BEYOND THE SENSES
Other ways to know
We are entranced in the world of sensation. There is pretty much no moment where we are without it. We may not always be registering all of the sensation that we feel, nonetheless it is there for the sensing. With so much to sense through sight, sound, touch, taste and smell, it is curious how we can tune into much else. You may wonder how else to tune into what might exist beyond the senses. You are likely familiar with intuition, but it may be a bit mysterious to you. You may consciously or unconsciously doubt that you can receive information that is other than sensational in nature. You might wonder if anything beyond what your 5 senses can sense exists. If so how do you know if you can’t sense it. These are good questions to consider, which moves us into the world of physical and nonphysical, or gross and subtle levels of reality.
Sensation is the language of physical reality. Personally I often understand things in terms of wavelength, which you may find helpful as well. You could say that physical reality is a very long, slow wavelength. So slow that it seems fixed and solid. Even though our science has demonstrated that everything at its core is vibrating energy, therefore constantly moving, it still seems as though physical objects are fixed. Our awareness, which is what makes our bodies and worlds come alive, is for the most part physically focused. That means that our experience of life is filled with the language of physical reality, which is sensation. Except for the times when we are sleeping, and maybe when we are meditating if we are doing it correctly, we are not physically focused. This why in dreaming or meditative states we are more likely to experience nonordinary states that are beyond the physical senses.
When our awareness is not solely physically focused we tune into information in different ways. What are these different ways? Well as I alluded to already one such way is intuition. What exactly is intuition? Intuition is when we directly know something without having a mental understanding or sensorial source to the information. Some people also call this direct knowing. Direct because there is no interference or filtering that occurs from our mind or body. Often people put feeling into the category of intuition, but I would put feeling in a category all of its own. Feeling is another way that we receive information. You might get a gut feeling about this thing or that thing. There isn’t a direct knowing, but more like insight or what you could also called felt sense, which is a “sense” that uses our emotional body more than our physical/sensorial body. You can also receive information from thoughts via your thinking mind. This is a commonly acceptable way to receive information for most.
WAYS TO RECEIVE
Sensations, Feeling, Thinking & Knowing
Are any of these ways of receiving information more valid than the others? Well I guess it depends who you ask. Some people find the most validity in information that they can physically sense. Others take their emotional feelings about things to be a more reliable measure of accuracy. Still others think that their thoughts give them the most solid information and some believe that intuition or direct knowing is best. What I would say is that each is relevant and valid in its information giving capacity. Some ways may give you a clearer, more distilled or expanded stream of information, but they all have importance because they all exist. The ways you find to be most valid are the ways you will most likely receive information.
While some people may say that they want to receive information in more ways then they do, they often don’t because they are not spending time focusing their awareness in the directions that would allow them to do so. Frequently people who are on a spiritual path often want to develop their feeling and intuition more. These are the two ways of receiving information that have been less culturally validated or received, and which can provide a much fuller experience of reality. Let’s dive into these two ways to receive a little more deeply.
Feeling requires that we feel. That seems obvious, yet many of us are not feeling. We are sensing, but we are not feeling. With feeling the heart is soft and actively receptive. Meaning you are intentionally receiving, and not passively receiving as you do when you touch, taste, smell, hear or see something. With feeling there is a directionality of taking in whatever it is that you are feeling. Now with intuition there are two primary information streams of receiving. One is direct knowledge of content and the other direct knowledge of energy. Whether it is conceptual information like mathematics, facts or details, or energetic information like sound, music, or color, it is two sides of the same coin. Again because in general we tend to validate conceptual, quantitative information more than energetic, qualitative information, we will tend to find the former more valuable. As we open more to what one might call our feminine nature we will find increasingly more value in the qualitative information as well.
One more note about intuition is that it is a direct dialogue with your higher self. That aspect of you that has a more expanded perspective than your physical mind does. So direct knowing is channeling through your higher self and the information that it knows from where it perceives from. So does more exist than what the 5 senses can sense? Clearly yes. While our 5 senses tremendously help us in navigating physical reality, they do little for helping us navigate the other dimensions of ourselves that are emotional, mental and spiritual. While most humans have grokked the physical and mental modes of receiving information, the emotional and spiritual aspects of our nature have been more mysterious to us. With greater inner validation of the emotional and spiritual dimensions of ourselves and focused awareness, we can begin to activate these pathways of receiving more and more.
Dr. Amanda Love, Network Spinal Chiropractor, Boulder, Colorado
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