Conference hydra::dejavu

426.0. "Trusting Your Intuition Article" by FDCV13::PAINTER () Fri Jul 24 1987 17:56

{From 'New Age', August, 1987, pp. 50-52}

{From 'Living in the Light' by Shakti Gawain with Laurel King.  Copyright
1968 by Shakti Gawain.}

[Copied without permission]

Trusting Your Intuition
-----------------------
'When you suppress and distrust your intuitive knowingness, you give your
personal power away.' 

Most of us have been taught from childhood not to trust our feelings, not 
to express ourselves honestly, not to recognize that at the core of our 
being lies a loving, powerful, and creative nature.  We learn to try to 
accommodate those around us, to follow certain rigid rules of behavior, to 
suppress our spontaneous impulses, and to do what is expected of us.  Even 
if we rebel against this, we are trapped in our rebellion, stuck in a
knee-jerk reaction against authority.  Seldom do we receive any support for 
trusting ourselves, listening to our own sense of inner truth, and 
expressing ourselves in a direct and honest way.

When we consistently suppress and distrust our intuitive knowingness, 
looking instead for authority, validation, and approval from others, we 
give our personal power away.  this can lead to feelings of helplessness, 
emptiness, a sense of being a victim; eventually to anger and rage; and, if 
these feelings are also suppressed, to depression and deadness.  We may 
simply succumb to these feelings, lead a life of quiet numbness and 
desperation, and die.  we may overcompensate for our feeling of 
powerlessness by attempting to control and manipulate other people and our 
environment.  Or we may eventually burst forth with uncontrolled rage which 
is highly exaggerated and distorted by its long suppression.  None of these 
is a very positive alternative.

The true solution is to reeducate ourselves to listen to and trust the 
truths that come to us through our intuitive feelings.  we must learn to 
act on them, even though at first it may feel risky and frightening because 
we are no longer playing it safe, doing what we "should" do, pleasing 
others, following rules, or deferring to outside authority.  to live this 
way is to risk losing external (false) security, but the result is to gain 
integrity, wholeness, creativity, and the 'real' security of knowing that 
we are in alignment with the power of the universe.

I am not attempting to disregard or eliminate the rational mind by 
suggesting that our intuitive awareness should be the guiding force in our 
lives.  The intellect is a very powerful tool, best used to support and 
give expression to our intuitive wisdom, rather than to suppress our 
intuition as we now use it.  Most of us have programmed our intellect to 
doubt our intuition.  When an intuitive feeling arises, our rational minds 
immediately say, "I don't think that will work," "Nobody else is doing it 
that way," or "What a foolish idea," and the intuition is disregarded.

Gut Feelings

What does it mean to trust your intuition?  How do you do it?  It means 
tuning in to your "gut feelings" - that deepest sense of personal truth - 
in any given situation, and acting on them, moment by moment.  Sometimes 
these "gut messages" may tell you to do something unexpected or 
inconsistent with your previous plans, or ask you to trust a hunch that 
seems illogical.  You may feel more emotionally vulnerable than you used 
to; you may express thoughts, feelings, or opinions that are foreign to 
your usual beliefs; or you may take some degree of financial risk to do 
something that feels important to you.

At first you may find that the more you act on your intuition, the more 
things in your life seem to be falling apart - you might lose your job, a 
relationship, certain friends - your car might even stop working!  You're 
actually changing fast and shedding the old things in your life that don't 
fit you anymore.  As long as you didn't let go of them, they imprisoned 
you.  Now, as you continue on this path, things will just fall into place.  
Doors will open in a seemingly miraculous way.

You may fear that trusting your intuition will lead you to do things that
seem hurtful or irresponsible to others.  For example, you hesitate to 
break a date, even though you need time for yourself, because you fear 
hurting your date's feelings.  But I've found that when I really listen to 
and trust my intuition, in the long run, everyone around me benefits as 
much as I do.

People around you may sometimes be temporarily disappointed, irritated, or 
a bit shaken up as you change your old patterns of relating to yourself and 
others.  But this is simply because they are being pushed to change as 
well.  If you trust, you will see that the changes are also for their 
highest good. (If you 'do' break that date, your friend may end up having a 
wonderful time doing something else.)  If they don't want to change, they 
may move away from you, at least for a while; therefore, you must be 
willing to let go of people.  If there is a deep connection between you, 
chances are that you will be close again in the future.  Meanwhile, 
everyone needs to grow.  As you continue to follow your path, you will 
increasingly attract people who like you as you are and want to relate to 
you in a new way.

Listen Carefully

Learning to trust your intuition is an art form, and like all other art 
forms, it takes practice to perfect.  You don't learn to do it overnight.  
You have to be willing to make "mistakes"; to try something and fail, and 
then try something different the next time, sometimes even to embarrass 
yourself or feel foolish.  Your intuition is always one-hundred-percent 
correct, but it takes time to learn to 'hear it' correctly.

It is often hard to distinguish the 'voice' of our intuition from the many 
other 'voices' that speak to us from within: the voice of our conscience, 
voices of our old programming and beliefs, other people's opinions, fears 
and doubts, rational head trips, and 'good ideas'.

People frequently ask how to differentiate the true voice or feelings of
the intuition from all the others.  Unfortunately, there's no simple,
sure-fire way at first.  Most of us are in touch with our intuition whether 
we know it or not, but we're in the habit of doubting or contradicting it 
so automatically that we don't even know it has spoken.  The first step is 
to pay more attention to what you feel inside, to the dialogue that goes on 
within you.

For example, you might get a feeling in the middle of the day that says, 
"I'm tired, I'd like to take a rest."  You immediately think, "I can't rest 
now, I have a lot of work to do."  So you drink some coffee to get yourself 
going and work the rest of the day.  By the end of the day you feel tired, 
drained, and irritable, whereas if you had trusted your initial feeling, 
you might have rested for a half hour and continued about your tasks, 
refreshed and efficient, finishing your day in a state of balance.

As you become aware of this subtle dialogue between your intuition and your 
other inner voices, it's important to remain a somewhat objective observer. 
Notice what happens when you follow your intuitive feelings  The result is 
usually increased energy and power, and a sense of things flowing.  Now, 
notice what happens when you doubt, suppress, or go against your feelings.  
Invariably you will observe decreased energy, powerlessness or helpless 
feelings, and emotional and/or physical pain.  Either way, you'll be 
learning something, so try not to condemn yourself when you don't follow 
your intuition (thus adding insult to injury!).  Remember, it takes time to 
learn new habits; the old ways are deeply ingrained.

I've been working intensively on my own reeducation for a number of years, 
and while the results I'm enjoying are wonderful, there are still many 
times that I don't have the courage or awareness to be able to trust 
myself completely and do exactly what I feel.  I'm learning to be patient 
and compassionate with myself as I gain the courage to be true to myself.

One important step is learning to hear and follow your intuition is simply 
to practice "checking in" regularly.  At least twice a day, and much more 
often, if possible (once and hour is great), take a moment or two (or 
longer, if you can) to relax and listen to your gut feelings.  Ask for help 
and guidance when you need it and practice listening for answers which may 
come in many forms: words, images, feelings, or even through being led to 
some external source such as a book, a friend, a teacher who will tell you 
just what you need to know.

Your body is a tremendous helper in learning to follow your intuitive 
voice.  Whenever it is pain or discomfort, it is usually indicating that 
you have ignored your feelings.  Use it as a signal to tune in and ask what 
you need to be aware of.

Remember, most people do not literally experience intuition as a voice.  
Often it's more like a simple feeling, an energy, a sense of "I want to do 
this" or "I don't want to do that."  Don't make it into a big deal, a 
mysterious mystical event, a voice from on high!  It's a simple, natural 
human experience that we have lost touch with and need to reclaim.

A Challenge For All

Many people are already highly developed intuitively - they are very much 
in touch with their intuition, but are afraid to act on it in the world.  
Often, these people will follow their intuitive promptings in one specific 
area of their lives, but not in others.  Many artists, musicians, 
performers, and other highly creative people fall into this category.  They 
strongly trust and spontaneously act on their intuition within the bounds 
of their art form; thus, they are extremely creative and often very 
productive.  But they don't have the same degree of self-trust and 
willingness to back their feelings with action in other areas of their 
lives, particularly in their relationships and in matters of business and 
money.  Thus we have the classic case of the artistic type who is chaotic 
and unbalanced emotionally, and/or inept or even exploited financially.

Many spiritual seekers, some of whom have spent a good deal of time 
meditating, and have become attuned to their inner energy, also have 
problems of imbalance.  The seeker has a strong mental image of what it is
to be "spiritual" - loving, open and centered.  He or she wants to act out 
this model at all times and thus is afraid to act spontaneously or honestly 
express feelings for fear that what comes out may be harsh, rude, angry, 
selfish, or unloving.

None of us is fully enlightened yet, so as we risk expressing ourselves 
more freely and honestly, some of what we say and do will be unpolished, 
distorted, foolish, or thoughtless.  As we learn to act on our intuition, 
all the ways we've blocked ourselves in all the past are cleared out, and 
in that process a lot of old "stuff" is released.  A lot of old beliefs and 
emotional patterns are brought to light and healed.  In this process we 
have to be willing to face and reveal our unconsciousness (by the time we 
can see it, it's already changing anyway).  If we pretend to be more 
'together' than we really are, we will miss the opportunity to heal 
ourselves.

I have found this to be a very vulnerable and out-of-control feeling.  But 
I can't worry too much about how I'm presenting myself or how I look to 
others or whether I'm doing the right thing.  I just have to be myself as I 
am now, as best I can, accepting the mixture of enlightened awareness and 
human limitation that is what I am right now.

{From: 'Men's Liberation - A New Definition of Masculinity', by Jack 
Nichols, 1975(orig.),1978(rev.),1980(rev.)}

[Reprinted without permission]


Chapter 3 - INTUITION - A New Flash on What's Happening
-------------------------------------------------------

		'Can your learned head take leaven
		 From the wisdom of your heart?'

				- Lao-tzu

Once men are in touch with their feelings, they share with women
access to a mind phenomenon known as intuition.  This is not to say 
that men too do not experience intuitive flashes but simply that such 
flashes are harder to evoke in a consciousness that is closed to 
feeling.  Men, in fact, have their own word for intuition.  It is 
hardly as colorful and is therefore somewhat expressive of the poverty 
of the present-day male's intuitive capabilities.  Men call intuitive 
flashes hunches.

That intuition has traditionally been known as a woman's province is 
shown by the phrase 'a woman's intuition.'  Men's capacity to be 
intuitive, however, is demonstrated not only by great works of art but 
also by the most profound scientific observations.  Albert Einstein 
wrote that his initial comprehension of the theory of relativity was a 
kinesthetic image: a certain sensation received through his body.  
Harvard physicist Gerald Holton tells us that it may very well have 
been Einstein's disinclination or incapacity to speak until the age of 
three that led him to mature with an extraordinary cognitive facility 
that bypassed spoken categorizations and concepts.  Thus Einstein 
broke beyond the demarcations of space and time.  He found it 
difficult to express what he felt and for a long time remained in a 
quandary about what to do, but as long as he could feel the image he 
perceived, he continued to search for a way to deliver it.

While it may seem inappropriate to some by reason of charlatanry 
surrounding it and of the scientific opposition and ridicule which 
have attached to it, extrasensory perception is a field in which 
intuitive flashes predominate.  That the study of ESP is still in its 
formative stages and that the ridicule heaped on it has come from 
mostly rationalistic thinkers should give us pause.  It is quite 
probably that the scientific studies conducted at Duke University may 
end up by telling us more about the capabilities of the mind than we 
once anticipated.  Famed ESP expert George Kreskin speaks of visual 
perceptions that come to him impulsively and spontaneously.  "The 
minute I start reasoning," he says, "I'm dead."

Intuition occurs when we perceive things directly.  We do not simply 
believe something to be so, we know it.  We perceive not the outward 
configuration but the inner dimension.  Intuition may happen as a 
quick flash, or it may stay as an all-embracing vision we cannot shake 
off.  Andrew Weil gives men a hint as to how to develop intuition when 
he says, "It develops spontaneously as we unlearn habitual ways of 
using the mind."

Perhaps, as Weil says, there is no intellectual explanation for 
intuition, and the intellect may very well remain unable to grasp its 
reality.  Nevertheless it helps if we seek to comprehend it at least 
to some degree.  By doing so, we may be able to foster it among 
youngsters, something that Weil complains has not been done.

Dr. Helene Deutsch describes intuition by saying, "In each intuitive 
experience the other person's mental state is emotionally and 
unconsciously 'reexperienced," that is, felt as one's own."  In order 
to be able to intuit, says Dr. Deutsch, one must have "love for a 
spiritual affinity" with the person who is comprehended.  The degree 
to which this affinity exists, she says, will depend on the richness 
of the intuitive person's own emotionality.  Intuition is, therefore, 
the ability to understand one's own feelings and psychological 
associations and "by analogy, those of others."

Many of the most profound seers in the world have given praise to the 
intuitive facility.  Until the advent in the West of thinkers like 
D.T. Suzuki, Christmas Humphreys, Thomas Merton, Henri Bergson, and 
Alan Watts, this faculty has been prominent only in the writings of a 
few great mystics like Meister Eckhart.  These thinkers have charted 
their conviction that every man has within him a power to grasp the 
essential nature of things without depending on the circumlocutions of 
the intellect.  Knowledge, they have told us, can be direct and 
immediate.

During the Middle Ages the intuitive facility was a source of concern 
to the church fathers.  It is said that this faculty in women led in 
many cases to their executions as witches.  More recently philosophers
like Bergson have made church authorities less jittery about it.

Mystics, ignoring verbalization and the printed word, turned 
rapturously inward rather than toward the church.  Even the Scriptures 
were treated by these mystics as unnecessary to their vision.  More 
than once they were branded heretics.  In Islamic countries, where 
reliance on the Koran is deemed essential, mystic schools like the 
Sufis arose, promoting "God intoxicated" visions that came not from 
the holy verses of Muhammed's book but from "the heart".

The sages of India, having given birth to both Hinduism and Buddhism, 
have long understood and spoken about the "inner eye" or, as the 
Tibetans call it, the third eye.  Buddhist scriptures like the 
Lankavatara Sutra describe the dawn of intuition in terms strikingly 
similar to those we have just considered in Dr. Deutsch's dissection 
of intuition itself: "While intuition does not give information that 
can be analyzed and discriminated," says the Sutra, "it gives that 
which is far superior, self-realization through identification."

The examination of faculities like the intellect in these Far Eastern 
scriptures bears marks of mind-awareness that are startling for their 
psychological insight.  In recent years Western psychoanalysts have 
turned to them for new knowledge.  Noting the limitations of the 
intellect, the Lankavatara Sutra continues: "If things are to be 
realized in their true nature, the processes of meditation, which are 
based on particularized ideas, discrimination and judgments, must be 
transcended by an appeal to some higher faculty of cognition."

Buddhist scholar Christmas Humphreys write:

	It is one thing to realize, as stated by Porphyry, that "of
	that nature which is beyond intellect many things are
	asserted according to intellection, but it is contemplated
	by a cessation of intellectual energy better than with it";
	it is quite another to accommodate one's mind to a state in
	which the god of reason is triumphantly dethroned.  Here is
	a world as puzzling to the student as the change within him
	may be to his friends.  Logic and reason are the architects
	which build hovels or palaces of intellectual thought; the
	intuition rises above the world of forms...and the builders
	of forms are accordingly left behind.  Good sense is no
	longer the sole criterion of a proposition's truth or
	falsity, for the higher mind may see that what is nonsense
	to the thought-bound scholar is in fact magnificently true. 

    re: .0-.1
      
       ...Nice of you to take the time to type all of that.  I disagree
    with Shakti Gawain, however, in always acting upon your intuition.
    I think your intuition should be LISTENED to, but taken in conjunction
    with what the intellect, your emotions and even what your body have to
    say. She does offer some nice ways to become more aware of that
    part of ourselves (often referred to as our psychic side,) however.
    
    Frederick