In yesterday’s blog about the dangers of sharing spiritual beliefs, I mentioned the conundrum I often experience when people get a strong feeling or gut instinct that they disagree with me. I think many people make intuitive decisions based on gut instincts. That seems to be a good thing, but if they don’t understand their instincts, they could be making some really bad decisions.
There’s a certain paradox here that is worth discussing with you – I’m interested in your thoughts on the issue.
Listen to your gut
Your gut instinct (e.g. that queasy feeling you might get in your belly) is a powerful form of intuition, sometimes called clairsentience. Lots of spiritual courses help people to connect to their feelings (heart) or instincts (gut) and encourage this intuition.
There is a problem with this though. If the person isn’t “clear,” they will get what I might call a false reading.
I want to give a few examples, starting with a simple one. Imagine you are talking about money and a new business idea that’s really simple and could provide your friend with absolute financial freedom. Perhaps you are offering to lend them the money to start their dream business. Instead of gratitude they look ill. They feel really bad about the whole thing and they decline your offer of help on the basis that “it doesn’t feel right.”
I ask: is this being intuitive or is this fears and worthiness issues blocking a person? Are they confusing their inability to accept a gift with an intuitive insight?
Deeper example:
True story: I’m talking to a healing practitioner about RPT. I was explaining how instead of divine intervention we believe in healing from within. This potential client thought about this and said “this doesn’t feel right for me.”
Now far be it from me to question people’s feelings. I spend most of my working life helping people to connect with their feelings. But I also know that feelings are misleading. So I asked this woman to explore what she felt in her gut by placing a hand over her belly and feeling into it. What she felt was fear. Cutting a long story short, it was the fear that what I said might be right. Fear of the consequences – after all she had built an entire healing practice based on prayer and divine intervention. What if I was right and healing only comes from within?
This isn’t a debate about divine intervention (we did that last week!), I merely want to make a point about gut feelings. They can be misleading.
Instead of rejecting something outright because she “trusted her gut,” this woman learned a vital life lesson – her gut was merely signally a threat. Some threats are real (like down go down that dark alley tonight), but mostly threats are perceived. With few physical threats in our day-to-day lives, our bodies respond to broader existential threats.
Very few people know and understand this – that your body’s fear might be an indication that something is very good for you instead of bad for you. It depends on how “clear” you are (for lack of a better word). If you are a yogi who’s spent lifetimes in a cave meditating, I suspect your gut insticts are spot on. If you have done the RPT work on coherence, you’ll be fine. But the average person who’s done a spiritual healing course and learned to listen to their gut is liable to get into trouble.
Conclusion: A funny feeling in your gut means there’s something you need to listen to. It is not a “litmus test.” It does not give you a yes/no answer. It doesn’t mean this is “good/bad.” It means: Stop, Listen, Feel into this. Find the deeper meaning or message. Explore what your body is triggered by. Do not make a decision on the basis of a gut reaction alone.
It probably goes without saying the the above comments apply equally to other forms of intuition like clairvoyance, clairvoyance etc.
Before I wrap up for the day I had some other things on my mind to talk about.
New ideas and old truths
Earlier today a reader (“Dalben”) left a comment accusing me of rehashing old truths rather than proving new ones. I found this funny. Are there really any new truths? I can’t tell you how delighted I would be to help take the world back to an older truth (pre Judaeo-Christian concepts of God as a male entity that judges you for your good and bad deeds and determines whether you get into heaven). There would be nothing better for this planet than to re-wind the “God clock” a few thousand years. So why on earth did this reader think that it was a bad thing that my teachings are very similar to the Tao, or have vaguely shamanic leanings? His attack was the highest form of compliment!
There are some genuinely new ideas here but they aren’t totally new. I think my NLP teacher Chris Howard said it best when he said “If I stand tall, it’s because I stand on the shoulders of those that came before me.” (He was referring to Tony Robinson’s shoulders.)
If I can introduce a new philosophy it is this: I strive to unite 2 schools of thought that have never before been united, the Tao and ultra-Darwinism. Two universal truths (not merely beliefs) that merely haven’t been combined before. If you hear me speak of “spiritual atheism” it is this unity I refer to.
[Incidentally speaking of my fear of speaking out, I have barely mentioned evolution on this blog for fear of offending my Christian and Moslem readers. That will change very soon as I believe I have found ways to explore the facts of evolution without upsetting too many people's Gods.]
Your comments
As always, I’d love to hear from you. What are your thoughts about gut insticts? Does your gut always lead you in the right direction or does it lead you astray? What do you think about the idea that the thing you are afraid of might be really good for you?
Looking forward to your input.
Simon
Shane Marsh 
Jørgen Mæhre 
You ask: “Does your gut always lead you in the right direction or does it lead you astray?” 
Asset 
Donna Kuck 
A decision based on a gut reaction can be like a knee jerk reaction…automatic without real merit or giving the situation an honest evaluation. Like you said, a lot of gut reactions are based in fear. I think we develop this fear from past experiences, what we inherit from our family and simply not completely understanding a situation. Sometimes our gut reactions are spot on like when we feel it’s a stupid idea to play with a poisonous snake. That’s a built in primal survival gut reaction. But other gut reactions are not as healthy (although based on survival) and can’t be trusted at face (or gut) value. In my opinion, it’s important to step back and assess the situation when your gut kicks in. Since we store so much emotion in our gut, we have to remember that emotion and logic (reality) are not always the same. So, no, I don’t think we should automatically trust our gut instinct. Add a dose of logic to the mix and ask what is scaring you about the situation and why. Then go from there.
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Simon Rose Reply:
March 30th, 2011 at 4:38 pm
If only everyone were as level headed as you.
Far too many people make decisions based on gut insticts they don’t udnerstand. Bt in the scheme of new age sins, that’s nothing. Remind me to tell you the story about the woman who pulled out from a course (after paying) because her angels told her to. [She couldn't actually hear her angels; her spiritual healer told her her that angels told her .... and silly Simon suggested it was more likely that the spiritual healer feared that after the course she wouldn't need to be wasting money on spiritual healers...]
sigh… and giggles
Simon
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WendyB Reply:
March 31st, 2011 at 4:01 am
Wow, wow, wow! That is making my head explode and I don’t even know the whole story. How tragic for both of them…
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Ben Ralston Reply:
March 31st, 2011 at 9:11 pm
Oh Simon, don’t get me started on angels… I could tell you a (similar) story that would chill you to the bone.
Victor Reply:
March 31st, 2011 at 11:33 pm
This is so true regarding ppl said their angels told them this and that. Whereas they usually locked in their own gunk and fear of being threaten!
Then, how good they r manifest the angel card come out the answer that fit into their fear/fantasy.
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