The Language of Spirit
by Nancy
Lee-Evans
My
client lies on the table as energy flows through my hands into her body
and surrounding energy field. I follow the energy as it moves from
tissue to tissue, dissolving congested, blocked energy in her abdomen
and into the heart chakra. I feel the loneliness there and speak to her
about it. Tears fill her eyes as she slowly nods her head. I see an
image of a childhood home filled with anger and control. We have begun
the journey of her healing.
What
is intuition?
Intuition
is a basic life skill. It improves our judgment, makes decisions easier
and enhances our feeling of spiritual connectedness. As Western culture
made a choice to embrace science nearly 400 years ago, we began to lose
intuition as a valid basis for navigating life. Intuitive understanding
was discredited, dismissed, and often became equated with delusion. As a
consequence, our cultural decision-making process lost the integration
of gut instincts and heart—the
hallmarks of an intuitively informed life.
Intuition is the faculty of acquiring direct knowledge or insight
without thinking our way through it. While it has been highly developed
in healers for millennia, it is an inherent ability of being human.
Anyone can develop this facility. Children are naturally intuitive,
though are often taught to discount their insights by authorities in the
school and church, and (all too often) by parents. Demands to explain
what is simply "known" on internal levels leave us feeling
invalid and foolish by outer world standards. Soon, we stop knowing.
Imagination
is very much like intuition. In fact, the same neural centers in the
brain are activated for both imagination and intuition. Your brain
literally cannot tell the difference. It’s
no surprise, then, that children have talent in both imagination and
intuition. This is why using your imagination is a good way to hone your
intuition. Imagination exercises your intuitional “muscles.”
How
do we know what we “know”
intuitively?
Intuition
is a function of the way your chakras process information. Each of the
seven primary chakras has a particular kind
of
intuition associated with it. The strength and openness of the chakra
has a direct relationship to how well intuition works at that level.
When the consciousness associated with the chakra has reached a
sufficient level of clarity, a seal in the base of the chakra opens and
the intuition becomes active. This is what is meant by the ancient
esoteric reference to the “seven
seals”
as access to divine knowledge. They are within
you.
A
look at each
chakra and its related form of intuition:
The
root chakra, center of grounding and vitality, is the source of our
kinesthetic sense. This is the ability to perceive through the physical
body via sensations such as chills down the spine, tingling on the skin
or a change of temperature. By paying attention to when and how you feel
these sensations, you can learn to sense the energy moving in your body
or in someone else’s.
This requires a deep attention and inner "listening" to the
sensation, which can become more finely articulated with time and
experience. There will be consistent patterns that each build to the
next level of awareness. To begin, choose something simple and
acknowledge the patterned association. For example, I notice a chill
going down my spine, which alerts me to “Pay
attention!”
The
intuitional sense of the second chakra is empathy. Like all intuitive
perception, it is both a gift and a challenge. An empathic has the
ability to feel another’s
emotions. For example, you may enter a room and immediately sense anger
or sadness. Depending on the situation, you might avoid an encounter or
offer comfort and compassion. Feeling emotions that really belong to
someone else confuses many people who are empathic. The best way to cope
with this is to know what you
feel by staying grounded and present in your own body and emotions. Let
that be your baseline. If you experience a strong emotion that you don’t
understand, stay focused with that feeling for a short time. If it is
yours, it will begin to unwind and reveal a cause or different feeling
underneath that is the real issue. If it is not yours, your own emotions
will reassert themselves.
If
you want to develop empathy, it is important to first feel your own
emotions. Then, put your attention on the other person’s
body and notice any changes in yourself. These changes are likely the
emotions of your friend. Empathy is a useful way to cultivate compassion
and alleviate confusion.
The
third chakra’s
subtle sense is true intuition. This is the vague feeling that something
is about to happen. It does not come with many details. In fact, if
someone challenges you, your response is often likely to be “I
don’t
know; I just have this feeling…”
Because they are vague, these feelings are often discounted. Even so,
they can have a high degree of accuracy and deserve attention.
The
heart chakra’s
attunement is to love and relationship. While you may not have ever
thought about the perceptions of the health and well-being of a
relationship as intuition, it assuredly is. Relationship is so
fundamental to happiness and physical health that babies deprived of it
will die. How do you feel when you are surrounded in love, or when you
feel that you belong? There is an "at homeness" that you may
never have experienced in your familial home. Remember how it feels when
a relationship is growing distant or, worse, is betrayed. This is vital
information, a perception that creates a response in our body, mind and
spirit.
The
fifth chakra is the source of creativity and sound-related intuition.
When the seal on the fifth chakra opens, you will begin to hear words or
phrases of guidance from spiritual helpers. If cultivated, it can become
a dialog. Sometimes we’ll
hear snatches of songs that are in perfect synchronicity with what's
going on around us. At other times, smell (another fifth chakra sense
with its primal link to memory) will be the conduit of intuition. I
often find that when this process has first begun, the “still
small voice”
that speaks within is overlooked. This is because it may not have a
distinctive sound, but audibly is like another thought. However, it is
the quality
of the voice that is different. It is steady, wise, compassionate, and
insightful; never critical. We tend to brush this voice aside with our
busyness, anxiety or self-doubt. You recognize it, however, when you
find yourself in a mess and suddenly realize, “Oh
yes, I knew what I should have done, but I didn’t
listen.”
Listen!
The
sixth chakra holds the ability to see auras, energy patterns, images,
and visions. Some people see in color; others only in black and white.
Some see everything as though it were projected on a movie screen. Most
often, this “second
sight”
begins very subtly like the grainy, etheric, visual quality of a memory.
It may be the perception of faint lines of light or color that surround
and interpenetrate people, pets, plants, etc. The visuals are usually
very subtle and are best perceived slightly out of focus, with soft eyes
or peripheral vision. Don't be surprised if they seem to disappear as
soon as you think you've seen them. Ignore the impulse to believe that
you made it up and keep at it. Practice and experience are the best
teachers.
The
intuition of the seventh chakra is the most interesting of all. It is
direct knowing. The Celts called this imbass,
the lightning flash of insight that comprehends the totality of a
situation. It may take many minutes to convey what came in that moment
to another person. Often in class, a student will ask a question for
which I do not know the answer. I will pause and listen deeply within.
Suddenly, I will feel the answer. It is similar to the feeling of
remembering something, a feeling of recognition that accompanies the
actual specifics of the recall. There is no content yet, but as I remain
focused the details begin to unfold in a very logical, systematic way.
My explanation sometimes sounds like it was arrived at deductively.
However, it came complete in one moment’s
flash of intuition.
How
can we open to intuition?
Most
people have one or two of these intuitional forms working to a higher
degree than the others. All forms of intuition, however, can be
cultivated and developed. Accuracy develops with time and practice.
(Keep in mind that scientific studies at UCLA revealed that even the
best psychics in the world were only 80% accurate.)
So,
how can you do this? Practice feeling textures, forms, flows, and your
body’s
sensations. Respect your emotions and understand their nuances. Follow
your hunches. Love. Sing. Ask a question every day and record everything
that comes. Visualize dreams, possibilities and solutions. Meditate and
spend time in nature. Invite Spirit to communicate with and through you.
Pay attention to the “what”
and “how”
of your experiences and over time you will very likely find patterns
that become a kind of intuitive vocabulary -- the language of Spirit.
Nancy
Lee-Evans, director of The Anam Cara Program of Spiritual
Development and Healing, is a healer in private practice in Anchorage.
For more information and class schedules call 345-6760 or check www.nancylee-evans.com.
