Praise for Sensitive Soul:
The Unseen Role of Emotion in Extraordinary States
“Cosmologists tell us that the vast majority of the universe consists of dark matter and energy, “dark” because we cannot observe them, but they are vital to how the universe works. Michael Jawer reminds us that the same is true of our personal universe – we, too, are permeated with forces that we cannot directly observe, but are vital to how we work. Sensitive Soul is a fascinating tour of the hidden influences that make us who we are, and that hold the clues to some truly extraordinary abilities.”
Dean Radin, PhD, Chief Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, president of the Parapsychological Association, and author of Entangled Minds, Supernormal, The Conscious Universe, and Real Magic
“Intriguing, illuminating and arresting, Sensitive Soul offers a powerful and thought-provoking synthesis of science and story. Michael Jawer opens new possibilities for expanding our compassion and understanding for both human and animal senses and spirit.”
Sy Montgomery, New York Times best-selling author of the acclaimed Soul of an Octopus and 10 other books exploring the lives of animals
“Sensitive Soul makes a beautiful, evidence-based case for living a life of wonder and curiosity. You will never see people and nature in the same way again.”
Scott Barry Kaufman, PhD, author of Transcend and Wired to Create, and Scientific American’s “Beautiful Minds” blogger
“Sensitive Soul is a path breaking work of synthesis, showing us that emotion is a common source of explanation for some of the great puzzles of our lives and the lives of those with whom we share the biosphere. Drawing from research across the sciences, supported by compelling anecdotes and thoughtful speculation, this work deserves to be taken most seriously.”
David Henry Feldman, PhD, Eliot-Pearson Professor of Human Development at Tufts University, President of the Society for the Study of Human Development, and author of Nature’s Gambit and Changing the World: A Framework for the Study of Creativity
“Jawer brings together many accounts of non-human animal sensitivities, suggesting that a connection with emotion may help explain some puzzling anomalies. His provocative ideas will no doubt spur readers to think more about these questions.”
Jeffrey Masson, PhD, author of When Elephants Weep, Beasts, and 6 other books on the emotional lives of animals
“In Sensitive Soul, the insights of leading researchers and the accounts of highly sensitive individuals merge seamlessly, revealing human emotional biology as diverse, complex, and frequently uncanny. With his lively prose and intellectual curiosity, Michael Jawer has crafted a watershed volume on science, spirituality, and empathy.”
CC Hart, Secretary, International Association of Synesthetes, Artists, and Scientists
“Michael Jawer has added a brilliant fresh layer and lens to sensory research. His work on thin boundaries should inform all researchers in the space, particularly those looking at synesthesia.”
Maureen Seaberg, synesthete, Psychology Today’s “Sensorium” blogger, and author of the books Struck by Genius and Tasting the Universe
“In Sensitive Soul, Michael Jawer is onto something vitally important: the astonishing individuality with which we think, feel, and process information. Backed by meticulous documentation and excellent science, Jawer weaves new threads in the tapestry of what it means to be human.”
Larry Dossey, MD, executive editor of the Elsevier journal Explore and author of One Mind and ten other books
“In Sensitive Soul, Michael Jawer invites us to put aside our preconceptions and approach the world of unanticipated influences with a sense of wonder. He ties together research from seemingly disparate areas of study – from synesthesia to past-life memories to the feelings of pets – to demonstrate how emotion can align with sensitivity to unseen aspects of reality. The result is an important work filled with fresh insights.”
Jim B. Tucker, MD, Bonner-Lowry Professor of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, Director of UVa’s Division of Perceptual Studies and author, Life Before Life and Return to Life
“Drawing on the pioneering work of many scientists and scholars, Jawer explores the relation between self, body, mind, and spirit, enunciating a view that they are not separate but integrated. This book takes us to a deeper understanding of sentience in a nature and cosmos that evolved sentience.”
Michael Fox, BVetMed, PhD, author of the nationally syndicated column The Animal Doctor and the book Animals and Nature First
“Sensitive Soul brings to life a sense of wonder. By exploring the theme of emotional sensitivity through multiple lenses, Jawer paints a fuller picture of what it means to be human. He’s not afraid to tackle such unusual phenomena as near-death experiences, precognitive dreams and even reincarnation, relating them to the wide-ranging topics of autism, synesthesia, savantism, and interspecies compassion. He’s able to pull it off because the book is loaded with descriptive anecdotes and extensive citations of relevant research. Sensitive Soul is an invaluable resource for explorers of inner realms and I recommend it highly.”
Eric Leskowitz, MD, co-director, Integrative Health Initiative of the Spaulding Rehabilitation Network
“Jawer’s articulate writing, lucid descriptions, and remarkable case studies make this book not only a pleasure to read but a possible roadmap for people who always sensed that they lived in a different reality than their family and peers. Sensitive Soul’s compelling perspective will reassure emotionally sensitive people that they possess a gift, not a curse.”
Stanley Krippner, PhD, Fellow of the American Psychological Association, winner of the Distinguished Lifetime Contributions to Humanistic Psychology Award, and recipient of the APA Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology
“In this insightful and thought-provoking volume, Michael Jawer bridges the gap between clinical research on the human emotional landscape and the unquantifiable mysteries that lie beyond. Jawer includes the reader in his exploration of acute sensitivities and their underpinnings, and offers plausible explanations for experiences that verge on the paranormal. Fittingly, he asks more questions than can be answered – as one can only surmise at the depths and complexities of the human soul.”
Nick Jans, Alaska wildlife photographer, author of A Wolf Called Romeo and 11 other books
“A wonder-filled exploration of the sensations and feelings that pulse within and compose our bodies, shaping our individual styles of empathy. Wielding his words with care and craft, Jawer induces a lucid attunement to the uncanny emotional makeup of our shared world.”
David Abram, PhD, director of the Alliance for Wild Ethics, author of The Spell of the Sensuous and Becoming Animal
“This book takes up everything from ecology and child prodigies like Greta Thunberg, through children who manifest birthmarks indicative of a previous death, to the emotional, spiritual, and telepathic lives of cats, dogs, elephants, dolphins, and whales. What Jawer shows with such clarity is that the secret trigger to this hyper-connected cosmos is danger, distress, trauma, and, above all, embodied empathy, a kind of sixth sense that feels across space and time. Consciousness, it turns out, is not just conscious. It is sentient. In human terms, it is sympathetic, it cares, it loves. My response to this book was perfectly resonant with its extraordinary content and spirit. I wept. You will, too.”
Jeffrey J. Kripal, PhD, J. Newton Rayzor Professor of Philosophy and Religious Thought, Rice University; author of The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge and Authors of the Impossible: The Paranormal and the Sacred
“This is a remarkable, informative book. Michael Jawer has assembled a wealth of wisdom from science, anecdote, and personal experience into a rich tapestry, and presented it with an engaging, empathic voice. If you struggle with any number of psychological or physical ailments, or are just curious to learn how the body and mind work in concert, I urge you to travel with this sensitive soul as your guide.”
Jonathan Balcombe, PhD, author of What a Fish Knows and Pleasurable Kingdom
Praise for Your Emotional Type:
Key to the Therapies That Will Work for You
“Your Emotional Type is a very useful guide for anyone in search of therapies best suited to their bodymind type, their style of handing strong feelings, and the nature of their health problems. In particular, the thin-to-thick boundary scale—a unique window on personality type—offers a valuable framework for helping people choose among the array of complementary and alternative therapies.”
Deane Juhan, author of Job’s Body: A Handbook for Bodywork
“…a simple, practical, and useful guide to help doctors and their patients identify the major alternative therapies that will work best for each person.”
Kenneth Pelletier, PhD, MD, clinical professor of medicine, University of Arizona and University of California–San Francisco, and coauthor of New Medicine
“In a field that’s filled with self-help and therapy books, Your Emotional Type stands out as a special gift, succinct with great clarity and bringing to those in need a more direct and realistic route to their personal therapeutic salvation.”
The Amazing Kreskin
“Your Emotional Type, securely grounded in scientific research affirming the inseparable unity of mind and body, enables readers to understand how their own personalities may make them prone to a wide variety of health conditions, from chronic fatigue to hypertension, from migraine to fibromyalgia. Most helpfully, the authors guide people to the therapies most appropriate to each personality type. The book is empowering, helping us to become active agents in our healing rather than being simply the recipients of ‘cures’ from a medical approach that fails to recognize the uniqueness of individuals.”
Gabor Maté, MD, author of When The Body Says No: Exploring The Stress-Disease Connection
“Your Emotional Type may be the Rosetta Stone we’ve been waiting for – a code for matching a particular therapy to a particular patient. Micozzi and Jawer…have found gold.”
Larry Dossey, MD, executive editor of the Elsevier journal Explore, and author of Healing Words and The Power of Premonitions
“A much-needed guide to the fundamental connection between emotions and common physical and mental ailments—and what to do about them.”
Miriam Greenspan, author of Healing Through the Dark Emotions
“By helping patients understand the connection between their personality type, their symptoms, and treatment choices, Jawer and Micozzi help patients become more informed consumers of alternative health care.”
Ilene Serlin, PhD, Fellow of the American Psychological Association, past president of the APA’s Division of Humanistic Psychology, registered dance/movement therapist, and editor of Whole Person Healthcare
“Easy to read and articulate, Your Emotional Type could become an important and clinically useful work.”
Ernest Hartmann, MD, professor of psychiatry, Tufts University School of Medicine, and author of Boundaries: A New Way to Look at the World and Boundaries in the Mind: A New Psychology of Personality
“There is a ton of resources given so that it would be fairly easy to follow-up and find what is going to work best for you. This is a great handbook that will be useful to anyone working with chronic conditions. Perfect gift for therapists, physicians, body workers, and for people with various conditions.”
Review in the New Spirit Journal
“Your Emotional Type is a valuable contribution to the healing arts and self-care literature. Along with their previous book, The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion, it deserves a wide readership.”
Daniel Redwood, DC, editor-in-chief of Health Insights Today and founding editor of the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine
Praise for The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion:
How Feelings Link the Brain, the Body, and the Sixth Sense
“The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion is a landmark book that presents a picture of consciousness that is far more majestic than anything conceived in conventional neuroscience. Based in solid science, this bold effort will challenge anyone who reads it with an open mind. Highly recommended.”
Larry Dossey, MD, executive editor of the Elsevier journal Explore, and author of Recovering the Soul and Reinventing Medicine
“This new book is brilliant…comprehensive…holistic.”
Stanley Krippner, PhD, editor of Advances in Parapsychological Research and co-editor of The Varieties of Anomalous Experience
“The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion is truly connective, bridging the disciplines of biology, neurology, immunology, psychology, and spirituality. This is a book for the 21st century that will open and enlarge our minds, hearts, and spirits. I recommend it to anyone interested in expanding their thinking and their humanity.”
Miriam Greenspan, author of Healing Through the Dark Emotions
“Informative, provocative, profound.”
Joseph Chilton Pearce, author of The Crack in the Cosmic Egg, Magical Child, and The Biology of Transcendence
“An insightful exploration of the powerful capacities of the mind-body connection and its inherent link with perception.”
Andrew Weil, MD, author of Spontaneous Healing and Natural Health, Natural Medicine
“Jawer and Micozzi articulate one of the most profound understandings of consciousness since Descartes. The book brings Antonio Damasio’s ‘feeling brain’ into full embodiment. It is a monumental contribution to understanding ourselves as human beings.”
Allan Combs, PhD, author of The Radiance of Being
“The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion presents a unique and arresting view of such topics as mind, body, memory, illness, perception, and emotion. The authors show us an altogether novel way of understanding who we are and what we’re about. There’s more to being human than we ever imagined, and this book is an excellent roadmap for anyone who wants to take that journey.”
Eric Leskowitz, MD, department of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
“Jawer and Micozzi have collected a unique body of data on environmental sensitivity, which has great relevance to human health and psychology. They put together this data with original ideas on emotion very persuasively in The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion. I highly recommend this well-written and accessible book.”
Ernest Hartmann, MD, author of Dreams and Nightmares and Boundaries in the Mind, professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine, and past president of the Association for the Study of Dreams
“I agree completely with the thesis in The Spiritual Anatomy of Emotion from what I have observed in the many case reports we receive from the general public; from a monthly paranormal experience group at our center; and from my experience as a clinical psychologist.”
Sally Feather, PhD, director of research, Rhine Research Center
“…well written and is almost an encyclopedia of research on anomalous experiences, plus even more interesting science about trauma, emotions, electromagnetic energy, and the body/mind. You will learn a lot and enjoy it.”
Elaine Aron, PhD, author of The Highly Sensitive Person and The Highly Sensitive Child
“Jawer and Micozzi have come up with important findings that could open up a whole new field of research.”
Carlos Alvarado, PhD, assistant professor of research in psychiatric medicine, University of Virginia
“This book is particularly valuable for anyone who is especially sensitive to the environment (light, noise, smell, chemicals), since it puts those experiences in a new context and helps us understand the benefits and side effects of being unusually sensitive.”
Review in Townsend Letter, The Examiner of Alternative Medicine
“The paranormal is looked at in a completely fresh and new way, as a natural component to more creative, sensitive ways of relating. This book is a must for any counselor, therapist, or medical professional. For the rest of us, well, there are many surprises here.”
P.M.H. Atwater, author of The Big Book of Near-Death Experiences and Beyond the Light