Digested by Deborah Leighton

Have you ever had an experience that could be termed "paranormal"? Perhaps you had a dream that later came true or maybe you were dealing with a problem in your life and found that you later had a dream that involved a possible solution? Have you ever had the experience of "knowing" things, such as who’s on the other end of the phone before you pick it up or what song is coming on the radio next? These and many other such experiences are known as psi. 

Psi experiences cover a wide range of paranormal events some of which are remote-viewing, clairvoyance, ESP, telepathy, and near-death experience. It doesn’t take a huge event to stop you in your tracks and make you think "where did that come from?" Since there’s really no logical answer to that question, it becomes logical to feel that somehow a higher power or consciousness must be involved in the process.

Jeffrey Mishlove explains that intuition ("knowing without knowing how you know") can be the bridge between a psychic experience and spirituality. All the research that’s been conducted for the past 100 years has only been able to measure that which is measurable by laboratory standards. Intuition, which is the glue that brings everything together, cannot be measured. A pre-cognitive dream that later comes true is every bit as viable as one that was carefully monitored in a research setting. Just because it can’t be proved doesn’t make it invalid. How do you prove that intuition exists? It may not be provable, because of the the metaphysical nature of intuition and the fact that nobody really knows how it is wired into our brains and our senses.

Scientists try to explain intuition as "social conditioning" or a type of "subliminal computation". Others explain it away as something akin to animal instinct. Intuition may involve these behaviors but it is also much more. It is also the sum of all our thoughts and experiences and what we’ve learned. Immanuel Kant, for example, says that intuition is how we build our lives and create the type of people we are. Kant believes that it is first through the use of our senses that we come to our perception of reality and that our intuition is essential to what we see and feel and know. Therefore, while social conditioning is part of what we are, it is not all of it. A study done on infants who have shown both spatial awareness and "innate grammar" is an example of certain knowledge gained prior to social conditioning. Therefore, one explanation alone cannot account for all that we are and all that we know.

There are many professions which rely on intuitive thought. People who become truly great at what they do, as opposed to merely competent, accomplish this mainly through the use of intuition. Timing is the most important aspect of the creative process. Intuition is what makes that important timing element possible. Have you ever noticed that when you are totally focused on what you are doing that time seems to go away? That you lose yourself completely in the task? When we are so fully involved, we are using our intuition to bring all of our senses to the successful completion of our task. It’s what pulls our best from the deepest of our inner resources and life energies. We are completely connected to all that is a part of us.

Mathematicians dealing with the theory of numbers and geometrical shapes often had no more to go on than visualization. Logical proof of the concept was only achieved after that intuitive beginning. Several ancient philosophical groups compared mathematicians to mystics. This comparison picked up more steam as mathematics started dealing with the fourth dimension of space. A book written in 1884 by Edwin Abbott, Flatland, A Romance in Many Dimensions, is a platform upon which the concept of believing in something besides the known three dimensions of our world became more accepted. The book also makes a case for the logical acceptance of a supreme being that exists not just in our mind but also outside of it. This is an essential belief behind our spiritual institutions.

The discovery and study of the fourth dimension of space has had an influence on our understanding of the importance of intuition in our spiritual though. In an essay written in 1983, "IMMORTALITY, Why I Do Not Think It Impossible", Martin Gardner suggests that the way we think about hyper-dimensional space could lead us to possibly consider the fact that death is not the final act of our being but merely a step in the process of our spirituality. This essay is especially interesting because Gardner is described as a "hardline debunker of psychic phenomena." The work of physicist Saul-Paul Sirag, who explored the physics of the relationship between hyperspace and consciousness, developed a theory that it’s possible there are visible and invisible dimensions. The fact that we only perceive four dimensions, doesn’t mean there aren’t more and he suggests that some there are some dimensions that are internal. The possibility of these dimensions calls to question how our own reality fits into the overall universal scheme.

Another example of how intuition is invaluable is in the profession of inventions. In this field, inventors, who see a need that isn’t being filled or a process that would make our lives easier, just seem to pull an idea from out of nowhere. Or it seems to just pop into their minds. What is it in nature that inspires inventors to first be able to "view" what doesn’t yet exist and then be able to solve the problems both scientific and theoretical to create a physical object? One inventor, Lynn Charlson, would solve his problems by spending time each night before bed thinking about what needed to be fixed or accomplished. He secured many patents in the field of hydraulics using this method. Charlson felt that his intuition was connected to a higher spiritual source. He wasn’t alone in feeling that way. There were other inventors, who, along with Charlson, supported psi research financially. Arthur M. Young, who invented the Bell Helicopter is one such financially successful inventor who contribued to psi research.

Other inventors, such as Henry Ford and Thomas Edison, also believed or had an interest in the subject of re-incarnation. It is interesting to see how these inventors first had to use their intuition to help them "see" their concepts and then use the method of experimentation to prove a concept that came to them via extra-sensory perceptions. Being able to combine perceptions and use intuitive timing is what provided these people with their success.

On problem in trying to connect spirituality with intuition is our cultural diversity. Scholars have differing opinions as to whether or not there is a connection in our various spiritual philosophies. Some argue that all of our belief stories have a common thread and others say that isn’t so, that there are mystical writings that are not compatible with each other. These arguments may be reconciled by allowing that yes, we have different ways of looking at our spiritual roots but is it any different than the approaches made by diverse cultures to other areas of science? Just because one group may come at a biological, chemical, or psychological problem one way and another group’s approach completely different, doesn’t mean that either is right or wrong. He feels that a search for a unity of knowledge between the various sciences will ultimately help bring together intuition and mainstream science.

Intuitive writings on spirituality have engaged scholars for centuries. Our own modern religions are founded on some of these intuitions. By bringing together the studies from psi research, the testimony of spiritual experience and the broad field of intuition, we will find a way to "realms of consciousness" that have only so far been seen in the more esoteric philosophies.