Intuition vs. paranoia
Clients always ask me,“How do I know the difference between receiving an intuitive message versus feeling fear that has been activated?” What they mean is, “how can one tell the difference between a real, “normal” fear and an excessive or irrational fear?
Besides having extensive professional background dealing with this issue, I’ve also had some related personal experience to share. One evening, while I was driving home in the rain from a holiday party at my parents’ house, a car suddenly sped by me, going way too fast given the weather conditions. I heard a calm voice in my head say, “He’s going to lose control and hit the car behind him.” No emotion or fear came over me. I simply heard a voice that was quiet, calm, and almost peaceful. I glanced up to check which exit I was near, and about five seconds later, the racing car spun out and slammed the vehicle behind it. I dialed 911 on my cell phone within seconds and told them the location of the collision as I continued on my journey. A few minutes later, my emotional response surfaced. I felt freaked out and shaken pulled over for a good cry.
Intuition can show up in different ways, but usually it’s a quiet voice, feeling, or image that comes into your head at an unexpected time. Typically, there is not a lot of emotion behind it. The initial feeling of an intuitive message is almost always very neutral. Urgent sometimes, but not usually scary or upsetting. Its only when we start THINKING about it that our fear gets triggered or we work up panic or anxiety thinking about how we will respond.
Intuition can also show up as a slight fluttering of anxiety when some person or situation feels “off,” but you can’t pinpoint a logical reason why. A situation might seem alright on the surface, with nothing reasonable to support your discomfort, but on some level, you’re aware of a problem with it. This causes an unsettled feeling in the mind and body because a contradiction is present. Some people tell me they get a strange pain or knot somewhere in their body, often the stomach, when something is not right.
Discerning between intuition and fear is important. Fear that is triggered repeatedly in response to the same situation often keeps people from doing something they should, like flying to visit Grandma. On the other hand, ignoring genuine intuition may result in doing something one shouldn’t do, like flying to see Grandma when something feels not quite right about making the trip.
A friend of mine was scheduled on PSA flight 182 from Sacramento to San Diego on September 25, 1978. He hadn’t been feeling well all morning and got sicker as he was sitting in his plane seat. After a few minutes of suffering, he decided it wasn’t worth it, and he would fly home the next day. He deboarded and drove to a friend’s house, where he slept in the spare bedroom. Later that day, he heard the phone ring. It was his sister calling his friend to tell her she was sorry, but John had been on the flight that had crashed that morning, killing all aboard. “What plane crash? He’s right here!” his friend exclaimed.
Coincidence? Possibly, or maybe his intuition was giving him messages via his body, which he wisely listened to. He told me later that his stomach always responded that way when something was not right, and he had learned over the years to listen to it. I asked him if he had been feeling scared or anxious before the flight or had had some clue something “bad” might happen. He said, “No, none of that. My stomach just kept getting more and more twisty, and I kept hearing a voice in my head say over and over again, ‘Get off the plane. You can fly home tomorrow.’ I was arguing with that voice about the cost of buying another ticket and how the flight wasn’t that long. But the voice got louder and my nausea got so severe, I decided it wasn’t worth it.”
I ended up going to school with the son of one of the pilots on that plane. He told me once that his mother – who, interestingly enough, married another pilot after his father was killed – gets scared every time her new husband comes home more than five minutes later than expected from a flight. I sincerely hope she got help with her fear because that’s a painful way to live. This kind of fear is not intuition, but the type triggered by the trauma of her past experience. If effectively dealt with, she would be free to enjoy more serenity in her life.
*This was an excerpt from my new book “Tales from the trance” for more information visit www.soulconnecthypnotherapy.com
Much love.
Jill K Thomas CHT
Soul Connect Hypnotherapy
760-803-2841
Jill@soulconnecthypnotherapy.com
www.Soulconnecthypnotherapy.com
Author of the books “Tales from the Trance” & “Feed your Real Hunger”
Appointments available Globally by Video Chat