Hardback book `Highland Second Sight` edited by Norman MacRae.
The following extract is a transcription of ‘Frazer of Tiree on the Second-Sight’ from the book.
Frazer of Tiree on the Second-Sight
Second sight, or ‘taibhsearachd’ as it is known in Gaelic, was common on Tiree, as it was in most pre-industrialised societies. People who had the ‘gift’ saw a future event, usually a death, before it happened.
There are many stories of islanders seeing funeral processions over the machair only for the news of a death to follow a few days later. It was said that if someone who did not have second sight touched the arm of someone who did, they too could see the vision.
This excerpt about second sight on Tiree is from a book ‘Deuterosophia’ which was written by the Rev. John Frazer, minister of Coll and Tiree and Dean of the Isles in the 17th century. Re-printed in 2011.