Second Sight

For the first time Dr. Judith Orloff, a prominent psychiatrist and psychic, tells her story in this compelling and revelatory book: a study of one woman in exile between two worlds - the psychic and the everyday - and her courageous battle to embrace the gift of Second Sight. "Don't tell anyone about your predictions, " her mother, a respected Beverly Hills physician, had cautioned a young Judith. "They'll think you're strange." For years she complied, keeping to herself what she came to regard as a shameful secret. Fearing there was something wrong with her, she fought to repress her abilities until an ignored premonition of a patient's suicide attempt at last gave her personal proof of the value and integrity of her gift. Though tragic, this event helped her realize that she could use this psychic ability as a powerful tool to heal. Of course, when a board-certified physician professes to have psychic abilities that invaluably aid her work, she is as close to heresy as you can come in Western culture. In mainstream medical circles, claims of "clairvoyance, telepathy, or sixth sense" are indications of mental disorder. Second Sight is thus the remarkable story of Dr. Judith Orloff's journey from a gifted child, alone with abilities she didn't understand, to an esteemed psychiatrist and psychic who dares to defy medical taboos. By publicly expressing her clairvoyance, she has taken the risk of being a forerunner of a new millennium in patient care.