Intuition rises from the depths of the human heart. It has two aspects: one is dependent upon an outer impression, and the other is independent of any outer impression. The former is called impression, and the latter intuition. Intuition is a fine faculty. As it comes by responsiveness, it is a feminine faculty. Woman, therefore, is more intuitive by nature than man.

Often one says 'This person gives me such and such an impression,' but there is no reason to prove it. One is perhaps not capable of finding any reason to prove it, nevertheless one's impression is right. There are some people who are naturally intuitive. For someone who is intuitive, it is not necessary to wait until he, so to speak, finds a person out. All he needs is one moment. As soon as his eyes fall upon the person, this instantly gives rise to an impression, which is the former kind of intuition. Someone with a fine mind and with a still mind generally has intuition. Someone with a gross mind and a restless mind lacks it.

Intuition is a super sense. It may be called a sixth sense. It is the essence of all senses. When a person says he sensed something, it does not mean that there were objective reasons to prove that it was so. It means that, without any outer reasons or objective signs, he has sensed it.

Intuition that is independent of impressions is of a still deeper nature, for it comes before one wishes to begin a thing and so one knows what will come out of it. Before the beginning of an enterprise, one senses the result of it. Intuition is sometimes a kind of inner guidance, and sometimes it is a kind of warning from within.

How does one perceive intuition? It is first expressed in the language of feeling. That feeling, spreading within the horizon of the mind, shapes itself and becomes more narrative of its idea. Then the mind turns it into a form, and then language interprets it. Therefore, it is the feeling heart to which intuition belongs.

In order to become clear so that it can be distinguished, intuition turns into three different conditions – into a feeling, into an imagination, or into a phrase. The person who hears the voice of intuition, even when it is in its first process of development, is more capable of perceiving intuition and it is he who may be called intuitive. Another person distinguishes it when it expresses itself in the realm of thought. Then there is a third person who can only distinguish his intuition when it is manifest in the form of a phrase.

It is the kind person, the loving person, the pure-hearted person, the person of goodwill, who is intuitive. Intuition has nothing to do with learning. An unlettered person can be much more intuitive than one who is most qualified, for intuition lies in another domain of knowledge and comes from quite another direction.

Very often, an intuitive person makes a mistake in catching the right intuition, for the intuition comes from one side while his mind reacts from the other side, and he does not know which is which. If he takes the action of his mind for intuition, and is once disappointed, then he loses faith in himself. So, naturally, he no longer gives thought to intuition, and that faculty diminishes in him more and more every day. To catch an intuition is the most difficult thing, for in a moment's time, both are working – intuition on the one hand, and mind on the other. It is as if two ends of a stick placed in the center upon another stick were to move up and down, and one did not notice which end rose first and which end rose after.

Therefore, one needs to take a very keen notice of the actions of the mind, and this ability is gained by a thorough practice of concentration. One must be able to look at one's mind just as at a slate placed before one. While looking at it, one must be able to shut oneself off from all sides, fixing one's mind solely upon one's inner being. By developing concentration, by stilling the mind, one can be tuned to the pitch that is necessary to perceive intuition.

If one has once been disappointed in perceiving one's intuition, then one must not lose courage, one must go on following it even if it continues to be a mistake. If one continually follows one's intuition, then one will come to the right perception of it.

The dream is another wonder, a phenomenon of the mind. In the dream, it is not only imagination and thought that work, but also intuition. Intuitions that arise in the waking state arise in the dream state and become clearer, for at that time a person is naturally more concentrated, his eyes being closed to the outer world. However then, also there is the same problem – no sooner has intuition risen from the depths than imagination rises from the surface, and one does not know which is which. That is why many dreams are confused. A part of the dream is expressive of some truth, and a part of the dream is confused.

There is no dream that has no meaning. If the dream has nothing to do with intuition, then it is a purely automatic activity of all that the mind has gone through in one's work during the day. The same activity goes on automatically, just like a moving picture before one. Yet, even behind that there is a meaning, for nothing is projected on the curtain of the mind that does not take root in the soil of the heart, producing similar flowers and fruits. If, in the dream, intuition is working, then the dream is narrative of something in the past, present or future.

There is, however, a kind of dream that shows everything upside-down, just like a mirror that shows a fat person thin and a thin person fat, a tall person short and a short person tall. So, there also comes a condition of the mind where everything shows quite the contrary to what it is. This fault can be traced as the fault of the mind. The mind has been turned upside-down; and therefore, all that a person sees looks upside-down, especially in that dream state. Sometimes this dream shows quite the opposite to what was, what is, and what is going to be. If a person did not understand this nature of the dream, then he would interpret it quite contrarily to its real nature.

There are dreams that may be called visions. They are reflections – reflections of persons, of their minds, of worlds, of planes on which the mind has become focused. If the mind is focused on a certain world, then the dreams are of that world. If a person is focusing his mind upon himself, then his own thoughts come to him. If the mind is focused on a certain person, then that person and what is within him is reflected in the dream. If the mind is focused on a certain plane of being, then the conditions of that plane are reflected upon the mind.

The deeper one goes into this subject, the more one finds that in the understanding of the dream, in its nature, its mystery, its character, one understands the secret of the whole life.

Question: Could you please tell us about the difference between impulse and intuition?

Answer: The impulse of an intuitive person is often guided by intuition; but the impulse of a person who lacks intuition may come from another direction; it may come from the surface. Impulse directed by intuition is desirable.

Impulse is just like a little straw floating on the surface of the water. This straw becomes an impulse when it is pushed by a wave that is coming from behind. For a right impulse, man gets credit; for a wrong impulse, he is blamed. Yet, if one saw what was behind the impulse, one would be slow to express an opinion on the subject.

Question: How do you explain symbolical dreams?

Answer: The symbolical dream is the working of a subtle mind and it is a most wonderful working. As subtle as is the mentality, so subtle is the symbol in which the intuition or the thought is expressed. Therefore, it has been very easy for the mystics to see the evolution of a person from his dreams. The subtler his dreams, the subtler the person is in his evolution. Nevertheless, the virtue is not only in subtlety; the virtue is in simplicity. Poets, musicians, thinkers, writers, people of imagination, have wonderful dreams, and the splendor of their dreams is in their marvelous symbology.

Question: Is it the study of symbols that develops intuition?

Answer: Not at all. It is intuition that develops insight into symbolism.

Question: Are conditions in dreams the same as the conditions after death?

Answer: Certainly.

Question: Are dreams of suffocation, drowning and inability to walk and speak a result of one's health?

Answer: No, they are results of impressions that have been held in the mind. It is a kind of psychological disorder of the mind, a disease of the mind. The mind must be cured from it.

Question: What about dreams that are inspired by a stimulus from the physical body, as for instance a dream inspired by a feeling of pain in the body?

Answer: The mind has a reaction upon the body, and the body has a reaction upon the mind. Therefore, it is natural that a bodily disorder may throw its shadow upon the mind and produce the same disorder in the mind.

Question: What about dreams of flying? Many people say that they are a bad sign.

Answer: I think this is the most interesting thing in the world. You do not need airplanes! Dreams of flying have much to do with biology. Psychologically, they are expressive of the soul's continual effort of rising above the imprisonment and limitation that it experiences in this earthly life. Also, dreams of flying signify a journey awaiting one in the future.

Question: Will you please tell us what makes a person sing in his sleep?

Answer: The dance of his soul.

Question: What is the condition of the mind of people who nearly never dream? Are they not imaginative?

Answer: I think that they are better than imaginative – they are happy! The truth is that either a very advanced person does not dream much, or a very dense person who never troubles his brain to think. He is quite happy and content without troubling to think. He does not have many dreams. Do not think that you seldom find such souls. You often meet with souls to whom thinking is a trouble, and they would rather not trouble themselves about it.

Question: What is the difference between the dream that may be called a vision, and the real vision?

Answer: Vision is vision. The more one knows reality, the less one uses the word 'real.' There is one vision that is seen in the dream, and there is another vision that is seen in a state of trance, a state between dreaming and wakefulness.
 

checked 27-Oct-2005