Does Everyone Have Intuitive Ability?

Dear Reader,

The short answer to this question is: Yes.

A longer answer to this question is: Yes, absolutely!

Now that you know where I stand, let’s take a closer look at intuition.  I almost titled this post “Intuition – What is it, who has it and why bother?!?” Intuition can be a challenge to define, but here’s the good news: you don’t need to be able to define it for it to work in your life. And I would be willing to bet that nearly all of you can point to a time when you felt like intuition worked for you, whether you can explain how or not.  It might have been something obvious, like thinking of someone you hadn’t talked to in a while shortly before the phone rang – and you heard that person’s voice on the other end of the line.  Or your experience might have been more subtle, perhaps a quiet knowing that a particular  choice was very “right” for you, without intellectually knowing why.

Whatever the experience, it is often easier to notice intuition in action than to understand right away what it is and how it works.  As a result, one very effective way to develop your intuition is to pay attention when it happens.  Write it down!  Keep a list. The more you notice intuition working in your life, the more you can consciously work with it and use it whenever you want to.

At the very least, intuition is a way of knowing that goes beyond the result of an intellectual or rational thought process.  But where do you look from there?! The unconscious mind definitely plays a role, but there are many thought forms in your unconscious mind that are not part of your intuitive process – including fears, habits, and outdated beliefs.  In fact, one of the most common questions I get in my work is: “How do you tell the difference?!” Well, along with paying attention to when intuition works, another important step is noticing how you experienced it.  What did it feel like?  Intuition is more about feeling than thinking. What senses were engaged? What form did it take – a sound, an image, a feeling, a simple knowing?  When did it happen?  Where were you? What was going on? The more you develop a deepening sensitivity to your intuition, the more you can discern the difference between it and the voice of fear, or of habit.

As an example, your intuition might tell you to go take a painting class.  The fearful voice in your subconscious mind might tell you not to go because you won’t do well.  This fear may be related to another voice in your subconscious, the voice of an old belief that you are not artistic, or even that you are a failure in general.  Which voice do you listen to??  Chances are, you will listen to the voice that is clearest and most familiar.  If fear is your most familiar voice… See what I mean? Familiarity is powerful, and another reason why it is so important to learn to recognize your intuitive voice, trust it and develop the habit of following it.  Equally helpful is to recognize your fear and old beliefs when they are speaking. With recognition comes the power to choose something different, to say “Ah, fear, there you are again; I don’t want to listen to you today.”

Your subconscious mind also contains internalized, specialized knowledge learned over time. Malcolm Gladwell, author of “The Tipping Point” talks about this below-the-surface, specialized knowledge in his later book “Blink.” He makes the case that you often access this subconscious information in a matter of seconds to make a better decision than you might have made through a lot of thought and analysis. Gladwell is content to leave his study of intuition – a word he admits he dislikes – there, with the mind as an “internal computer” allowing snap decisions based mainly on the information programmed into your mind. 

Unfortunately, Gladwell’s rapid thought process most often can’t explain knowing who is calling when the phone rings, or having a feeling about an event before it happens, or being led to the right time and place to bump into a long lost friend. Nor, ultimately, can coincidence, especially as these events happen with increasing frequency the more you work with your intuition.

So you need to go deeper (or higher, depending on how you look at it!) than the subconscious to understand intuition.  Where does that journey lead?? For me, it involves a search outside the conscious, subconscious, physical, and emotional selves.  It leads to what some would call the soul, spirit, or higher self – which is connected to and one with Universal Awareness, the Field, God or All that is.

I know, I know; at this point in the conversation some of you are just getting warmed up, and thinking “What have you been waiting for? Let’s go; full steam ahead!” Others of you are intrigued, perhaps, but unsure, and others of you may have reached a line you don’t feel comfortable crossing.  All views are ok, and remember, as I said earlier – you don’t have to understand how intuition works or hold any particular set of beliefs for it to work!

In my next post, I’ll continue from here, from our relationship to a bigger awareness, and how we access it through intuition.  To tide you over, for anyone who wants to read about a growing body of scientific research demonstrating the expanded capabilities of mind and intuition, check out any of these books: “Entangled Minds” by Dean Radin, or “The Field” and “The Intention Experiment” by Lynne McTaggart. For now, at least, we are starting to build an awareness of what intuition is and isn’t, how we can start to develop it, and how it is something we all have – whether we are aware of it or not!

I honor your loving heart,

John