Sunday, July 11, 2010

Learning to Feel the Answer



In my previous post I mentioned using the Feeling Sense in research, particularly when reading a book. Here’s a little more about that cognitive capacity.
Feelings are an essential part of thinking. Case studies from science show that people who lose the capacity to feel emotion become greatly impaired in their capacity to make intelligent choices. Yet many people still believe that when they make choices they are relying purely upon logic.
What is more, some intuitive subtle feelings emerge from the extended mind (consciousness beyond the brain), and these feelings can help us make wise choices.
I like to describe intuition as feminine, becasue it is a softer form of cognition than rational ways of knowing. It requires a letting go, a receptivity. It requires trust in something beyond the control of the conscious mind.
Mainstream education and western society in general is dominated by male energy, or patriarchy. 'Control and power' dominate such societies, and subtle intuition is largely alien to them. Unfortunately I cannot report east Asian cultures are any better in the modern age. They too have lost touch with their spiritual roots, to make a broad generlalisation, and their education systems are dominated by dry, repetitious, soul numbing rote learning. I should know - I have taught in such systems for over a decade.
The following is an extract from my book, Sage of Synchronicity. The INI Tools referred to are methods for tapping into intuition.

Developing the Feeling Sense
This is the ability to feel the energy within people, things, and situations, including the outcomes of intended actions.
The Feeling Sense consists of the subtle feelings that are provided by intuition. This is an absolutely crucial INI Tool, and the one that you will use the most often as you apply the knowledge in Sage of Synchronicity. The good news is that it is also quite simple. The Feeling Sense is innate, and anybody can learn to use it. I have taught people to use the Feeling Sense in two minutes flat.
As children we were better at employing the Feeling Sense, but as we get older, our modern education systems diminish this capacity, because of the delimiting way we are taught to think. Not to fear, however, as the Feeling Sense simply remains latent, and never disap­pears. All you have to do is learn how to turn on the tap again.
The more you become comfortable with looking within yourself, the easier it will become to distinguish amongst your many subtle feel­ings. You have to learn the difference between a “true” intuitive pull and other competing voices of the psyche - the ego, desire, wishful thinking, fear of the unknown, and so on. This is not really something that can be taught from a book like this. It is something you learn by trial and error.
You can use the Feeling Sense to pull data from people, objects, places, futures and pasts. As far as I am aware there are few limits. It truly is the doorway to the Akashic Field of Hindu lore, that part of the intelligent universe which contains a reservoir of infinite knowledge.
Here are a few possible applications.
People. Imagine reaching out with your hand and into the body of the person you wish to “read”. Then just let go and allow that person’s thoughts and feelings to move through you. Alternatively, you can imagine your body merging with theirs, repeating the same process. Always let go of the person as you finish the process. Otherwise, you may find your energy entangled with theirs.
Objects. Pyschometry occurs when you reach out with your mind to touch an object and feel the energy within it. Use the same process as for people, as described above. This is something that is relatively easy to do.
Places. Imagine moving out of your body and finding yourself in the place you want to know more about. Here you are looking for any feel­ings about the place. Of course, you may get images of words coming to you. If so, take note of them.
Futures. The future is not set in stone, but you can get a sense of probable futures. The further away in time, and more small-scale the event, the less predictable it is. For major events, such as economic shifts or ethnic conflicts, the results are more reliable.
To sense a possible future, feel yourself moving into the future choice you are thinking of making (e.g. accepting that job). What does it feel like? You can use this to imagine the futures of career choices, products you buy, places you visit and so on.
Pasts. Generally speaking, the past is set; however, the way that people relate to their past can have a great effect on the energy of the past as it is represented in the present. You can read another person’s past, in precisely the same way you read another person’s energy in the present (see above).
As you move your energy outwards and into theirs, you are gen­erally picking up the emotional experience of the past event, rather than the literal event itself. Any emotional energy that is trapped in the psyche of a person is relatively easy to read, as emotional energy is “loud”.
The following example illustrates the Feeling Sense well.
At one time I had a slightly problematic situation. I was living in Hong Kong, and had decided not to renew the contract at the school where I was working. No new position emerged by the time I finished my job, and I was left with just a few weeks to find a new one. I was undecided whether to stay in Hong Kong, or return to Australia. It was a big decision, so it caused me some stress.
What I did was put the question out to the universe in prayer. The next day I sat down on the toilet (a great place for inspiration!), think­ing of nothing in particular. Suddenly the words from the chorus of a song from the 80s band the Traveling Wilburies came into my mind. The song, and the words were At the End of the Line. After many years of working with such guidance, I knew exactly what it meant, immediately. There was a job advert I had seen two days before from a school at the very end of the train line in eastern Hong Kong. I had been unsure about whether to apply, but when those words came into my mind, I felt a certainty within myself. I rang the school and went for an interview. It was the school holidays, so there were no students around, no classes to check, and no kids’ faces to look at as a guide to the energy of the place. But as an office assistant showed me around the school, I was filled with a very positive feeling. There was something almost feminine about the energy of the school, a very rare thing in Hong Kong’s hyper-competitive education system! There was just a good vibe about the place.
As it turned out, I was offered a job. Based solely on my positive feelings, I accepted it. I just knew that I would fit in there, and that I would be treated well.
My intuition turned out to be spot on. It was indeed a good place to work, and the students and the staff were the best I’d ever worked with.
A good way to begin honouring The Feeling Sense is to regularly repeat the following exercise. Think of a decision you want to make, one that involves two or three possible options (choose a new one each time you do this). Write each option down on a separate piece of paper, and sit with the papers in front of you. Breathe deeply and re­lax. Ask yourself one question about the choice, e.g. “Which of these options is the best for my Spirit”, or “Which of these options is most likely to be successful” (be careful - these are not the same thing). Then place your non-dominant hand over one of the papers/options. Allow yourself to get a feeling about each option, in turn. You may get a subtle sense of excitement. If it feels “exciting”, it is a good bet that there is good energy on the option. This process is a little like the eighteenth and nineteenth century Romantics’ merging of subject and object (they believed the knower could merge with the thing they were trying to know). You can imagine yourself connecting with the choice (the place, the object, the person…), and sensing the energy of it.
   The more you honour your intuitive feelings, the more they will speak to you. This really is too valuable an advantage to pass up. Don’t ignore this simple tool. It can cut a lot of hassle out of the decision-making process, while saving much time and energy.

4 comments:

  1. I like the link to the Romantic movement - it's so important to remember that these ideas aren't just some weirdo hippie shit left over from the 1960s, but have fairly recently been mainstream in Western culture. It's just an extreme current of hyper-rationalism that argues that we should go around with three-quarters of our senses switched off.

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  2. Totally agree with Simonbruc. Love your story about the end of the line. Sure fits.

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  3. Right Simon. It's actually impossible to cut ourselves off from feelings (emotions), but many of us do ignore subtle intuitive feelings. The real culprit is modern education, which ignores the intuitive mind and creates an imbalance in cognitive processing - too much left-brained stuff.

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  4. Great sharing, Marcus - than you.
    Awareness of everything, as much as it is possible in each moment, illuminates the path.

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