You are NOT just a bag of flesh and chemicals!

"Never ignore a gut feeling, but never believe that it's enough." - Robert Heller

I can say with 100% assurance that I am primarily an intuitive person. This is founded in the experiences that I have had over the years of my life; it is a solid belief that not everything we are is purely physical. In fact, I'm not even sure what "physical" even means in light of recent quantum discoveries of particles and waves. This very thing has brought into question the fundamental nature of reality, at least in my mind.

Is there a non-physical reality?

With movies like the Secret and works by Deepak Chopra and others, it is easy to fall into the trap that is pseudoscience - that is, a bunch of navel-gazing and magical thinking without any kind of art or method applied. While there are physical laws like gravity which we really haven't fully comprehended yet, they are still "physical" laws - and many of the laws of Nature like the Law of Attraction depend on a greater thing than "wishing" alone. Nature sometimes has Her own way of manifesting things, and if this is the case there is very little we can do about it on an individual level. However, no one's fate is determined by Nature alone.

Intuition is often confused for other things like desires, instinct, impulse and fantasy. These "instinctual vibrations" are received not only via the five senses but also manifest at the Navel, or Manipura Chakra, and I believe it is no coincidence that we have neurons in our gut as a result.

Intuition is the reaction in our subtle body which arises from the non-physical (mental, emotional, etc) cues we get from our environment. These are generally received via the Ajna Chakra, or “Third Eye” located just between the brows, and in front of the pineal gland deep within the brain. Ajna is the nexus point of the two primal forces in our subtle bodies; Ida and Pingala, masculine and feminine. Generally speaking, these are our two brains; right and left. I interpret this to mean that whatever messages or vibrations I am picking up with Ida intuition, I must balance with the arts of analysis, or the Trivium method of Pingala.

Finally, in my experience, I have received signals by way of the Crown or Sahasrara Chakra, and these have been more along the lines of direct insights rather than intuition alone. Often I have felt that these signals, often bits of wisdom, impossible-for-me-to-know knowledge or visions, are being “poured” into my brain through a “hole” in the top part of my head. I’m not kidding, that’s how it felt.

So, what is the function of neurons?

The very basic function of a neuron is to receive signals from our internal and external environment. They also serve to transmit that information throughout the central nervous system. Signals are received via our senses, interpreted and then transmitted to the appropriate tissues/cells throughout the body. Given that I have come to understand the brain as being more like a radio receiver than a computer (since we actually can't find "stored" data versions of our memories in that grey matter) and the mind kind of "floats on top", a non-physical entity interacting with this receiving device.

Just imagine that possibility for a while. It's all I ask.

But what signals are neurons receiving?

The Institute of Noetic Science has a TEDx talk about their findings when researching telepathy.

The experiment consisted of two subjects, both hooked up to brain wave monitoring devices. One subject was placed in an electromagnetically isolated room, the other was placed in a room with a monitor upon which they were subjected to a flash of light at random intervals. The second subject was instructed to focus their thoughts on the first subject throughout the experiment.

What they soon found was an "echo" of brain activity in the isolated room which occurred within milliseconds of the observing subject.

In fact, the receiver seemed to react slightly before the sender, which is strange if one thinks of time as an arrow instead of a spiral.

While more research is certainly needed, the findings by IONS is certainly appealing to me and reflect my own experiences, considering the "paranormal" experiences I have had throughout my life. I've been subject to many “paranormal” things that are just far beyond coincidence, especially between my husband and I. I’ve, in the past, read tarot and astrology charts with an accuracy which surprised me and my subjects, and I made it a point to be sure that I was receiving as little physical information from my subjects as possible.

Sure, I’ve made a pretty bold statement here, and I recognize the fact that I could be very, very wrong. I’m fairly convinced that we are not just physical flesh bags hurling through space into a certain oblivion - there is something impermanent about us that we are just now beginning to understand with the art of sciences. I can't wait to see what organizations like IONS discover over the next months and years!

Obligatory Disclaimer

As I’ve said in another of my blog posts,

I will not get obsessed with the paranormal, even though I may believe in it.

I'm Sara. You can find me on my Facebook page hanging around posting silly memes (I try to keep my personal page light). I'm an unlabeled spirit having a human experience, and yet I have found my way into anarchy/voluntaryism since the concepts resonate with my understanding of Ahimsa, but I do not label myself as such. Labels are unfair to the reality of who we are inside! Please find and join a group I help admin, Philosophy, Spirituality and Anarchy, if you find my blog posts useful! Namaste!