Art Carey, Philadelphia Inquirer

A fascinating compilation of scientific research and the accounts of many people, including her own patients, who've had paranormal and supernatural experiences.

New Age Retailer: Holiday 2005, National Review Network:

Susan Barbara Apollon, a practicing psychotherapist, took more than a decade to research and write this incredible book. Apollon works with traumatized children and adults, including people facing death or working through grief. Grappling with these issues motivated Apollon to seek information on near-death experiences and after-death connections. The result is a thoroughly researched and entertaining account of extraordinary shifts in consciousness.

Touched by the Extraordinary references research studies about the paranormal quantum physics and alternative healing. Many stories told to Apollon by clients and friends are about individuals who lost loved ones in the September 11, 2001 tragedy. The author also details her own journey toward developing psychically and establishing and establishing connections with those who have died.

Touched by the Extraordinary provides an organized description of the alternative reality that author Lawrence LeShan calls clairvoyant reality. Readers looking to understand that reality, looking for validation of their experiences, or seeking comfort after the loss of a loved one will find their questions lovingly answered in a hopeful and sometimes humorous way. The cover accurately and artfully represents the content and tone of the book.

James Cox, Editor, Midwest Book Review, July 2005

In Touched By The Extraordinary, author Susan Barbara Apollon draws upon her more than twenty years of experience as a psychotherapist and healer working with children and adults who were traumatized by diverse and often terminal diseases. Of special poignancy is the perspective she provides from having survived her own illnesses and losses as she shares illuminating insights, applicable lessons, and a comforting wisdom to her readers through the means of anecdotal stories revealing the power of love and spirituality in healing the soul and enhancing the quality of life at its every stage. Beginning with the process of defining what is meant by "extraordinary", Susan goes on to deal with the metaphysical aspects and psychological elements involving dreams, visions, encounters with the senses of the body, intuitive wisdom, automatic writing, precognition, near-death experiences, psychic energy, and more. A very special chapter is devoted to the experienced phenomena of deceased loved ones, divine and spiritual beings, angels, and the communicative presence of higher evolved beings. Another chapter takes up extrasensory perception, mediation, intercessory prayer, distant healing, miracles, and "coincidental synchronicity" with the authors observation that there really are no such things as "coincidence" with respect to our inner lives. The balance of Touched By The Extraordinary consists of a plethora of personal experiences that illustrated the metaphysical, the paranormal, and the spiritual -- as evidenced in ordinary people having extraordinary circumstances and events arise in their otherwise ordinary lives. Of special note is the chapter devoted her own journey of discovery, "Developing Intuitively--My Journey". Superbly written and thoroughly accessible from beginning to end, enhanced with extensive chapter notes, a bibliography (including suggestions for further study), and an extensive index, Touched By The Extraordinary is informed and informative reading strongly recommended for dedicated students of Metaphysical Studies, as well as those non-specialist general readers embarking upon their own quest for a better understanding and an improved coping with severe illness and end-of-life issues that we all must face within the compass of our own life journey.

Norman Goldman, Editor, BookPleasures.com, June 2005

Susan Apollon, author of Touched by the Extraordinary: An Intuitive Psychologist Shares Insights, Lessons, and True Stories of Spirit and Love to Transform and Heal the Soul has for the past twenty years worked as a psychotherapist, psychologist, and healer, treating children and adults who are traumatized, diagnosed with cancer or other life-threatening illnesses, dealing with death and dying, and those who are grieving.

Touched by the Extraordinary is an incredible book: a fully gripping read that provides us with an overview and window into the world of the paranormal and extraordinary, presented in a painless format, devoid of esoteric terminology.

As Apollon mentions in her Prologue, it required more than ten years of research to write the book. This labor of love, as she terms it, relies heavily on the writings of some of the leading experts on extraordinary and paranormal phenomena, such as Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Dr. Melvin Morse, and Dr. Raymond Moody, whom Apollon has referred to as her mentors.

The author’s thorough investigation of a subject that has up to very recently remained on the periphery of the world of main stream Medicine and Psychology exudes a frankness and intelligence that will perhaps influence skeptics to reconsider their positions.

The handbook, as Apollon refers to it, divides itself into two sections, the first providing the readers with an exposé of the basic terminology and theories pertaining to the paranormal and the second contains a collection of unique and exceptional encounters that have been personally experienced by the author or others that have shared these happenings with her.

The reader is confronted with some soul-searching topics to consider on many levels such as the legitimacy of near- death experiences, visions, automatic writing, precognition, communication with the dead, angles, miracles, animal behavior and humans, intuitive wisdom, prayer, presence of deceased love ones, distant healing. All of these topics make for a compelling read, as Apollon provides us with insights into subject matters that are often suspect and rejected as gobbledygook, as they represent a new way of understanding and healing the human spirit.

Apollon also devotes considerable ink to the concept that the mind is "nonlocal" or is not connected to any particular place (the brain), time (the present), and space (the body). As she states: "borrowed from the research of the quantum physicists, the idea that the mind is nonlocal is a beautiful way of making sense of precognitive experiences."

The objective of the stories contained in the second part, as the author states, is not only to "normalize" the extraordinary, at least to some extent, but also to enable the skeptics to have a more open mind and heart and to be more acceptable to the possibility of the impossible being possible.

It is within this second section where we read the stories from Women of 9/11, extraordinary encounters with animals and with deceased parents and relatives, prayers that were answered, and many more difficult- to -believe happenings. Should we cast aside these stories as a being figments of one’s imagination and trivialize them? Or should we reconsider them in the light of some of the convincing evidence exposed in the book and the teachings of many renowned experts in the field?

From another perspective, and as Apollon points out, the extraordinary touches us on many levels that force us to pause and ask questions regarding the nature of life and death, life after death, as well as the meaning and purpose of life. Consequently, should we not reflect upon these happenings in a way that will help us understand who we are at the level of the soul?

This book is well worth the journey into the realm of the paranormal, and will surely keep you questioning your existence and what is life all about?

Jim Agnew’s Book Picks, May 15, 2005 "An intuitive psychologist shares insights, lessons, and true stories of spirit and love to transform and heal the soul."

The Mindquest Review: Noteworthy Books and Music, early spring edition, 2005, Touched by the Extraordinary