Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Drive Your Intuition Like a Muscle Car

Have you ever known who was calling before you picked up the phone, or known what you needed to do even though it defied logical explanation? Have you ever had a dream about an event before it occurred? Or dreamt the answer to a problem you could not solve while awake? What is intuition? Why is it important to us?

According to Diana Whitmore, in her book, Psychosynthesis in Education a working hypothesis is that the Self is at the core of the superconscious, just as the 'I' or personal self is at the core of the personality and its various functions (physical, emotional and mental). Interaction between the Self and the 'I' can occur or flow in either direction. When the contents of the superconscious descend into our conscious experience, we receive inspiration, intuition, insight and or peak experiences. These moments happen to us, particularly when we least expect them or have not been actively seeking them. However, the flow may also occur in the other direction, through elevating our personality, through consciously aspiring, in a realistic, grounded and purposeful way, towards the heights or depths of our being.

Frances E. Vaughan, in her book, Awakening Intuition, believes that if you are willing to confront the fears that arise when you are faced with letting go of some cherished illusion, then intuition allows you to know things as they are. At this point, when you have made commitment to your own inner truth, you may be increasingly willing to follow the guidance of intuition rather than try to use it to fulfill egotistical desires. The steady pursuit of self-knowledge leads eventually to a self-transcendence in which personal needs and desires are seen in a larger perspective. The intuitive realization that one is part of a larger whole, inseparable from the environment in which one lives, and that being is essentially the same in everyone, albeit in an infinite variety of patterns and forms, allows one to see oneself and the universe as an interdependent unit.

What do YOU think?

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

That was absolutely beautiful and so personally touching for me as I feel the exactly same way. My only wish is that more people saw it that way...what an amazing change for the world that would be.

Unfortunately as long as people are caught up in their own limited consciousness and ego driven mind, that is not going to happen. Neither will their intuition be heightened.

I think that for one's intuition to really be heightened and excercised, one really needs to adopt "a think out of the box" paradigm. I think anyone IS capable of getting messages from their intuition at any time, but they will usually not act on it because often it sounds "absurd" or "crazy" to them to act or say something like that. So they dismiss it and conform to the norm, to what the masses are doing and expecting - maintaining the cherished illusion.

But if one is able to step away from that, I think amazing things could and do happen, especially where your intuition is concerned.

Anonymous said...

I don't know for sure, but I suspect that intuition is always correct post facto. One never makes comment on when intuition proves false even though that may be the case 99% of the time!

Anonymous said...

Yes,but one should not always follow ones intuition or it could lead to premature death.

Anonymous said...

Yes intuition, Felix has a point, as always we readily remember the good and handily forget the bad.

Speaking from personal experience, I have always trusted my intuition, and although my faith has changed some what over the years, when I really feel something it is still hard not to act on it.

Anonymous said...

Well that may be a good thing.

Molly Brogan said...

I think that seeing and intuition as right or wrong, good or bad, is a function of ego. Our ego puts a value on our experience. Intuition is a process that allows the conscious mind and subconscious to interact outside of the ego. This allows us to think outside of the box that the ego constructs for us.

Anonymous said...

Molly (if I may), my apologies for what have seemed a flippant remark. I am not familiar with the source material but I do have some issues. The interaction between the conscious and the superconscious (Freudian? Lacanian? ...) does not seem to explain everything so neatly. Firstly, the telephone: if the situation is a) my mother called and I knew she was calling before I picked up the phone--the seems to be a matter of reasoning. My mother often calls at a certain time, on a certain day, etc... so there is a large probability that my 'intuition', which is a reasoned response to the situation, will be correct. If the situation is b) a long lost friend is calling and I have just been thinking of her and thus feel as though she is on the phone--this is again a matter of probability: if 1) she is then I am vindicated and realize the power of intuition; if 2) she is not on the phone then I forget the intuitive moment. At any rate, both seem to be an interrelation between reasoning and emotion.

Molly Brogan said...

I think that reason is applied after the intuitive process, in an attempt to explain, rationalize or even integrate the experience. But I think the more we fall into the habit of applying reason to intuition to fit the needs of ego, the more we suppress intuition. It does often take a leap of faith to listen to what our intuition is telling us, especially if it defies reason or convention.

Anonymous said...

I agree fully with your basic notions about intuition/ego. In partial response to those who are just beginning to look at this, I'll share some of my personal process.

Over the decades, there came a time when I too wanted to have more 'scientific proof' about my own intuition. And, as has been suggested here, at best I could only believe my own experiences in this realm.
So....I began to make a mental note when I had an intuition..about almost anything. At first, this didn't come easily at all...and, I still only make a conscious observation about intuitive flashes in daily life on occasion. Yet, since I have come to accept as well as learn what the 'flavor' of which type of 'intuition' is in fact the real thing, I seldom ignore it when my thinking process begins to cover it over.
At other times, say in direct interaction with people and/or meditation, intuition now naturally arises and I no longer have any contradiction with it. If anything, I now have contradiction with my thought processes that attempt to reject it.

Anonymous said...

I am wondering if what Molly is calling intuition, I have not been thinking of as a sort of subconscious reasoning? That is to say that one's mind is always drawing out causalities (mostly wrong) and predicting action (sort of the intentionality difficulty in Husserl). Is this similar to what you are calling intuition, Molly?

Molly Brogan said...

I think that your method is a great one, Orn. The notation insures nothing will be lost to fading memory and allows for a big view observation. It has been awhile since I read my Husserl, John, but his reflective thinking probably applies nicely here. I did a study of his view on inspiration, which I'm sure is very similar to intuition here. His idea that all social constructs need be suspended before inspiration can occur would be much the same as setting our ego aside.

I think that once we are able to do this, and become familiar with our intuition, it can become our primary process - more of a grace. Like Orn, we function intuitively and apply the social constructs later, instead of the other way around. More inside out.

Anonymous said...

I believe in what you wrote about, many times in my life I have dreamt something before it happens, or felt it before I was told. When my grandmother passed away, even though I knew she was sick the day she died I was at school and walking home it came to me that she had died that day. When I got home sure enough my mother told me she had passed away around 2pm that afternoon. I have been reading a new earth by Eckhart Tolle and I truly feel we are all a part of what he calls the collective consiousness. We are all connected by what we give out, our energy I would say. If we remain in the moment connected to our light or whatever you chose to call it,and when you get out of your ego driven thoughts and just feel what is around you instead of thinking what we feel it changes the way we interact or react and make situations around yourself and others better. My mother in law has recently had lung surgery and she is 80 years old. She did well at first after the surgery and now she is starting to have complications. Today going in to see her in the hospital I felt we were gonna get some bad news. I was right. Her heart and lungs were already marginal which means they could go either way, but last night her kidneys started to fail. In the next day or two if she does not improve, we will have to take her off the machines that have helped her along this far. My mother in law has in writing that she does not want to be kept alive by machines. I truly believe if we look inside ourselves we will become more intune with our intuition. Love your blog.

Anonymous said...

Well somebody talked with his/ her Mother when she said DON`T GO PLEASE (for example go to a party, beach meeting etc) because is dangerous? or something like this?????? This is intuition................when you feel something very special (bad or good) in your heart. I think that everybody have intuition more o less but we have something.................

Molly Brogan said...

Welcome Esteban.
There are countless 9/11 stories where folks felt strongly not to go near the vicinity of the twin towers in New York that morning, and their lives were spared. This is one type of intuition we really haven't touched on in this conversation - clairvoyance or telepathy. Intuitively feeling our inner truth, or God, or creative inspiration seems to have been the focus of the conversation so far. But "knowing" when your next action is right or not is certainly an intuition worth developing. Like kinesiology, intuition can be used like this to steer us in the right direction, using our innate wisdom to lead us even when it defies logic.