Developing Intuition

A man in a casino is having extraordinary luck at the roulette wheel. Having turned just a few chips into a substantial pile by placing small bets exclusively on red or black, he suddenly changes his strategy and stakes everything he has on the zero.

The small crowd of people who have gathered around this mysterious player take a gasp. The roulette wheel is European and it has just one zero. The odds of the ball landing on the zero are just one in thirty-seven. Yes, the bettor would win thirty-six times his chips if zero came up, but surely nobody in their right mind would place such a risky bet unless they were intent on losing everything they had?

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The roulette wheel spins. The people in the crowd follow the ball with their eyes, their mouths open in anticipation. The player himself, however, is unusually calm. He takes a sip of water from his glass and smiles to himself.

As if in slow motion, the small metal ball clicks and clacks around the wheel, then finally settles on a number. The people in the crowd hold their breath, then unleash a loud cheer of amazement and congratulations as the croupier calls the result of the spin. Zero.

The player collects a massive pile of chips which are worth five figures and cashes them, then starts for the exit. As he leaves, one of the spectators stops him to ask a simple question. ‘How did you do that? How did you know it was going to be a zero?’

The player smiles at his inquisitor. ‘A little voice inside told me,’ he replied. ‘And when that little voice inside speaks, I’ve learned from experience that things work out for the best if I listen and act accordingly.’

There are many stories like this one which allude to the extraordinary things that people can achieve when they begin to use their intuition on a regular basis. Some report how airline passengers have avoided certain death by listening to an inner voice which told them, ‘The plane will crash! Don’t go!’ Others, like the man in the story used to introduce this series, tell of people who have listened to their intuition and, as a result, gained immense wealth or career success.

In this series we will be discussing how you can begin to listen to and use your intuition, and how doing so could help you to turn every aspect of your life around. We are not simply talking about making improvements in your career and financial life (although of course these things are important) but also about making improvements in your relationships, your physical health and your spiritual advancement.

Let us begin by defining intuition. The online dictionary site, Wiktionary, defines intuition as follows:

1 – Immediate cognition without the use of conscious rational processes.
2 – A perceptive insight gained by the use of this faculty.

This definition is as good as any that we have come across, but it could be summed up in just one sentence: The ability to attain direct knowledge and quick and ready insight.

Now allow the implications of this definition to sink in. Intuition (which is sometime referred to as intuitiveness, clairsentience or psychic insight) is the power to attain direct knowledge and quick and ready insight. Knowledge and insight about what? About anything you want!

Imagine being able to ‘know’ intuitively that a certain horse will win or lose a certain horse race. Imagine being able to ‘know’ intuitively whether the stock market or a certain share will go up or down within the next few days or months. Imagine being able to ‘know’ intuitively how people feel about you. Imagine being able to ‘know’ intuitively if someone is lying to you.

There are literally thousands of ways in which you can use the knowledge and insight which you can gain through developing your natural powers of intuition. We will discuss a few of these applications later in this series.

On hearing about the seemingly miraculous power of intuition, there are always a few people who claim that they don’t have this power. ‘I don’t have an intuitive bone in my body!’ they say. Fortunately, these people are wrong.

Everyone has intuition, just as everyone has a conscience. Of course, some people appear to have more intuition than others, but this is simply because they use it more regularly. You see, intuition is like any physical muscle. It needs to be used or it will wither. Exercising it regularly, however, will cause it to thrive.

People who have precognitive skills and can acquire knowledge about the future are simply people who have very well developed powers of intuition. You too can begin to enjoy the benefits of precognition. All you need to do is exercise your intuition on a regular basis.

Think of the number of times you have already experienced ‘flashes’ of intuitive insight in one way or another. What about the time the phone rang and you knew almost instantly who the caller was? How about the time you felt you ought to take an umbrella ‘just in case’ the sunshine turned to rain – and it did? Then think of all the times you have been thinking of something and suddenly another person started talking about that very subject?

These are all examples of your natural intuition at work. They are not spectacular examples, but then you must remember that they happened almost automatically. Now, just think of what might be possible if you deliberately put your intuitive power to work? The possibilities are truly extraordinary.

At this point, it should be stated that the development of your powers of intuition follows a broad learning curve. In other words, the more your practice, the better your results will be. In the beginning, however, your intuition may sometimes appear to be wrong.

In truth, your intuition is never wrong, but it can be misinterpreted. When this happens to some people, they use it as ‘proof’ that intuition doesn’t work. All it means, in fact, is that they aren’t yet fully ‘tuned in’ to what their intuition is really saying. The following case illustrates this quite well.

Tony B. had started getting interested in developing his intuition after reading that it might help him become a more successful stock market trader. Initially, he limited his use of intuition to the stock market. Each day, before the market opened, he would try to gain insight into whether the shares of certain companies would go up or down. Then, with small amounts of money, he began investing in those that he felt would increase in value.

After several months of this, Tony was brimming with confidence. His intuition had helped him to make handsome profits on the stock market, and so he now began to think of ways in which he could use it in other areas of his life.

He decided to try gaining some intuitive insight into how people felt about him, and almost immediately he saw people laughing. Tony was shocked. Was he really thought of as a laughing stock? He tried another exercise, and once again he saw people laughing all around him.

Naturally, Tony’s self-confidence was all but shattered. He immediately went from being a confident, outgoing person to a self-conscious wallflower. Whereas he had once socialized regularly, he now avoided parties and instead stayed at home.

Pretty soon, a couple of friends came to see him and asked if they had offended him. Tony didn’t say anything. They then invited him to a party, but he refused the invitation.

Then one friend said, ‘Come on Tony, it won’t be the same without you. You’re the life and soul of our group – always having fun, always telling us jokes and giving us a laugh.’

At this genuine comment, Tony realised that he had misinterpreted what his intuition had been trying to tell him. The people he had seen laughing were laughing because they liked him and they thought he was a humorous person. They weren’t laughing at him in a negative way at all!

Immediately, Tony regained his self-confidence and returned to enjoying a busy and satisfying social life. He also learned an important lesson – that learning to correctly interpret what our intuition is trying to tell us is just as vital as using our intuition in the first place.

This is something you simply must keep in mind. There is a broad learning curve involved in using your intuition, and in the beginning you will undoubtedly make mistakes of interpretation. These mistakes will decrease the more you practice with your intuition, but it is important that you don’t act blindly on what your inner voice is saying, especially when you are first starting out.

Instead, you need to think about your insight from all the angles and explore all the possible interpretations. Then, when you come across the right interpretation, you will know. How? Intuition!

Well, that’s enough of the theory. The only true way of mastering your latent power of intuition is to use it on a regular basis. The best way of developing intuition is to work with Intuitive Exercises that are designed to help you tap into what is, when all is said and done, your natural connection to the infinite knowledge of the universe. There are three Intuitive Exercises that we would like to provide for your use, and we will present those in the next three posts here at Kreafy’s Library.