Ever wonder why we call it "clear seeing" when someone claims to know things they shouldn't? That's literally what clairvoyance means—from the French "clair" (clear) and "voyance" (vision). Unlike telepathy, which is mind-reading, clairvoyance is supposedly about perceiving distant events, hidden objects, or future happenings without using your normal senses.

The term became wildly popular in the 1840s during the Spiritualism craze that swept America and Europe. One of the most famous clairvoyants was a Frenchman named Alexis Didier, who performed for European royalty in the 1840s and 50s. He'd allegedly read books while blindfolded and describe the contents of sealed letters. Even skeptical magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin admitted he couldn't explain Didier's abilities, which is saying something coming from the "father of modern magic."

Here's the weird part: during World War II, both the Allies and Axis powers actually employed psychics to locate enemy submarines and predict strategic moves. The CIA later ran Project Stargate from the 1970s to 1995, spending $20 million investigating "remote viewing"—their clinical term for clairvoyance. Despite two decades of research, the program was shut down when independent reviewers found no evidence it actually worked better than chance.

Today, clairvoyance remains one of those fascinating areas where belief and skepticism collide. Scientists can't prove it exists, but they also can't quite explain some of the documented cases that seem genuinely uncanny.