ABSTRACT
Second sight is the name of a special psychic ability which is believed to be an inborn natural faculty of mind. There has been a long tradition of second sight, especially in the Highlands and Western Isles of Scotland, but it is also known to be experienced in other parts of the United Kingdom as well as in other cultures. In 1996, Cohn used a multidisciplinary approach to study second sight, applying methods from ethnology, parapsychology and human genetics. Sceptics regard second sight experiences as hallucinations, with any correspondence to real-world events being attributable to coincidence or rational inference. Experiences of second sight today may differ little from those of the seventeenth century. Whether they are examples of remarkable coincidences or instances of 'psychic' communication, they have a meaningful and often transformative effect on the lives of the people who have them. Second sight experiences offer a window into the nature of mind and its exceptional abilities.
