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I If we are paying attention, we are constantly receiving information from the level of our subconscious or intuition. Actually, we are receiving this information whether we are paying attention or not! It can be very confusing. Our intuition slips us an idea, or a feeling of “knowing,” but since it’s mixed in with the myriad of our everyday perceptions, we don’t recognize it for what it is. If if doesn’t come with a flash of light or ringing of bells, it floats by without our notice. Later on we might remember it and acknowledge to ourselves that we “had a feeling” that something was true––alas, too late. This validation of our intuition comes from events as they occur in the future––a long or short time after we have had the intuitive thought.

What’s the good of that? You might well wonder. I suspect it is part of the process of becoming more aware of our intuition. An intuitive thought does have a different “feel” to it, but when we don’t know that, we don’t know how to notice the difference from our other thoughts.

This is a good argument for meditation. When we meditate, we are setting aside time to notice our intuition and guidance. In a meditative state, we are consciously asking to receive our highest knowing and this comes in the form of intuitive ideas. when we begin to notice how these feel, we can better notice them as they occur outside of our meditation times.

Then the time delay between our intuitions and their validation by external events gets shorter. Perhaps this is because we are watching more closely to see if our intuitions are correct. When we can recognize our intuition, we also give them more value and act from our intuition with more confidence.

Sometimes it happens that we follow our intuition and no validation seems to follow. When I was first practicing following my intuition consciously, I often tested it out while I was driving. If my intuition suggested I should turn left, right or go straight ahead, I followed it. It might suggest that I should avoid a certain route, drive a different way. Often enough I would find that it was accurate––there would be road construction or a traffic jam in those areas I would have gone, and I was pleased to have this validation. But then, sometimes it would seem as though I had altered my route for no reason. I remember following my intuition and choosing a different freeway for my travel. I eagerly listened to the traffic reports, expecting to hear of a delay on the other freeway. Nothing. After this happened several times, I was mentally complaining of the bother of changing my route for no apparent reason. I felt that I was being taken for a fool and got pretty specific about how I felt about that! Then I heard a gentle Voice, “You will never know the things that didn’t happen because you weren’t there.” I understood then that my physical presence could have altered events, had I been there, but since I wasn’t it didn’t, if that makes sense. It made sense to me, and I never bothered about seeking external validation after that––at least, not about my driving!

That really was a turning point for me, about following my intuition without being distracted by whether or not I ever found out about the results. It is not easy to remember this at all times, but it is an important part of the process of spiritual growth.

It has been my experience that whenever we are growing spiritually, we often need external validation as we reach each new level of growth. this is very important for us to build our confidence, that what we are experiencing is real. We learn to know it is real, from our own inner-knowing. Then when we begin to grow more and have new experiences, again it is helpful to have these experiences validated––again, we need to know that it is real, but ideally this becomes less and less important. the fact of the experience of intuition becomes its own validation.

As we learn to validate our growth internally, each step of growth comes more quickly, because we don’t have to wait for outside validation. We come to know that the validation will be forthcoming, whenever we need it.

© 2002 Donna Metcalfe

DONNA METCALFE is the owner of Good Scents, a metaphysical bookstore in Redlands, CA. Her book: Collected Works: a book for the Eclectic Spirit, a collection of her essays is now available at Good Scents and other fine bookstores!

Visit Good Scents' website at:http://www.goodscents.org

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