The Insightful Dr. Judith Orloff

Judith Orloff, M.D is the author of the newly updated bestseller SECOND SIGHT, an inspiring and controversial memoir about coming to terms with her intuitive gifts.

OMTimes Magazine Exclusive Interview with Judith Orloff MD

Welcome, Judith! Congratulations on your book, Second Sight! I would like to begin by thanking you for all your wonderful contributions to OM Times Magazine and by expressing our Gratitude to you for being a regular contributing columnist here. And, of course, for this exclusive interview.

Let’s talk about your book.

Christopher: Why did you write Second Sight? Is there a particular area you hope to help or inspire, your readers with?

Judith Orloff: Second Sight was very cathartic for me as it recounts my “journey to become whole” by first accepting and then embracing my intuitive abilities. As a child, my vivid dreams and intuitions were whispered about behind closed doors. As a medical student, I denied the “shameful secret” by immersing myself in the absolutes of science. Then as a psychiatrist, I received proof of the value of my gift when an intuition foretold a patient’s suicide attempt. It is my hope that through my story others will learn how to awaken their own intuition and recognize how it can help them with everyday life. One thing I’m certain of: if you follow your intuitive voice, you can’t go wrong. Stay true to it. Intuition is about empowerment, not having to conform to someone else’s notion of who you should be. It’s about being true to yourself, and all the goodness that comes from that.

Christopher: In the first part of your book, you talk about your early life and discuss your struggles as a child to embrace your intuitive side. As an engineer, I have had a hard time learning to trust my feelings over my “knowledge”. What is your advice based on your experiences? How do I learn to balance my intuitive and rational sides?

Judith Orloff: Realize that to be whole you must balance both sides. The intellect is fantastic for analyzing facts, but it is limited. It can’t understand love, death or travel in the unseen realms as intuition can. In Second Sight I stress that I always tune into my intuition first, then see what my analytic mind has to say about it. I trust my gut and visions above all else.

Christopher: Have you always integrated intuition into your medical practice, or has it been a gradual process during your professional life? Will you share an example of how your intuition led to a more complete Healing for a patient?

Judith Orloff: As I mentioned in Second Sight during my medical training I strayed far from the intuitive world. When I opened my Los Angeles psychiatric practice in 1983, I had every intention of it being traditional; I’d use medications, psychotherapy, but I didn’t intend for intuition to play a role. My practice was extremely successful. Since I was a workaholic and also loved helping people, I had twelve hour days, though very little personal life. But then I had a heart-wrenching wake-up call that changed everything. It was an intuition that a patient, on antidepressants, was going to make a suicide attempt. Because she was doing so well–nothing supported my hunch–I dismissed it. Within a week she overdosed on the antidepressants I’d prescribed and ended up in a coma for nearly a month. (Had she not survived I would’ve been devastated.) The hardest part, though, was that I thought I’d harmed her by not utilizing a vital piece of intuitive information. This was intolerable for me. From then on, I knew, as a responsible physician, I had to integrate my intuitions into my work.

Christopher: In the second half of Second Sight, you give techniques for the reader to develop their own intuition. How do dreams figure into this?

Judith Orloff: For me, dreaming is a direct line to a place where magic abounds and nothing is without meaning. It is a pristine state of awareness, unpolluted and clear. Direct guidance for healing lies in our dreams, the natural territory of intuition. Here, time and space are non-existent and anything is possible. Like a blank, white canvas, our dream world is a spacious medium where intuition can freely express itself. We have only to listen.

You are in partnership with your dreams. Initiate an ongoing dialogue with them. It’s like consulting the wisest doctor you can imagine who knows you inside out. You can ask your dreams anything. No question is trivial if it is meaningful

Christopher: I used to think my dreams were just the result of extra toppings on my pizza, but I am trying to pay more attention to them and not let them slip away with the dawn. How can I retain more of my dreams and how do I learn to understand and apply them?

Judith Orloff: Here are my four strategies to help you remember your dreams:

Keep a journal and pen by your bed.
Write a question on a piece of paper before you go to sleep. Formalize your request. Place it on a table beside your bed or under your pillow.
In the morning do not wake up too fast. Stay under the covers for at least a few minutes remembering your dream. Luxuriate in a peaceful feeling between sleep and waking, what scientists call the hypnagogic state. Those initial moments provide a doorway.
Open your eyes. Write down your dream immediately; otherwise, it will evaporate. You may recall a face, object, color, or scenario, feel an emotion. It doesn’t matter if it makes perfect sense-or if you retrieve a single image or many. Record everything you remember.

Reliable intuitive information stands out in very specific ways. Watch for these clues:

Statements that simply convey information
Neutral segments that evoke or convey no emotion
A detached feeling, like you are a witness watching a scene
A voice or person counseling you, as if you’re taking dictation from an outside source
Conversations with people you never met before who give instructions.

I’ve found that my most dead-on intuitions either come across as compassionate or have no emotion at all. Develop a careful eye as you practice separating the content of your dreams from your reactions to it. Soon you’ll be able to tell the difference between unreliable guidance and truly reliable guidance.

Christopher: You write about how people can use intuition to communicate with people who have transitioned from this life. Will you please elucidate on this?

Judith Orloff: Yes, if you get very quiet and tune into your heart you can expand your consciousness to reach over to the other side. It’s not really that hard. You just have to believe it’s possible and practice. Focus on the person you’d like to communicate with who has passed over, and request inwardly that they come forth. Then be open to any impressions, visions, knowings or messages that come through. But do this all from a heart-centered, loving place. That increases the power of Second Sight.

Christopher: Here is a broad-ranging question for you…are there any other suggestions you have for developing intuition? Besides “read the book”?

Judith Orloff: I discuss many techniques to develop your intuition in Second Sight. Some of the ways that you can do this are to be aware of any gut feelings, a hunch, a physical sensation, a snapshot-like flash, or a dream. Here are some other tips:

Practice Anonymous Service. Do something nice for someone without taking credit for it. The act of giving–especially when you’re most frazzled–opens your heart, is regenerative.
Spend Time in Nature. As poet William Wordsworth put it, civilization can be “too much with us.” People, cars, the news, telephone cables matting the sky, all can keep us from our bodies, divorce us from what is natural. Regularly take at least a few hours out from your routine. Visit the beach, a forest, a canyon, a river. Choose a spot that moves you.
Meditate. Sitting in meditation is a life-line to your center, to the earth. By calming the mind, you can re-align with your essence. Close your eyes. Focus on your breath. Then gently extend your awareness downward to strata, bedrock, minerals, and soil. From the base of your spine begin to feel a continuity with the earth’s core. Picture having a long tail that roots in that center. Allow the earth’s energy to infuse your body and stabilize you. If you meditate for five minutes or an hour this is a sacred time.
Listen To Your Dreams. Intuition is the language of dreams. Every ninety minutes each night during the REM stage of sleep, we dream. Dreams provide answers about health, relationships, career choices, any new direction.

Christopher: Before I let you go…would it be a “spoiler” for the book to ask about the family secrets pertaining to your intuitive past that your mother told you on her death bed?

Judith Orloff: On my mother’s deathbed, she decided to tell me our “family secrets.” She told me, “I want to pass the power onto you.” I was astounded to learn that I came from a lineage of intuitive healers on her side of the family–my Jewish grandmother who did laying on of hands in a shed behind the pharmacy she and Grandpop ran in Philadelphia. East coast aunts and cousins I’d never met since I grew up in California. Also, my mother, herself, had a strong inner voice which told her how to treat patients for over forty years. She’d listened to this voice and secretly used her innate healing powers to keep her lymphoma in remission for many years. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked her. She said simply, “I wanted you to lead a normal, happy life, not to be thought of as weird like your grandmother was.” I’ll always be grateful for what she shared, but, still… she’d waited so long. Even so, I believe in the wisdom of the paths we’ve been given. Mine has been to fight for what I believed in despite what my parents or anyone said. An invaluable but rugged lesson in empowerment.

Christopher: Thank you again, Judith! I know our extended family at OM Times will enjoy this interview as much as I have. I wish you every success with Second Sight!

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About Judith Orloff MD

Judith Orloff, M.D is the author of the new updated bestseller SECOND SIGHT, an inspiring and controversial memoir about coming to terms with her intuitive gifts, upon which this article is based. Her other books are Emotional Freedom, Guide to Intuitive Healing, and Positive Energy. She is an assistant clinical professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and an international workshop leader. For more information about the new updated edition of Second Sight and Dr. Orloff’s books and workshops visit www.drjudithorloff.com