Bridging the Gap: Signs and Symbols in Spirit Communication

BY ANNIE LARSON Published in Pathways Magazine, Summer 2026, page 20.

Signs play an essential role in our daily lives by offering a visual representation of a word or idea. They enable us to give conceptual form to abstract ideas and emotions that may defy the power of words. Signs help us with everything from basic instructions, such as showing us where to enter and exit a building, to complex choices, like alerting us to road hazards.

Just as signs help us navigate our physical world, in the realm of mediumship, they become vital tools for communicating with the spirit world. For mediums, signs are the markers and messages that illuminate the path through the afterlife. They offer clues, reassurance, and guidance, allowing us to interpret communications from departed loved ones to bring comfort and meaning to those looking to reconnect. Whether in the tangible world or the spirit realm, signs are the compass-points that help us find our way.

Spirits use symbols as a universal, nonverbal language that bridges the spiritual and physical worlds. Because spirits exist in a frequency or dimension different from those in our physical experience, they use indirect means, such as symbols, synchronicities, and sensory triggers to capture our attention and bridge the gap between realms.

Spirits’ messages often come as sudden bursts of information, images, or thoughts, which the medium must interpret, like translating a foreign language. Signs are the language of spirit. They bypass the logical mind and speak, without words, directly to the soul. Through symbols, spirits can express complex messages, emotions, or simply their presence. By training and working with signs, mediums develop a unique dictionary of symbols that evolves as their experiences grow. These signs allow for meaningful exchanges, creating a pathway that connects our world with theirs.

Over time, each medium develops their own symbolic compendium — a personal collection of images, sensations, and references built from the medium’s training, development, and experiences. This internal dictionary is what allows mediums to interpret signs in a way that is meaningful to their clients. Signs change over time. New ones form. They’re fluid. For example, during the Covid-19 pandemic, my sign for cancer (a capitalized black letter “C”) morphed into a "C" inside a circle (similar to a copyright symbol) to indicate that someone had passed from Covid-19.

Using the Clairs

In the United States, this type of interpretation and communication is a form of mediumship called “evidential mediumship”; in the United Kingdom, it is known as “mental mediumship.” In both practices, spirits communicate with mediums telepathically. The messages are received by the medium through hearing, seeing, or mentally feeling the information — either directly or with the support of a spirit guide. The medium then conveys these messages to the intended recipients, serving as a bridge between the two worlds.

Mediums receive signs through their Clair senses, or how they discern and interpret information. Clair is French for clear. The five commonly known Clairs are: clairvoyance (clear seeing); clairaudience (hearing); clairsentience (feeling); claircognizance (knowing); and clairalience or olfactory/gustance (smelling/tasting).

Clairvoyance allows the medium to see symbols, shadows, shapes, or words (like my copyright sign for Covid-19). Clairaudience allows the medium to hear symbols like names, songs, or messages internally as "verbal thoughts". For instance, spirit uses songs to convey words they want spoken to a client. Sometimes the song was one that spirit sang when they were alive.

Spirits may communicate using clairsentience by making the medium feel the physical sensations a spirit wants to convey. For instance, a sharp pain in my chest tells me spirit had a heart attack or a heart condition. Claircognizance is being in the knowing of something, like knowing who is calling before looking at the phone. Clairolfactory refers to the ability to perceive scents beyond normal sensory experience. In one session when a departed mother came through, I smelled the French perfume Shalimar by Guerlain. It was the perfume my client’s mother wore, undeniable evidence of her mother’s presence. Clairolgustance is a useful sign; when I taste blood in my mouth, I know there was some kind of accident or intentional act where the departed loved one bled.

Beyond the five main Clair senses, clairtangency — also referred to as psychometry — involves gaining information about someone through touching objects they've owned, like a cherished piece of jewelry. For example, during a mediumship demonstration, I held an audience member’s earrings and saw visions of a departed mother on a beach in Ocean City, Maryland, gifting the earrings to her daughter. The earrings had been purchased there specifically as a present. Clairempathy, meaning clear emotion, is the ability to perceive others’ feelings or sense the energy of a place. If you’ve ever entered a room after an argument, you may have felt the heavy atmosphere left behind. Mediums often have one or two of these abilities that stand out more than the others. These sensory perceptions help provide deeper insight and supporting evidence for clients.

Layers and Limitations

Mediums often find that using imagery or symbols is simpler than relying solely on words. Visual or sensory symbols can communicate complex ideas and emotions more efficiently and require less mental energy than continuous verbal exchanges with spirits. Sometimes, hearing spirits talk constantly can be exhausting; symbols, song lyrics, or images may come through instead, making the communication process gentler.

Communication is limited to what the medium already knows — spirits can only use references present in the medium’s mind. If a medium lacks the right words, a symbol or a snippet of a song may be an easier and more effective way for a spirit to express their message. Words alone are often insufficient for conveying the full depth of emotion or experience, and yes-or-no answers rarely provide meaningful insight.

For example, when someone says they are sad, the word alone does not reveal how intense that sadness is. To communicate the specifics, many words would be needed. My sign for sadness is a heavy feeling in my chest cavity. The heavier the feeling, the more sadness I detect. Some mediums might see hues of blue as levels of sadness, with deeper shades representing more intense sadness. Signs encapsulate these nuances in a sensation (heavy heart) or single image (a hue of blue), conveying a complex emotional landscape directly to the medium’s subconscious.

Many layers of meaning exist beneath our conscious awareness. Sometimes, we intuitively know something without being fully conscious of it, such as sensing someone is untrustworthy before realizing it logically. Symbols, metaphors, sensations, or even songs speak to this deeper part of ourselves. When we receive a symbol, it resonates with our subconscious, allowing understanding at a level beyond words.

A medium's interpretation is also shaped by their own relationships and experiences. For instance, if a spirit communicates the word "brother," the medium might instinctively reference their own feelings about their brother. Additional intuitive insights may reveal whether that brother had a close bond or struggled in some way. In my case, having many brothers, I might be shown the one who is an athlete or the one who is a musician to offer more insight to my client about their brother. The meaning of each sign is, therefore, calibrated through the medium’s personal lens to offer more details and clarity.

Spirit communication in mediumship depends on a spirit’s presence and the energetic signals they provide. During a reading, it’s important that spirits are present with us, and there are several ways to recognize when they’re near: you might notice shifts in room temperature, unusual smells, orbs or light anomalies, an odd energy in a certain spot, unexplained noises, or physical sensations like being touched. For instance, my phone often malfunctions around spirits; it can freeze, shut down, or SIRI may unexpectedly chime in with a response to clients' questions, even without being prompted. Once, when a client asked me where her father went after his passing, SIRI responded (unprompted) with the song “Pennies from Heaven” — her dad’s favorite song!

Our bodies physically respond to spirits with chills, nausea, dizziness, lightheadedness, pressure, sweating, or even anxiety. Personally, I tend to overheat and shed extra layers at the start of a session due to the intensity of spirit energy. Recognizing these vibrant indicators and energetic signs makes communicating with spirits more effective and enhances the process.

Mediums communicate with spirits by relying on, identifying, and understanding subtle, nonverbal signals, symbols, and energetic cues. By fine-tuning these subtle cues from spirit, the medium acts as a bridge, helping spirits share their stories and feelings with the living in ways that go beyond words. The process depends on the medium’s subconscious awareness and training, which enables the sharing of intricate feelings and insights through well-developed Clair senses. Spirit messages are shaped by how well the medium recognizes these signs and the emotions they stir, creating a link between the physical and spiritual world.

Annie Larson is a psychic medium, speaker, and healer featured in TV, radio, and print outlets including The Washington Post. She offers mediumship sessions providing evidence of the survival of consciousness, meeting clients in Sterling, Virginia, by phone, or online. MediumAnnieLarson.com