Intuition is a natural part of all of us. As multi-sensory beings, we all have it although our cultural conditioning represses it. It’s commonly ( although inaccurately) known as the sixth sense and extends beyond your five physical senses to a larger awareness that spans both space and time. But here is the deal. It’s really the first sense not the 6th. Because we are first consciousness, then we take on a body. As immortal spiritual beings having a temporary human experience it is our first essential and primary ability – to sense the invisible world from where we came.
For the past few hundred years western culture has long honored logic and intellect as the most valuable way to experience the world. We’ve been taught to be suspicious of anything that defies this narrow paradigm. We tend to love facts and figures and distrust what we can’t prove through linear thinking. Yet, intuition is one of your most powerful senses it’s just that no one teaches us what it is or how to support it in school. Wouldn’t that be amazing? Of course, I know I’m kind of biased as an intuitive! But, even many of the world’s most successful people—including Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and physicist Albert Einstein, —have said that they wouldn’t be where they are today without following their intuitive hunches. Every new discovery is made with the power of the intuitive hunch.
Intuition is just as much a part of you as your other five senses, but it operates outside the limits of your physical body and reaches beyond the personal self and into another reality, one that is non-local. Non-local reality is comprised of events that are occurring without a relationship to where you are in your direct physicality. For example, you might know something has happened to your child at school, but you’re not there physically when it occurs. You don’t know how you know little Hope was hurt but you just do. When I do a reading for someone I reach out into that reality that is not my own, non-local to me, to source information about the person I’m serving. I might clearly see that your father has just passed and that you’ve just put your house on the market. This is where intuition reaches.
Intuition involves a greater way of knowing that you cannot simply explain through logic. It’s like stepping into a stream of information moving past the boundaries of time that includes emotions, experiences, other peoples’ memories and glimpses of the probable future. Your first sense comes to you through hunches as well as more dramatic experiences like precognitions. For example, you may have a sense that someone is going to call only to have the phone ring a few minutes later. You may meet a person you instantly don’t trust. Or you may have a dream only to have it play out in your life a few days later.
If you’ve read any of my books or have listened to my radio show on HayHouseRadio.com, you might recall my example of Soul FM and Ego FM which I introduced in my first book Remembering the Future. Think of intuition as Soul FM, a radio station that’s sending out details about everything around you—all that’s happening, is happening, and will (or potentially could) happen. Ego FM is the station that only broadcasts from your “Me Bubble.” The “ Me Bubble” is the term I use for the limited environment that comprises your identity, personal memories, and physical awareness. Intuition senses the world beyond those limitations.
Are you tuned into all six senses or just the five? If you’re listening to Ego FM, you’re going to only experience what’s in your head, the intellect, and the five senses. Frankly, this station is limiting and the songs get kind of repetitive and boring. Soul FM is a station that’s connected to everything. The radio waves of Soul FM are vast; they include you and go beyond you to All That Is. The universe is conscious and always sending you messages. All you have to do is turn on the dial and be willing to listen.
We all have our own special Soul FM station and receive the information in different ways. To tune into Soul FM, you have to turn down Ego FM and quiet the committee in your head. Then you must simply let yourself be and you’ll find your radio dials. One is clairsentience, which means that you feel and sense emotional intuitive hits. Then on the second dial is clairaudience, which means you hear your intuitive information as voices, names, and so on. On the third dial is clairvoyance, meaning that you see your intuition like a movie in your head. Then on the fourth dial, ( the most common and one most ignored), you have claircognizance which means you just “ know” something without previous exposure to the subject. The fifth is retro-cognition, which enables you to know things about a person or place’s past. We all have each of these abilities, but each of us has a unique, sensitive radio.
To help you get started with experiencing your intuition, here is one of my favorite exercises.
EXERCISE: A TRUTH AND A LIE
This exercise will help you know what your intuition feels like. Intuition feels different for everyone, but it will always feel like the truth. It will feel real, solid, grounded, and in the moment. People often ask me how to tell the difference between intuition and wishful thinking or the ego. Well, wishful thinking will feel like a lie. So, in this exercise, you’re going to tell yourself a truth and a lie.
To start off, take a deep breath and get centered. Now, tell yourself a lie. Here are some examples: My name is Yoda. (I’m assuming no one reading this is named Yoda!) Or, I just won an Olympic medal. (Unless you really do have one!) Or, I love onions. (When you hate onions.) Now scan your body from top to bottom and sense how you feel. Take a few notes on your impressions.
Take another breath and get centered again. Now, tell yourself a truth. Here are some examples: My name is__________. My favorite hobby is_________. I love________. Scan your body from top to bottom again and note how you feel. Write down your impressions again for what the truth feels like.
Your intuition will feel like truth. Wishful thinking and your ego will feel like a lie.
This is a powerful exercise, and you should make a conscious effort to really go through your day and use this when you are talking to people. Note how you feel when you’ve just spoken the truth and how empowering it is. Now note how you feel when you’ve told someone a lie (even a little white one), and take note of how that feels. It takes effort to lie. I want you to really pay attention to this and how you feel. Do it for a few days if you can. Really pay attention. Once you’ve tuned into the feeling of truth and lying, you become more sensitive to it. And when you’re more sensitive to that sense, the sixth sense, you’ll see how much more effective your truth or lie radar becomes. You may not know why, but your intuition will be super strong, and like the people first mentioned in this article, you’ll be right on the money. Every time.
“ Anything is possible when you open your connection to the Universe”
I have been doing cards for awhile but I feel people’s energy sometimes and it overwhelms we. I think I have the gift ever since I was a child and makebelive friends. I get overwhelmed with things. And when something is wrong I get overwhelmed. Could you help me.
Read Dr Christiane Northrup latest book. Dodging Energy Vampires. Tons of good info there.
You are simply the best-iest! I was just thinking about this last week wondering how I seem to just know how things are going to be played out. When I was younger I used to say some strange things to people I had just met, like how many times they were going to be married and yeah, got weird reactions but unfortunately I was right. I wish I had a guide back then like you to steer me but I did find it funny at times. Does the intuition wane as we get older or it’s just a matter of keeping the tuner on the Soul FM? Love- Love all you do for us and Thanks too!
woo hoo .. I love this Colette !
You have a terrific style of writing ! I am always shown little visions in my head while reading the blogs. Just now as I read this one, the vision i had was of my children and i. Me saying to them “you have two voices, one on each side, one voice is the soul voice, the other is the ego, you will know the difference because the ego is always the loudest, the soul does not get loud”, that kind of talk was a normal thing when they were young. Anyhow, i write that because i often doubt my mothering abilities, and reading your blog made me feel that i have actually done well. Deep inside both my children are all the seeds i sowed, i can trust that they too will be guided, lifted, directed, protected by the wonderful invisible Love force that guides us all. I feel very uplifted after reading that blog, wow, honestly, i am so humbled by how generous Spirit is. That blog, it brought me to a way better vision of myself as a momma. Thank you xox .. your words led me to a discovery, you have to love that ..
I picked New Life, A Leg Up, and Mending (all upright) <3
Colette I love your ability to simplify the process. Thank you for all your amazing gifts and your openness to teach. Charlene
Thank you Colette, this is bang on for me, sorry i just found the comment section
Thank you Colette for the webinar yesterday, it made some things much clearer for me! I just drew 3 cards from your app and i got New life, Here and now and Between worlds – all in protection. I feel like Spirit is shouting at me that they heard me as well as the messages the cards bring. It amazes me every time they do this and i can’t help but feel grateful! Thank you again! Xxx
OMG my cards, round and round, loyal heart, time to go, all in protection.
Card that tingled when mixing them, leg up in protection. Card on the bottom of deck no place like home in protection…. jumper card between worlds….
I recently “woke up” to the fact that I have clairaudience, but I’m excited now to learn that I could have more or all the clairs. I’m looking forward to developing them all if that is possible for me. This spiritual path I find myself on is so joyous and exciting (and a little scary at the same time because it’s so amazingly accurate and real for me). Thanks Collette for sharing the love and light.
I love this exercise, Collette. I feel murky and off-put with the lies, my whole body scoffs. The truths made me feel light and my head kind of lifted into a clear sky. Thank you. Also looking forward to the oracle card 101 recording. Had a meeting yesterday at the same time as the webinar. I’ll be sure to leave a note there too.
U R Fantastic Colette. Hilarious, always insightful and a Canadian. <3 U
Almost four years ago, there was a (roughly) two week period where I was finding heart-shaped rocks. I would take them into the house and give them to my wife, Lori. Stupid me, they weren’t for Lori, they were meant for me as a warning. Shortly thereafter, I had a heart attack. Afterward, I paid attention
Two weeks and one stent later, and paying heed to my spirit guide, I was off the pharmaceutical drugs… even baby aspirin. And I’ve never looked back. Now I’m leaving in four to five days to hike a 200-mile section of the Pacific Coast Trail in the High Sierras. I’ll be gone three or four months… or longer. Not bad for a man who will turn 67 on the trail. Maybe if It’s timed right, I’ll celebrate my birthday with a swisher-sweet cigar on top of Mount Whitney’s 14,505 ft summit.
Lovely Thank you
I’ve done a lot of work on myself to get to a point where I try to live as honestly as possible, so I find it a little difficult to try to “feel” a deliberate lie to myself. I’ve spent so much time (years!) learning to recognize that feeling and letting it go by owning up to the lies I’ve told myself and others, and then self-forgiving–because I’ve learned that dwelling on my shortcomings accomplished nothing. I have to let them go in order to move forward and not stagnate. I think I’ve probably been doing some version of this “truth vs a lie” exercise for years. It works!
Still, it took a lot of work (again, years!) to arrive at this point, and I am STILL working on myself–and always will be. So since it’s harder for me to connect–at least in terms of this exercise–to the feeling of telling myself a “lie,” here is what I have noticed about myself. I find that I’m super sensitive to my negative energy and that of others when I engage in gossip. I truly try to avoid it altogether, and I’ve made a lot of progress on that front, but any time I catch myself speaking negatively about others, I FEEL it. That feeling is the one I recognize as my “caution sign,” and it’s the same or similar feeling I get at other times–not related to gossip–that tells me to pause and assess, and then course correct if needed.
It would be easy to assume that these types of exercises to make us more aware are rooted in shame, but I don’t think they are. I think it’s just more of an awareness, as you have said, of becoming more attuned to truth.
Thank you for this blog post. It made me think hard about how I recognize signs of my own intuition. You’ve helped bring things I “knew” about myself to a more conscious level, and every time I recognize that happening with myself, I know I am making progress. Thank you for shining that light!
I’m not so great at discerning intuition from wishful or fearful thinking. But I get what you mean by it feeling like a lie. That is my problem with affirmations. My gut tightens because I feel like I’m lying.
Wow, what a great blog! You’re a talented writer. Funny you mentioned the girl Hope at the beginning, as it is my sisters’ name. Synchronicity I guess. And I think your middle name is cool too 😉 Thanks and gratitude always
Dear Colette.
Thank you so much for your blog and your webinar. I’m very new to orakel cards. When I saw your “wisdom of the oracle card” in a store. There was a sign on them there told me they were right for me 😊 The symbol / decoration around the number of each card made me smile, because since I was very young (30 years ago) I began draw ” the decoration” after my name, in letters and birthday cards to my dear ones and in front the envelop in the corner… and I still do it ☺
I have been curious after I saw it on your cards, whether it is a symbol/decoration of special meaning on your cards?
Love from Maria
Sorry for my English, hope it is understandable.
Thank you Colette! This blog was very helpful and inspiring <3 Love the excersize. Going to practise with that 🙂 Thank you so much for teaching us these wonderful things. Many blessings to you!
I live in Toronto and just read your book Uncharted.
Picked it up at the Toronto Public Library because the title resonated with me.
We have a lot in common! I always knew since childhood that i was very intuitive.
After my breast biopsy on April 28, 2017< I had a wonderful experience, my late father and grandmother started speaking to me and helping me.
I used to read tarot cards and runes. Now I just listen to my guardian angels and receive from the universe.
Your book is awesome!
In gratitude,
Sari
Shalom,
What a nice note I am speaking this weekend at the Hay House U conference come for the workshop on Sunday!
No “thinking” allowed. Thinking too much kills the spirit and inhibits our responses to opportunity. As someone who relies heavily on my analytical skills, I “know” when I am curious, open, and not invested in a particular outcome, that I respond differently. I love the comparison you made with EGO VS SOUL Radio. Depending which frequency I am tuned into; the receptivity level is different.
If I am playful, light-hearted and detached, usually more intuitive. Many times I have a “feeling “ about someone , usually I can sense honesty, integrity, trustworthy and also instinctively “know” when trouble is on the way. Throughout my career, when my antennae were tuned I detected fraudulent business transactions and as a result nothing bad materialized. The sound of someone’s voice, can provide a lot of feedback. Fortunately when I have allowed the “spirit” to guide me, I am excited and feel an aliveness that is prompted when growth, and opportunity are being presented. Like a giant jigsaw puzzles, clues are presented and each fragment a piece of the larger perspective. It
might look like a confusing mess sitting in a heap of disconnected pieces, but once one more clue is connected, the story begins to declare its relevance. “ If we knew everything beforehand it would be called dictation, NOT creation”. Gertrude Stein
Wishing you a vibrantly, uplifting weekend.
Dear Colette,
I had a good week and I think your oracle card reading (with all the revesed cards) helped me be open to the themes coming my way. I was able to ask for help and not have to act out despair and desperation—and I saw it around me but was able to stay out of the drama. How cool is that?!
Another topic:
This has to do with the card deck you’re creating about Goddesses—and how you were hesitant to include “Kali” —until you were basically ordered to 😂.
Well, Women’s anger and fury appears to be a topic that we will be visiting more in the future. Just enjoyed this Tedtalk by Tracee Ellis Ross about the lifetimes of wisdom in a woman’s fury.
https://youtu.be/JoUZ929qoLk
I LOVE this talk and yes indeed.. we will be and so will I
Colette I was wondering if you do readings phsycic reads. There has been alot going on and I need some answers and I would really appreciate it so much. Hoping to hear from you soon <3 😉
no I retired from intuitive counseling 18 months ago. I do not do private sessions