After sending a frenzy with Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives, Shalini Passi has been making waves with The Traitors 2. The socialite and art collector recently opened up about intuition and manifestation, explaining how she has an unusual sensitivity to light, fragrance, and people’s energy.

In an interview with spiritual mentor Jai Madaan, Shalini claimed that she has sometimes sensed events before they happen. She said these experiences date back to her childhood and can occasionally be unsettling.

“I always think that I am special. This is your mindset. It totally depends on how you conduct yourself,” she said. Further, she shared that her grandmother instilled the ‘princess’ qualities into her, stopping her from fighting with siblings, drinking, smoking, and more.

“I am hypersensitive and hyperactive to light, fragrance, and energy. If something is about to happen, I get dreams months in advance, since childhood,” Shalini said.

She said she has even felt sensations before major events. “If there is something like an earthquake, I would feel it like five days before,” she said, adding that such experiences have sometimes prompted her to call her family or other people. “It can be scary at times, but I have learned to live with it,” she added.

How does intuition work?

Dr Rimpa Sarkar, psychologist, PhD, Sentier Wellness, Mumbai, said that what people commonly describe as intuition can sometimes be explained by unconscious pattern recognition. “We are constantly processing small changes in people’s behaviour, our environment, bodily sensations, and previous experiences. The brain can integrate these cues and produce a strong feeling that ‘something is about to happen’ even when we cannot consciously explain why,” she said.

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However, she cautioned that this does not necessarily mean someone has predicted the future. “Intuition can be useful when it is based on accumulated experience, but it can also be influenced by anxiety, expectations, and coincidence,” Dr Rimpa said.

Talking about manifestations, the mental health expert explained that when someone practises manifestation from childhood, it can become a deeply ingrained way of thinking.

“Repeatedly visualising desired outcomes can strengthen confidence, clarify goals and influence behaviour, because the person begins to notice opportunities and act in ways consistent with what they believe is possible. Over time, this can become less about simply wishing for something and more about developing an expectation of possibility and personal agency,” she said.

Shalini’s claim that she sometimes dreams about events months before they occur also raises the question of whether dreams can act as a warning of future events.

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Dr Sarkar shared that there is no established psychological evidence that ordinary dreams reliably predict what will happen. “We have many dreams, and occasionally one will resemble something that subsequently happens simply by chance,” she said.

“Memory is also reconstructive, so after an event occurs, we may unconsciously reinterpret an earlier vague dream as having been more specific than it actually was,” she added.

Why do some people experience heightened sensory sensitivity?

Shalini also describes herself as being particularly sensitive to light and fragrance. Dr Rimpa says heightened sensory sensitivity is not necessarily a sign of a psychological disorder.

“Some people naturally have a lower threshold for sensory stimulation and experience light, sounds, smells, textures, or crowded environments more intensely,” she said.

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Such sensitivity can also occur alongside anxiety, ADHD, autism, migraine, stress or sleep deprivation, among other factors. However, the expert stressed that sensory sensitivity by itself cannot establish any diagnosis.

“The important question is whether it is simply a personal characteristic or whether it causes significant distress or interferes with everyday functioning,” she said.