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Second Sight: An Intuitive Psychiatrist Tells Her Extraordinary Story and Shows You How To Tap Your Own Inner Wisdom
"An exemplary and eloquently written story that makes it easy for nonbelievers in intuition to believe. You must read this book." – Psychology Today
Now with a new foreword from the author, New York Times bestselling author Dr. Judith Orloff tells her remarkable life story and teaches you how to recognize and trust your own intuitive gifts to improve your life—and the lives of those around you.
In this updated edition, Dr. Orloff reflects on her career and the sea change that modern medicine and psychiatry have experienced since Second Sight was first published. She expands her earlier ideas and further explores intuition’s role in maintaining physical health and emotional well-being, using examples from her own and her patients’ lives. This is both a remarkable self-portrait of one woman’s journey toward the acceptance of intuition as a therapeutic tool, and a comprehensive look at how you, too, can develop your intuition, transform your health, and revolutionize your everyday life.
"Orloff is a true visionary. She is the kind of physician we wish we all had." – Caroline Myss, Ph.D., author of Sacred Contracts
"Second Sight is a page turner...controversial. It shares the struggles and successes of a courageous physician who fights against a skeptical medical system to validate the power of intuition. You will find a new friend in Judith as her writing is as intimate as if she was talking to you in her living room." —Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., author of Mending the Mind, Minding the Spirit
"Judith Orloff is a seriously talented storyteller, and her book moves like a thriller...Forgive me this moment of intuition, but this book feels right." –Jesse Kornbluth, Huffington Post
Now with a new foreword from the author, New York Times bestselling author Dr. Judith Orloff tells her remarkable life story and teaches you how to recognize and trust your own intuitive gifts to improve your life—and the lives of those around you.
In this updated edition, Dr. Orloff reflects on her career and the sea change that modern medicine and psychiatry have experienced since Second Sight was first published. She expands her earlier ideas and further explores intuition’s role in maintaining physical health and emotional well-being, using examples from her own and her patients’ lives. This is both a remarkable self-portrait of one woman’s journey toward the acceptance of intuition as a therapeutic tool, and a comprehensive look at how you, too, can develop your intuition, transform your health, and revolutionize your everyday life.
"Orloff is a true visionary. She is the kind of physician we wish we all had." – Caroline Myss, Ph.D., author of Sacred Contracts
"Second Sight is a page turner...controversial. It shares the struggles and successes of a courageous physician who fights against a skeptical medical system to validate the power of intuition. You will find a new friend in Judith as her writing is as intimate as if she was talking to you in her living room." —Joan Borysenko, Ph.D., author of Mending the Mind, Minding the Spirit
"Judith Orloff is a seriously talented storyteller, and her book moves like a thriller...Forgive me this moment of intuition, but this book feels right." –Jesse Kornbluth, Huffington Post
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First published January 1, 1996
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About the author
Judith Orloff
72 books408 followersJudith Orloff, MD is a psychiatrist, an empath, and author of the recent book "The Genius of Empathy" (Foreword by the Dalai Lama) which offers powerful skills to tap into empathy as a daily healing practice. Her upcoming children’s book "The Highly Sensitive Rabbit" is about a caring rabbit who learns to embrace her gifts of sensitivity through the kindness of loving animals. Her other books include "The Empath’s Survival Guide" and "Thriving as an Empath."
Dr. Orloff is a New York Times bestselling author and a UCLA psychiatric clinical faculty member. She synthesizes the pearls of conventional medicine with cutting-edge knowledge of intuition, energy, and spirituality. Dr. Orloff specializes in treating highly sensitive people in her private practice. She has been featured on The Today Show, CNN, Oprah Magazine, and in the New York Times and Scientific American. Learn more about the power of empathy at www.drjudithorloff.com
Dr. Orloff is a New York Times bestselling author and a UCLA psychiatric clinical faculty member. She synthesizes the pearls of conventional medicine with cutting-edge knowledge of intuition, energy, and spirituality. Dr. Orloff specializes in treating highly sensitive people in her private practice. She has been featured on The Today Show, CNN, Oprah Magazine, and in the New York Times and Scientific American. Learn more about the power of empathy at www.drjudithorloff.com
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May 17, 2010I interviewed Dr. Orloff in April 2010 shortly after the release of Second Sight for The Infinite Field Magazine & Infinite Field TV. One of the most beautiful gifts that I received from reading this book was my new openness which I now refer to as "Welcoming Intuition". For most of my life, I have run from the intuitive whispers inside listening only when I was in a crisis or desperately needed a miracle. While listening to Dr. Orloff as I interviewed her and while reading Second Sight, I experienced a peaceful conscious shift which now allows me to welcome these "whispers" from the Universe God and incorporate them into my daily life. I can now call on insight to be a normal part of my everyday activity without reservation or hesitation. This is truly the jewel which is available to the reader....the gift of opening themselves to the realm of Spirit where all the wisdom of the ages is available. As Dr. Orloff shares her own journey and experiences with Second Sight, the reader can find comfort and celebration in their own unique gift while connecting with the Second Sight community that is as vast as the ocean and sky. Synolve Craft, CEO of The Infinite Field & Editor-In-Chief of The Infinite Field Magazine (Visit us at http://theinfintiefieldmagazine.com. To read other book reviews by Synolve click The Spiritual BookShelf on the magazine's website.)
February 18, 2009
Judith Orloff really bares her soul in this book, she doesn't hold back anything, and confides her innermost thoughts, feelings, challenges, successes, and failures with humility and unflinching honesty. Her writing is amazingly honest, well thought out, deeply personal, and touching. It's very easy to trust her and completely open up to the book, sharing in her successes and failures, and taking her suggestions very seriously. Her struggle to integrate her intuitive abilities with the "real world" of work and rationality and scientific-minded western thought will sound familiar to anyone who's had undeniable proof in their own lives that there is much more to us than our brains. If you have ever felt too sensitive, or wondered how you could ever benefit from your sensitivities, I think this book will bring you solace as well as some very good ideas on how to move ahead; it will definitely give you hope that you can integrate your abilities with the rest of your being, and that there are lots of other people out there just like you.
January 21, 2018
What to say about this one... hmm. Well, coming in I was expecting it to be a little flowery, a little off; looking at the cover should tell you that much, and I wasn't disappointed. Still, I was expecting to hear at least a little about the struggles to merge the physical and metaphysical, to learn how Dr. Orloff had developed her psychic talents and how they would best be put to use in treating people, especially those with mental illness.
What I got instead was a lot of discussion about how psychic healers used to be a lot more respected, were way more important in the past, and how medicine needs to get together and start getting psychic. Actual practical applications or stories were rare, and the few that were in here were so bizarre, perfectly detailed and just so happen to fit exactly to the circumstances or apparent point that they felt falsified and forced.
The discussion about her family life, the mother who denied the psychic (despite every woman in the family having it, including dear ol' mom) and the final acceptance of it alongside sharing all kinds of secret psychic stories from her childhood and before - that then leads into the predictable pages explaining the true power of the sacred feminine and how it runs in her family's bloodline as a blessing and a message that must be carried - start really pushing the boundaries of belief and the credibility I was willing to extend to the work, alongside bloating the good Doctor's sense of self-worth.
Further in, we're treated to numerous discussions of her meditation sessions, including one in the woods where she explains in detail how leaning against a tree leads to the most explosive orgasm (her words, not mine) of her life. Then we finish up with a couple dozen more pages explaining that it's very important to merge the psychic with the medical to truly help patients, without giving much in the way of specifics (other than a passage about a gynecologist she knows who has an intuitive healer in the office who helps diagnose patients before they're even seen by the doc, and performs laying on of hands to patients who need it.)
All in all, it was a lot of floaty, hippy-dippy stuff and anecdotal evidence that doesn't provide much in the way of evidence or serious discussion about the viability of psychic healing merged to an unbelievable biography that droned on for nearly 400 pages with little to no payoff. Don't recommend it.
What I got instead was a lot of discussion about how psychic healers used to be a lot more respected, were way more important in the past, and how medicine needs to get together and start getting psychic. Actual practical applications or stories were rare, and the few that were in here were so bizarre, perfectly detailed and just so happen to fit exactly to the circumstances or apparent point that they felt falsified and forced.
The discussion about her family life, the mother who denied the psychic (despite every woman in the family having it, including dear ol' mom) and the final acceptance of it alongside sharing all kinds of secret psychic stories from her childhood and before - that then leads into the predictable pages explaining the true power of the sacred feminine and how it runs in her family's bloodline as a blessing and a message that must be carried - start really pushing the boundaries of belief and the credibility I was willing to extend to the work, alongside bloating the good Doctor's sense of self-worth.
Further in, we're treated to numerous discussions of her meditation sessions, including one in the woods where she explains in detail how leaning against a tree leads to the most explosive orgasm (her words, not mine) of her life. Then we finish up with a couple dozen more pages explaining that it's very important to merge the psychic with the medical to truly help patients, without giving much in the way of specifics (other than a passage about a gynecologist she knows who has an intuitive healer in the office who helps diagnose patients before they're even seen by the doc, and performs laying on of hands to patients who need it.)
All in all, it was a lot of floaty, hippy-dippy stuff and anecdotal evidence that doesn't provide much in the way of evidence or serious discussion about the viability of psychic healing merged to an unbelievable biography that droned on for nearly 400 pages with little to no payoff. Don't recommend it.
March 21, 2010
Orloff's story of her journey to understand, master, and integrate her intuition with her psychiatric practice is engaging. The second half of the book, with suggestions for courting, improving and nurturing intuition through mediation and other spiritual practices, is full of ideas anyone can use to develop a more active connection to deeper, other-knowing parts of themselves.
May 18, 2020
By some odd twist, Judith Orloff and I have the same mother, if not in actual fact, in most of the anecdotes revealed in the first chapters of this book, with one major difference.
I felt suffocated by the intensity of my mothers love...was afraid that if I let her get too close I'd be devoured. She was so dominant a personality that the only way I could be real, I felt, was to oppose her. p11
My father, too, was a doctor and I too was laden with the expectations that come with being the doctors daughter. The major difference, besides location, between our mothers was that JO's mother was also a doctor and so it did not seem outlandish for Judith to enrol in medical school. That was after some years of wild joys during which she was able to cultivate her free spirit and do some exploring of the empathic gifts that she had learned to ignore when discouraged by family. In this telling, she takes a cool look into "the chasm between who we are told we are and who we can be" p207
When you straddle two very different realities at once the secret is to be aware of both....However, if emotions like fear are faced prematurely, some people get so overwhelmed they shut down. p212
It's understandable that in a society obsessed with the material aspect of life and a very narrow definition of spirituality, that intuitive gifts may be hard to receive. Without recognition,support, and training a person can easily become bewildered by powers they do not understand or know how to control. When highly sensitive, emotional people come under the influence of those who pathologize what they see as symptoms of neurological or mental illness, the results are mostly catastrophic.
I saw that when these people are supported rather than judged by conventional standards, their crises could evolve naturally, sometimes resulting in tremendous breakthroughs. p288
Her professional credentials allow JO to challenge the medical establishment to make a space for intuition in their procedures and employ empathy in their work. As a registered, bonafide psychiatrist, she has been able to make inroads into the old boys network and has been unremitting in her campaign to have empathy and intuition recognized for the useful tools they can be. Wise in the ways of the world and unafraid of her own power, comfortable with the power of others, she has developed the confidence in her intuition to bring it into all aspects of her life.
In this brave account of her voyage to self-mastery, JO brings hope to the next generation of empaths and intuitives and some relief for those who have never been able to admit much less cultivate their talents. By bringing these qualities out from under the rug we all have an opportunity to develop them in ourselves.
There's no elite to which this gift belongs-the seeds have been planted in everyone. p172
Our own mystical nature has become obscured....The good news is, we can stop searching; intuition is ever present. p251
No matter how distinct the message, it's up to you to listen. p221
I felt suffocated by the intensity of my mothers love...was afraid that if I let her get too close I'd be devoured. She was so dominant a personality that the only way I could be real, I felt, was to oppose her. p11
My father, too, was a doctor and I too was laden with the expectations that come with being the doctors daughter. The major difference, besides location, between our mothers was that JO's mother was also a doctor and so it did not seem outlandish for Judith to enrol in medical school. That was after some years of wild joys during which she was able to cultivate her free spirit and do some exploring of the empathic gifts that she had learned to ignore when discouraged by family. In this telling, she takes a cool look into "the chasm between who we are told we are and who we can be" p207
When you straddle two very different realities at once the secret is to be aware of both....However, if emotions like fear are faced prematurely, some people get so overwhelmed they shut down. p212
It's understandable that in a society obsessed with the material aspect of life and a very narrow definition of spirituality, that intuitive gifts may be hard to receive. Without recognition,support, and training a person can easily become bewildered by powers they do not understand or know how to control. When highly sensitive, emotional people come under the influence of those who pathologize what they see as symptoms of neurological or mental illness, the results are mostly catastrophic.
I saw that when these people are supported rather than judged by conventional standards, their crises could evolve naturally, sometimes resulting in tremendous breakthroughs. p288
Her professional credentials allow JO to challenge the medical establishment to make a space for intuition in their procedures and employ empathy in their work. As a registered, bonafide psychiatrist, she has been able to make inroads into the old boys network and has been unremitting in her campaign to have empathy and intuition recognized for the useful tools they can be. Wise in the ways of the world and unafraid of her own power, comfortable with the power of others, she has developed the confidence in her intuition to bring it into all aspects of her life.
In this brave account of her voyage to self-mastery, JO brings hope to the next generation of empaths and intuitives and some relief for those who have never been able to admit much less cultivate their talents. By bringing these qualities out from under the rug we all have an opportunity to develop them in ourselves.
There's no elite to which this gift belongs-the seeds have been planted in everyone. p172
Our own mystical nature has become obscured....The good news is, we can stop searching; intuition is ever present. p251
No matter how distinct the message, it's up to you to listen. p221
July 28, 2013
I found the book at random in a clearance rack at the bookstore. Interestingly enough, a week later I listened to a radio interview of the author. It wasn’t until later that I realized the book and the podcast featured the same author! Since the author had made an impression during the radio interview, I was excited to start on the book. It was very engrossing; highlighting the intimate story of her life and experiences reconciling the material and subconscious realms.
It’s amazing that she was able to bridge the gap between medicine and the intuitive world, and I can only hope that more doctors will choose to follow in that path (I strongly believe that most—if not all—of our health issues would be better resolved through this combined approach than through blindly taking ‘medication’ without getting deeper understanding of what triggers us to get sick in the first place). Replete with helpful advice and observations on subjects like dreams, synchronicity, meditation, ritual, and the process of giving readings, her candid account makes it hard to put down.
It’s amazing that she was able to bridge the gap between medicine and the intuitive world, and I can only hope that more doctors will choose to follow in that path (I strongly believe that most—if not all—of our health issues would be better resolved through this combined approach than through blindly taking ‘medication’ without getting deeper understanding of what triggers us to get sick in the first place). Replete with helpful advice and observations on subjects like dreams, synchronicity, meditation, ritual, and the process of giving readings, her candid account makes it hard to put down.
June 26, 2010
In this wonderful book Dr. Orloff tells a fascinating, insightful, and forthright tale of her life as a very gifted intuitive. Her willingness to bare her soul regarding her experiences growing up with intuitive abilities is admirable, and the quality of the writing is nothing less than exceptional. As I read the book I honestly got the sense at times that she was sitting across from me in my own living room talking to me as an old friend would. The many stories she relates about how she's been able to successfully integrate conventional medical/psychiatric care with her intuitive skills make for very interesting reading indeed. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about the entire subject of intuition.
March 25, 2012
As a practicing Psychiatrist and Assistant Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA, Dr. Judith Orloff has complemented her scientific training and abilities with her intuitive abilities to successfully treat her patients. She gives them a level of care that is needed in this complex world where people are under extreme pressure from the constant barrage of negative news and unreasonable societal expectations. This book encourages all to develop their intuitive abilities through meditation and prayer and provides a general framework for doing so.
August 30, 2021
A gifted psychiatrist using intuition and remote viewing... If you think you're even half mad, I highly recommend reading this book to see how sane we are in reality. Well, most of the time anyway! As an author myself, I enjoyed how brilliantly Judith writes... I can only imagine how many lives she has saved through her work. The book is intelligent, funny, hair-raising and rational. I look forward to reading more of Dr Judith Orloff's books so I can share her wonderful company again and again.
September 9, 2007
Very believable, well-written, and thought-provoking. I read it for the last class I ever took at UofMich called "The Psychology of Spirituality," which was very little psychology and lots of spirituality. The professor, Richard Mann, was a wise older gentleman and the reading list for that class, including this book, was phenomenal.
September 1, 2010
This book combines the best of contemporary memoir with insight and inspiration. I read it in 3 days--it was hard to put down. Showing us all how to cultivate our intuitive gifts, Second Sight opened my eyes to new possibilities in my life.
December 21, 2013
Overall, I enjoyed the book. However, I skimmed through the first part where she talks about her own experience. Perhaps I was in the mood for strategies, instead of her longwinded story. I most especially liked the part about asking your intuition about dreams (ch. 8) the best.
February 6, 2008
Learning to follow your intuition
March 9, 2008
Judith's fascinating story helps to recognize and honor your own intuitive experiences.
March 5, 2017
This book gave voice to things in me that I'd never heard anyone talk about so I found it VERY validating.
May 7, 2009
My favorite ! it is the only book that i was reading more than once.
April 21, 2010
I LOVED THIS BOOK.
March 25, 2010
I highly recommend this book.
July 8, 2010
This book is interesting to me because it is about how to recognize and trust your intuition. Always a topic I've been interested in learning about and developing.
December 22, 2012
"Pay attention to your intuition, it will save someone's life."
that's it! and a lot of stories, done well as stories.
that's it! and a lot of stories, done well as stories.
May 28, 2019
Excellent read. A lot of information on the psychic (in us all), and how to help yourself w/ meditation, dreams and other ways. I noticed she has a page on Facebook, will check that out!
June 13, 2023
A PSYCHIATRIST SEEKS TO INTEGRATE PSYCHIC EVENTS WITH PSYCHOLOGY
Author Judith Orloff told in the Prologue of this 1996 book of a premonition she had of a patient of a patient of hers committing suicide: “the next time I saw her she was hooked up to life support… By discounting my premonition, I had betrayed both Christine and myself… During my medical training I had opted to trust the scientific method above my intuition, which seemed inexact and undependable in comparison… The truth of my premonition both validated and terrified me… I realized that as a responsible physician I could no longer dismiss information simply because it came to me in forms traditional medicine had not yet accepted. There had to be a way to integrate the psychic into mainstream medicine. When brought together, each could enhance the other and become more powerful than either was alone… From this experience, I understood that I had to reopen a part of myself that long ago had shut down---no matter how much it frightened me… For years, though I fought it, I knew that something set me apart from others, as if I were guided by a different rhythm, a different truth. Now… I could see that a series of unusual and, to me, unexplainable events had set the stage.” (Pg. xvi-xviii)
In the first chapter, she recounts that as a high school student, she had frightening premonitions, began experimenting with drugs, and entered therapy with a neighbor named Jim, who “suggested I meet Dr. Thelma Moss, a psychologist and psychic researcher at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute [UCLA] who specialized in the study of paranormal phenomena.” (Pg. 22) “Though it had now been years since my parents and I discussed my premonitions, it seemed that this aspect of my life, under the auspices of [UCLA]… wasn’t as untenable to them. Although I was studying phenomena conventional scientists didn’t condone, if both Jim and UCLA approved of what I was doing maybe it had some merit.” (Pg. 33)
She pursued Kirlian photography: “At the lab, wanting to prove myself to Thelma, I set to work determined that the plant project be perfect… [I] became frustrated with my inability to duplicate the ‘phantom-leaf effect’ that Thelma has reported in her research… Thelma said that some people just had a knack for it, that the phantom leaf had less to do with the photographic apparatus of the actual leaf than it did with some aspect of the photographer.” (Pg. 46-48)
Later, “I was astonished … by the fact that others in life-threatening situations had been to the tunnel… I believed I had stumbled on a great secret: Having met death dead on and survived, I had glimpsed what the other side looked and felt like. I now had a sense of myself as a pioneer, bearing testimony to the tangible link between life and death… I began to look at life with a broader viewpoint. I saw that human beings were blessed with gifts that I never dreamed possible. Psychic ability was only one of them. I was no longer willing to limit myself or to buy into other people’s notions of my capabilities.” (Pg. 57-58)
But when serving her internship, “I chose not to speak about this part of my being. And though it may have seemed remote from me, it wasn’t gone. Still alive, my spirituality was in a secret place that no one else could touch.” (Pg. 78)
Later, however, she joined a psychic research project aboard a ship to study remote viewing: “Heading home, we all viewed our experiment with enormous elation. Our aim had been to conduct a psychic archaeology project. We had succeeded in this, confirming the practical uses of remote viewing by psychically locating eighteen ships… Having glimpsed a great mystery… I realized that we were just at the first stages of learning how to work with our intuitive side… I was now ready to begin a new phase in my work.” (Pg. 117-118)
She summarizes, “My aim is to teach patients to care for themselves and others, to find their own resources to heal. Contacting this love, discovering how to be compassionate, is the essence, an attitude about life that can be conveyed through touch… But, always, we first have to find that love in ourselves.” (Pg. 137)
She suggests, “Too many individuals have exploited the psychic as a means to control or manipulate, or for greed… the psychic must be redefined in human terms. It allows us to connect with one another more deeply… to join together as a collective force. Old stereotypes of psychics need to be left behind… At first it may be disconcerting to discover that we are vaster and more cap0able than we had ever imagined… The purpose of cultivating ourselves psychically is to open. And then to open even more. With prescience, we come to know ourselves well, become more sensitive to friends and family.” (Pg. 187)
She observes, “What has drawn me most to the psychic is its mystery. Ever changing and often elusive, the better I come to understand it the more there is to learn. The same is true of meditation, altar, ritual, and prayer. These aren’t static techniques. Their power is fluid, transparent, always offering us something new. Windows through which we can glimpse truths, they reveal psychic knowledge.” (Pg. 202-203)
She states, “The psychic may touch your life dramatically, though more often in so mundane a fashion that such simplicity may cause you to overlook it. You can write off some instances as chance collisions of people, places, and time. But suppose you alter your focus a bit. Suppose you view such random-seeming occurrences---known as synchronicities---as inspired coincidences, signs that something other than the haphazard is at work. There is a magic in doing this, an acknowledgement that a greater force is moving through our lives, linking us all together.” (Pg. 251)
She says, “To use clairvoyance you must recognize your capabilities and limitations. Although clairvoyance is not an… infallible instrument, it does offer you a more penetrating vision, a chance to make smarter choices, to respond more sensitively to others.” (Pg. 276) She adds, “The psychic needs to be neither exaggerated nor diminished, but rather recast in the context of the modern world so that we may integrate it. We must recognize it in the much-discounted miracles of simple things in our daily life. Then a marriage between the mystical and the ordinary will … once again exist…” (Pg. 284)
She summarizes, “To be psychic means to much more than being able to see into the future. It can be out entry into a full-bodied spiritual life, where love abides and everything has a purpose… Every step of the spiritual journey … leads us closer to the intuitive wisdom of our hearts and to love. We can’t help but grow stronger.” (Pg. 331) Later, she adds, “For me, the beauty of being psychic is moving closer to the wisdom of our own hearts. Though it can be simply a means of information gathering, I’ve found its highest value is in penetrating the layers of reality that reveal the interconnectedness of all things. My hope is that by turning inward by pursuing a psychic path, you begin to feel a connection with yourself, with others and with the world around you, but most important with spirit… At last we’ve come home.” (Pg. 360-361)
This book will appeal to those seeking integration of psychology and spirituality.
Author Judith Orloff told in the Prologue of this 1996 book of a premonition she had of a patient of a patient of hers committing suicide: “the next time I saw her she was hooked up to life support… By discounting my premonition, I had betrayed both Christine and myself… During my medical training I had opted to trust the scientific method above my intuition, which seemed inexact and undependable in comparison… The truth of my premonition both validated and terrified me… I realized that as a responsible physician I could no longer dismiss information simply because it came to me in forms traditional medicine had not yet accepted. There had to be a way to integrate the psychic into mainstream medicine. When brought together, each could enhance the other and become more powerful than either was alone… From this experience, I understood that I had to reopen a part of myself that long ago had shut down---no matter how much it frightened me… For years, though I fought it, I knew that something set me apart from others, as if I were guided by a different rhythm, a different truth. Now… I could see that a series of unusual and, to me, unexplainable events had set the stage.” (Pg. xvi-xviii)
In the first chapter, she recounts that as a high school student, she had frightening premonitions, began experimenting with drugs, and entered therapy with a neighbor named Jim, who “suggested I meet Dr. Thelma Moss, a psychologist and psychic researcher at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute [UCLA] who specialized in the study of paranormal phenomena.” (Pg. 22) “Though it had now been years since my parents and I discussed my premonitions, it seemed that this aspect of my life, under the auspices of [UCLA]… wasn’t as untenable to them. Although I was studying phenomena conventional scientists didn’t condone, if both Jim and UCLA approved of what I was doing maybe it had some merit.” (Pg. 33)
She pursued Kirlian photography: “At the lab, wanting to prove myself to Thelma, I set to work determined that the plant project be perfect… [I] became frustrated with my inability to duplicate the ‘phantom-leaf effect’ that Thelma has reported in her research… Thelma said that some people just had a knack for it, that the phantom leaf had less to do with the photographic apparatus of the actual leaf than it did with some aspect of the photographer.” (Pg. 46-48)
Later, “I was astonished … by the fact that others in life-threatening situations had been to the tunnel… I believed I had stumbled on a great secret: Having met death dead on and survived, I had glimpsed what the other side looked and felt like. I now had a sense of myself as a pioneer, bearing testimony to the tangible link between life and death… I began to look at life with a broader viewpoint. I saw that human beings were blessed with gifts that I never dreamed possible. Psychic ability was only one of them. I was no longer willing to limit myself or to buy into other people’s notions of my capabilities.” (Pg. 57-58)
But when serving her internship, “I chose not to speak about this part of my being. And though it may have seemed remote from me, it wasn’t gone. Still alive, my spirituality was in a secret place that no one else could touch.” (Pg. 78)
Later, however, she joined a psychic research project aboard a ship to study remote viewing: “Heading home, we all viewed our experiment with enormous elation. Our aim had been to conduct a psychic archaeology project. We had succeeded in this, confirming the practical uses of remote viewing by psychically locating eighteen ships… Having glimpsed a great mystery… I realized that we were just at the first stages of learning how to work with our intuitive side… I was now ready to begin a new phase in my work.” (Pg. 117-118)
She summarizes, “My aim is to teach patients to care for themselves and others, to find their own resources to heal. Contacting this love, discovering how to be compassionate, is the essence, an attitude about life that can be conveyed through touch… But, always, we first have to find that love in ourselves.” (Pg. 137)
She suggests, “Too many individuals have exploited the psychic as a means to control or manipulate, or for greed… the psychic must be redefined in human terms. It allows us to connect with one another more deeply… to join together as a collective force. Old stereotypes of psychics need to be left behind… At first it may be disconcerting to discover that we are vaster and more cap0able than we had ever imagined… The purpose of cultivating ourselves psychically is to open. And then to open even more. With prescience, we come to know ourselves well, become more sensitive to friends and family.” (Pg. 187)
She observes, “What has drawn me most to the psychic is its mystery. Ever changing and often elusive, the better I come to understand it the more there is to learn. The same is true of meditation, altar, ritual, and prayer. These aren’t static techniques. Their power is fluid, transparent, always offering us something new. Windows through which we can glimpse truths, they reveal psychic knowledge.” (Pg. 202-203)
She states, “The psychic may touch your life dramatically, though more often in so mundane a fashion that such simplicity may cause you to overlook it. You can write off some instances as chance collisions of people, places, and time. But suppose you alter your focus a bit. Suppose you view such random-seeming occurrences---known as synchronicities---as inspired coincidences, signs that something other than the haphazard is at work. There is a magic in doing this, an acknowledgement that a greater force is moving through our lives, linking us all together.” (Pg. 251)
She says, “To use clairvoyance you must recognize your capabilities and limitations. Although clairvoyance is not an… infallible instrument, it does offer you a more penetrating vision, a chance to make smarter choices, to respond more sensitively to others.” (Pg. 276) She adds, “The psychic needs to be neither exaggerated nor diminished, but rather recast in the context of the modern world so that we may integrate it. We must recognize it in the much-discounted miracles of simple things in our daily life. Then a marriage between the mystical and the ordinary will … once again exist…” (Pg. 284)
She summarizes, “To be psychic means to much more than being able to see into the future. It can be out entry into a full-bodied spiritual life, where love abides and everything has a purpose… Every step of the spiritual journey … leads us closer to the intuitive wisdom of our hearts and to love. We can’t help but grow stronger.” (Pg. 331) Later, she adds, “For me, the beauty of being psychic is moving closer to the wisdom of our own hearts. Though it can be simply a means of information gathering, I’ve found its highest value is in penetrating the layers of reality that reveal the interconnectedness of all things. My hope is that by turning inward by pursuing a psychic path, you begin to feel a connection with yourself, with others and with the world around you, but most important with spirit… At last we’ve come home.” (Pg. 360-361)
This book will appeal to those seeking integration of psychology and spirituality.
June 8, 2018
Nunca he estado tan inmerso en un libro. ¡Siento que acabo de sacudirme de un sueño que no tenía sentido (solo era realmente mi vida) para una nueva conciencia de posibilidades! Sentí que Judith me estaba hablando directamente, debido a que estaba relacionada con muchas de sus experiencias, pero también por su estilo de escritura conversacional, que disfruté mucho. En "Sexto Sentido", aprendí que los eventos de la infancia que nunca había entendido antes podrían, de hecho, estar relacionados con experiencias intuitivas / espirituales. Siento que mi vida acaba de dar vuelta la esquina y comencé un capítulo vital en mi búsqueda de "¿por qué estoy aquí?". Para comprender y apreciar que soy empático intuitivo, explica casi todo sobre mí personalmente. En mis carreras como RN y como psicoterapeuta, ahora sé que mis habilidades han sido verdaderamente parte de mi trabajo de curación y estoy más inspirado para desarrollar mi intuición profesional y personalmente. Finalmente soy libre de decir "SÍ, SOY intuitivo" sin miedo al ridículo, gracias a que ahora el Dr. Orloff es un marco de referencia respetado para colegas y clientes. Mientras solía reírse cada vez que escuchaba "¿eres psíquico o algo así?" Ahora tengo el coraje de responder afirmativamente. Gracias, Dr. Orloff, por arriesgar su propia credibilidad para que otros puedan honrar y desarrollar sus habilidades intuitivas. Estoy entusiasmado de profundizar en todos sus libros y los recomendaré e integraré en mi trabajo y con mi familia y amigos. No es exagerado reconocer que su trabajo salva vidas, impactando profundamente tanto en las profundidades como en los métodos de curación de vidas.
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May 17, 2010I interviewed Dr. Orloff in April 2010 shortly after the release of Second Sight for The Infinite Field Magazine & Infinite Field TV. One of the most beautiful gifts that I received from reading this book was my new openness which I now refer to as "Welcoming Intuition". For most of my life, I have run from the intuitive whispers inside listening only when I was in a crisis or desperately needed a miracle. While listening to Dr. Orloff as I interviewed her and while reading Second Sight, I experienced a peaceful conscious shift which now allows me to welcome these "whispers" from the Universe God and incorporate them into my daily life. I can now call on insight to be a normal part of my everyday activity without reservation or hesitation. This is truly the jewel which is available to the reader....the gift of opening themselves to the realm of Spirit where all the wisdom of the ages is available. As Dr. Orloff shares her own journey and experiences with Second Sight, the reader can find comfort and celebration in their own unique gift while connecting with the Second Sight community that is as vast as the ocean and sky. Synolve Craft, CEO of The Infinite Field & Editor-In-Chief of The Infinite Field Magazine (Visit us at http://theinfintiefieldmagazine.com. To read other book reviews by Synolve click The Spiritual BookShelf on the magazine's website.)
March 20, 2018
I read this book back in 1997 when it first came out and it was amazing. I see that there is a new edition now and I think I would like to read it as it is updated with tips to tap into your own inner wisdom. Since that first book Dr. Judith has become known for her mix of disciplines which was quite controversial back in the 90s. I believe she was one of the first to write about experience of learning to recognize and accept her gift of intuition and how she incorporated it into her professional practice as a psychiatrist. This was a groundbreaking book and I was so fortunate to come across it all those years ago, I do believe I will now go back for another updated scoop of Dr. Judith.
August 26, 2013
I was energized and warmed by this book! A troubled girl makes her way through medical school and then back to herself as a medium. After years of struggle and study, she finds her true path as a healer working to help people find their own healing and their own answers and connections.
Orloff also offers guidance and encouragement in readers finding their own meditation practice, use of intuition and dreams to answer their own questions and satisfy their own longings, and losses.
Orloff also offers guidance and encouragement in readers finding their own meditation practice, use of intuition and dreams to answer their own questions and satisfy their own longings, and losses.
June 15, 2017
A well-written description of an intensely personal and spiritual journey
I enjoyed Dr. Orloff's book about combining psychic and scientific ways of thinking. The book is beautifully written and talks about ways to live a more-fulfilled and spiritual life. Dr. Orloff describes ways to balance all the parts of our natures, using our minds, our spirits and our bodies to heal ourselves and the world at large.
I enjoyed Dr. Orloff's book about combining psychic and scientific ways of thinking. The book is beautifully written and talks about ways to live a more-fulfilled and spiritual life. Dr. Orloff describes ways to balance all the parts of our natures, using our minds, our spirits and our bodies to heal ourselves and the world at large.
September 18, 2018
Wow! This book is a clearing, an offering of hope for those wild souls trying to live in a world crafted by rules and bound by apparent reality. I loved Judith Orloff's Guide for the Highly Sensitive Person and was drawn to read this book. Her story will leave you speechless but as an intuitive empath, avid dreamer, and meditator, I know she speaks truth. The question is, are you open to listen?
January 21, 2019
Very interesting
I would recommend this book to anyone who works in service professions, especially medicine and realizes the limits of sanctioned ‘help’ we are allowed to provide. This is so expansive and clearly demonstrates the intuitive aspects of healing and relationships which have long been ignored. Engaging and articulate, Orloff is very relatable.
I would recommend this book to anyone who works in service professions, especially medicine and realizes the limits of sanctioned ‘help’ we are allowed to provide. This is so expansive and clearly demonstrates the intuitive aspects of healing and relationships which have long been ignored. Engaging and articulate, Orloff is very relatable.
February 11, 2016
Loved Second Sight! What I loved most is that the author is both a psychiatrist and a psychic, which is an extremely tricky balancing act because most psychic phenomena is considered a mental disorder in her field. Very useful tips for developing your intuition. Highly recommended.
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