Chapter XXI
INTUITION
W. John Murray
The
Realm of Reality
Divine Science Publishing Assoc.
New York, 1922.
“By thy great wisdom and by
thy traffic hast thou increased thy
riches.”
--Ezekiel 28:5
[240]
Glorious indeed is the world of God
around us, but more glorious is the world
of God within us. “There lies the
land of song; there lies the poet’s
native land.” These are the words
of Longfellow to whom intuition meant the
perception of Truth without aid of
conscious reasoning, but a perception,
nevertheless, which conscious reasoning
must eventually support. “If only I
could have known what was going to
happen, so much might have been avoided
which now must be endured,” says
the man who has made a mistake in
business, and the woman who has made a
mistake in love.
The popular
notion that women are more intuitional
than men might be seriously questioned if
their matrimonial and sentimental
ventures were used as tests. If the
faculty of intuition has a special field
in which to exercise itself, it would
seem to be in affairs of the heart, but
the number of mistakes made by women in
such [241] affairs is as great as are
those of men, or more so, if one may
judge by the divorce findings. It is too
late after the bad move is made and the
results are beginning to appear, to
remember that we had a
“hunch” that things were not
going to turn out well, for it is this
intuition which comes from something
higher than the intellect which ought to
be considered, and not so frequently
brushed aside.
Much of
Russell Sage’s monetary success, it
is said, was due to his wife’s
intuitions, upon which he learned to rely
rather than upon his own method of
reasoning. The trouble with most men in
business is not that they are lacking in
intuition, but that they allow intellect
to reason them away from their
intellectual perceptions. The trouble
with most women in love is not that the
faculty of intuition stops functioning,
but that other considerations silence its
“still, small voice,” and it
is only when trouble comes that both men
and women remember the
“hunch” in the case.
“If I had only stopped to
think,” we say; but the trouble is
that we did stop to think and, going
contrary to our warning, we invited what
we did not want.
There is a
prevalent notion that intuition is a
gift, and while it is true that some are
born with greater capacities along this
line, just as some are born with sounder
constitutions, it is nevertheless true
that intuition, like physical strength,
may be acquired. It is a question of
exercise in both cases. If “God
enters by a private door into [242] every
individual,” we should see to it
that the latch-string is always on the
outside. It is not belittling to
intellect to say that intuition is
superior to it, and that it is that upon
which it must ultimately depend for its
clearest explanations of Truth. Intuition
is that which furnishes intellect with
its working ideas. When it is said that
“All science is based on the
assumption of causation,” it
simply means that the intellect would
have nothing to work upon were it not for
the intuitive perception, or assumption,
that effect presupposes cause. As it is
the office of intellect to reason from
ascertained facts, it is the function of
intuition to grasp Truth at first hand,
and then to bring all the powers of
reason to bear on the translation of
Truth into concrete usefulness.
Intuition is
not that in man which corresponds to
instinct in the animal. We cannot compare
it with the mental quality which causes
the bee to construct its cell, the beaver
its dam, or the bird its nest; for while
these indicate the certainty of unusual
mental operations, they do not
necessarily lead to divine communings.
Instinct in the animal enables it to
co-operate with nature, while intuition
in man enables him to co-operate with
nature’s God. The one enables the
animal to use nature’s forces for
constructive purposes, the other enables
man to utilize Divine Energy in a way
that makes for health, wealth, and
wisdom. It is from intuition, and not
from intellect, or instinct, that man
rises to the highest exhibitions of
artistic genius in music, poetry,
painting, architecture [243] and
invention. If one reads carefully the
visions of Joseph and of Daniel one will
see how large a part intuition played in
their interpretations. There are more
ways than one of acquiring knowledge, and
learned men are discovering that
inspiration is as necessary as education,
if men would not forever memorize and
repeat what other men have memorized and
repeated before them.
Swedenborg
says that nothing ever happens in heaven.
What is meant by this is that nothing
ever takes place on the plane of the
objective that has not already taken
place on the plane of the subjective, so
that all prophecy is based upon seeing in
the subjective world the mental picture
of that which will ultimate itself in the
physical world, unless something is done
to produce a short circuit. Our
intuitions may prophesy good or ill
because they are based upon the inner
perception of thoughts in the
subconscious mind of the race, and since
this is so they are invaluable in
developing the good mental pictures on
one hand, and destroying the bad mental
pictures on the other. The more intuitive
we become, the more we shall invite
success, and the quicker we shall
forestall failure, for intuition is a
two-edged sword which cuts both ways. It
is through intuition that we perceive
opportunities and seize them, unless we
permit intellect to reason us away from
them.
On the other
hand, it is through intuition that [244]
we sense danger, even when all seems most
auspicious on the surface. Intuition
appraises us of forthcoming good and
warns us against approaching calamity. It
is that in man which is spoken of as his
“guardian angel.” It causes a
man to change his mind and take the
elevated [trolley] when, as a general
rule, he almost automatically travels by
subway. There is no apparent
reason for departing from his usual
custom, and he feels almost foolish for
following what seems to be an
unreasonable impulse, but he learns, on
arriving at his office, that there has
been an accident in the subway which
would have delayed him, even if he had
not been injured by it.
Recently a
young woman told me that she had started
out for a long horseback ride when she
suddenly felt that something dreadful was
transpiring at home. She tried to laugh
herself out of it, but the feeling
persisted with such force that she turned
her horse around and galloped home as
fast as possible, where she found her
father dying in his chair, where she had
left him a few moments before, apparently
well. Such things have happened so often
that we no longer question them. We admit
the phenomena, and we become almost
fatalists in our admission. If good is on
the way, according to our intuitive
perceptions, we are glad of it, but if
calamity is impending we are apt to say,
“If it is to be, it will be, and
that’s all there is to
it.”
It is right
here that we are to make intelligent use
of this God-given faculty in order to
hasten [245] the good and neutralize the
evil. It is now an accepted fact among
psychologists, spiritual and academic,
that the subconscious mind is amenable to
suggestion by the conscious mind, and
that according to the law of action and
reaction, the conscious mind is reacted
upon by the subconscious, so that the
subconscious, which stands between the
individual and the Universe, may keep the
individual informed of things transpiring
on the subjective plane. But this
reaction of the subconscious upon the
conscious ought to be more intelligently
persistent and not so unintelligently
spasmodic, and it will become so when we
learn to pay attention to it, as Joseph
and Daniel heeded it.
When it is
once understood that the conscious mind
reacts to promptings from the
subconscious, we shall see that our
highest impulses come more from intuition
than from intellect. In learning to place
more reliance on this Inner Guide, we may
occasionally follow a blind lead, but we
shall less frequently reason ourselves
out of good prospects by refusing to heed
our infallible mentor. There are those
who tell us that our first impressions
are good detectives, inasmuch as they
reflect what is actually taking place in
another’s mentality, so that what
he is, and not what he appears to
be, impresses us. There are those who
scorn to be influenced by “first
impressions” lest they misjudge
their new acquaintances, but the
frequency with which they are brought
back to first [246] impressions through
grievous disappointments speaks volumes
for the value of intuition.
The Scotch
speak of intuition as “second
sight” when, as a matter of fact,
it is first sight, or the ability to see
mind in action before it comes into
manifestation. It differs from
clairvoyance in that it is not confined
to reading the individual mind, but
feels rather than sees, what is
taking place in the subconscious mind of
the race. That which intuition enabled
Joseph to do in the matter of foreseeing
the seven years famine and to protect
Egypt against its ravages, will enable
any man to do in the ordinary affairs of
the business world. Even the little they
have of it as a natural gift, without any
cultivation whatever, would, if listened
to, prevent many a catastrophe and seize
many an opportunity.
But the bias
of our education has been all in favor of
“weighing the matter” from
the standpoint of reason, so that we have
reasoned ourselves away from what would
have protected us in one instance, or
profited us in the other. All men have
intuition but few men cultivate it, so
that when we find one who does, we find a
success. It is the explanation of all
real achievement, and it reveals the law
by which one man outdistances another.
Speaking of the phenomenal success of a
mutual friend, one man said to another,
“How did he do it?” and the
other replied, “He saw it
first.” But it would have been of
little value for him to see it first if
he did not [247] act upon it directly. We
must learn to trust our intuitions more.
All inspiration is due to the normal
action of the Universal Mind on the
individual, whenever the individual is
listening inwardly.
The only
reason why we do not get inspirational
guidance more frequently is because we
permit ourselves to become distracted by
the things of sense and the outer world.
Like the natural talent for music and
art, we must cultivate this precious gift
and it will recompense us a
thousand-fold. Through self-discipline
and earnest longing the mental vision of
the individual becomes clear, so that the
power of immediate insight, which is
man’s highest attainment,
supersedes the laborious operations of
the intellect.
The truths
and glories of the spiritual world are
intuitionally discerned, whereas the
intellect, if it glimpses them at all,
does so as through a glass, darkly. Apart
from the value of cultivated intuition as
an asset in business and a protection
against danger, its greatest benefit to
human kind lies in its power to lead us
out of the bewilderment of sense to
serenity of soul. When we have the faith
and courage to trust it our spiritual
vision will become clear and the Hidden
Way out of the maze of disease and
trouble will be revealed.
Intuition
leads to a conviction of the Omnipresence
of God, in spite of all appearances. It
is the compass which always points to the
peace we seek. The cultivation of
intuition, like the cultivation [248] of
a seed, begins in the silence. The busy
man and the busy woman will be most
greatly aided out of their perplexities,
not by “taking
thought,” but by taking
time to relax. If we would be in
good receiving condition we must become
as passive as the flower which turns to
the sun, so that the voice of God coming
through the channel of intuition may not
be confused by the blurring protestations
of mere reason. When we have shut
ourselves off from outer things and have
become still, and know that the “I
AM” is God, we should say
silently:
Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, a
light unto my path. There is that in me
which hears Thy Word and, hearing It
obeys It. Through my God-created
intuition I have ears which hear and
eyes which see the things which make
for progress, spiritual and material. I
perceive Thy Way and, walking in it, I
keep company with the spirits of just
men made perfect.
My spiritual
intuitions are not idle fancies which
lead only to disappointment, but they are
direct impartations from Divine Mind to
my receptive soul by which I am able to
distinguish between that which is true
and that which is false. Intuitively I
perceive that God, and not mere
intellect, is my unerring Wisdom, and
this perception leads me to seek guidance
from the Inner and not from the outer. I
cannot be deceived into doing that which
I ought not to do, nor prevented from
doing immediately that which I
ought to do, for my Guardian Angel
(Intuition) guards me [249] against the
one and encourages me in the other.
Following that which God has given to me
as my Inner Guide, I shall go on from
Glory to Glory, until it leads me at last
to that Infinite Wisdom which knows no
error and makes no mistakes.
Chapter
22
* * * * *
The Realm of Reality
Table of
Contents
(Formerly at
Northwoods Divine Science Resource
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