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