A Still, Small Voice: A Psychic's Guide to Awakening Intuition [Paperback]

Echo Bodine (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 2001

In A Still, Small Voice, famed psychic Echo Bodine turns to a subject she knows deeply and is passionate about: intuition. Using humorous anecdotes and a positive, readable style, this sequel to Echoes of the Soul explores what intuition is, where it’s located, what it sounds like, and how to cultivate it. The author, who comes from a family of psychics, exposes the various internalized voices that can mask one’s intuition. These include the voices of parents, grandparents, peers, therapists, significant others, religious figures, and society, along with such emotions as anger, fear, guilt, and despair. The book challenges the notions that psychic abilities and intuition are the same or that they are in some way suspect. One chapter is devoted to the many practical benefits that come from listening to intuition; another looks at the “faith-building times” in life and how to cope with others’ negative reactions to one’s setting off on a spiritual path.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Although Echo Bodine has enjoyed her work as a professional psychic, she began to feel that her services might be misleading people to look outside of themselves instead of within themselves for answers and guidance. A Small, Still Voice is her response to that concern, in which she sets out to help readers develop and hear their own "small, still voice" of intuition--a voice that Bodine believes is really the sound of God's guidance. Count on the same uncomplicated and clear narration that is a trademark of Bodine's earlier books (Echoes of the Soul, Relax, It's Only a Ghost). The main complaint here is that the structure of the book seems slightly cockeyed. In the beginning chapters, Bodine advises readers to listen to their inner voice (that comes from the gut--not the head) when answering personal questions on health, relationships, and finances. Yet, Bodine doesn't teach readers how to hear and interpret this inner voice until midway through the book (in the chapter titled "Living by a Small, Still Voice"). Bodine does offer an interesting early chapter that lists questions best answered by one's own intuition and questions best answered by a psychic. For example, ask yourself the question "Will I marry the man I'm engaged to?" But ask a psychic "Will you please connect with my soul and find out what my purpose for being here is?" Bodine promises great returns on efforts to strengthen and follow one's inner voice--and her inspirational writing makes it hard not to believe her. --Gail Hudson

From Publishers Weekly

Psychic Echo Bodine (Echoes of the Soul), who has appeared on Sally Jessy Raphael and other TV shows, offers a light, friendly introduction to the power of intuition in A Still, Small Voice: A Psychic's Guide to Awakening Intuition. Since she was a child, Bodine was encouraged to trust her inner voice: the one, her mother explained, in her gut, not in her mind. But it took years of experience and affirmation to convince Bodine, who considered herself a highly logical person, to follow her intuition. Using anecdotes of her own experiences, Bodine exposes readers to the intuitive power she claims each of them has. 25,000 first printing; $25,000 ad/promo.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: New World Library (June 9, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1577311361
• ISBN-13: 978-1577311362
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #211,041 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A warm, gentle voice, February 10, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: A Still, Small Voice: A Psychic's Guide to Awakening Intuition (Paperback)

Echo Bodine writes beautifully about the human gift of intuition. In simple, conversational language, Echo gently guides the reader towards uncovering his or her inner knowing. This book is unique because Echo "normalizes" the experience of intuition -- teaching us that the intuitive voice is a gift we all possess-- a gift that can be used to enhance every moment of our lives. In fact, I was most impressed by her illustrations of how intuition can be used at any moment during an ordinary day -- and needn't be reserved for 'life altering decisions.' I was also touched by Echo's honesty; she presents herself as a "real" person with a history of struggle, and reflects on the interpersonal conflicts that can arise when friends and loved ones do not understand our spiritual path. Echo writes a lot about God but leaves the dogma behind -- allowing each reader to draw on his or her own interpretation of the divine. The book is so down-to-earth and non-judgemental that reading it feels like being in conversation with a gentle, caring, friend.

34 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Little More Fluff than Substance, December 29, 2005

By 

Michelle Belanger "author, lecturer, and avid... (NE Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Still, Small Voice: A Psychic's Guide to Awakening Intuition (Paperback)

Echo Bodine is a medium based out of Bloomington, Minnesota, and many of her sentiments have a strong, no-nonsense Midwestern flavor. She started off as a radio psychic who spoke about her experiences with spirits to an avid listening audience who could then call in and ask about their own departed loved ones. As she has branched out into print medium, she has added a number of readers to her already-sizable listening audience.

Like her other works, A Still, Small Voice is very simplistically written and relatively short. While the book's lay-out attempts to disguise this fact, it's fairly clear that Bodine is a speaker much more than she is a writer. There is the very distinct feel that these books are ghost-written, and occasionally that detracts from the content.

My main criticisms of this book are as follows:

* Although A Still, Small Voice bills itself as a guide to awakening and developing intuition, Bodine fails to provide any real exercises for her readers.
* A Still, Small Voice relies almost completely on anecdotal material to "teach," reading more like an inspirational memoir than a guidebook.
* Bodine never addresses the theories or principals behind psychic experience, except to say that all intuition comes from God. Readers are encouraged to rely on spirit guides for their actual instruction, thus encouraging them to feel somewhat out of control of their own powers.
* Bodine places a very strong emphasis on God, directly stating that psychic experiences are merely instances of God talking to the experiencer. While her faith is admirable, such a strongly religious approach alienates a large number of readers for whom God is less important than the mechanics of the experience itself.

While A Still, Small Voice contains many interesting stories about Bodine's experiences with her own psychic gifts, on the whole, it teaches very little practical material that readers can use on their own. The emphasis on God, while laudable in its own way, undermines the stated purpose of the book, as Bodine repeatedly implies that the real mechanics of psychic experience boil down to little more than being "moved by the spirit." In the end, the book reads like a piece of inspirational cotton-candy, fluffy and sweet but lacking substance.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This is a Good Book for Awakening, February 4, 2004

By 

"beckym2004" - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Still, Small Voice: A Psychic's Guide to Awakening Intuition (Paperback)

This is the first book I read by Bodine - it got me hooked on developing the gifts, and then I read Tiffany Snow's book and that one was a "Wow!" so beautiful and inspiring. The lessons that Still, Small Voice helped me to begin, Psychic Gifts expanded. Now, I have the courage and insight to see that I have control over my life. Once I started to believe that I could have good things happen in my life, and learned how to ask and how to listen, wonderful things started to manifest in everyday occurances. Reading books like these have inspired me to my bones!