce, imagine tasting your best friend’s favorite food, having that phantom flavor in your mouth. You haven’t seen or heard from this best friend in a year because you’ve both been so busy and you’ve moved away from each other. But now you have this taste in your mouth of your best friend’s food, and it’s been there all day. Next thing you know, you open up your computer and there’s an e-mail from just that person telling you they are coming to visit next week! That’s precognitive clairgustance.
Tasting something that’s not actually in your mouth is one of the prevalent forms of clairgustance. Interpreting what you taste is important. Recognizing that flavor and matching it to a person, a time frame, or a life event is vital to understanding the meaning behind the taste. Learning how to translate it is fundamentally key.
Exercise: Trying Out Clairgustance
Get out a pen and your journal. Open up to a fresh page. On the top of the page write “Clairgustance.” Now, think of ten people. They can be dead or alive, family or friends. Write down their names, leaving plenty of room to write under each one.
Then, connect tastes with everyone on your list, one by one. If you wrote down your husband’s name and his favorite food is mint chocolate chip ice cream, write that down. The point to this exercise is to associate each person with a specific taste that you can recognize. Keep going until you’ve finished all ten people. If you’ve written down additional names, complete those as well.
When you’re all done, go back over your list. Do the tastes you’ve specified truly fit with the person you’ve connected them to? If you’re sure, then move on to the next step. If you need to make some changes, now’s your chance to do it.
Next, go back over each person on your list. Can you taste the food in your mouth? Does it make sense to you? Does it taste like the real thing? If you’re having a difficult time tasting the various foods, take it to the next level and actually make or buy the food and eat it so you can specifically recognize the taste. As you are experiencing the flavors, whether physically or psychically, think of the person you’ve connected to it. Be sure to really lock in the flavor with the person. From now on, using your clairgustance, you will easily be able to link each person with their food.
Changing Taste
Have you ever tasted something that didn’t taste the way it normally should? Or had something to eat that made you think of someone or something? This is another form of clairgustance: to actually eat something and have it trigger something else. Now, I’m not talking about how my sister’s potato salad makes me think of my grandmother because she’s the only one in the family who can even come close to reproducing the flavor and texture. I’m speaking, rather, of the flavor composition tasting entirely different than it ought to.
Sometimes the flavors can even change while you’re eating, from minute to minute. You may start off eating a cheeseburger and having it actually taste like a cheeseburger. But then, it tastes like you are eating black raspberry ice cream. And then, after a few bites, it starts to resemble squash or zucchini. This can be unusual, but not unheard of.
I’ve attended many different classes at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies. While there, students sleep in dormitory-style rooms or mostly shared semiprivate rooms. The workshops can last anywhere from a weekend to an entire week. Included in the cost are tuition, room, and board; the dining hall serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Inside and on the extremely large porch are many round tables that people occupy. Everyone sits with a variety of students from all of the classes whom they may or may not know. It was during one of these stays that I had a clairgustatory experience.
I was sitting at a table with about seven other people whom I didn’t recognize or know. They were not part of my class for the week. Some were in a cooking class and some were in yoga. But they were all interested in what I was doing there. So, I told them. I was there for a psychic workshop and we were talking to dead people. Now, some people are skeptical, myself included, so they wanted proof. I told them, just as I tell everyone, “You’re welcome to believe or not believe. It’s entirely up to you.”
“So, is there anyone with us now?” one of them asked.
“Ha ha. I’m not tuning in right now. I’m just trying to eat my lunch!” I laughed.
“All right. It’s not something that happens automatically? I thought you could just pick something up out of the blue,” another shared honestly.
“Sometimes, but usually I focus in on the connection to make it strong,” I continued, explaining that if I was “on” all of the time I would never be able to live in the present moment.
As we sat there eating our salads, I remarked on how delicious it was. As everyone was busy mhmm-ing and agreeing, I realized the salad didn’t taste the same. The lettuces and the other vegetables that had moments ago tasted fresh now tasted moldy, almost musty. Then, I began tasting strawberries, which expanded into strawberry shortcake.
“That’s strange. I just got a really musty taste and now I taste strawberry shortcake,” I explained to the group at the table. “Does anyone else’s salad taste strange?”
Everyone shook their head no. Their salads were still delicious.
“Wait. Did you say musty and strawberry shortcake?” one of the people at the table asked.
“Yes, why? Does your food taste like that, too?”
“No, but my mother always talked about how her food always tasted moldy and musty. Nothing tasted good; everything was very unappetizing. The only food that tasted relatively normal and was appetizing was strawberry shortcake. So, we prepared that for her at least twice a week and made sure she always had fresh strawberries on hand,” she replied, amazed.
“Wow. I taste something that I can only describe as sick or ill in my mouth. It tastes like what I would imagine cancer would taste like. But I’m also feeling a lot of love.”
“That’s what made her taste buds bad and what she eventually died from. She had cancer. Oh my God. I can’t believe she came through that way,” she explained with tears in her eyes. “Thank you for that. I know she is trying to tell me she is here and that’s so what I needed to hear!”
This was one of the first times I ever experienced clairgustance in this way. My food literally started tasting different. It wasn’t just a phantom taste; my salad actually changed its flavor. With every bite I took, I tasted something unusual. This episode of clairgustance helped bring comfort to someone who was really looking for validation that there was more to life than what we live here on Earth. I was able to prove to her, without even trying, that her mother was still around and that her spirit was present with her and that she was sharing her love.
This will be a culinary experiment. One that will get your clairgustatory juices flowing. Get together with a friend for lunch or dinner. You are going to be eating a meal, but this time, with a twist. Have your friend write down at least twenty different foods on separate slips of paper and fold them up so you can’t see them.
During your meal, something you really enjoy, pick a piece of paper and look at what food is written down. Now, focus in on that flavor as you continue to eat your meal. Can you taste the new flavor? Are you able to almost negate the flavor of what you’re eating to taste the flavor listed on the paper? Tell your friend what’s recorded and see if they also can taste the new flavor. Try this with all of the foods your partner has listed, but be sure to eat your meal and actually taste it between each other food.
Do you find some of the foods are easier to experience than others? Does it seem like the saltier ones come through better or the sweet? Did your friend find it to be the same? Or did they have a harder time with the ones that seemed to be easier for you?
As a bonus, did any of the flavors evoke feelings of someone you know or someone who’s passed? Did they remind you of an event or a time in your life? Remember, by learning to recognize and tune in to the flavors you are developing your clairgustance!
What Flavor Is Your Name?
All of the situations above are forms of clairgustance. The phantom tastes and the morphing of flavors are probably the most common of clairgustatory evidence. Experiencing clairgustance to determine something more specific is also possible and happened during one of my sessions many, many years ago.
My client John came in. He was hoping to connect to his mother, who had passed. I was able to tune in to others in his life, both living and dead. By using a combination of my other psychic senses, I provided him with initials and actual names, but I just wasn’t getting anything about his mom. So we moved on to discussing his future regarding his career.
“Is there a reason I’d be tasting peppermint?” I asked John.
“Not that I know of,” he responded.
“Are you looking for a job where they make mints? Or medicine? Or even peppermint mouthwash?” I continued.
“Maybe. I guess it’s a possibility. I don’t really know where I’m going to apply yet, but I’ll keep peppermint in mind,” John answered.
I told him that would be a good idea, and then we moved on again to where he would be moving. The first items I had picked up on during his psychic reading were that he wanted to change jobs and move out of state.
“I’m feeling more up north, toward Canada, like Vermont or upper New York State. Does this make sense?” I queried.
“Actually, yes! I have been considering moving that way because I love the winter weather and would be very happy to be able to ski right out of my door!” he replied, excited to hear that what he was hoping to do sounded like a definite possibility.
“Great! Maybe that’s what the peppermint is? I’m still getting it. Maybe candy canes or hot chocolate with peppermint? I can’t help it. This peppermint taste keeps coming through!” I told him. “Now, maybe it’s just because I have bad breath from all of this talking and the spirits are trying to brighten it up so I don’t disgust you, but I feel like there’s more to it!” I laughed, still trying to figure it all out.
“Ha! Your breath is just fine!” he chuckled.
“Okay, one more try; is your sugar level low? Are you hypoglycemic? I’m not only tasting the peppermint, but I’m hearing Peppermint Patty.”
“No, my sugars are generally very normal,” John said.
“Hmm. I think I finally get it. This taste has not gone away. The peppermint flavor is there. It’s not going away. Was your mom’s name Patty?” I asked.
“Oh my gosh! Leave it to her to be so tricky! She was always a joker. This makes perfect sense now. Her name was Patricia but everyone called her Patty. Wow. Thanks for showing up, Mom!”
Patty made sure we validated her presence before she let me stop tasting peppermint. I didn’t understand it right away, but she kept the flavor there. I was able to use my clairgustance after all of my other psychic senses had failed to produce the name of John’s mother. I have to admit, I’m glad she wasn’t referring to A Fish Called Wanda or something. Tasting fish all through the reading would have been gross!
Exercise: Write Down the Flavor
Take out your journal and begin recording any food, candy, book, movie, etc., that has food and name reference. You can start off by using candies such as “Peppermint Patty” and “Mary Jane” and take it from there. You may want to include “Oscar Mayer Wiener.” List every one you can think of and then ask your family and friends for any others they can think of that you may have missed. Now that you know how many connections there are between brands of foods or movies or books with names you may find that you link with someone you know who may be alive or dead.
When you’re all done, practice tasting the flavors based on the names you’ve written down. For example, can you taste peppermint when you think of Peppermint Patty? Begin associating the flavors with different names and/or people and record those in your journal as well.
Clairgustance for Your Mind, Body, and Spirit
Your psychic ability to tune in through taste is not limited to connecting for other people or communicating with the other side. This clairgustatory sense can also be used to tap into your mind, body, and spirit to determine what you need to add or even what you need to take away.
Whether you connect to your clairgustance for health reasons or other purposes, you should know that your fifth chakra or throat chakra not only connects to your clairaudience (see chapter three), it’s also connected to your clairgustance. Focusing in on this area, this communication chakra, will assist you with opening up your clairgustatory sense.
I am a hypnotist as well as a psychic. This means I work with people for a variety of reasons. I often have people who come in looking for hypnosis for weight loss. When we begin to explore their current eating habits and their exercise patterns, more often than not they’ve already been dieting and working out. This, usually, is not the problem. Frequently they are there because they have no idea what they need to do. This is where I connect my hypnotism skills with my intuition.
I tune in to their energy and try and determine what foods might better serve them and which they should avoid. I do this not only to help them limit their caloric intake, but also to ascertain which foods will allow them to feel healthier overall—mind, body, and spirit. The funny thing is, I find I’m not necessarily limiting them to fruit, vegetables, and protein; I regularly taste chocolate as well! Chocolate is, after all, a food group.
It’s your turn to help yourself now. Go somewhere that you won’t be disturbed and get comfortable. Bring your journal with you so you can record the relevant information to review later.
Focus on your throat chakra. Bring a brilliant blue color there and imagine it is spreading from your neck, glowing from the inside out. Allow this communication and taste center to open fully and to expand wide. Then, think about your overall health. You are going to ask the essential question, “What do I need for my body, mind, and spirit?”
After you ask this, say, “First, I would like to taste what my body needs to feel and be better on the whole.” Then wait. Notice if you begin to experience any tastes or flavors in your mouth. If not, go back to imagining the blue light expanding from your throat chakra, and as it does thank the universe for giving you the opportunity to taste whatever you need to by focusing on your neck area.
Try it again. Ask what you need for your body. Once you taste something focus in on it until you are sure you know what the flavor is. Then move on to the next one. Ask what you need for your mind. Follow the same procedure for this one and give yourself time to truly tune in with your clairgustance. Finally, ask what you need for your spirit. Are any of the flavors the same? Are they all different? Did you get something for each of them? Do the flavors seem to make sense?
Are you able to relate the flavors to specific foods, herbs, or drinks? Or, are you barely able to grasp the taste? Write down whatever foods, spices, drinks, herbs, etc., your clairgustance provided you for your mind, body, and spirit. Do they feel right to you? Does it seem like these foods may help make you better in some way?
Clairgustance as a Vessel?
All of your psychic senses can transport you to a place distant in time and space. Clairgustance is no different in theory, but it is different in how it works. Have you ever had anything strange occur while eating? Occasionally, with clairgustance, you may feel like you are experiencing something that you aren’t physically going through. This is a very rare type of clairgustance, but it does happen.
Imagine eating a hot dog and immediately feeling like you were no longer sitting at your dining room table but were in the middle of Yankee Stadium. Or even on the streets of New York, almost like you were transported there. That bite of the hot dog, that taste, brought you to another place. This, too, is clairgustance, and it has happened to me.
Remembering a time when you tasted the same flavor is different than having a true clairgustatory experience. You may eat pumpkin ice cream and remember the time you shared it with your mom twenty years ago. That’s not clairgustance; that’s nostalgia. However, if you eat pumpkin ice cream and feel like you are transported back to that time twenty years ago with your mom, that is absolutely clairgustance. It’s almost like, for a brief time, you are in that time and place.
When I was young, we used to have a set lunch schedule in elementary school. I remember on Mondays we’d have pasta with meat sauce and Fridays were pizza days. That meat sauce had a very distinct flavor. I truly believe they snuck liver into the sauce, though no one ever admitted it. About ten years ago, I was away at a seminar and I ran out for a quick lunch at a roadside food stop. I had placed my order and brought it back to my car to eat. It wasn’t pasta, it was a meatball grinder, but it had the same flavor. I remember thinking it tasted familiar. Then, all of a sudden, I felt like I was standing in the school cafeteria, looking around at all of the students. I could tell I was there as my adult self, back in a time when I was a child. Though it only lasted for a brief second, it felt very real. That was a very strange experience, but one I would welcome again.
This form of clairgustance is very rare. It involves astral travel—your spirit going to a place distant in time and space while your body stays where it is. Astral travel is more commonly brought on while in a more relaxed state such as sleep or meditation. I was in my car, eating my lunch.
Exercise: Where Do These
Food Memories Take You?
The first step to experiencing this form of transportation clairgustance is to determine what flavors bring on which memories. Get your journal out and open it to a fresh page. Across the top, write “Memories of Food.” Then, one by one, leaving plenty of room to fill in the necessary descriptions, write down foods that hold distinct memories.
For example, there is an event called the Oyster Festival in Connecticut that is held on the water every year. There are arts and crafts, shows, music, and more. But one reason people go is because of the extraordinary amount of food stands. There are two very distinct flavors that always make me reminiscent of the Oyster Festival. One is pizza fritas and the other is the baked potato, fully loaded with chili, broccoli, bacon, cheese, and sour cream. These two foods will always evoke memories of being at the Oyster Festival.
Write down the foods that give you these types of reminiscent feelings. After you’ve written them down go back and fill in the blanks. Where does it remind you of ? How old were you? Were you with anyone? What were you doing? Was it a happy time? A sad time? Were you excited? Were you having fun? Does it remind you of being somewhere with someone who has since died? Write down everything you can remember about that specific food and then move on to the next one. You may find yourself adding more to the list. This is great! Continue remembering as long as you want.
Taste This
You are now a clairgustatory connoisseur. You’ve taken a fundamental necessity like food and utilized it as an even more natural intuitive gift. Though clairgustance may be a rarer or more unique form of psychic sense, it can easily bring through quite a bit of desired or even much-needed information.
Clear taste can be useful to mediums because it can assist in bringing through deceased loved ones from the other side. It can be helpful to the medical profession by assisting them with a diagnosis or a direction to look to determine what’s wrong with a patient, as I mentioned in the introduction. It can even be helpful to law enforcement; imagine working a murder case and tasting the last food the victim, or more importantly, the murderer, ate, bringing them that much closer to the time right before death. It can evoke memories and even transport you to another time or place in your life that can make you happy. Clairgustance can even alert you precognitively of an upcoming visit or something even more important. Paying attention to your clairgustance will always be beneficial and may even make you look at food in a whole new way. You should taste everything life has to offer.