Whence Intuition?

Intuition:  the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.

That’s quite a definition.  Also known as a hunch, gut-feeling, and conscience, the information experience we call intuition is remarkable.  That it exists is undeniable – everyone has hunches, even if not abided. 

“Why did you take that way home?”  “Something just told me too.”  You know the experience.  It seems as if some external voice or personage was providing  guiding information or feelings which, if acknowledged, resulted in obtaining something good, or avoiding something unpleasant or even dangerous.

Okay, but whence intuition?  Where does it come from?  Some will chalk it up to angel whispers, which is a pleasant way of describing such otherworldly guidance.  Some will minimize the experience as a “brain fart” or some chemical aberration in synapse firing or whatever – a side effect of some activity of the brain organ.  Notice that hunches and gut feelings are, well, feelings – rather than conscious data processing via the brain. 

I have a hunch that the experience called Intuition is a vestige of a more direct access to universal information.   Where does knowledge come from?  It is a fine distinction between intuition and an idea.  “Where’d you come up with that idea?”  “I don’t know, it just came to me.” 

Much more to Intuition than appears

You keep looking at something.  You don’t mean too, but for some reason, your attention is called over and over to  something, say a desk drawer.  Later, it’s time to go.  OMG!  I’ve lost my car keys!  Guess where they are?  You’ve had that experience in some form or other.

Where does such information come from?  It’s not coincidence – it happens too often.  It’s not accidental – the information is invariably correct.  A sculpturer describes seeing the final work inside the raw stone.  Now, what the heck is that?  An artist gazes a blank canvas and envisions the scene.  Einstein explores time-space perched on a beam of light.  How’d he come up with that idea?  You look at the phone an instant before it sounds.  You think of someone just prior to their calling, sending an email, text (or, in the ancient times, a letter.)  Or you call someone and they say “I was just thinking about you...”  What’s going on here?

This is communication.  It’s not language, it’s a knowing.  It is a sense.  I suppose it could be considered Extra-Sensory Perception, or ESP, although ESP is popularly considered mind-to-mind communication.  Or, as the Baptist preacher said at the end of his sermon on the wickedness of such things as ESP, “Now, let us pray...” 

It’s real, it’s universal – in that it “happens” to everyone, all the time, and, as Jiminy Cricket says “always let your conscience be your guide.” or, follow your intuition.  

Okay, 2012 is here!

It seems that many folks are happy with the new year.  Part of that is a “thank God 2011 is over!” since many people found that calendar period to contain a number of challenges.  2012 offers unparalleled prosperity, health, delight and all around good feelings.  Yet, as with any potential, a person must be able to accept it into their experience.  That acceptance invariably means a shift in thinking and perception.

For instance, nothing can be brought into being (or experience) by thinking about its opposite.  Everything has two ends, two sides, two points – a “higher” and a “lower” manifestation.  Which manifests, appears, depends on attention.  Is health obtained by constant thinking, discussing, and studying about disease?  Not really.  Studying “disease” only reveals (drum roll) more disease.  “What’s wrong with me?” reveals more of what’s “not right” with me.  Attention to anything means more of it, whether desired or not.  Therefore, thinking about the “opposite” of what you want cannot produce what is desired.  The desired manifestation is on the other end of the scale.  The solution is always different (vibration) from the “problem.”  Granted, many of us perceive a “solution” to be for a problem to stop being a problem.

A lot of challenges can be avoided by paying attention to your still, small voice.  Also known as a hunch, an intuition, a feeling – you know the many subtle ways someone is trying to get your attention.  Invariably you get a hunch to give your attention to something other than where your attention is going.  For instance, I know of someone who went to a lunch with friends over the Holidays and shared an appetizer with one of them, who was recovering from a respiratory struggle.  Don’t do that¸ said the quiet voice, as the person reached for the tasty treat.

Days later – when the person was beset with a nagging illness – came the remark “well, I should have listened to my hunch, but I never do…”  And I must ask, why, oh why, do we NOT listen to the hunches, the intuitions (George, take a sweater to that football game…Nah, I won’t need it…)  We know better, but still we refuse to listen to our own counsel.  That is the source of such quiet guidance – our higher self that hovers beyond our physical senses.

So, a few things to make 2012 a great year (maybe that’s what the Mayan’s meant…):

·       Pay attention to yourself and follow your hunch/intuition.  If it’s a good thing to do, you’ll have good results.  What have you got to lose by not doing so?

·       Focus your attention on what you want and desire, not what you fear or dislike.  This takes practice because anything out of “ease” (dis-ease) gets our attention because we inherently know it to be the exception rather than the rule.  Giving something you don’t like more attention only brings more of the same into your life.  You know this already although you may not have been aware of it in 2011.  Make 2012 the year you are aware of where your mental and emotional attentions are focused.

·       To insure prosperity, give everyone more in use-value than you receive in “cash” or money value.  Think about this one and it’ll make sense.

·       Appreciate something every moment. Heck, post something you appreciate on Facebook every day, or Tweet, or whatever expressions you like (silent prayer is a pretty good one.)

·       All of the above reinforce the simple but effective game plan for living:  What I want for myself, I want for everyone.

Now that’s a plan for 2012!  Check the results December 21, 2012.