New Meditation HERE
New Podcast HERE
We all know the phenomenon of staring at something––for example, a simple word whose meaning and spelling we’ve always known–– so long that it gradually unravels.
Letters suddenly seem like random scribbles.
Definitions dissolve and all meaning evaporates.
The more we investigate, the more we move from certainty into mystery.
Perhaps appropriately (and even ironically), I realize that’s what’s been happening to me as I dive deeper into Intuition (New Meditation HERE) this month.
The more I try to grasp it, alas, the slipperier it gets.
Take for example, Vlad’s amazing ability to read my texts…
Obviously, we all know how dogs have great advantages to humans in many sensory realms.
Chief among these is smell, of course, as well as the range of their hearing.
They even have much better night vision and greater sensitivity to touch.
Beyond this, Vlad’s cognitive abilities are used to keenly deduce from his environment any information that’s important to him.
For example, he knows what the rattle of keys indicates and he’s quite curious to understand if it’s going to be an Edward-solo exit moment or father/son adventure outside the apartment.
He also knows that whenever the terrace is being watered, his Arch Frenemy––aka The Vacuum Cleaner––will soon make a multi-tasking appearance.
Thus, he positions himself strategically just outside the utility closet, ready to defend us against the errant Dyson.
These phenomenon are, of course, readily explainable but others are less so.
Chief among the mysteries is how he can tell when I’m getting a text from Bobby, Malibu’s dad, asking if Vlad feels like an evening playdate.
Amongst the perpetual sea of electronic communications from strangers and friends about matters big and small––confirming meetings or sharing silly memes––I swear he can sense this content.
Somehow (even though I haven’t finished teaching him how to read), he “just knows” there’s a plan afoot to reunite him with his best friend.
Without fail, Vlad races to the door, ready and waiting for the playdate to begin.
Frankly, it’s uncanny…and sometimes a little unnerving.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how many of my friends and colleagues among Transformation Leaders have different names for tapping into intuition.
They range from SARK’s “Inner Wise Self” to Lissa Rankin’s “Inner Pilot Light” to my own yoga-inspired “Guru Within.”
After all, what’s in a name?
Consider that beyond this, perhaps when people speak about consulting with their angel guides, they are simply rebranding their connection to their own intuition with a cherubic celestial label.
Expanding alternative definitions of intuition further, I find that there are lots of scientific possibilities as well.
For example, take “Heart-Brain Coherence.”
Recent studies in neurocardiology prove that there’s a complex network of communication between the heart and the brain, one that plays not only a central role in our emotions and cognitive functioning, but also in our intuitive decision making.
Parallel to this, there’s also lots of science backing up that our intuitive “gut feelings” have legitimate biological origins.
This Enteric Nervous System Connection has been proven by lots of emerging research.
We now know that the complex network of neurons in our gut, ones that plays a pivotal role in our emotional perception, thereby directly affect our decision-making process.
Beyond this, there are even broader ways of redefining intuition, ones that move further outside our body.
One of my favorites of these is Rupert Sheldrake’s concept of “Morphic Resonance.”
Sheldrake is a fascinating Cambridge PhD who’s conducted research at Harvard, but whose theories are currently quite controversial within scientific circles.
According to him, we live in a universe where there’s a non-material field that connects and influences the form, behavior, and development of living systems.
Sheldrake believes his so-called “morphic field” explains various forms of non-physical communication and shared memory.
If this field is real, it would be yet another way of understanding intuition, another method of tapping into unseen knowledge.
According to Sheldrake the morphic field explains everything from…
“Learning in rats: Rats of the same breed learn to escape from a maze faster in subsequent generations, even when isolated from previous generations.”
To
“Synchronized behaviour in flocks and schools: Animals moving in harmony without apparent communication, which could be explained by a shared morphic field.”
Sheldrake––whose sons are named “Cosmo” and “Merlin,” just FYI––even took his work directly into canine territory with his (again controversial) 1999 book Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home: And Other Unexplained Powers of Animals.
Admittedly, I’m a sucker for mystical connections, nonetheless it’s hard NOT to imagine that he’s on to something.
As I keep exploring what intuition really is, I definitely realize my Vlad/Malibu texting experience is hardly taking place under any kind of scientific conditions.
For example, it’s quite possible I make some predictable sound or physical gesture when Bobby’s invitation text arrives, one that I’m completely not aware of but Vlad’s clearly identified.
Or––as I like to whimsically think––perhaps Vlad’s keener sense of hearing can pick up Bobby (halfway down the hall) asking Malibu if he wants an evening playdate.
Frankly, as long as our puppies get to frolic, it doesn’t matter how we describe the phenomenon.
The essential information is being sent and received.
As with accessing our own intuition, the label and the methodology can vary considerably, and we can also get much better at it.
We might, for example, increase our skill at trusting our own Inner Voice via meditation…
(My offering for that possibility again is HERE).
Or by deepening our Heart-Brain or Heart-Gut connection.
Or perhaps it’s through the whispering of angels…
Or cavorting on Sheldrake’s Morphic Field…
However we define it, and whatever its source, what matters most is that we keep Accessing our Intuition, paying more and more attention to and having more faith in that Inner Voice.
If we do, like Vlad, who knows how many more delightful invitations will come our way.
Namaste for Now,
