On Intuition, #2

[Here's another post from my dowsing journal.]

Medical intuitives are people who can diagnose ailments in trances ~ such as the renowned psychic Edgar Cayce and his thousands of medical readings ~ or even over the telephone as is sometimes done by people such as Mona Lisa Schultz, author of Awakening Intuition: Using Your Mind-Body Network for Insight and Healing.

Aside from her psychic abilities, she’s a neuropsychiatrist with a degree from Brown University, and her M.D. and a Ph.D. from Boston University of Science and Medicine. I read Awakening Intuition earlier this year and a few days ago went back to it for her thoughts on intuition in general. (I should mention that the book title is a bit misleading ~ there's a lot about mind/body medicine, but very little on how to awaken one's intuitive abilities.) Here’s one thing she wrote:

Some people are visual intuitives, receiving mental visual images. Some people are auditory intuitives; they hear thoughts, sounds, or message that carry intuitive information. Some people are somatic intuitives, receiving somato-sensory input, or body feelings about themselves or others. When people say to me, “I’m not intuitive. I can’t see things,” I ask them, “Then what do you hear?” or “What do you feel?” It’s important to discover your own particular strength and to use the connections you do have instead of becoming blocked by the thought of the ones you don’t have.

In getting in touch with their intuition network, people have to understand how they’re already using intuition, perhaps in very subtle ways. Once you recognize what you’re already doing without being fully aware of it, you can work to build that muscle by exercising it more.

That's as good a reason as any to keep dowsing … something, anything … every few days or even daily. Got to build up that muscle!

On Intuition, #1

[During the past year, I've been experimenting with dowsing and for awhile maintained a blog dedicated to my experiences. I've put that blog on hold, but would like from time to time to reprint some of its posts on Quantum Spirit.]

Devices such as dowsing rods behave as if they have some intrinsic power of their own. But this isn’t the Middle Ages and we know the rods react somehow to the musculature in our hands. Yet, the question remains: What’s controlling the musculature?

Without a doubt, intuition – the mind’s ability to sense information and subtly transmit it – has the leading role. Here’s what the late Indian mystic Osho says about it:

Intuition cannot be explained scientifically because the very phenomenon is unscientific and irrational. The very phenomenon of intuition is irrational. In language it looks okay to ask, “Can intuition be explained?” But it means, “Can intuition be reduced to intellect?” And intuition is something beyond the intellect, something not of the intellect, something coming from some place where intellect is totally unaware. So the intellect can feel it, but it cannot explain it.

Considering the role of the intellect in our culture, becoming more intuitive has some challenges, to say the least.

Intuition Guides Blind Man Around Obstacles

Click here to see the video recording showing "TN" completing the obstacle course set up by the scientists. He does it flawlessly without the aid of his cane or another person.


Using only his intuition, a man blinded by stroke is able to navigate down a hallway, through a maze of obstacles, without a cane or human assistance. Known to the Harvard Medical School study group as "TN," he can walk around chairs and boxes without bumping into them, using hidden pathways in the brain for guidance.

TN was left blind after damage to the visual (striate) cortex in both hemispheres of the brain following consecutive strokes, according to the BBC. His eyes are normal but his brain cannot process the information they send in, rendering him totally blind.

However, he was previously known to have what is called "blindsight" ~ the ability to detect things in the environment without being aware of seeing them. For instance, he responds to the facial expressions of others. But he usually uses a stick to track obstacles and requires guidance by others when walking around buildings.

Unaware of Obstacles

Lead researcher Dr Beatrice de Gelder of Tilburg University, The Netherlands, and Harvard Medical School, said TN was "not aware of doing anything exceptional" and thought all he had done was walk straight ahead along a long corridor.

"You can experience a total loss of your cortical vision but still retain some capacity to move around inside and out without damage to yourself," she told the BBC. "It shows us the importance of these evolutionary ancient visual paths. They contribute more than we think they do for us to function in the real world."

Click here for the BBC article and video.

Intuition Workout

Medical intuitives are people who can diagnose ailments in trances ~ such as the renowned psychic Edgar Cayce and his thousands of medical readings ~ or even over the telephone as is sometimes done by people such as Mona Lisa Schultz, author of Awakening Intuition: Using Your Mind-Body Network for Insight and Healing.

Aside from her psychic abilities, she’s a neuropsychiatrist with a degree from Brown University, and her M.D. and a Ph.D. from Boston University of Science and Medicine. I read Awakening Intuition earlier this year and a few days ago went back to it for her thoughts on intuition in general. (I should mention that the book title is a bit misleading ~ there's a lot about mind/body medicine, but very little on how to awaken one's intuitive abilities.) Here’s one thing she wrote:

Some people are visual intuitives, receiving mental visual images. Some people are auditory intuitives; they hear thoughts, sounds, or message that carry intuitive information. Some people are somatic intuitives, receiving somato-sensory input, or body feelings about themselves or others. When people say to me, “I’m not intuitive. I can’t see things,” I ask them, “Then what do you hear?” or “What do you feel?” It’s important to discover your own particular strength and to use the connections you do have instead of becoming blocked by the thought of the ones you don’t have.

In getting in touch with their intuition network, people have to understand how they’re already using intuition, perhaps in very subtle ways. Once you recognize what you’re already doing without being fully aware of it, you can work to build that muscle by exercising it more.

That's as good a reason as any to keep dowsing … something, anything … every few days or even daily. Got to build up that muscle!

This post is from one of my other blogs, "A Dowser's Diary: An Experiment in Intuition." I have not been good at keeping the diary current.