sensitivos

Sensitivos is a term used in Spanish and Portuguese to describe individuals who claim heightened perceptual or psychic abilities. In popular usage, sensitives may say they perceive emotions, thoughts, or energies beyond ordinary senses, communicate with spirits, or access information through intuition. The range of claims covered by the word runs from strong empathy and intuition to clairvoyance and mediumship. Linguistically, sensitivo derives from the Latin sensitivus, through the Romance languages, and functions as both a noun and an adjective in everyday speech.

In contemporary contexts, sensitives are often associated with spiritualist or New Age communities, folk practices, or regional traditions that emphasize intuitive or energetic work. Some groups organize meetings, circles, or training for guidance, readings, healing, or personal development. The label can be used self-referentially by individuals who view their abilities as gifts or to describe practitioners who offer readings and energy work.

Scientific and critical perspectives note a lack of robust empirical evidence supporting paranormal sensitivities. Many reported experiences are explained by psychological factors such as empathy, cognitive biases, selective memory, or misinterpretation of cues. As a social category, sensitivos overlap with related concepts like empaths, psychics, and mediums, but these terms reflect different cultural and epistemic frames.

See also: empaths, psychic, medium, parapsychology, high sensitivity.