Intuition forms what we tend to call our sixth sense, which comes predominately as a “feeling” or sense we have about something based on its mental and emotional state, and by how it forms an intrinsic part of a greater whole. It can come as a direct awareness of the “inner nature” of something that acts to form the outer appearance and activity it takes on, or as an awareness that stems out of the past, present, and future being perceived as a “single unit” or different phases of a larger pattern. It can also come in the form of a “premonition” that provides a form of preview as to what will play out through the natural course of events already set in motion. When we experience a subtle awareness around something it can come as a snapshot into a greater idea being played out and as revealing how all parts of a whole exist in relationship with each other as an interaction or greater pattern that’s “all-inclusive” and self-.
Intuition often comes through our innate ability to move beyond the outer appearance of things and tune into the inner essence expressing through it as its soul or spirit. Regardless of what’s being seen, said, or done, you can perceive the true intention, motive, and feeling being emitted energetically. As you subdue the outer while focusing intently on the inner, it connects you to the true essence of each person or being. Not as their emotional state, thoughts, or verbal expression, but as a feeling out of which everything else forms and actively takes shape. You can accurately understand the feeling by stepping outside of and momentarily detaching from your own preconceptions, opinions, and inner dialogue, and be fully “present with it”. As you become calm and present in a situation, clearing your mind of all thoughts about things, you can literally become “one with them in mind”, where, as you tune into and embody the same “feeling”, mental impressions associated with that feeling start forming and playing out in your mind of their own volition. As they play out through an imaginary scenario, you witness them from a detached state where you don’t try to change or manipulate them in any way so that they’ll fit into your own ideas about things, but simply become a passive stage for them to play out in whatever way is natural to them. Sometimes an inner voice accompanies the mental impression, not so much as words or talking, but more as a “knowing” that’s correlated to a greater whole. You realize it as being a snapshot of a much larger scene or story that’s playing out over an extended period of time as a synchronized course of events.
While so many of us have been taught to cultivate a “this or that”, black or white mentality, where we selectively abstract only certain parts inherent in a greater whole, and then build a whole out of those parts by reshaping them to fit our beliefs about them, the underlying truth is that everything functions intimately as a single movement and energetic flow. There’s no such thing as a single and independent thought. All thoughts proliferate naturally out of a stream or current of thought that vibrate at a frequency particular to that thought. This fact is commonly described as “stepping into the flow” of events, where you see whatever is happening in the present as being an interconnected part of a much larger dynamic. Every moment exists as a continuous enactment and telling of a an even greater story being played out through space and time.
Visualization, Memory, and Imagination
One of the things that can make intuition difficult to understand as a practice, comes by confusion around what it means to have “inner visions” associated with intuition and clairvoyance. There are different types of visions which have a broad range of clarity and precision that can come as vague and somewhat elusive impressions, images that resemble daydreams or nightly dreams, or ones that have a pronounced feeling of clarity that brings a heightened level of understanding, only part of which comes through visual attributes. Intuition, like the term “visualization” can be somewhat misleading, because it comes through the faculty of the “imagination”, which includes all of our senses, and often lacks a visual image or impression.
In the normal sense of what I’ll refer to as your everyday form of intuition, visions hardly ever come as crisp, detailed visual images, but come in much the same way “memories” do. They come as what can be described as transparent or translucent mental impressions that only serve to symbolize or put you in touch with the inner essence of things. This can be best understood through simple practices such as “remembering” something. Take a brief moment and imagine coming home, and as you open the door and walk into your house, what do you see? Form a visual impression of what your house looks like. You’ll also realize you can easily navigate the memory by proceeding to walk through your house, where you can visualize it from every perspective within it. This is the same way mental impressions are formed when you’re sensing things as “being them” or being in them as a part of the same memory.
All of what science refers to in abstract terms as “information” that’s inherent in the space around, also called the “ether”, exists as various forms of memory. When you tune into this cosmic soup of information, mental impressions form and play out in much the same way your own personal memories do. The space around us as the air and atmosphere, is what Esoteric Sciences refer to as the “astral plane” and “akasha”, which is where memory of all kinds is stored as an imprint or impression. Memory isn’t fixed or stagnate, but is a “living entity” that regenerates itself into infinite variations as a means of evolving itself. This field of dynamic living memory exists in the fundamental sense as “subtle energy”, which is the energy of the mind and soul formed through various “states of consciousness”. It’s not about this thought or that one, it’s more about a “mental state” as a vibratory frequency, out of which those “type of thoughts” naturally emerge, spontaneously propagate, and play out as a dynamic pattern formed through the natural behaviors that express those thoughts.
We all possess two fundamental aspects of the same mind, which operate on two levels simultaneously, referred to as a “higher and lower”, and “inner and outer”, which combine harmoniously in forming a single reality. While we’re within the material world of the greater, cosmic mind, these two aspects of our mind form our subconscious and lower conscious mind. Our conscious mind comes as our ability to actively create by “thinking” and imagining our thoughts as an inner experience, while our subconscious is passive and receptive, existing as the group mind that connects us to everything else, and as what takes our visual thoughts and forms them into “mental filters” as our perceptual lens. As we “think and form pictures of our thoughts” we use them to shape our outer reality through our ability to perceive them. What we form on the inner planes of our imagination becomes a “metaphorical seed” planted in our fertile subconscious where it’s built into our outer reality as a correlation. As we form and “inner experience” we shape the blueprint for forming an outer experience of the same type and kind.
Our conscious mind, which thinks by talking and forming pictures, is how we create and form ourselves as an individual, while our subconscious mind is always present within the greater whole of the group mind and is what connects us with everyone else as playing a complementary role in a much greater story. When we subdue our internal dialogue and our tendency to view the world through its outer appearance, while tuning into the energy around us by being “present”, we can perceive ourselves as being a natural part of a much larger dynamic that’s playing out. We can not only merge into and become one with the mind of another, or the group mind of several people who are all a part of the same situation or event, but we can also tune into what comes as glimpses of the future, where an impression of a future event involving the same people or type of situation plays out as a form of “group memory”.
The imagination is the faculty of the mind that we use to create in an intentional way, build our memories as an interpretation of events, and for recollecting and replaying the memories we’ve created of past experiences. It’s the part of the mind we receive ideas in whole form from a higher plane, translate them by adapting them to our mental model, and then transmit them through the astral field of the material plane where they can be conceived by others who are properly tuned to absorb them. We’re always tuning into, conceiving, and transmitting ideas within the greater mind of humanity. This same process of tuning into a particular frequency using feelings formed into thoughts, while maintaining a passive state, allows us to “move into” the center of living beings of all kinds where we become one with them in mind and spirit. We connect mentally with everything else through “resonance”. It’s what you might think of as a “soul to soul” connection, where you have the same feeling, and out of that feeling a whole story-line emerges and begins playing out as mental impressions.
Premonitions
Premonitions, which come in much the same way as other forms of intuition does, have a unique feel to them that make them stand out as being an actual glimpse into future events and experiences. I think premonitions of what we might call bad events tend to stand out more because of the feelings they elicit in us, which not only come as a dreadful feeling, but also tend to cause conflict and confusion. They tend to come in the same way memories of any kind do, except they form spontaneously out of the blue without being associated to a current event or situation of some kind. Due to a lack of association, they can seem like our own thoughts, often born out of fear of some kind that comes as a pervading feeling that won’t go away, or as a kind of snapshot or image that appears to be off in the distance that represents an event or sudden change of some kind. We often have good premonitions also, which come to us in the same way, but they don’t stand out because they don’t overwhelm us with a sense of fear and anxiety, so we often chalk them up to daydreaming and wishful thinking instead.
Premonitions that come as a preview or insight into a future event as a tragedy or unfortunate situation of some kind, can bring a sense of confusion because we don’t always know why we’re being shown it, and our first inclination is to assume it’s because we’re meant to prevent it by intervening somehow. Yet premonitions about future events and happenings can also come to us as a way of allowing us to prepare for them mentally and emotionally, or as intuitive insights into the bigger picture playing out as karma or Divine Providence. This can often come as a catch twenty-two, where we realize that even when we attempt to try and take control in a way that’s designed to change or alter the course of events already set in motion, in the larger sense, it simply takes a different course and ends in the same way. This strange phenomenon has been called “the butterfly effect”, where if you try to prevent it from happening the way you saw it, the same thing happens, but in a different way. This can also come as showing you the true nature of karma as personal destiny, where you learn to let go of your need to try and control the greater events of life.
I’ve experienced this phenomenon is three basic ways, one as a vision that allowed me to mentally prepare for what was coming, or as what was followed by “mental instructions” for what to do; as insight into what was going to happen that I could prevent through a certain course of action; and as showing me the significance of karma as a form of destiny that was unpreventable. This reminded me of Kennedy’s speech when he said, “let me change the things I can, accept the things I cannot, and the wisdom to know the difference”. Sometimes they come as spiritual guidance, and other times as a warning of what will come to pass that’s beyond our ability to control or change it. Sometimes it’s about “holding space” and witnessing what happens or going through it as an experience so you can be there to help others involved in the aftermath with an attitude of understanding. Usually the only way we have of knowing why we’re shown certain things is by going through them, taking action in relation to what we’re being shown, or in an attempt to alter or prevent them, and seeing whether or not they come into fruition. As we go through things, we get a feeling for them that allows us to identify their purpose more accurately.
Conceiving Higher Knowledge
Through the same type of process described above, we can also tune into and conceive of knowledge from a higher plane of consciousness that comes to us outside of our current knowledge base. Many people express this idea as tuning into a greater field and acting to “receive” information, yet this is a fundamentally incorrect way of describing it, because it’s often referring to “knowledge” contained within the astral field of mass consciousness, rather than true higher knowledge that comes from a source that’s outside of or beyond our material existence. At the subconscious level we all exist fundamentally as a part of the same group mind, referred to psychologically as the “collective unconscious”. This level of the mind is only tuned into the collective field that’s populated by human memory and animal instinct relevant to our species. In this process we’re given ideas as “thought-forms” that have already been developed by another person, and exists in the greater mind as memory. Thoughts that have been concentrated on, vitalized with magnetism and developed through a particular perspective on an idea, are recorded as an energetic imprint within the lower material mind, and come to us in a way that resembles “data”. People who claim to channel other entities, most of which are historical figures who are deceased, or what they call “spirit guides” and ancestors, where they receive information that’s “given to them”, are actually drawing on the Akasha field of collective memory, rather than a true “higher source”.
An easy way to recognize the difference comes by realizing that all information as ideas of a true higher plane, are archetypal in nature, and always serve as the source for developing in an individual and unique way. The higher plane of consciousness is “always” creative in nature, and simply provides the “archetypal seed” that’s “conceived” by the individual mind, where its gestated and developed into an idea that’s unique to the mind forming it as a personal creation. Higher knowledge does not exist in a dead, stagnate form that’s “fixed in nature”. It’s unformed and provides the basic concept for developing in a way that can be applied within our everyday life as a personal creation. Higher knowledge is a dynamic, living system that forms in a unique way every time it’s conceptualized and expressed. It’s always in the process of fluctuating and evolving into endless variations of itself.
Every idea of a truly higher nature exists in a state of “pure potential” that’s symbolic in nature, which is then formed by how it’s adapted to the individual paradigm, where it’s “shaped” to be of the same “image and likeness” of that paradigm. Once it’s built into that paradigm as a modification, it can be “birthed” by it as a reality that brings a particular type of experience. Knowledge exists as a fundamental idea that’s malleable and is shaped through a process of adaptation that modifies it to produce a new possibility as a “part of” the individual mind, where it appears outside of them as a natural part of their environment, formed through their perception, where it can be “experienced”. It’s the mind that shapes reality, not the other way around. When knowledge comes as what’s conveyed as “fact” or an idea that’s already been interpreted for you, where you don’t have to develop it internally, it’s not higher knowledge, but memory cast in the atmosphere around you by another, which can only be known by memorizing it or “quoting it” as coming from an outside source.
This is the same way we’re “taught” what to think in school, by accepting another person’s idea as fact and memorizing it. This is a function of the lower subconscious which only acts to passively receive “ideas” that already exist as the creation of another. This can be easily recognized by the simple fact that any information received by “channeling” or acting as a “medium” for another entity of any kind, is never creative or unique in nature and only restates what’s already known. It never provides us with new information but comes as an interpretation of information. This is because our lower mind doesn’t have the ability to create in the basic sense and operates almost exclusively out of memory that’s symbolic and metaphorical in nature. The higher mind, on the other hand, creates by taking a idea in its potential state, and developing it in a way that’s unique to the character and knowledge base of the individual, and evolving it to new forms as a result.
All information from a truly higher source comes as an idea in “seed form” that’s “universal in nature”, and when drawn into the individual mind, is stimulated and activated by all the memory inherent in their mental paradigm, where it begins unfolding as an animation, “revealing” its hidden nature, where it brings you brand new insights into the same basic idea. An idea is shaped in a completely novel way by each mind conceiving it, where it becomes a “personal creation” born out of a universal concept and can be expressed harmoniously within and as a fundamental part of your everyday, normal perception. We translate and conform ideas to our mental paradigm, which is also comprised of living memory in a coherent state, and we reshape them accordingly. Every person will shape a universal concept in a way that’s unique to them. It doesn’t come by quoting it in the same way it was conceived as an interpretation. It’s interpreted and shaped by the mind itself where it becomes a natural part of it, and can therefore be perceived outwardly as a natural part of your reality. This is because we only “know” something through a direct and immediate experience of it, which only comes through our ability to perceive it within our outer environment. We only retain what we acquire through experience.
Higher knowledge is always communicated through symbols, composite images made out of symbols, and as metaphors that express as a universal theme. It exists as organized fields of information that flow as electromagnetic currents that propagate through space. We can tune into this field of dynamic information by visualizing an idea in symbolic form as a concept, while setting an intention by “asking” for more information about it. If we visualize an idea as a representation or metaphorical concept, and “activate it” by thinking about it in terms of what we already know, it comes alive with activity as a form of animation, and it begins taking on a life of its own where it continues to unfold showing us things we didn’t already know.
We learn brand new things through a self-contained, inner process that plays out in our imagination. We use our individual mind to tune into the same idea within the greater, unformed, cosmic mind of all creation. When we’re in our higher consciousness, all mental activity is creative in nature, and never comes in a preformed manner. It comes as a seed of information that’s grown to maturity in a fertile mind by becoming a coherent part of an existing formation. It’s only when we’re in our lower mind, which lacks creativity, that we “tune into” the akasha field of the existing collective memory of the group mind of mankind, that we’re “downloaded” with information that we imagine to be from a higher, or greater source that’s “outside of us”.
Knowledge that comes from a higher source designed to teach us, comes in much the same way as a symbolic idea that serves as a kind of “clue” that must be penetrated through an inquisition. There’s a number of ways we can do this, most of which come through a natural “chain of associated ideas” that immediately form in relation with it, and by researching or investigating it somehow. It’s only by acting on the clue we’re given that we find another clue, and another one comes by activating that one, and so forth, where we’re led into a greater idea as a form of “treasure hunt”. This same process is described intuitively as only being shown one step, rather than a whole process with a prophesied outcome, and it’s only by taking that step with a sense of faith and curiosity that the next step becomes apparent. We’re never shown the whole process or a final outcome as a means of being guided by a higher source, because it’s designed to lead us into a brand new idea that can’t be perceived through our current field of experiences, and we’re required to create it as we go.
Our ability to perceive an idea in its whole form only comes as possibilities born out of our current paradigm. New ideas can’t be perceived using our current memory-base, and require us to learn new things by taking gradual steps, where we consistently integrate new experiences to upgrade our model. We can’t conceive the outcome from our current perspective because it requires us to “grow into it”. This is what Jesus was teaching us when he said “ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you”, and when he said “when the outer becomes the same as the inner, and the inner the same as the outer, you will have entered the gates of heaven”. In this case, “heaven” is referring to higher consciousness that’s conceived internally and adapted to become a natural part of our outer world as our perception of it. This is what allows us to realize that our outer world is formed as a reflection of our inner thoughts about it.
All prayer, in the most basic sense, doesn’t come as asking for favors or requesting intervention that will somehow create in our life outside of our own ability to create it ourselves, but as a request to be shown what we’re having trouble seeing, or to be given more information around something, or as helping us see things in a way that will allow us to form a new understanding of it. This is because our world is being shaped by us and all knowledge from a higher level of the mind can only come “through us” by being integrated into our mental paradigm as the “lens we look through” in perceiving the outer world, which is being shaped and maintained “by” our paradigm.
Higher knowledge as guidance and instruction for creating also comes to us in the form of dreams and visions, which are always symbolic in nature, where their meaning can only be derived by how we interpret them. Some are vivid and intense, while others are strange, illogical, and vague. This is because the imagery being used comes as the expression of the “feeling” the dream gives you, and isn’t significant in and of itself. It’s only meant to communicate an idea that stems out of a feeling. The feeling is a “state” as a “theme” that plays out any number of ways, while still holding true to the main idea as a feeling. Being chased in a dream, for example, can come in any number of ways and as different scenarios and circumstances, because how or what you’re being chased by is simply expressing the feeling of being chased by something in your waking, daily life. Out of that feeling as a state of mind, comes any number of scenarios and pursuits that all express and convey the “feeling of being chased”.
Many people will try and interpret the dream by interpreting the imagery and material circumstances of the dream, without realizing that they were simply used as the means of expressing a feeling that can’t otherwise be appropriately expressed in their daily life. This same process works in our waking life, where a feeling comes as a mental state out of which numerous events are formed whose “experience” only serves to give us more of that same feeling. The easiest way to identify patterns you’re repeating consistently in your life, doesn’t come through the situations and circumstances themselves that are created, which can be played out in many different ways and with different people, but by noticing that they all act to give you more of the same feeling. That feeling exists as a theme that always tells the same kind of story. Whether it’s at home, work, at the grocery store, or engaging in a conversation with friends, all your experiences evolve out of telling the same type of story, which expresses the same feeling as a pervading mood, while multiplying and giving you more of it.
Forming an Understanding of it as a Whole
Intuition, no matter what form it comes in, is the faculty of the higher, conscious mind that forms awareness of everything as a “greater whole” or single movement, that comes as a form of memory. It comes as knowing about something without knowing why or how you know. Clairvoyance comes as an inner vision of a moment in time that’s playing out as a greater story, where you perceive it from a higher level in complete form. It ties the past, present, and future together as a unification. A premonition of the future comes by “remembering it”. Not in absolute terms as the nature of the event itself or particular way it plays out in your mind’s eye, but in terms of what results, no matter how it comes about. Destiny is an end result that can come about in an endless variety of ways or through what seems like different decisions, which simply changes the way it comes about.
All memory is recollected and remembered using the imagination to replay it, and memory itself is also “created” in the imagination and is what forms the basis for producing reality as our “perception of it”. The higher, conscious mind uses imagination to create in a new and novel way, while the lower, subconscious mind uses it to replay memories as the means of constructing our outer world to bring us more and more of the same type of experiences. When we create solely by remembering or memorizing ideas given to us in completed form, we use our imagination in a passive way to create a joint reality out of whatever we’ve been taught or given by others, and when we use it actively, by thinking for ourselves and tuning into higher knowledge of archetypes, symbols, and metaphor, we use it to create in a new and more individual way.
No matter how we look at it, memory, whether formed unconsciously or with awareness and intention, is what forms the thematic template for structuring all our experiences. If we form our reality out of shared memory of the group mind, we keep ourselves locked into an unconscious state where we experience life as “happening to us” or “acting on us” as an outside force, and we become like an “animal”, governed by instinctual impulses. If we learn how to use our intuition in forming new ideas on the inner planes of an active imagination, we step into our higher power and begin shaping ourselves as an individual where we form reality as a means of experiencing ourselves through our own creation, and as we truly are on the higher planes of the awakened, self-conscious mind.
Transpersonal Psychologist, Mind-Body Health Consultant, and Spiritual Teacher
