Following are several understandings about what intuition is and isn’t. These distinctions will assist you in further demystifying the process and will enable you to discern the subtle yet powerful differences between the tone and style of true intuitive perception and those of past emotional programming, learned behavior, and misguided understandings of the intuitive process. These clarifications will allow you to amplify and fine-tune your precision so that your accuracy and outcomes will become more and more reliable.
Intuition Is Not Based in Emotion
Intuition communicates in a neutral, unemotional fashion. The most common misconception about intuition, and why it tends to get a bad rap, especially in environments dominated by logical, rational, and, dare I say, masculine thinking, is the greatly erroneous contention that intuition is not to be trusted because it is based in emotion.
Since intuition is emotionally neutral, there is no “charge” of opposites (right/wrong, fear/love, good/bad). This is because it stems from the highest level of mind, which is unchangeable, im-movable, indestructible, and beyond emotion. The emotion tends to come the moment after you receive the information, or the “hit.” As quick as thought, you become emotional because the information you perceive triggers fear, worry, or anxiety, because it requires you to do something that you may not feel comfortable doing. Or, conversely, it triggers emotions of ease, anticipation, or joy, because the direction is in alignment with your highest good. The emotion comes from your response to the intuitive wisdom, not from the wisdom itself.
Intuition Is Inner Knowing; It Is Not External Learning
“How do you know what you know when you know it?” This was the question I asked a room full of detectives in the first moments of a two-day workshop designed to amplify intuitive intelligence in police officers. I wanted to get a feel for the room and to see what they thought was going on when they got a hunch or an intuitive certainty about something.
Every one of the detectives admitted to having many intuitive experiences on and off the job. Some of them were willing to say they didn’t really know what was involved in the process, but the majority of them said they believed their intuitive experiences were a result of their massive amount of training and their large number of years spent in law enforcement.
It is true that while on the job the officers take action based on impressions they perceive in the brain and body. But these “knowings” should be attributed to the automatic function of a brain that has studied, practiced, and experienced something so many times that the knowledge has been moved from the conscious part of the brain to the subconscious, or unconscious, part so the organ can conserve its energy to continue to store more information.
It is the brain on autopilot, where operations take place without conscious intervention. These unconscious states, while beneath awareness, are still experienced by our body as feelings, emotions, and mental impressions, and they significantly affect routine actions such as brushing our teeth and driving to work.
Modern computers and other forms of technology are designed to operate more intuitively — that is, to operate with greater creative ease and higher performance. But like the police detectives, these pieces of equipment are deeply coded and programmed so that their performance seems to appear intuitive. The “mind” of the computer has been taught what to do, and so it does everything it is supposed to do with seemingly magical skill. This ability, while interesting or inspiring, is not intuition. True intuitive intelligence is an inner knowing, a direct perception of and processing of information within the inner dimensions of mind, without access to previous study, knowledge, or experience. It is knowing without having to go through the process of learning.
Intuition Is Life Affirming
Intuition supports life at its highest levels of evolution and well-being and guides us so we can grow and thrive despite obstacles, regardless of how severe they may appear to our limited perceptions. This truth is reflected in the power of water to break down a mountain, a single acorn to produce an entire forest after a wildfire, or a tiny weed to crack a slab of concrete wide open so it can reach for greater light and potential.
Intuitive intelligence is highly energy efficient, and it guides us to our destiny via the path of least resistance, right action, and highest good. It guides us to solutions that are elegant and natural, that unfold without force, and that are advantageous to everyone involved. Intuitive intelligence understands that life supports life, and that to benefit one is to benefit the whole.
Intuition operates strictly in the present moment. It does not respond to past resentments or worries about the future. Its creative power lies in the eternal moment of “now,” and it uses that point of stillness to propel itself forward, toward greater evolution.
You will know you are not connected to the wisdom of your intuition if
- you are upset about the past or worried about the future;
- you hear the words can’t, won’t, shouldn’t, don’t, or what if;
- you find yourself needing to control the details or outcome of a situation; or
- you find yourself being critical of yourself, those around you, or the situation you are in.
These descriptions of what intuition is or is not illustrate the positive markers of intuition at its best. As you further develop your intuitive practice, I encourage you to continually check in with yourself to see if the information you are receiving aligns with these principles. If it does not, then you may have more work to do to ensure that your energetic foundation is what it needs to be, so that you can properly engage with the field. If the information you receive is aligned, then you can go ahead and take the appropriate action to move toward your goal.
Excerpted from the book First Intelligence ©2014 by Simone Wright. Printed with permission of New World Library, Novato, CA. www.newworldlibrary.com
