Despite the many ways of knowing intuition, it is your connection to the one, singular truth that permeates all of existence. Is intuition a gut feeling? Is it a knowingness? Is it a creative idea? Is it a revelation from God? The answer to all these things is: Yes.
We gain a deeper understanding of this multifaceted nature of intuitive expression when we understand it on four basic terms — based on the four dimensions of human being. By looking at the way we receive intuitive wisdom through our body, our mind, our heart, and even our spirit, we can see how a singular, overarching process is at work in so many ways within us.
The Four Intuitions manifest within us through our physical senses, our mental thoughts, our emotional feelings, and our spiritual experiences. Just as the different colors of the rainbow are expressions of the singular brilliance of white light, each of the Four Intuitions expresses the singular truth in its own special way. Some intuitive moments touch us — some enlighten us, or move us, or uplift us. All have the same end, which is to impart the wisdom we require to elevate our experience of life.
By embracing the many ways that your intuition manifests, you are taking the first step to discovering your own, unique intuition affinities — and putting them to work in your life. As we go deeper into this process, you will answer important questions like:
- What kind of intuition comes naturally to me?
- How do I know when my intuition is speaking to me?
- What is the difference between intuition and my regular thoughts or imagination?
- And most importantly, how can I know, for certain, that I understand my intuition correctly?
The first step in answering these questions is to discover how each intuitive pathway touches you. Are you a natural Healer? A Sage? A Visionary or a Mystic? Each type of intuition carries with it the energy of its archetype. When we attune to that energy, we, in turn, embody that archetype in our own beautiful and sacred way, and make our mark on the world.
Like snowflakes, no two intuitive sensibilities are alike — because no two people are alike. Each of us uses the Four Intuitions in our own way — a special blend of insight, attuned by our own experiences and purpose in this life. As your intuition strengthens and becomes part of your living nature, you will realize the power that comes with so many ways of knowing truth.
The Pathways of Insight: Body, Mind, Heart, and Spirit
As we awaken to the power of insight, we no longer ask ourselves, “Do I have intuition?” but instead, “How do I strengthen my intuition?” The role of intuition is to relay information to us from the inside, instead of from the outside, as our thinking normally functions. To understand how it does that, consider how we are designed to process information.
Your mind is fueled by a collective set of input systems designed to process information from the outside world. You sense things; you know things; you feel things; you experience things. With intuition, it’s no different. Your intuition uses those same pathways — your body, your mind, your heart, your spirit — to deliver intuitive input within you. The only difference is that, instead of coming from the outside world, it comes from the inside world.
Your own natural physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual sensitivities determine which intuitive pathways flow most openly in your life. Becoming aware of your intuitive affinities enables you to better process insight and to open up new channels for intuitive expression within you.
All human beings are built with four primary intuitive pathways that correspond to the four primary input systems or cognitive functions:
- Sensing: (Intuitive Pathway 1: Physical Intuition)
- Thinking: (Intuitive Pathway 2: Mindful Intuition)
- Feeling: (Intuitive Pathway 3: Creative Intuition)
- Being: (Intuitive Pathway 4: Transcendental Intuition)
Each day, you sense, think, and feel your way through reality. Your intuition uses this same system to bring you information from beyond everyday reality. It flows through your physical body, your conscious mind, and your passionate heart to lead you to the truth of existence. Your intuition will connect to you through any open input pathway available. The more these pathways are open and unblocked, the stronger your intuition will flow.
From ancient times through the modern era, this four-element approach to human cognition has been a highly effective way to understand the nature of consciousness. More than 2,600 years ago, the teachings of the Buddha incorporated this four-pronged framework in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness:
- Mindfulness of body
- Mindfulness of mind
- Mindfulness of feelings
- Mindfulness of truth
In the early twentieth century, Carl Jung was one of the first to champion a mainstream role for intuition in Western culture, giving it a foundational role in his model of the four cognitive functions:
- Sensation
- Thought
- Emotion
- Intuition
Jung understood these four functions as the basic methods of perception in human consciousness, and he recognized intuition’s role in extrasensory perception, acknowledging that intuition, by its very nature, has access to “extra” or “extraordinary” information, outside the purview of regular sensing, knowing, and feeling.
Your faculties of cognition are not only vehicles for processing worldly impressions, they are vehicles for processing “otherworldly” impressions. Your intuition is your personal translator — turning universal wisdom into personal insight. Using the four intuitive conduits, your intuition distills transcendent, beyond-mind data into a comprehensible language that your conscious mind can understand.
We can call the four intuitive pathways our cognitive functions, our foundations of being, or our intuitive language, but regardless of the words we use, the same process is at work. Intuition flows from universal consciousness through our intuitive pathways and into our own individual consciousness. The beauty of intuition is that, though it comes to each of us from the same transcendent place, the way it touches us is infinitely diverse.
Excerpted from the book Radical Intuition. Copyright ©2020 by Kim Chestney. Printed with permission from New World Library — www.newworldlibrary.com.
