Intuition vrs self delusion vrs Self fulfilling prophecy vrs Magic

[-Ember]

So, curiousity: how do others deal with the problem of deciding which of the above one is working with?

You get a feeling, a conviction out of the blue. Despite a complete lack of evidence you are sure about something. So, is it intuition or self delusion brought on by your desires or fears? How do you tell when you are "really" feeling things or fooling yourself?

So, the thing happens? Self fulfilling prophecy, making your fears or desires come true? Or the intuition being true?

Which leads into magic. Isn't willing something into existence by sheer stubborn belief an act of magic?

[Shatril]

Ember it is intuition when you get the thought. Now you can change that to any of the things on your list by the way you treat that intuitive information. If you thing wow great and act on that knowledge, then it is still intuition and knowing. If you second guess your intuition, then it is second guessing. If you decide you are deluding yourself, then you are. If you want evidence, the stick with science. Intuition, at this point in time has no method of proof other than antidotal, but trust me when I tell you it works. I would be willing to bet that one of these days we will have "a scientific explanation" of the phenomenon. Don't second guess yourself, trust your intuition. Accept those intuitive messages as true and act from that paradigm.

Shatril

[Londubh]

You have to learn to listen to yourself.

And more importantly, you have to learn to trust yourself.

Any, all or none of those things you stated could be happening. But do you really think that you are that delusional? That 'yourself' is just making up stuff to taunt you? Probably not.

You just ‘simply’ have to learn the language of yourself. I say ‘simply’ because I too am trying to learn this language, and it’s hard, very hard.

Desires and fears do muddy the waters. And of course you can create self-fulfilling prophecies, but the ability to do so does not make intuition any less valid. I have always felt that my intuition was both a part of myself and yet slightly separate from myself. It sits ‘above’ the rest of my feelings (i.e. the quagmire of my emotions) and if I can stay clear I can tell the difference. If I think about it, it confuses the issue. If I try to ‘feel’ it, it confuses the issue. It simply just has to be.

Thinking about it can drive you insane, don’t. Just accept it. I second-guess myself all the time and indeed it drives my crazy. In fact, it can cause damn near paralysis. My spidey sense in rarely wrong. It is insecurity that causes the Ego to rear its ugly opinion and that’s where the confusion arises. The problem with intuition and psychic experiences (yes, I separate the two) is that they usually don’t come in typical Hollywood style complete with stunning visuals, earth shaking emotions, special effects and an on cue sound track.

It’s just you all alone with you, and you have to trust yourself and make a decision.

[sari0009]

Which one is which? Generally, you get a more accurate feel for that the better and more diligently your honesty and self-awareness levels are functionally maintained (of course, some really sick people may believe they're more honest with themselves and others than they actually are...it can get complex).

I'm sure some of us have noticed some people really deeply trust their own intuition only to find it really really off, in retrospect. Me, I like depending on a blend of emotional intelligence, intuition, and intellect in the balance (checks and balances, hehe). I came to that conclusion from observation, study and experience.

People have an absolutely incredible ability to live out or somehow bring about what they initially feel or think/believe. (Was it Starhawk who said "Where the focus goes, the energy flows?" I think not only does the energy flow toward living out initial feelings, attitudes, and beliefs, the results usually attest to that! Unfortunately, we often take years to gather things...to learn from some of our mistakes. I know I did. In contrast, it takes faith and guts, and yes, some intuition, to adopt new thoughts, feelings, and attitudes and then live those out.)

There is nothing to prevent a mix of intuition, self-fulfilling prophesy, and delusions.

[-Ember]

Just to clarify... I'm not really looking based on anything I'm experiencing at the moment. Just digging through some old thoughts and ran into a few that lead me off on this tangent.

We train ourselves to learn to tell the difference between "real" intuition and our hopes and fears, struggle with divining for ourselves and those we care for because they muddy the waters...

So, do we just grow into being able to know real intuition from fake as we discover greater honesty regarding ourselves?

I don't believe it is simply intuition at first thought. If I see a large dog and suddenly think "it will bite me" it might be intuition or a phobia about dogs.

To continue: affirmations (or whatever one would call their opposites) are in many ways a matter of telling ourselves something until that way of thinking inspires thoughts like "be afraid of dogs".... and most of us tell ourselves many less than strickly factual things. But, almost "magically," this is an important first step in changing those strictly factual things into what it is we are choosing to believe.

So just with intuition verus self delusion... do we just slowly develop a taste/feel for which is which, accepting that we are like to mess up, discovering areas we can trust and subjects we can't?

With magic and self-fulfilling prophecy... what is the difference there? Many anthropolgy texts will tell you that that is all that magic is. And many a spell requires a certian amount of what could be called delusion, to put oneself in a state of belief that something is the case that would seem not to be to the average bystander?

I'm just curious where people try to draw the lines... or if they do. I'm leaning toward the "they are all the same, just some people are more skilled and/or more concious of it than others."

[Ben Trismegistus]

There's no way to know. Some days I lean towards intuition, other days towards self delusion. I guess that's what faith is about - the ability to believe that you're not crazy or deluding yourself.