Retrocognition – What It Is | How To Develop This Ability

In the field of psychic phenomena, there are many skills that are manifested by the psychics. Among those skills, ability to predict the future and revealing the past are the most common type of psychic ability. Knowing the past is what we call as retrocognition.

When you are in a new place or meet someone new, and if you have ever felt a sensation or experienced something like you have been that place or met that person before, then you may be experiencing a kind of retrocognition. Then, you will most likely have success in developing this skill. Now, let us take a deeper look at this type of psychic ability.

retrocognition
What is Retrocognition

Retrocognition, also known as postcognition, is derived from two latin words, “retro” meaning ‘backward or behind’ and the other word “cognition” meaning ‘knowing’. So, retrocognition literally means a psychic ability to pick up the past information of a place or a person without using the physical senses.

The term retrocognition was coined by Frederic William Henry Myers, a well-known philologist in the nineteenth century and a founder of Society for Psychical Research.

You may have heard of cases where small children recalling their previous life in a great detail. Some believe it to be true and others reject it by saying that it’s just the imagination of the children. But, the truth may be the children are likely to have retrocognitive experience.

Even in our daily life, if we have a true retrocognitive experience sometimes, we dismiss it as a recollection of something seen a long ago. So, it is very much important to distinguish between a true psychic experience and a recollection of a past, if you wish to develop your powers.

How Retrocognition Works?

Everything in this Universe is made up of energy. So, all the past events are imprinted in the surrounding objects or environment in the form of energy that can be sensed by a psychic. The psychic will tune into these frequencies or vibrations and access the information and experience it. We can say that retrocognition works in the same way as a residual ghost phenomena work.

According to psychics, retrocognition manifests in various altered states such as during psychic dreams, Astral Projection or may get a vision when meditating or in a trance.

Most people who exhibit the ability of retrocognition will also have the ability of precognition (ability to see future). It is believed that clairvoyance is responsible for this ability, but it is yet to be proved.

Déjà Vu, Psychometry and Retrocognition


Déjà Vu refers to a sense of familiarity with something or an intense gut feeling of having already experienced. Déjà Vu is also considered as a small form of retrocognition.

Psychometry is considered to be another form of retocognition, which has the ability to describe the past by touching or holding the objects related to the past events. Psychometry also involves touching the persons hand to read the persons past events.

How to Develop Retrocognition?

Here are a few steps that help you in developing retrocognition.

  1. Meditation: Meditation is the topmost step for developing any kind of psychic skills. Spend some time every day to relax your mind and body. It is advised to practice meditation for few weeks to months before actually developing this ability.

    | Related: Psychic Meditation for Beginners

  2. Dreams: Basically, every one of us is psychic in nature. We do get a lot of information in many ways, but the thing is we do not pay close attention to them. The most common way that we get information is through dreams. So, pay attention to your dreams especially that relates to your past events and persons in your life and note it down in a journal to interpret them later.
  3. Observe Surroundings: You will also need to pay a close attention to your surroundings in your day to day life. You must feel connected to the energy surrounding you. You may feel some sense or a déjà vu experience when you are in a particular place or when you meet someone new. 

     

    Record your impressions on that situation and later on meditate or go in a trance state to deal with those impressions. You can ask questions regarding that experience and see if you can get any hunches or gut feelings. Listen to your inner voice to get your answers or any further impressions when you are in a meditative state.

  4. Know Your Past: You can take up past life regressions to note the impressions you get and analyze them. The ability to tap into a past life would certainly help you practicing retrocognition. You can choose to do it either by a self-guide regression or with the help of a trusted hypnosis practitioner.
  5. Use Tools: Using divination tools is the easiest way for anyone to start with. You can use tools like tarot cards and dowsing to reveal the information of the past and past life. Dowsing is the simplest technique that any average person can learn to use with little effort. You have to use the proper tarot cards or dowsing charts to access the information.
  6. Groups: Join online and offline groups who are interested in this ability and get the knowledge to improve your powers. You can also opt for an online psychic development course which is the foundation for all psychic abilities.

Famous Historical Case of Retrocognition

The most popular case of retrocognition is probably an ‘Anne Moberly and Eleanor Jourdain’ incident. Both of them were scholars and worked at British school for women. In August of 1901, they both decided to visit the Palace of Versailles in France that belongs to the French queen, Marie Antoinette.

After touring the palace, without thinking much about it, they decided to walk through the gardens to the Petit Trianon. Soon, they lost their way and found that everything were out of place and unnatural. After a while, Anne Moberly noticed one lady and believed to be Marie Antoinette, who had died in 1793. However, Jourdain did not see the lady.

Moberly and Jourdain wrote a book called An Adventure in 1911, detailing all their experiences about the queen’s speech, dress and actions. The two ladies believed that they experienced a retrocognition with details of Marie Antoinette’s past.

Final Thoughts


It is a fun to learn any psychic skill but it takes your patience and time to master those skills.

Initially, it would be difficult for you to have trust on the messages you receive through psychic senses and that is normal. Give yourself some time to actually get into the process and you will know how to interpret those messages. You can also try to learn clairvoyance ability before you practice retrocognition.

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