Your Sixth Sense: Unlocking the Power of Your Inutition

by Belleruth Naparstek

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New York: HarperSanFrancisco 1997 225 pp 20pp notes and resources $10.40

Belleruth Naparstek supplemented her own considerable experience and wisdom in intuitive assessments by surveying 43 other intuitives who are highly recommended by people who know their work. She carefully considers their individual and collective observations and recommendations, distilling common denominators in the development and use of intuitive assessment and counseling.

A composite picture might look like this: A woman with an advanced degree in one of the mental health professions who would say she was born with her psychic ability and could likely point to a parent or grandparent who displayed a lot of it, too.

Other typical features would be a tendency toward bilateral dominance (some degree of two-handedness or two-sidedness as opposed to leading strictly with the right or left sides); a stronger-than-average likelihood of being an only child; the presence of some talent and experience in the arts, often more than one modality (music, dance, art, theater, poetry, design, and so on); a tendency to be either a little dyslexic or else an exceptional student and sometimes both (with greater-than-usual chance of having a photographic memory, too); lots of experience as a meditator; a powerful need to spend time alone and time in nature on a regular basis; a higher-than-average likelihood of finding broken watches, light bulbs, and small appliances in her proximity; at least at certain periods in her life; a tendency to experience phases of temporary endocrine system dysfunction. . . to be a night owl and sleep very little, with frequent interruptions in sleep. . .

Belleruth discusses all of these factors and much more, explaining how intuitive counselors work, how they can help, and how people consulting them can benefit from their inputs. Cautions are also explored in selecting an intuitive and in utilizing their advice.

She distinguishes three levels of intuition:

1. "The knowledge that comes from experience. . . is the product of logical thinking that has simply become quick and automatic. It's cause-and-effect common sense, accelerated by repetition. . . "

2. "Intuition. . . has nothing to do with logic, although it can certainly work in harmony with it. Intuitive knowing brings through the normal, sensory channels information that by all accounts we aren't supposed to be getting because it's about someone or something other than us. It's as though our personal boundaries were extended over more territory than just our own skins, and so we pick up data from the environment as if it were about us. . . It's our same old senses, just stretched over a larger terrain."

3. [P]sychic information is a sudden, cognitive pop, an instantaneous awareness of a whole idea, sometimes a whole set of ideas or a complete conceptual system, that bypasses anything we would consider to be the normal process of thinking. These pops - sometimes instantly apprehended, sometimes first spoken aloud and later understood - will later strike us as odd, although at the time that they are popping, they feel perfectly normal and natural. They are the stuff that has us asking, 'Where on Earth did that come from?' "

This reviewer has a hard time distinguishing between types 2 and 3 in the same way as Belleruth does, as discussed in the editorial of this issue of IJHC.

Belleruth teaches how to develop your own intuition. Her approach is through opening your heart to resonate with the person you are reading. Several meditative instructions are provided for programming your mind to open to intuitive perceptions.

A list of recommended intuitives is provided.

Missing is a complete list of the intuitives who were surveyed, though many are mentioned as they are quoted in the book. An index would also have been a help.

This book is highly recommended for anyone interested in learning more about intuitive counseling.

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