SML: What is the subtle energy referred to in step three?

Dr. Orloff: In addition to flesh and blood, our bodies are made up of energy fields that penetrate through the body and beyond it. When you're sensitive you can feel them projecting many feet outside the body. Hindu mystics call it shakti, Chinese medical practitioners call it chi. It is the same energy we understand as chakras. Some people have the ability to see it, others may feel it instead. When a lot of people get together, their energy fields combine which can be quite overwhelming if you don't know how to work with it. Children are especially sensitive to this energy. When I was a little girl, for instance, I couldn't go into shopping malls without coming out feeling exhausted. At that time I didn't understand what was going on. Now I know I'm what is called an intuitive empath. A lot of people are but they don't know it. As part of my workshops I teach people how to deal with subtle energy because so many are burdened by it. People in health care get burned out by their patients; agoraphobics can't go outside because they don't know how to process this subtle energy.

SML: Can you explain how to ask for inner guidance, step four?

Dr. Orloff: Most people don't know how to go inside and ask because they don't believe there's anything in there. So when a patient comes to me, my first task is to help them find something inside. I do this by gradually desensitizing them to the silence through meditation. People are very frightened of silence; they have misconceptions about it, and are unable to stay with it, but they must. If you want to find your intuitive voice you have to be quiet. You can ask for inner guidance for any kind of problem: a relationship, if you're thinking about going into business, if you're faced with difficult choices about healing such as chemotherapy or radiation treatment. All of these practical issues can benefit from asking for inner guidance. It's a way of correlating the external world of business forecasts or doctors' opinions with what's inside.

SML: How do we tell that voice from all the other voices in there?

Dr. Orloff: There are a couple of ways. In my experience the intuitive voice comes through either as a neutral voice with information or as compassion. I question anything that comes through as fearful or that's too emotionally charged. I encourage people to keep journals about their intuitions and about their dreams. I've had premonitory intuitions or dreams that have come true in the next week or next year or even ten years later. With intuitive work it's critical to get feedback to see where you're accurate and where you're not.

SML: In my life I pay attention to signs or messages from nature when I'm unsure of what I'm doing or if I'm getting advice that doesn't sound right. A kind of communication happens. I see or hear the sign, like a sudden bird song or a cloud formation that is full of meaning and I just know what I see is the answer. And then I have to trust it of course.

Dr. Orloff: The hero's path is trusting it. So many people get signals like you describe and think it's weird or don't believe it. Great violence is done to the human soul when these signs or communications aren't acknowledged. It takes a strong belief to follow them independent of what others are saying and I know it's hard. I went through so many years of not trusting in my own life. I learned that nothing good ever comes from it. You have to learn to trust.

SML: I think once you know what it feels like to trust your inner knowing you never forget it and you can come back to it, compare this knowing to that one.

Dr. Orloff: That's the point. Once you have it, you can recognize it. It becomes real and you get stronger in your belief. For instance, with health problems the doctors could be saying one thing but you feel what they're telling you isn't right. You need the courage to believe in yourself. It's important to get into the habit of asking, "What should I do here?" and then listening -- not thinking or analyzing --just listening for what comes. Bringing intuition into a crisis situation gives you an organic link with what to do. It's important to get used to asking for inner guidance so that in times of crisis you'll have something to turn to.

SML: The last step, listening to your dreams, sounds so easy but sometimes they just don't come.

Dr. Orloff: And you can't force them. That's why I suggest people keep a dream journal next to the bed. It's also important not to wake up too quickly in the morning. You need to lay there for maybe five minutes just luxuriating between sleep and waking.

SML: How does an alarm clock fit into that?

Dr. Orloff: It destroys it.

SML: But most of us need to get up to an alarm clock on work days, at least.

Dr. Orloff: Allow enough time to put the alarm on snooze control for five minutes. Whatever you retrieve is vital. A lot of people dream metaphorically so those can be hard to interpret. If there's an emergency situation you can specify before you go to sleep, "Please give this to me in simple language so I know what to do". You can develop a dialog with the dream world.

SML: Does this take time?

Dr. Orloff: Yes.