intuition: noun

1. direct perception of truth, fact, etc., independent of any reasoning process; immediate apprehension.
2. a fact, truth, etc., perceived in this way.
3. a keen and quick insight.
4. the quality or ability of having such direct perception or quick insight.
5. Philosophy: an immediate cognition of an object not inferred or determined by a previous cognition of the same object; any object or truth so discerned; pure, untaught, noninferential knowledge.¹

Dictionary.com defines intuition as “direct perception of truth,” but it does not say direct from where. Ernest Holmes tells us:

“I believe in the direct revelation of Truth through the intuitive and spiritual nature of the individual, and that any person may become a revealer of Truth who lives in close contact with the indwelling God.”²

The Spirit within is the Source of intuition. It is that “still, small voice of God” that enlightens us during prayer and meditation – and occasionally in the midst of daily activity. This “pure, untaught, noninferential knowledge” has been called our sixth sense, our gut feeling or our inner knowing. It is factory equipment in every human being, but develops at different rates among us. As a school principal, I would ask children that were in my office for misbehaving, “Was what you did right or wrong?” When they responded that it was wrong, I asked, “How do you know if something is right or wrong?” “I can just feel it.” “Where do you feel it?” “In my tummy.” We are born with that “gut feeling” that makes us uncomfortable when something is out of kilter in our lives, or gives us a sense that a thing sounds true, feels right, rings a bell or resonates with us on a deep level. So, if intuition is indeed built-in, how do we lose our ability to use it, to tap into that Omniscience and let It inform us?

I believe that it starts when children are taught that if you cannot see it, feel it, hear it, taste it or smell it, it isn’t real. If we only have five senses, then the “sixth sense” must be imaginary. And of course, most children are instructed to leave their imaginary world behind, and “join the real world.” So intuition may often get left behind with the elves, gnomes and fairies. Our intuition, once so strong, atrophies from disuse.

As a songwriter I often look back and revisit songs that I wrote long ago. Often I find truths in the lyrics that I “didn’t know” back then. Where did those insights come from? It can only be that the Omniscience of Spirit was fully present within me, although I had not become consciously aware of it yet. I think that these experiences grew my faith that I was intuitive, and as my faith in it grew, so did my access to it. It is done unto us as we believe. If we believe that it will work, it does work and our faith in it grows stronger. However, as Ernest writes, “…if we believe that It will not work, It really works by appearing to “not work.”³ Until I believed in my intuition, it was not available to me; not in the sense that it wasn’t there, but it appeared not to be there: it worked by “not working.”

Now we are on the spiritual path and we find that we long for that intuition that we have allowed to wither. How do we retrain and regain our intuition? We often turn to the writings of mystics for spiritual understanding. Ernest Holmes writes:

“The only knowledge we have of the kingdom of heaven must come through the consciousness of man. Therefore, man’s thought should swing between prayer and meditation and contemplation and action.”⁴

As we contemplate the concept that there is only One Mind that is Omniscient and fully present and available to all of us, we are drawn to the conclusion that if any person can receive Divine Revelation, all people can. So, how do we get there from here? Our humanness tells us to pray harder, to figure out what we need to do to rediscover our intuition. But maybe effort is not what is needed at all. Maybe all that effort and doing are actually getting in our way. Ernest Holmes writes of animals’ instincts:

“It is really Omniscience in the animal. The same quality, more highly developed, makes a conscious appearance in man and is what we call intuition. Intuition is God in man, revealing to him the Realities of Being; and just as instinct guides the animal, so would intuition guide man, if he would allow it to do so.”⁵

We cannot get it to happen, but we can let it happen. We pray to make our intention clear, and then we meditate to commune with the Presence within us and listen for the still, small voice. We then contemplate that which our intuition reveals to us, and we base our action in the world on our new understanding. The following passage from The Voice Celestial beautifully illustrates the Wayfarer’s quest to develop his intuition, and the prayer, meditation and contemplation that will fulfill his quest:

The Farer

What are the steps that lead to intuition?

The Presence

Turn first and last and ever to the ME,

For THOU ART THAT; the knower and the known

Must meet within. With mind unwandering

Proclaim within thyself the fact of Heav’n,

Declare thy reverence for the Inner Good,

The True, the Holy and the Beautiful,

Think on the nature of the Truth and say

“Thou art the Light, Thou art the Way, Thou art

The Untaught Teacher of the Truth.

I would see only Thee;

For where Thou art is wisdom. Be to me

The candle and the flame, the star that shines

And light that streams therefrom. And let me walk

With Thee. O Light Eternal, Guide my steps.”⁶

Spirit responds by corresponding – as we turn to God, God turns to us. When we ask God to guide our steps, we then need to listen for and follow that guidance. This may mean we have to grow our trust and step out into the invisible, like Indiana Jones. But the greater our trust and faith, the greater will be our demonstration.

“There is an intuition within you which already knows that you are one with good, that your destiny is certain, and you must listen to this intuition for it is the voice of God within you.”⁷

“The knower and the known must meet within.” There was no more of God’s Wisdom in Meister Eckhart or Hildegard of Bingen than there is in you or me. The difference is not that we are less spiritual or that God gives us a smaller portion of Omniscience, but that these great mystics trusted their intuition and acted upon it. It is that very fact that they staked their lives on what their intuition guided them to do that grew their intuitive faculties so powerfully. As we grow our trust and faith in the Knower Within, our intuition becomes more clear and powerful.

So how do we use intuition in our practitioner work with others? Since intuition is the direct impartation of the Omniscience of God to us and through us, it can and will lead us directly to the mental cause of our client’s difficulty. Remember that the God within us is the same God that is within our client, and it is that Omniscience that connects us. The more we open ourselves up to fully receive this intuition, the less that can remain hidden from us. Does this mean that we are mentally or emotionally invasive to our client? No – while it is true that some people have psychic abilities that have had negative effects on others, true intuition is of God, and therefore can have no ill effects.

How can we tell the difference between intuition and psychic ability; how do we know if it is the Voice of God or some other mental phenomena? The acid test is this: if it can do only good to oneself and all others, it is of Spirit. If it comes with a feeling of beneficence and peace, with no trace of manipulation or coercion, it is intuition. If there are any negative sensations, check to see if they are inherent in what you are receiving, or only a lack of trust in your ability to sense the Divine Influx of Spirit. In our self-doubt we implant too many imagined difficulties. We need to learn to trust our “gut instinct;” if it feels right, it probably is. Ernest wrote:

“The practitioner does not depend upon hunches, or spirits, or phenomena. He depends only on what he feels within himself because he is keeping silent tryst with the Almighty God and with the Law of good. God, then, can speak directly to him. … Our work is simple. It is direct. Let us keep it that way.”⁸

All we need do is to establish ourselves in the consciousness of Oneness with God. This gives us access to all of the Creative Power, all of the Wisdom, all of the Love and all of the Intelligence there is. We do this by taking time daily to commune with the Spirit within through prayer, meditation and spiritual mind treatment. To the degree that we are faithful in our daily spiritual practices, we will always be able to trust our intuition to Divinely guide and guard us. We will hold to a firm faith that the Still Small Voice within will always direct our work with our clients. With a deep faith and trust, we surrender and let Spirit flow through us unimpeded, always remembering, like Jesus of Nazareth, “I can of mine own self do nothing. The Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”

Peace, Love & Blessings,

End Notes

1. Dictionary.com, http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/intuition?s=t
2. Ernest Holmes, What I Believe, Science of Mind Magazine, 1927, http://www.godasme.com/images/Religious_Science.pdf-
3. Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind, p. 52.5
4. Ernest Holmes, The Beverly Hills Lectures, p. 95.3
5. Ernest Holmes, The Science of Mind, p. 342.2
6. Ernest Holmes and Fenwicke Holmes, The Voice Celestial, p. 159-160
7. Ernest Holmes, This Thing Called You, p. 27.3
8. Ernest Holmes Seminar Lectures, p. 122.3