One of my favorite topics in the spiritual community has to be, “intuition”. It is probably one of the most important and still controversial talked about topics, hence the reason why I find it so fascinating and like to learn much about it (ironically). I love the fact that each one of us has an inner guiding compass that directly communicates to us through our subconscious, giving us signs, for better or worse, what we may expect out of certain scenarios, people and circumstances. Your intuition is actually that friend you can count upon whenever and wherever you are. You are truly able to channel all that you need to know, all the universal knowledge and wisdom, when you wish to do so. That is why it is essential to develop the mechanism of your intuition and that you learn how to recognize what it is telling you. An underdeveloped intuition will unfortunately not be of much significance and tends to result in unnecessary and excessive failure, and will even work against instead of helping you. In that case one might even think there is no such thing as intuition or that it is all BS, but there really is and it is definitely not “BS”.

“Think and Grow Rich”

Let me show you how important your intuition really is and how great and influential people throughout history have talked about the power of intuition. One of my favorite books of all time is “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill. It was a book that came out in 1937 and is still of today marked as one of the top 10 best-selling self-help books of all time. Andrew Carnegie was allegedly, according to Napoleon himself, the one who commissioned him to go interview 500 self-made millionaires about how they built success and he requested that Napoleon documented all he would learn, so that he could bring forth his learned teachings to others. After his meeting with Andrew Carnegie, Napoleon then started to do what Carnegie had suggested him and wrote a book about it, one that soon would turn out to be his all-time bestseller and most famous subject he would be known for. The whole book is about achieving riches, or simply abundance and prosperity, not only by taking the right and necessary steps, but most of all by using the right mindset ("THINK  and Grow Rich"). He goes to explain how important imagination and one's way of thinking really is in building and achieving wealth and success. I specifically want to mention one chapter from his book, which is chapter fourteen “The Sixth Sense”. Chapter fourteen is about “the 13^th step to riches”, as Napoleon mentioned in his book, and one particular thing he says I find very intriguing: “the sixth sense is not describable to someone who does not possess the other principles of the philosophy in this book, because they can not create an image of what the sixth sense can be”. The other principles in “Think and Grow Rich” are: chapter one: “Thoughts are Things”, chapter two: “Desire”, chapter three: “Belief and Conviction”, chapter four: “Autosuggestion”, chapter five: “Specialized Knowledge”, chapter six: “Imagination”, chapter seven: “Structured Planning”, chapter eight: “Decisiveness”, chapter nine: “Perseverance”, chapter ten: “The Power of the Mastermind”, chapter eleven: “The Wonderful Transformation of Sexual Energy”, chapter twelve: “The Subconscious”, chapter thirteen: “The Brain” and chapter fifteen: “The Six Ghosts of Fear”. Napoleon also goes to explain his theory of “the sixth sense” prior to the quote I just mentioned: “The sixth sense is the part of the subconscious that is also called Creative Imagination. It is the receiving station through which insights, ideas and thoughts flash in our mind.” What does that say about our intuition? It is saying that our intuition (insights, ideas, inspiration) comes through our sixth sense or extrasensory perception, or as Napoleon calls it “Creative Imagination”. What does that then mean for someone whose sixth sense is underdeveloped? It means that their receiving station is blocked and due to that will face problems trusting and recognizing their gut feeling or psychic intuition, and of course the consequences of that extend even much further, which can be seen in all areas of life.

The five pillars and your higher self                                                                                                             

Now let us get to the practical side of things: how do we develop and use our intuition correctly to make better decisions? First of all, your intuition is actually connected to your higher mind or higher self and when we lose touch with our intuition, we actually lose touch with our higher or true self. That goes to say that you must learn how to connect to your higher self in order to develop your intuition, since they are in essence the same thing. When you are disconnected from your true or higher self, that is when you will meet opposition and all sorts of issues and conflict, because you are out of alignment with who you really are. The ascended part of yourself does not reside in the physical realm, it exists in the higher or spiritual realm. Therefore to connect with energies out of this dimension, we have to go inwardly in order to connect outwardly. It is a reversed process if you think about it. We are primarily used to focusing on what is outside of ourselves, but that is not where we will find the connection with our true self. The way people achieve nirvana or enlightenment is always through connecting with energies and vibrations from within, it is not something that can be found and is meant to be found by looking elsewhere. Once you understand this, your world will start opening up for you in ways you never knew before. However it is essential that you start aligning with the utmost highest version of yourself  by doing what is stated above, so that you can reap the benefits of what your higher self is trying to tell you and has been telling you all this time. In order to align with that version of you, there are a few things you need to do and bear in mind.

1. Keep your integrity
2. Be truthful and sincere
3. Take care of yourself
4. Seek wisdom and spiritual growth
5. Serve and help others

These are the five most important pillars and personal characteristics a person must possess in order to align himself with the highest, most spiritually inclined version of who he is. All of them are significant and of great importance when it comes to increasing one’s spiritual growth and maturity.

Remember that because your intuition and higher self are essentially one and the same, you must become your higher self by becoming aligned with it. Every person has an ego that is attached to them while there is also another part coexisting at the same time, which is called “the higher self”. In order to align with the higher self, the ego has to become diminished and be put in the back-burner. As long as an individual operates more from the ego self, he can not attain much spiritual awareness and therefore the ability to view and live life from higher consciousness levels will be blocked. It is important to understand as well that the ego is not bad or evil, it is simply a survival mechanism and thus to a certain extend the ego is needed and is there to protect us. However the ego can not take over a person’s identity, as this is where problems will arise and energies in the higher chakras will experience distortion. An individual must become tuned in with the version of him that is him essentially, not the ego but the soul, and live from that true authentic place. Only then he can see, hear and experience in every way beyond what is presented to him, because he finds himself being present and aware in the entirety of everything and the void at the same time. In that state, a person has the ability to access the Akashic Records (invisible source of all universal information) and channel information directly from it.

How I practice and use my intuition

Now you know the importance of developing and using your intuition as an inner guide. What I want to do next, is show you how this works practically speaking and how I personally use my intuition to make the best possible decisions for me.

I will use my article writing for my website as an example. See, as I am writing these articles, I am not endlessly thinking about what I am going to write word for word before I start. I simply start writing and I let my inner guiding system lead me to where it thinks it should go. I go with the flow and trust that whatever comes up in my mind and feels right, is the right thing to share. This is how nearly all writers perform they tasks; they have an idea in mind of what they desire to discuss or communicate (subject), initially sometimes more or less evocative, and then they execute by following their gut or inner voice. It is almost like automatic writing in a sense, which is what mediums sometimes use when communicating or channeling messages from spirits and extraterrestrial beings, except that the conscious mind is still being used. With automatic writing, the conscious mind is completely being shut down on purpose. In that sense, many writers are very creatively tuned in and very much connected to the right part of the brain, which rules over the imagination and intuition. That is why you will actually find many psychics and spiritual gifted people among writers.

Another way I like to practice my intuition, is through using tarot cards. I must admit that nowadays, I rarely read for myself or other people, but what I frequently do is watching pick-a-card readings on Youtube.  I find these readings very fun and relaxing to watch and they are excellent to practice your intuitive abilities. How it works, is that the tarot reader will display a set of cards in a reversed position (min. three to often up to six or more cards) and will ask you to pick one card. Sometimes the tarot reader will put crystals on top of the cards to help you choose more easily. Then the person who is watching or given the reading chooses one pile or card based on their intuition. It is important for that person to not make their choice by appearance, but to truly listen to their inner gut feeling. That pile will then be the one that resonates the most with their personal situation. In most cases, the card or crystal you will first lay eyes on or grasps your attention, is the one meant for you. That is generally how intuition works and how you will know that the information you are receiving is coming from your gut and not the ego; your first thought or assumption is simply mostly accurate. I have been watching pick-a-card readings on Youtube for about four years now, due to which I now know instantly within often just one second which pile resonates and is best associated for my personal situation. My eyes will just immediately go toward the card or crystal that fits the intention of my question. That is how I have accelerated my intuition and psychic abilities, and I definitely recommend to at least try out this method a few times and see if it resonates or calls out to you. Another method is of course to practice reading tarot cards for yourself and other people. This is also a sure benefic method to develop great insight, but it might just take a little more effort, time and dedication to learn and interpret the meaning of the cards while presenting qualitative readings.

Ways to enhance your intuition

There are a number of ways on how to develop intuition and the best sure way to do that is to simply find out what works best for you. In my case, as I have already mentioned on my website, I did use psychedelics a few years ago (marihuana) before and after doing a meditation it opened up my third eye to a much larger and substantial degree. However I was already spiritually aware at that point. What I am trying to say is that psychedelics are one way to grow your psychic gifts, as they are not for everyone and I do not specifically recommend them, but they are definitely not a must nor necessary in order to enhance intuition or any spiritual practice for that matter. You can also take many other routes to find out what speaks more to you and try things that will develop your abilities more gradually and perhaps safely; such as practicing self-awareness (meditation, living in the “now” etc), breathwork, reading books on developing intuition, automatic writing, sungazing, dream journaling, any creative or artistic endeavour (drawing, painting, singing etc), memory games/puzzles, spending time in nature, doing more feeling and less thinking etc. But also simple things like taking a walk outside in the park or going to a museum and looking at paintings introspectively, can really give your imagination a creative hunch. For example if you are taking a trip to a museum, choose one specific painting or form of art and try to find out what the painter or creator's emotional state was and what was going on in their mind when they were creating the art or painting, and do the same thing for the art. Let information flow to you and try to figure out what it is really about. The key in this case however, is that you are focusing on drawing in information by tapping in certain energies and frequencies of the exact thing you are interested in or want to know more about. All you do then is observing where your thoughts and emotions go, while letting all details come to you naturally.

Listening to your body

Furthermore your body is constantly talking to you, telling you where things are proportioned and balanced but also where there is an imbalance and you need to adjust. It is essential that you listen to what your body is saying, so that you can prevent making unnecessary decisions that lead to damaging or unfavourable outcomes. Your body communicates to you through your emotions, therefore become conscious of how you are feeling throughout the day. If you feel worry, anxious, depressed or stressed it means that your spirit is off balance and that you are out of alignment with your true self (your spirits’ natural state is always harmoniously balanced and peaceful). This is the easiest way to recognize that you need to change direction and redirect your focus. If you feel negative emotions when thinking about something, it means that your body is saying “no” to it and that in many cases, that situation or circumstance is not beneficial for you or in  your greatest interest. That is however not always the case, as whenever you are trying to incorporate and stick to a new routine, your body (or the ego) is also likely to reject it because it likes to remain safe with what is familiar. However I am talking about in most other cases when a negative emotion comes up regarding something, it generally does mean that your body is trying to warn you for potential danger or undesirable circumstances.