The Difference Between Thought and Intuition
Your mind operates by going through cyclical patterns. Once you think about one concern, you move on to the next; once you go through that one, you’ll move on to the next – until you’re back at the first concern, or similar.
Thoughts are generated “semi-automatically” at the mental level. This means that, much like breathing, you can momentarily take control over what you’re thinking; but when you lose your conscious focus over your own thoughts, they’ll still be generated on their own. You may also find it difficult to try not thinking – much like if you tried not to breathe.
When your mind is generating thoughts, let’s say, “autonomously”, the kind of thoughts that are generated largely depend on what your mind is programmed, or “used to”, thinking. Repetition, and the way you charge your thoughts with emotion, programs your mind. If you’re thinking repeatedly about a particular subject, and/or with a certain emotional charge, your mind will take that momentum and repeat the same kinds of thoughts, with the same kind of emotional tone, until further notice from you. For example, if you are professionally trained in seeking flaws or problems in situations, your mind may keep perceiving life that way by default, even if it’s not necessary or adequate, making you constantly focus on one problem after the next. Acquired mental patterns can be very difficult to disengage, because they gain momentum and can build up across years and decades.
The mind is also extremely malleable and vulnerable to absorb external input, taking it as programming. For example, when you listen to a music that you enjoy, and then that music repeatedly plays in your head; or, when you’re watching a TV series, and long after leaving the TV your mind is still mulling over the show’s issues and drama. Have you ever listened to someone speaking, and that person has an accent, and then you start speaking with that same accent? Have you ever found yourself switching from one side of a debate to the next upon hearing each person speak? You can of course make your own mind about subjects; but your mind is extremely vulnerable and frail when it comes to block external input.
It’s often said your brain can’t make the distinction between reality and fiction, and that your subconscious mind absorbs everything and never forgets anything. Your mind is like a computer that automatically programs itself with whatever input it receives.
Intuition is different. One of the key differences between intuition and “regular” thought is that intuitive insight is not cyclical (at least not like the mind-based thought). You get an intuitive insight once, and most likely before the main thought activity starts taking place i.e. before you start thinking about something. You might get the same insight in the future, but it doesn’t repeat itself like regular mental activity – it disengages. You get it, and then it stops. In fact, it may seem to have a “will of its own”, popping up on its own accord.
Intuition is information that “comes down” from your Spiritual layer into your Mental layer (see chart, third column from the left). The mental layer is divided into two: the upper and the lower. The upper is an intermediary, a “translator”, between the spiritual layer above and the lower mental layer below. In turn, the lower mental is where your rational thoughts, your logical reasoning, and the construct of your ego, are generated and reside.
Intuition is a kind of thought also, simply not one generated by the mind, but merely “translated” by it. As a human you always have a mind, and everything you perceive and experience must in some way be “filtered” in terms of mental perception. So another difference between intuition and (regular) thought, is that in general terms the first does not originate at the mental level, while the second does.
The upper mental handles “meta-thoughts”, in other words thoughts that are less about inference, logic, and reasoning, and more about overall perspectives, big picture kind of thought, and also about creativity. The upper layer thinks outside the box, being the “box” the lower layer. The upper is less concerned about minutia, certainties, and reaching conclusions, and more about simply knowing reality.
Intuition mostly comes into play when you (your mind) don’t or can’t know, understand, predict, or control something – both in the larger and smaller subjects. What weather is it going to make, what shampoo will work best, is this business deal going to work out or not, is this relationship going to work or not.
You might know for sure something that is perfectly clear to you, say, that your car is painted blue. You know your car is blue. It’s a fact. There’s no room for arguing there. The issue is when you don’t know something, either because it has yet to happen, or because you simply can’t access all the information.
In these circumstances your mind will be tempted to infer, extrapolate, use logic, reasoning, assume, debate and argument with others, and reach best-possible beliefs, and a degree of peace. But the mind can never reach a state of knowing, where the distance between perception and truth is zero – at least not until the moment the event actually happens, or the complete spectrum of information is revealed.
Believing is not the same degree of perception than knowing. With belief there is a degree of distance between the mental concept and the actual truth; with knowing, this distance is reduced to a minimum. If your car is blue, you don’t “believe” your car to be blue, it just is (you know).
Intuition works only with knowing. This is another key difference regarding regular thought. While the mind forms beliefs, and attempts to cope and handle what isn’t known for certain, intuition feels like knowing – where the distance from perspective to truth is zero.
Intuition is input that comes from the Spiritual layer, from which you have access to more information – including future potentials – than what you have at the mental/logic level. At this level, a thing either is, or isn’t. Truth is apparent. There is no need to process, reason, or debate, since things just are. It is also not emotional. You might react emotionally once you acknowledge the intuitive information, but the thought itself does not carry emotional charge.
Intuition “filters down” best when your lower mental layer isn’t agitated or busy processing a stream of its own thoughts, but instead it’s receptive and open to detect input from the upper mental and spiritual layers. That is why intuition seems to flow better if your mind is still and quiet. You can’t discern the sound of birds chirping outside if you have a trumpet blasting away right next to your ears. You need a quiet mind to listen to Spirit.
In order to quiet your own mind, it works best if you simply relax and quiet yourself. To calm down the waters of a tank, all you do is to keep it still. You can interpret this as meditation, and indeed meditation seeks to connect yourself better with your spiritual nature. But it works if you just lay down and stay quiet and relaxed for a few moments.
If your mind is agitated, trying to control your own thoughts is usually not very useful, because most likely it will be your mind trying to control itself. Controlling your thoughts is just another form of exerting control and effort – thus the tank is never still. Instead, what you do is to choose to abstract from your mind, and give out the intention to relax and be still, using whatever method works for you.
The mind exists so you can properly focus on your own self, one thing at a time, and give you a structured tool to live in the difficult realm of matter. Intuition exists to transmit you accurate insights to assist you in this process, and also, to remind you that you are not your mind, but a being whose true nature is spiritual.
-
- Faith vs Protection: Coronavirus Edition
- Happy Not-Christmas!
- On the Biological Race to Have Children, Part II: Romantic Contracts
- The (true) Dark Side
- A Journey of Meaning
- Time of Rest Must be Proportional to Time of Work
- What “Love Yourself First” Means
- Spirituality is Not About Restriction
- Intuitive Feng Shui Guidelines
- Gnosis – To Know the Actual Truth
- Why Small Talk Drains You
- The Difference Between Thought and Intuition
- Asking Monetary Compensation For Spiritual Work
- Spiritual is the Desire to be You
- Scarcity Calls For Growth
- The Structure of Love – A Tale For Mother’s Day
- The Difference Between Knowledge and Wisdom
- A Spiritual Thirst To Quench
- The Power of Swearing
- Life Is Your Garden, And You Are The Gardener
- Heart Over Matter
- The Universe Stops When You Stop
- Don’t Stay Silent When You Are Being Disrespected
- Spiritual Knowledge Can Become A Desert
- The Universe Favors the Bold
- Your Very Own Drama Channel
- Essence and the Supermarket Bags
- The Nature of True Love
- 4 Things That are Pointless in Life
- How Spoken Words Can Control You
- Law of Attraction: Manifesting Reality by Asking for More
- If You’re Anxious for an Answer, it May Already be Within Your Reach
- Spirituality: is Eating Meat Right or Wrong?
- Choose Unconditional Love
- How TV Can Be Bad For You
- Surround Yourself with Those Who Validate You
- Debt is Misaligned With Spiritual Integrity
- When It Comes To Food Follow Your Intuition
- The Meaning of Carpe Diem
- How To Have Your Spirit Guides Communicate With You
- A Discussion on Soul Mates, and How to Find Yours
- A Work of Passion
-
- Faith vs Protection: Coronavirus Edition
- Do We Reincarnate as Both Genders?
- Infants and Newborns
- The Spiritual Test of Atlantis
- FAQQ – Frequently Asked Questions on Quora About Spirituality, Metaphysics, Reincarnation, and Related Topics
- Do You Choose Your Next Life, or Is It Chosen for You?
- Regarding Earthbound Energies
- On the Biological Race to Have Children, Part II: Romantic Contracts
- On the Biological Race to Have Children, Part I: the Biology Overlay
- The Difference Between Mind, Spirit, and Soul
- Attachment is Not Love
- Karma: Punishment, Balance, or Something Else?
- Spiritual Time
- Spirituality is Not About Restriction
- The Three Conditions to Attract your Soul Mate
- The Difference Between Thought and Intuition
- The Souls of Animals and Plants
- What is Free Will? An Explanation
- How Can Reincarnation Be Real If The World’s Population Keeps Increasing?
- Why We Get Stuck on the Bad and Easily Forget the Good
- Healing Past-Lives
- Spiritual Knowledge Can Become A Desert
- Remembering Past-Lives
- The Nature of True Love
- The Creation of The Akashic Records
- The Coming of Christ Energy
- Religion, Science and Spirituality: the Fundamental Uncertainty of Man
- Esoteric Timeline of the History of Humanity
- What Happens After Death
- Do We Have Free Will or are Events Predestined?
-
- About the Spiritual Desire to Go Home (Excerpt from a Quick Reading)
- Changing the World
- Spiritual Awakening Q&A
- A Choice to be Made
- The Endurance to Keep Seeking
- Spiritual Awakening Can Be Painful
- Karma: Punishment, Balance, or Something Else?
- Spiritual Time
- Healing Takes Time
- You Teach Yourself, You Heal Yourself, Always
- The Path of Essence and the Paths of Distraction
- The Energy of Spaces and People: How It Works
- What Synchronicity Is And How To Experience It
- Spiritual Awakening is not the same as Enlightenment
- What Is Spirituality?
- Regarding Spiritual Awakening
- Personal Awakening and Ascension
- How To Have Your Spirit Guides Communicate With You
- Synchronicity: My Letter and Number Sequence Meanings
- Are You Undergoing Spiritual Awakening?
- The Solution to Everything is Breathing
- 8 Things That Happen During Your Spiritual Awakening
- Spiritual Awakening Emotional and Physical Symptoms
- Spiritual Discernment
-
- About the Spiritual Desire to Go Home (Excerpt from a Quick Reading)
- Akashic Records Reading [Quick]: To Believe in Love
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: Breaking the Fifth Wall
- Akashic Records Reading [Quick]: Clean Slate
- Akashic Records Reading [Quick]: The Speaker
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: Red and Blue
- Akashic Records Reading [Quick]: Grace
- Akashic Records Reading [Quick]: Angel in the Statue
- Akashic Records Reading [Quick]: I Flew on a Vimana!
- Akashic Records Reading [Quick]: A Case Study on Karmic Entanglement
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: Beyond the Threshold
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: Daughter of the Archangel
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: Graduating to the Angelic Realms
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: A New Take on Mastery
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: The Retired Privateer
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: A Tale of Two Astronauts
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: The Fairy
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: Amaratren and the Beasts of War
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: Daniel
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: Roul
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: The Artist Messenger
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: Tuhjk, “The Great One”
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: Cassandra, Atlantis, and Maha Chohan
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: Bartholomew
- Akashic Records Reading [Written]: Hermione
-
- Transformative Effects of a Pandemic
- Faith vs Protection: Coronavirus Edition
- Coronavirus and the Two Earths
- Hold Tight
- Social Media and Disconnection
- On the Biological Race to Have Children, Part III: Cultural Worth
- On the Biological Race to Have Children, Part I: the Biology Overlay
- The (true) Dark Side
- ‘The Martian’ Review: How This Movie Is Different
- Time of Rest Must be Proportional to Time of Work
- Release Yourself From Social Constraints and Enjoy Your Life
- Allowing the Good Seed to Thrive
- Society’s Worship of Youth
- How Spoken Words Can Control You
- How to Rise Above Competition – But Retain Personal Power
- Masterchef U.S.A. vs Masterchef Australia
- How TV Can Be Bad For You
- The Coming of Christ Energy
-
- The Seven Densities of Consciousness
- Karma: Punishment, Balance, or Something Else?
- Densities and Graduation
- The Indigo and Crystal Children
- The Souls of Animals and Plants
- Tree of Life as Levels of Awareness
- The Progression of Awareness in Personal Growth
- Examples Of Levels Of Awareness: 3D to 7D
- Quiz: What’s Your Awareness Level?
- Densities Chart
- Densities Explained