(John Van Auken is the Director of the Edgar Cayce Foundation and this is an excerpt From ‘Living in the Light’ which references many of Edgar Cayce’s readings; note the reference numbers in parenthesis of the cases of people who Cayce read for.)
What is Intuition?
It comes from the Latin word intuir, which means “knowledge from within.” And Edgar Cayce’s perspective considers intuition to be a natural quality of the mind of our soul that is within us. Even a “gut feeling” (often considered to be an intuitive knowing) actually starts with a perception of an external factor, such as an intonation or facial expression so brief that our outer self is unaware that a subconscious perception has occurred – but it has! And our stomach reacts with a “gut feeling.”
Intuition is not a figment of a person’s imagination. And it is not literally coming from a person’s gut (even though Cayce identified an “abdominal brain” within each of us). Research has shown that it is the result of the activities within a region of our brains through which our MIND operates.*
Generally speaking, the area that paves the way for intuition is the right hemisphere of our brain. The right brain governs creative thought, art, music, senses, and emotion. And it is also where intuitive knowing arises.
The cerebral cortex, also known as the cerebellum, also affects the development of hunches in humans. This was the last part of the brain to evolve (it was perfected about 200 million years ago), the cerebellum also goes by the name “upper brain.” This section is responsible for decision-making, creativity, and cognitive logic, and scientists believe that it plays a role in intuitive judgments as well.
A more specific area of the brain to govern intuition is the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, located in the frontal lobe at the bottom of the cerebral hemispheres and is implicated in the processing of risk and fear. Locus ceruleus, a minute nucleus located in the pons, is said to generate one’s gut feeling. As the seat of noradrenaline provision to the forebrain, it is one of the structures that build the “ascending reticular activating system.”
Because of its ability to influence emotion, motivation, memory, learning, and decision making, it is known to play a big role in intuition.
While some view one’s gut feeling as a magical construct, psychologists have come up with sound explanations for one’s intuition. Most view intuition as “condensed reasoning” or “swift cognition” – a person’s ability to exploit the brain’s shortcuts. Some, on the other hand, deem gut feeling as an associative process that taps into the unconscious – and this is Edgar Cayce’s view.
With these many explanations, experts agree that a good way to explain intuition is to compare it to a mental matching game. When situations present themselves the brain conducts a brief search of its existing files and presents the best solution for the condition at hand. For example, a doctor immediately discerns anemia in a pale looking patient exhibiting signs of breathing difficulties.
Practice Makes Perfect
Just like any power of the mind, intuition gets better with practice. The more familiar we are with a specified sphere of activity or knowledge, the faster our brain processes. The more we practice, the more we develop our ability to discover and learn from within ourselves. And we know when an insight is true intuition or simply wishful illusion.
Edgar Cayce’s View
EC: “Intuition – the faculty – is so often misunderstood. Psychic forces and psychic development are so often misunderstood. Psychic should be applied rather to the soul mind or soul body, than merely to (as is the more often deduced) the MENTAL activities….” (255-12)
From Cayce’s point of view, a view from the Universal Consciousness, intuition and psychic development are not mental activities. They are soul abilities.
In reading 3744-2, Cayce states that psychic activities are the soul’s ability to bring these into the physical plane. The outer self has little idea of where these insights or knowings come from but sees their influence in daily life. Intuition and psychic knowing do not come from mental activity but from a closer proximity to one’s soul forces, soul body. If we seek to grow closer to our soul, then we will naturally become more intuitive.
Ms. 255 asked Cayce specifically for some training but she did not expect the answer he gave:
“(Q) Suggest how the entity may train self in the present to the study and the use of this intuitive sense.
“(A) Train intuition? Then, how would you train electricity – save as to how it may be governed! By keeping in self those thoughts, those activities of the mental mind, those activities of the body that allow spiritual truths to emanate through you. Not train, but govern!
Govern it by knowing that the mind, that the body, that the influences are such that these are not sidetracked from the ideals and purposes that are set before self. So develop. For God, the Giver of all good and perfect gifts, He who metes to every soul that which is the companionship to its activities in a material life, guards, and guides and keeps those that in sincerity seek to know HIS way, irrespective of the other influences that may be about a body.
Hence, in governing, in guarding, in guiding such forces, such powers that arise through the activities, keep the body, the mind, the soul, in attune with the spheres of celestial forces, rather than of earthly forces.” (255-12)
Tip for Manifesting Desires into Reality
There has been a lot of talk about the power and importance of visualization in realizing one’s desires.
But Cayce takes a much different view of this approach.
“(Q): To bring a desired THING or CONDITION into manifestation, is it advisable to visualize it by making a PICTURE or just to hold the idea in prayer and let God produce it in His own way without our making a pattern?
“(A): The pattern is given thee in the mount. The MOUNT is within your inner self. To visualize by ‘picturizing’ is to BECOME idol worshipers. Is this pleasing, with you conception of God that has given, ‘Have no other gods before me’? The God in self, the God of the universe, then, meets you in your inner self. Be patient, and leave it with Him. He knows what you have need of before you ask. Visualizing is telling Him how it must look when you have received it. Is that your conception of an All-Wise, All-Merciful Creator? Then, let rather your service ever be, ‘Not my will, O God, but Yours be done in me, through me.’ For all is His. Then, think like it – and, most of all, act like it is.” (705-2)
The next question is about healing and keeping healthy the physical by nonphysical means. Cayce’s answer seems to indicate that, though this is possible, the physical body ultimately lives in a physical dimension with laws of its own that must be honored.
“(Q): Do you not believe if one can make herself positive to ONLY the GOOD she can overcome all physical ills of the body, without medicine, provided she feeds it right and treats it right?
“(A): What manner of body in a material world can live, survive or remain material without material sustenance? In each sphere of activity there are the attributes. The body-physical may indeed be healed without medicine, but it becomes rather the ethereal than material.” (705-2)
The Importance of Spirituality
“The intuitions are well, provided those are tempered in spirituality. For, as these vibrations come about the entity, know that if you surround yourself with the creative forces or vibrations that are the way, the truth and the light, then ONLY good may come; and those things of dire natures, or demoniacal forces in any form will not be a part of your experience.” (2539-2 F 34)
Cayce once described intuition as “the dreamy experiences”. (1815-1 a boy of 15)
“You have gained much through your own understanding, and as the intuition unfolds let less and less of SELF enter in but more and more of divine love.” (689 was a 75 year old female member of Study Group #9 in DC)
“The entity may be said to be ‘sensitive’ to many varying influences. And owing to the choices the entity has experienced a great deal of turmoil through the last few years, for the very fact of her intuition going AGAINST her intuition, and rather to the advice of others without really analyzing the motivative influences – has brought confusion. (1616-1)
We need to keep in mind that true intuition comes from our seeking a closer relationship with the inner spiritual portions of our being, our soul, subconscious, and godly nature.
And the 3 best ways to do this are:
- Prayer, Meditation, and Reflection;
- Conscious awareness of activities and influences during our sleep cycles – dreams and awarenesses upon awaking;
- Living what we feel is the inner guidance and influence in our daily lives
- Practice makes perfect.
~ John Van Auken
Copyrights 2017 http://www.edgarcayce.org/
*Our thoughts are processed in ‘Mind’ and trigger the brain’s switching station according to the electrical currents. Brain does not produce thoughts. ‘Mind’ is an energy field within and surrounding our human form.
