Imbas forosnai, is a special gift of clairvoyance

Clairvoyance

The term clairvoyance is used to refer to the ability to gain information about an object, person, location or physical event through means other than the known human senses, a form of extra-sensory perception...

 believed to be possessed by the poets, and Druids, in Early Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. Imbas means inspiration or knowledge and forosnai means illuminated or that which illuminates. Descriptions of the practices associated with Imbas forosnai are found in Cormac's Glossary and in the mythology associated with Finn MacCumhail. Generally Imbas forosnai was thought to involve the practitioner engaging in sensory deprivation techniques in order to enter into a trance and receive answers or prophecy.

Some practitioners of Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism

Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism

Celtic Reconstructionist Paganism is a polytheistic, animistic, religious and cultural movement...

 are working to reconstruct trance and visionary techniques that were used by the fili

Fili

A fili was a member of an elite class of poets in Ireland, up into the Renaissance, when the Irish class system was dismantled.-Elite scholars:According to the Textbook of Irish Literature, by Eleanor Hull:-Oral tradition:...

d, such as imbas forosnai and aspects of the tarbhfeis ritual.

External links

• Imbas Forosnai by Nora Chadwick

http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O70-imbasforosnai.html by James MacKillop
http://www.summerlands.com/crossroads/library/awenimba.htm