Intuition

(This blog was originally posted on July 22, 2015)

Photo courtesy of Fotolia

     I believe that intuition is one of the most valuable perceptions that people have. It isn’t about mind-reading or fortune-telling per se, although some people do possess this gift. I am talking about a skill that I consider practical intuition. It manifests itself as that gut instinct or a little voice in our mind that tells us to do something or go somewhere (or not). It is that urge or behavior that we cannot logically explain or identify its origin, but benefits us when we follow this inexplicable instruction.

According to Hypnosis Motivation Institute John Kappas, Ph.D.’s Theory of Mind, at birth humans know only two responses: a reaction to the fear of falling and a reaction to the fear of loud noises. Every other belief and behavior is learned through identifying a stimulus (e.g., smell, sound, taste, sight, touch) and associating it with a positive or negative response or experience (knowns). In turn, these associations create our life script (mental script), and we continue to behave in ways which we have learned “work” to help us accomplish a particular goal. It is not practical or efficient for our brains to actively process and respond to each of the millions of pieces of data (message units). Therefore, once the critical area of the mind identifies this random data as a known in the SCM, we can ignore the stimulus and go on our way. This is where and how I believe our practical intuition kicks in.

Consider, again, the fear of falling and fear of loud noises that we are born with. Generally speaking, falling can be lethal to humans and other animals. Similarly, a loud noise is often associated with real or perceived danger, such as the crack of thunder during an electric storm. Thunder is loud and it can definitely be very scary, which is good, because it generally sends us looking for shelter from a lightning strike that can injure or kill. Now imagine the infinitesimal quantity of information that your subconscious mind perceives and associate with the incoming storm. When the SCM identifies message units that it associates with these primitive fears, the metaphoric alarm bells will be going off in your mind to warn and protect you of possible danger.

Neuro-scientists contend that the human brain perceives and processes so much data that most people have no idea how much they really know or are capable of. (The potential deleterious effect of this unharnessed power is the concept behind Lucy, a new movie starring Scarlett Johannson.) What if our powers of intuition come from our subconscious ability to interpret those millions pieces of miniscule sensory data, identify this information and behave in a way that will is most likely to benefit our well-being? I believe that each one of us is naturally able to intuit a likely outcome to a situation or problem, positive or negative. Unfortunately, that niggling voice of self-doubt and lack of trust in our inexplicable insight keeps getting in the way.

 Sara R. Fogan, C.Ht. is a certified hypnotherapist based in Southern California. She graduated with honors from the Hypnosis Motivation Institute in 2005. For more information about Calminsense Hypnotherapy®, please visit http://www.calminsensehypnotherapy.com/.

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