First Intelligence
Using the Science & Spirit of Intuition
By Simone Wright
New World Library

A few decades ago, mind-reading and precognition were hailed as lofty powers, possessed from birth only by a select psychic elite.

But in our inclusive, spiritually mobile, spectrum-spanning era, these skills have been renamed “intuition” and are seen in some circles as attainable by anyone. A comprehensive DIY guide from the professional intuitive Simone Wright affirms the egalitarian view that, with practice, we can all become clairvoyant, clairaudient, and even clairgustient—able to “taste” others’ energy—just as anyone can learn to ski.

Wright packs this manual with well-considered, clearly explained, enriching, and rewarding exercises that can expand the subtle sensitivities by which more of this world is “seen” than meets the naked eye. By tapping into desire, choice, empathy, instinct, and other underutilized human capacities as Wright expertly instructs, we can—visualization by visualization, tingle by tingle—bolster our natural knack for what she calls “remembering the future.”

Fair warning: If  The Secret’s invocations of quantum physics irked you, then Wright’s emphasis on molecules, polarities, magnetic fields, “electromagnetic fingerprints,” and “quantum DNA” might send you screaming for a crystal ball—or skimming through the book to focus on its meaty, eminently useful exercises.

This urgency to scientize intuition is another 21st-century trend: understandable, given the mockery endured by believers in magic. But need we really render wonders of the heart and soul as academic and explicable as novocaine and steel? Whom are we aiming to convince?