Second Sight: A Study of Natural and Induced Clairvoyance by Sepharial — Summary & Review

Second Sight: A Study of Natural and Induced Clairvoyance by Sepharial offers a thoughtful introduction to the phenomenon of clairvoyance, blending personal experience, scientific ideas, and occult traditions. The author begins by challenging the limits of ordinary senses and presenting psychic senses as real but often overlooked faculties. Through examples like Swedenborg’s vision of a distant fire and a lady’s detailed clairvoyant sight, Sepharial illustrates how clairvoyance can manifest as either direct, literal visions or symbolic, ideographic impressions that require interpretation.

The book explores the physical and mental conditions that influence clairvoyance, including health, diet, and the interplay between brain and lung function. It distinguishes two main seer temperaments: positive (nervous, active) seers who project symbolic images consciously, and passive (lymphatic, receptive) seers who receive literal visions effortlessly. The author emphasizes that clairvoyance is a normal, educable faculty rather than a supernatural gift, but it requires patience, mental stability, self-possession, and integrity. Vanity and frivolity are warned against as harmful to genuine psychical research.

Sepharial discusses the role of materials—especially crystals and black concave mirrors—as aids in inducing a waking trance conducive to clairvoyance. These materials, believed to retain mental images like photographic film, can help awaken latent psychic faculties when used under proper conditions: quiet rooms, consistent settings, sympathetic company, and regular short sittings. The author also notes environmental factors such as basaltic localities and moonlight that may enhance psychic sensitivity.

The book delves into the symbolic language of visions, comparing it to dream symbolism and historical alphabets, and stresses the personal nature of interpretation. Symbols like the foot, mouth, sun, or ship carry multiple layers of meaning depending on the seer’s temperament, experience, and spiritual context. This complexity demands patience and discernment, as misinterpretation is a common obstacle.

Beyond clairvoyance, Sepharial surveys related psychic phenomena including psychometry (the sensing of stored impressions in matter), clairaudience (hearing intelligible phrases unknown to the conscious mind), telepathy (transmission of feelings or information between sympathetic individuals), and dowsing (psychic water-finding). He recounts personal and documented cases where these faculties have predicted births, accidents, or revealed hidden information.

The author is careful to distinguish genuine psychic experiences from brain-cell discharges or hallucinations and warns of possible mental disturbances during early psychic development, such as irritability or eccentricity. He encourages aspirants to accept their nature, persevere patiently, and approach their practice with seriousness and love of truth.

Throughout, Sepharial maintains a respectful, measured tone, balancing scientific inquiry, occult philosophy, and personal insight. He neither claims to prove a definitive theory nor dismisses uncertainties about mechanisms, instead inviting readers to consider psychic faculties as part of human evolution and spiritual growth. The book closes with a hopeful invitation to explore these faculties cautiously, recognizing their potential and responsibilities.