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| 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 founder 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/.
