Clairgustance

Clairgustance is a proposed psychic ability in the field of parapsychology, referring to the perception of tastes without an external gustatory stimulus. The name combines clair, meaning clear, with gustance, meaning taste. It is commonly listed among the 'clair' senses, alongside clairvoyance, clairaudience, and clairsentience, and sometimes paired with clairalience (smell).

Proponents describe experiences in which a person tastes flavors—such as sweet, sour, or metallic—without eating or drinking, or detects tastes associated with a person, place, or event. Such reports are often reported in spiritualist settings, during readings, or in controlled experiments aiming to test extrasensory perception.

Assessments by scientists have found no robust evidence that clairgustance exists as a reproducible phenomenon. Many reported cases can be attributed to suggestion, memory, expectancy, or misinterpretation of normal gustatory cues. Controlled studies are scarce and rarely yield results beyond chance; publication bias and inadequate blinding further undermine claims.

Within mainstream science, clairgustance is regarded as a fringe claim lacking verifiable support. In parapsychology, it remains a topic of speculative investigation, frequently discussed alongside other anomalous senses but proceeding with significant skepticism about methodology and interpretation.