I went into the hospital I visit to round on two patients.  But before I did, I got a "feeling" I should visit a floor I had no patients on.  It was different than a communication; it was more like a "knowing" that I was needed there or might be.

I went over to the computer bank to check up on the other two patients, and a nurse came up to me and said "Oh Doc, great, I was just going to call you to come see this patient," after which, she presented a new case who needed to be seen right away.

I hadn't rounded on that service/floor in weeks.  Now, on thinking about it, I decided that there may be a difference between intuition (which I believe I experienced) and guidance.  However, if you think about it, the line is a very fine one.  I think of guidance as being given information or a direction out-of-the blue by an external source (guides, etc.).  Intuition I feel is sort of a direct experience of the "knowing" of our connected reality, and the application of that knowing to the physical world.

Ok, that sounds complicated.  But I do feel there is a dfference when you just know something in your gut, without rationality, compared to being guided to be doing something from an outside source.  I felt that there was a knowing associated with what went on.  Some could dismiss it as coincidence, others as "ESP."  As many on the board here know, I don't buy into the ESP argument because ESP is by no means a defined scientific phenomenon (vis-a-vis cause, etiology, effect).  I think of ESP as akin to being in touch with a deeper consciousness or collective consciousness. 

So for myself, I find a difference between intuition from knowing, and external guidance. 


Matthew

Hi Matthew,

Yes, I agree there is a difference in the ways we receive information. Sometimes it comes directly from "guides" or what I perceive as "other than me", other times it's what I call "inner guidance" or what I think of as intuition. Other times I see visions and/or mini movies in my mind's eye, very much like the hypnagogic state even though I'm wide awake doing whatever... driving, working, etc.

I've always found the various ways people receive information interesting.  I guess the main thing is that the communication is understandable and recognized as something to pay attention to.

Kathy

Going by my experience friendly spirit guidance would suggest that a person gets in touch with his or her intuition.

Before I made contact with my spirit guidance I believed I would make touch with a spiritual encyclopedia that would give me all of the answers  I want. It hasn't worked out that way. Even though guidance wants to be helpful, it understands about the importance of self-effort and on having some self-reliance.

I say "some self-reliance" because we are all into this together and I don't believe we want to take on a framework of mind where we feel as we couldn't possibly be helped by another.

It is important to remember that the division between this physical World and the spirit World isn't as big as some people believe. Therefore, making contact with our spirit friends isn't any different than making contact with our physical friends. Why deprive ourselves of such contact?

Sure there are unfriendly and misleading beings, but there are also unfriendly and misleading people. So in either case we have to use our discrimination.

HI Matthew,

I’m curious what the difference is to you.  Do you treat them differently in how you believe or react? 

There are different ways we perceive and receive information but to me, the difference isn’t as important as the information itself and how we choose to respond or react to it.  Our response or reaction may have an effect on someone or something, or it may at the very least have an effect on our own consciousness. 

In my view, you noticed what you perceived, but you chose to react to it by setting it aside to continue your duty.  Nothing wrong with that, especially since your work is important.  But instead of reacting and diverting away from what you perceived, you could have instead responded to it and followed through with it, and gone straight to the floor you were sensing.   What might have happened if you had done that?  What, if anything, might have been learned or gained?  Maybe nothing.  Or maybe at the very least that type of acceptance and trust of your intuition might have shifted something inside your being allowing for more intuitive perception next time.  I myself have found this to be true. 

Our typical reaction is to not change anything about what we’re doing, even though we’ve acknowledged the intuition taking place.  But instead of analyzing the differences in how I perceive intuitively and their degrees of importance, I find that just accepting and trusting are very important shifts in consciousness that allow for more opportunities of experience. 

I do see what you mean about the nature in how we perceive differently, from within versus from without, but whether you call it knowing or guidance I still think it all falls on the same continuum of perception.  Remember Bruce’s  continuum of nonphysical sense of sight?  “Knowing” at one end and “same as physical reality” on the other?  I believe that all forms of perception are all on one continuum, and how we perceive/receive is just a matter of our perspective based on “where” we are within our conscious awareness. 

I think the more you are comfortable with “receiving” and the more you accept and trust it, the more you learn to allow your perception to open to receive more, whether it’s receiving more information or receiving in more ways.

For me, that feeling of receiving from outside of myself doesn’t necessarily mean it’s from some other being.  I always tend to think of it as coming from my own consciousness, from that higher-self perspective that seems so far removed from my daily physical perspective of myself.   So whether I receive just a knowing feeling, or whether I receive something much more profound—while it’s all really fascinating—the point is that I pay attention to what I perceive/received and how I decide to respond to it. 
 

Lucy wrote on Mar 2^nd, 2012 at 2:18pm:


Not necessarily.  You can have Guidance trying to get through to you but you're not perceiving it.  You can have someone or something trying to give you guidance but you can choose to ignore it or talk yourself out of it.  The more you choose not to perceive or listen, the less you're going to be able to.  It will be harder for that guidance to make itself apparent to you.  That's the point I was trying to make in my post.  The more that you open yourself up to receiving, the more you are able to perceive and receive.  But you have to allow for it.  That's where the differences come into play.  When you allow for more, it tends to have an affect on your ability to perceive and that's when simple knowing feelings can turn into the feeling of direct, outward guidance.  And I think the reverse is true...what used to feel like coming from some outside source, once accepted can begin to be more of a feeling of knowing without the need for separation.  At least, that's been my own personal experience. 

rondele wrote on Mar 2^nd, 2012 at 1:49pm:


Hi Rondele,

Could you refresh my memory?  Sorry but I've forgotten which thread I said that on and also what the subject was.  Thanks!

K

Lucy wrote on Mar 2^nd, 2012 at 2:13pm:


Hi Lucy,

I call this this intuition or inner guidance.  Being in the flow is exactly how you've described.  It's the connection to the greater you.  We all connect to this everyday of our lives when information is "fed" to us.  We're not really thinking, planning, etc.  Just going with the flow.

A simple example of "knowing" which could also be called intuition by some is watching a TV game show and knowing the right answer even though there's no way you would have known it otherwise.

Kathy

Kathy-

Here's the reference.  I've been waiting patiently!


Re: Excellent documentary on the Scole experiments.
Reply #69 - Dec 16th, 2011 at 11:23am Quote
Rondele,

Sure I'll think about starting that thread.  I have a project starting the middle of January that will take me 3 or 4 weeks to complete, but I'll see how my time goes.

K