We live in an over-intellectualized society where too many people are stuck in their heads. An an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at UCLA, Dr. Judith Orloff is a bridge between traditional medicine and the intuitive/spiritual realm. In Second Sight she helps us open to a part of ourselves with a much wider vision than the linear mind: our inner voice.
Second Sight reads like a thriller. It is a page-turner that shares the struggles and hard-won successes of a courageous physician fighting a skeptical medical system to validate the power of intuition.
In Part One, “Initiations,” Orloff describes being an intuitive child with premonitions about deaths and illnesses that frightened her and her physician-parents—so much so that they forbade her to discuss them at home. Judith grew up believing there was something wrong with her. This part of the book is extremely personal and frank. It took an ignored premonition of a patient’s suicide attempt to convince her to get beyond her fears and integrate intuition into her medical practice. In the chapter “Female Lineage,” she shares the family secret about intuition that her mother told her on her deathbed. You’ll discover what that secret is when you read the book.
In Part Two, “Teachings,” Second Sight shows effective ways to cultivate natural intuitive abilities, including how to recognize intuitive experiences in daily life, such as déjà vu incidents and synchronicities. There are particularly touching chapters on remembering dreams and embracing the spiritual path of the intuitive. She describes intuition as an outgrowth of spiritual evolution and an expansion of the heart—not just information you pick up to win the lottery.
Second Sight is the rare book that is both inspiring and controversial. You will find a new friend in Judith, as her writing style is as intimate as if she were talking to you in her living room. She will challenge you to reexamine your assumptions about the parameters of the human mind—and your own wondrous potential. (Three Rivers Press)
—Joan Borysenko, Ph.D. (author of Minding the Body, Mending the Mind)
