Sight

The Sight or Wizard's Sight is a form of supernatural vision or perception. Also known as Spirit Vision, Inner-Sight, or Third Eye. It first appears in Storm Front.

Description
"Wizards can see things most people can’t. It’s called the Sight, the Third Eye, a lot of other names. If a wizard uses his Sight, he can see the forces of magic themselves at work, spells like braids of neon lights, veils pierced like projections on a screen. A wizard’s Sight shows things as they truly are, and it’s always an unsettling experience, one way or the other. What you see with the Sight stays with you. Good or bad, it’s always just as fresh in your mind as if you’d just seen it."

- Harry Dresden

Use of the Sight, sometimes also referred to as the "third eye", allows a wizard to gaze upon the world and see its supernatural side, allowing the perception of things hidden to the normal eye. What has been seen through the use of the Sight will remain a lasting memory forever, and will neither fade nor be forgotten. Because of this, wizards don't use it often, for it could easily drive them insane.

The Sight usually shows concepts physically, e.g. if a loved one had recently died, a person could have wounds similar to those of a sword, as thought by Harry Dresden. When Molly Carpenter forced her friends off drugs, Dresden saw the damage done by her as if a laser scalpel had drilled two holes into the victim's head.

The Sight can break through illusions and is generally the method used by wizards to pierce veils. The Sight can also be induced in mundane humans. One known example is the drug ThreeEye, which gave the user the Sight, but also severely strained their minds, as it was unable to be turned off until the drug wore off.

A Soulgaze is another way of using the Sight. Instead of being one-way, the recipient is subject to the same effects. Both parties get to See each other as they truly are. "When a mortal looks on something with the Sight, really looks, as a wizard may, the memories of what he sees are indelibly imprinted on him. And when a wizard looks into a person’s eyes, it’s just another way of using the Sight. A two-way use of it, because the person you look at gets to peer back at you, too."

- Dresden

Observing someone using their Sight from the Spirit side, it looks like: a blinding burst of light emitting from between and just above the eyebrows and included a tangible sensation.

Storm Front
In Storm Front, Victor Sells creates a drug called ThreeEye, which gives mortals a temporary use of the Sight. Harry Dresden uses his Sight for the first time to scout and then enter Victor Sells' lakehouse. "How can I explain what a wizard sees? It isn’t something that lends itself readily to description. Describing something helps to define it, to give it limits, to set guardrails of understanding around it. Wizards have had the Sight since time began, and they still don’t understand how it works, why it does what it does. The only thing I can say is that I felt as though a veil of thick cloth had been lifted away from me as I opened my eyes again—and not only from my eyes, but from all of my senses."

- Dresden

Grave Peril
In Grave Peril, Harry Dresden uses his Sight when attempting to cure Micky Malone. In doing so, he Sees Karrin Murphy as she enters the room: "The door burst open. Murphy came through it, her eyes living flames of azure blue, her hair a golden coronet around her. She held a blazing sword in her hand and she shone so bright and beautiful and terrifying in her anger that it was hard to see. The Sight, I realized, dimly. I was seeing her for who she was."

- Dresden

At Bianca's Ball, Ferrovax tells Dresden that if he were to gaze on the Dragon with his Sight, he would see something that would awe him, humble him and quite possibly destroy his reason. Later, when Dresden, Susan Rodriguez and Michael Carpenter are trying to leave the Ball, Dresden senses someone in their way on the stairs leading out. He opens his Sight and Sees Mavra, a Black Court vampire, through her veil. She says that few can see her when she doesn't wish to be seen.

Summer Knight
In Summer Knight, Harry Dresden used his Sight to the Stone Table and the landscape surrounding it. It seethed with conflicting energy. On one side it was filled with flowers, greens and golds and flashed of color and points of brilliant light. The other side were were crystal ices of cold blue, purple and greens advancing in some places and melting in others.

Blood Rites
In Blood Rites, when going through the shelter above Mavra's lair, Harry Dresden opens his Sight so that he can See who was a Renfield, who were just thralls. While his Sight was still open, he Saw Karrin Murphy like an angel, "blazing fury", eyes had "azure flame" a sword of fire in each hand, her clothes were soiled and she was bleeding from several wounds. Then he Saw Jared Kincaid who is a half mortal, half demon—he appears as a giant, horned, winged demonic man.

Dead Beat
In Dead Beat, Donald Morgan uses his Sight to scan for Veils prior to a meeting. Later, Harry Dresden uses his to remove the veil around Sheila's apartment.

Proven Guilty
In Proven Guilty, Harry Dresden uses his Sight to look at the crime scene at SplatterCon!!!. He Sees that Black magic was definitely involved. It's what the Gatekeeper Rashid had put Dresden on the lookout for. Later, Dresden takes a look with his Sight at the Phobophage victims at Mercy Hospital. First he Sees Karrin Murphy in a white angelic tunic with battle stains. Dresden Sees Rosanna Marcella, Molly's friend, with psychic black holes bored into her head, caused by Molly Carpenter when she tried to force her friends off drugs. In ICU, Miss Becton's psyche was savagely mauled—she wasn't coming back. Dresden Saw Clark Pell would survive because the monster couldn't get to his psyche. When Dresden Looked at Nelson Lenhardt with is Sight, at St. Mary's he found the same two holes in his temples and deduced that Molly forced Rosie and Nelson off drugs to protect the unborn baby.

Dresden later attempts to use his Sight to remove Lasciel from his thoughts, but she stops him by causing significant pain in his hand.

White Night
In White Night, Harry Dresden decides not to use his Sight to examine the body of practitioner as he's "getting sick of doing that". During a flashback to the Ghoul attack on Camp Kaboom, Dresden uses his Sight to locate the Ghouls through Anastasia Luccio's defensive veil.

Small Favor
In Small Favor, Anastasia Luccio describes a new aspect of the Sight. She refers to a sense of precognition that every Wizard develops as they mature. This is in response to Harry Dresden recognizing Demonreach, a place he has not been before. When Dresden asks why this is the first he has heard of it, she replies that experienced wizards do not tell younger ones about the Sight as the result is often very annoying, misplaced prophecy in place of acknowledging hard truths.

Turn Coat
In Turn Coat, when Harry Dresden was driving home, his senses told him he was being followed. He opened his Sight and saw the Skinwalker, Shagnasty, where the pure evil of the monster nearly disabled him. Because he Saw it with his Sight, he would see it again and again with every thought or memory of it. He couldn't drive, so he walked to Billy's doing calculus in his head to keep his thoughts off of the it. To recover himself, he went into a dark quiet room and little by little he desensitized himself from it till he could think of it and not fall to his knees.

Ghost Story
In Ghost Story, Harry Dresden's ghost used his Sight at the Office in the Between. When he Saw the guard at the elevator, his gun morphed into a glowing sword. The guard gently stopped Dresden and his Sight vanished. The guard apologized and said Dresden might have been harmed. His name tag read: "Amitiel". Later, Molly Carpenter used her Sight to verify if Dresden's Ghost was really there. Dresden's ghost used his Sight to See through Molly's illusions when she fought Servitors of the Fomor. Dresden had his Sight wide open in the Big Hoods hideout while battling Corpsetaker. But when they locked eyes, no Soulgaze occurred.

Quotes
"'A wizards Sight, his ability to perceive the world around him in a vastly broadened spectrum of interacting forces, is a dangerous gift. Whether it's called spirit vision, or inner Sight, or the Third Eye, it lets you perceive things you'd otherwise never be able to interact with. It shows you the world the way it really is, matter all intertwined with a universe of energy, of magic. The Sight can show you beauty that would make angels weep humble tears, and terrors that the Black-Goat-with-a-Thousand-Young wouldn't dare use for its kids' bedtime stories. Whatever you see, the good, the bad, the insanity-inducing — it sticks with you forever. You can't ever forget it, and time doesn't blur the memories. It's yours. Permanently.'"