Reasons why you don’t want to be clairvoyant before it’s time

Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov

I read this passage about 13 years ago right about when my budding 'empathy' was shifting to a mild clairvoyance. Back then when I read it, I thought, "Oh, he is too much of a purist for me, this ability is great - I can help people better."

But, now 13 years and thousands of clients later, I need to say, there is something to what he says.

There are always some seeds of power or greed that drive us 'spiritual seekers' and I'm not quite sure how 'seeing' more than what is already currently available to our senses, makes for a happy and productive life.

Pondering this, and looking back- here is the excerpt. Please feel free to comment and share your views.

From "Looking into the Invisible: Intuition, Clairvoyance, Dreams":


"What do you suppose is the first thing a clairvoyant sees when he looks around him? Heaven and angels?

I’m afraid not.  He sees the cupidity and greed of human beings, the criminal schemes they have in mind, the hatred they nurse in their hearts, all the dangers that threaten them...and it is a horrifying experience to have such things constantly before one’s eyes.  Clairvoyants are often the most wretched of men, and many of them beg the Lord to take away the gift again, for they see nothing but horrors in every direction and it makes life miserable.

And what about yourselves?  Do you think that you will be able to endure such a gift? No, not if you develop your faculties of clairvoyance before you have developed love, kindness, inner strength and self-mastery; you will long for the days when you could see nothing, for then, even if you lived in a state of illusion, you were a thousand times better off. On the other hand, if you have already overcome many of your failings, if you have prepared and purified yourselves, if you are in control of yourselves and are full of love for your fellow men, when you are obliged to see evil (and it is impossible not to see it), thanks to your love and courage and self-control, you will not be shaken, you will be moved neither to terror nor to despair, and you may even be able to help people with your thoughts.

Don’t be in a hurry to become clairvoyant because it will certainly cause you great distress and even a terrible feeling of revulsion at having to live among human beings.  So it is not something that is highly desirable.  Just as it is not highly desirable to have a very acute sense of smell.  Fortunately, this is one of man’s less well developed seses; if it were not so, people would be unable to bear the proximity of others because of the nauseating smell caused by the disastrous way they eat, live and think.

As long as you are not ready and able to conquer reactions of disgust and terror, you had better not try to see.  Besides, one wonders why some people are so eager to ‘see’, as though it were the be all and end all of the spiritual life.  Why is it considered so extraordinary to be able to see the making or unmaking of fortunes, future marriages or divorces, friends, enemies and illnesses.  It is always the same old catalogue of human weaknesses; what is the point of developing special faculties in order to see that?  Don’t  you think that you already see enough with your physical eyes?  We are so often sick and tired of what we see: why wear yourselves out and make yourselves ill by trying to see even more? Is that an intelligent way to behave? “I want to be able to see things,” people say.  But to see what? Get it into your heads the gift of clairvoyance will hinder your evolution if you develop it before the time is ripe, that is to say, before you have developed the qualities that will enable you to do something useful with what you see.  It is not enough to see; you must be capable not only of grasping and understanding what Heaven reveals to you, but also of facing up to the sight of Hell without being overcome by it."

"Looking into the Invisible: Intuition, Clairvoyance, Dreams" by Omraam Mikhael Aivanhov