“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honours the servant and has forgotten the gift.” ~ Albert Einstein
A few weeks ago I was presenting an intuition playshop to a group of 40 child care workers at a conference. One of the activities required participants to walk up to different people and share whatever intuitive insights they may have for them. What was shared was to be seen as a gift that may serve the receiver in some way. The insight could be a word, phrase, color, image, feeling etc.
One of the participants, Katharine, offered, “blue car” to someone named Carol. As the words came to Katharine’s mind and were blurted out of her mouth, she could not help but feel somewhat surprised and bothered. “Blue car” wasn’t exactly useful, she thought. To her, “Trust yourself”, “Follow your heart” or, “You can do it” would have been a much more magnanimous offering for Carol. Little did Katharine realize how much these two simple and seemingly impractical words needed to be said, and how they were the voice of a profound and mysterious calling.
I tell my participants early on that what you share intuitively is not for you; it is not for you to make sense of. It does not need to make sense at all. Rather, it is for the other person—the receiver—to make sense of. That is why blurting is so important—because by sending that information out quickly, we bypass the inner filter—the rational part of us that doubts and questions our inner voice, wants us to sound brilliant, logical, and do things “right”.
“We often know things imaginally, aesthetically, or harmoniously before we know them rationally or conceptually.” ~ Richard Rohr
Fast-forward about one hour.
After the playshop was over, Carol went to the parking lot to proceed home. There she noticed that three blue cars surrounded her car. Suddenly an old friend she hadn’t connected with for years popped out of one of those blue cars. They spoke for a while, swapped old stories and shared a hug. And then Carol got into her car and drove towards a fateful moment that would forever change her life, and the life of one small boy.
Ahead of her down the highway she witnessed a blue car abruptly pull over. A woman frantically jumped out of the driver’s seat and opened the back door. Urgency flooded Carol’s body. She had an intuitive feeling that there was something here for her, a reason to stop. She pulled over, ran up to the car, and discovered a small boy in the backseat choking on a chocolate egg. Carol had recently done CPR training and knew exactly what needed to be done. She ended up saving the boy’s life.
This all happened because two women decided to trust and act on their intuition. The conversation in the parking lot created the perfect delay and timing for the stars and cars to align. And the three blue cars served as foreshadowing so Carol would better recognize the act of service she was being called towards by the part of her that knows without knowing how it knows.
It was very powerful and moving for me to hear this story the next day, and more so, to watch Carol share this miracle with the entire conference delegation during lunch. A reminder to all that life is not what it seems.
“Cease trying to work everything out with your minds. It will get you nowhere. Live by intuition and inspiration and let your whole life be Revelation.” ~ Eileen Caddy
There is a term in the ancient Indian language of Sanskrit called maya, which translates to magic, illusion, or not what it seems. When we follow the hidden pathways intuition draws us to, life begins to flow in magical ways towards destinations the thinking mind could never foresee. Conventional routes and logical reasoning are challenged, and the patterned life of linearity we had come to know and comfortably travel begins to bend, break and transform. The lens of perception is forever altered, and life is seen and experienced in a whole new way.
One night many years ago when I was a struggling entrepreneur living well below the poverty line, racking up my fifth credit card, I was telling my mentor over the phone how incredibly desperate I was. The theme of the conversation was my growing desire to quit trying to build my business, and the pressing and depressing need to crawl towards the unfulfilling job most thought best for me to seek. To my surprise, when I shared my sense of futility she responded emphatically with a, “Yes! Giving up is the gate!” Just after the conversation ended a man screamed from in front of my three-story apartment building, “I give up!” I dashed to my balcony, looked down, and there stood a stranger standing on the street directly in front me. He then yelled, “Let a new life begin!” And then this vagabond strolled away into the dark mist of the evening, saying nothing more.
Just like with “blue car”, the message was delivered and heard.
It wasn’t long afterwards that, finally, after years of struggle, I surrendered. I gave up completely. And in that alchemical moment when my tired clenched fists opened, life sprang forth and rushed in to help me. Just like Carol, I was open to receive. I received clear information in dreams on what passions to pursue, and whom to offer them to. People miraculously appeared in my life—spirit guides in disguise—and showed me where to look, who to speak to. Again and again, pathways that I could not see hitherto were quickly lit for me to travel down so that I could do the work I do today. Things turned around so quickly, in fact, that only one year after reaching rock bottom I completely paid off my heavy debt. It was a momentous and emotional day for me to, after four labored years of living below the poverty line, proudly walk into the bank and deposit enough money to push me into the black.
“Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness concerning all acts of initiative and creation. There is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans; that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen events, meetings and material assistance which no one could have dreamed would have come their way. Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!” ~ Johan Wolfgang von Goethe
It was a difficult initiation I endured into the next level of the unseen that intuition connects us to and guides us towards. I was groomed and made ready to ride the burgeoning waves of a deeper calling.
I invite you to consider for a moment that the things of this world we see with our eyes are only limited and fleeting expressions of life. Like the waves of the ocean, they are only fragments of a greater whole slowly breaking and inevitably crashing. Below the surface of our concrete world lies a mysterious fluid body of intelligence that orchestrates and infuses the manifold waves of existence. As we learn to connect with it through our intuition we remember the depth that we are. We re-member into the greater body that is our Source. Life is felt and experienced with less separation from others and the natural world, and with more connectedness to the greater whole that we are all inextricably linked to. We find ourselves moving with the currents of life, versus against them, as part of one mysterious system. So much so that when life presents these incredible synchronistic moments that Carol and I experienced, they feel like less of a surprise and more like a natural expression of being part of what poet Mary Oliver calls the family of things.
“Listen to your heart. Even though it’s on the left side, it’s always right.” ~ Unknown
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Check out Vince’s book: Let the Fire Burn ~ Nurturing the Creative Spirit of Children, A Children’s Book for Adults
