Intuition: What is it Really?
Intuition As Consciousness
The Whisper of the Soul —
Consider child protégées who entered the world fully capable of performing amazing music or math or even physics, and so forth. How did they attune with what we call genius understanding? Consider Einstein who did not learn his formulas from a teacher. He didn’t puzzle them out with his rational mind, but went and lay in a little boat on a pond to “meditate” and intuit his great wisdom. Perhaps had he formulated how he intuited his formulas his fame would be even greater today!
And no, I don’t pretend to reveal a scientific explanation of how intuition operates, this little essay is simply a journey of exploration where we will consider according to the way we experience intuition: how wisdom precipitates into our awareness and where it comes from.
For starters, wisdom is not confined to only what people learn on earth and store in literature and pass on to the new generation. It seems to be readily available through what the Bible refers to as “wisdom from above” which it says is not like earthly (rational) wisdom. This universal wisdom is what can be intuited in some way into human temporal awareness.
So let’s consider this “wisdom from above” and how it differs from the earthly collective consciousness that can fill minds with all manner of chatter from intellectual to nonsense. There seems to be two different frequencies — two different collective consciousnesses — what we will call the lower being filled with visuals and language, while the higher is so refined it is not defined by language but comes to us through the heart in a deep understanding that we subsequently translate into visuals and our native language.
And yes, I said the heart, the heart that scientific study has identified as having a neurology that operates faster than the brain and alerts us of phenomena before the brain can react. Some studies show that it is when the heart and brain frequencies are aligned or “entrained” that we receive or intuit the higher wordless understanding.
You can explore the HeartMath Institute website for more information on the heart-brain connection and to learn how the heart influences our perceptions, emotions, intuition and health.
A quote of Jiddu Krishnamurti states that “Intuition is the whisper of the soul.” We could imagine the human brain having a receptor which is more attuned to the lower collective consciousness. While our soul, being responsive to a higher collective consciousness, transmits its understanding through our heart to our awareness — especially if our brain is receptive by being aligned with our heart.
Yes, our soul is a significant factor in this exploration of intuition, yet is also a subject that deserves an essay of its own. For now we can generally consider the soul as an aware energetic being which animates our human form although it is not entirely contained in it.
Staying focused on intuition, we find the Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives a definition of intuition as “the power or faculty of gaining direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference.” People know this is possible by direct empirical experience, yet many can’t fathom it because intuition is not verifiable by observation, or they feel that intuitive understanding must be affirmed by rational facts. These same skeptics however will readily accept that a radio transmitter and a distant radio receiver operate to convey invisible frequencies to a listener. Seems it would be wise to apply this same acceptance to the intuitive process.
Okay, we’ve done a cursory exploration coming full loop back to the question of what is intuition really? I propose that the best way to know it is to do it — to be still, calm, quiet, projecting our question to the universe, to all that is, and then remain expectantly attentive for knowing to come, which it will as our knowing capacity incrementally increases. And as this occurs perhaps we will find that intuition is consciousness itself — the very knowing of our source conveyed to the expression and experience of who we each are?
What do you think?
I hope you enjoy my Midjourney Art & Mindfulness. I would love to hear your comments or questions!