Winter identifies intuition as an inner knowing, a feeling, or a soft whisper. Intuition is an intelligence that draws more on the inner connectedness of all things. It is often not logical, yet isn't anti-logic. Winter feels we rely too much on logic. Thus, she encourages people to pay attention to their intuitions and to act on them. Indeed, I would not be afraid to bet that if you are reading this you are probably remembering a time when you did not act on an intuition and were sorry you didn't.
Hers isn't a "pie-in-the-sky" approach though. It is when she has her hands deep in the dirt of her garden or is picking frozen lettuce leaves in her unheated Maine winter greenhouse that she feels most open and receptive to intuition. Wisdom incorporates (embodies) you, reintegrating and grounding you in your physical work, your place, and your community. You are most intuitive when you belong to--give yourself to--real Life and its demands upon your inner resources. Mama suckling her infant is more "productive" than any corporate CEO taxiing to the next conference or, for that matter, any activist plotting to outwit the powers-that-be. Mama "knows" deep in the pleasurable depths of her being that she is in the right place, doing the right thing, right Now. Right alongside Gandhi, sitting peaceably at his spinning wheel, she is BEING the change she yearns to create in her world.
Winter states that medical intuition is probably the most misunderstood and misused term in the spiritual field today. She states that a lthough there have been instances when she has been able to sense someone's ailment in medical terminology, that is not always the case, nor is that what she looks for when she "reads" a body.
A health scan or intuitive health reading involves a holistic approach to health: mental, spiritual, physical, and emotional. (Our medical field tends to separate these areas into specializations.) The emotional, energetic cause of an illness will often be the information that is most important to the client, and is what comes forth.
Winter's goal is to teach interested individuals how to sense their own intuitive wisdom and know what is best for their spiritual, mental and physical well being. She believes that Intuition tells us what is. It is up to us to make the interpretation, if need be, and draw the conclusions).
How many of us have had bouts of intuition telling us to beware of something or to go towards something else and have denied that bout of intuition only to become sorry we did so?
Winter states that if you are considering using an intuitive to help you understand your physical or emotional state, answer these questions:
Do you understand the concept of intuition?
Are you a skeptic? (which is ok. . . just know that you are.)
Are you gullible? (it is important to be in touch with your own intuitive process. How does the information, when you hear it, feel to you?
Are you are familiar with the concept of Qi (Chi) and/or energy fields?
Do you believe, or are you, at least, open to the possibility that intuitive -- diagnosis is possible?
Winter brings the medical intuition down to more common understanding as she compares it to how we oftentimes are able to sense the weather. When asked about what we should do to foster this power, she laughs and says, "perhaps we often try to do too much."
In other words, intuition is a receptive practice, it is an openness that allows for information to enter. In our culture, we are more bent on control. We do it in all facets of our lives from love making to parenting to work to play. We have little to no patience with allowing. Indeed, even as I typed this, I caught myself beginning to tap my fingers impulsively waiting for an answer.
It's interesting that we see our power stemming from our doing. But what if our doing is actually causing us to lose more power? What if power stems from just Being? Ever see that in someone who has mastered meditation or is known to be well grounded in a remarkable stillness within his or her self? There's an aura to the situation....it's like being on top of the mountain and experiencing the silent power of the Earth...the power that creates weather, atmospheres, water systems, and Life.
Go to the top of a mountain, get away from the distracting noise, and listen to that silence. That silence is in Nature, and it is in you. It is this deep silence, this deep sense of Presence that is available to the mystics that will guide you. This isn't about institutional belief systems in "religion." Indeed, this is counter to belief systems and is experiential, not belief. Yet, it is in this experience that "religion" will be known in its epistemologial roots, "religere," meaning "to connect." It is this same connection to the universe that serves as the foundation for intuition. Can you trust it? Can you trust yourself enough to know it is but a part of you?
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