Extend Your Consciousness

The intensity of intuitive experiences never ceases to amaze me. 

As I was driving home one day, memories of some old friends suddenly popped into my head. There was no particular reason for the thought, but I enjoyed the nudge to remember them because we had not been in touch for several years. 

Within five minutes, it became clear why I had been thinking of my old friends. When I arrived home, I found a card in my mailbox announcing the birth of their new baby! 

Call it meaningful coincidence or, as Carl Jung described it, synchronicity. We are connected to our past and future in ways in which we are often unaware. Jung certainly believed that events such as these were not accidental.

Jean Shinoda Bolen, a prominent Jungian analyst states, “to appreciate a synchronistic event, one needs the ability to note an inner subjective state, a thought, feeling, vision, dream or premonition and to intuitively link it with a related outer event and feel a spontaneous emotional response of chills up the spine, or awe, or warmth…. Ideally, there should be no way to account for the coincidence rationally or by pure chance.” 

This sixth sense can include experiences of perception that transcend the typical boundaries of time and space. 

Just as I had an unconscious sense that I was about to experience something pleasant, research indicates that we literally get a gut feeling before something bad happens, warning us of impending danger even before the conscious mind. Psychologist Dean Radin has found, for example, that people have an observable physical awareness before they are presented with a disturbing image.

Our ability to perceive extends far beyond our consciousness. We have a deeper sense of knowing that can enrich our appreciation of our everyday lives, extending our understanding of current circumstances, as well as influencing what could be. 

Of course, we must check the measurable, observable data when making decisions about behavior. And, data should also include our own instinct, a knowing that goes beyond what is observed.

Coaching Inquires: How has your own sixth sense influenced your life? What enables you to pay attention to your hunches? What is the purpose of synchronicity?