Penney Peirce

Q & A

DEVELOPING INTUITION WITH ORACLE SYSTEMS
I've been using Tarot cards to enhance my intuitive learning. It seems to work by reflecting deep and delicate energies. What is your experience/knowledge of Tarot?
—Michael

I have not used Tarot very much but am acquainted with many other oracle systems. I do think that to find correct interpretations, first you must make a faithful connection with the unknown—to realize there is no separation between you, the answer, and the symbolization. And you must realize the truth in the universal principle of the hologram: that what exists in miniature exists in a parallel way at a larger focus. So a card, or a rune, or a coin toss, can represent a particular state of being or action. Then you must be neutral and centered to allow the right ideas for interpretation to rise into your mind, so you will go in the right direction for the meaning. It can't be too much of a head thing. Anything where you work with symbols—either creating them or unlocking them—is great practice for connecting the midbrain and upper neocortex, which accelerates the flow of intuition.

TOUCH-INS FROM DEPARTED AND DEPARTING RELATIVES
I work for the IRS and input tax returns. As I was doing my blocks of work, I would repeatedly notice my mother's name—Cynthia; she died 20 years ago, and I thought: "coincidence." Then I saw Cynthia Lane, Cynthiaville, Cynthia Ave. I then noticed my aunt's name, then all my mother's relative's names. I also got a lot of last names, Love. I thought it was odd. This was in April. In May my aunt (her sister) was diagnosed with cancer, and she died in June. Her brother was diagnosed with leukemia and died two weeks later. I wrote this in my "coincidence journal" and realized I had seen all those names on my aunt's birthday! What are your thoughts? Was that my intuition? Or was it my mother's spirit telling me she was going to be coming for them? I am confused by what is considered intuition or wishful thinking.
—TC

I think you are making yourself aware of the presence of your loved ones, probably because they are making themselves known to you in the more subtle realms. Since they communicate with telepathy, you can expect that when they're thinking about you, you will think about them, and vice versa. That's the way it works here in the physical plane as well, but mainly we're too distracted to notice or give these thoughts much credence. So I would simply relax and accept that your loved ones are actually there, and tapping you on the shoulder. My sense is it was all of them letting you know that you were going to lose your other 2 relatives soon, and not to be shocked, that everything is OK. Even the 2 who died may have been in cahoots with the others at the higher levels, helping to send you the "tendencies" to think about them. Sometimes it takes a big event like death to galvanize them into motion to get the energy up to communicate this way.

THE ROLE OF OBJECTIVE SCIENCE AND INTUITION
I notice in The Intuitive Way that you don't really integrate objective science in the description of intuition. It is my observation that many intuitive people feel uneasy in the realm of objectivity. Unfortunately, this is precisely what is needed to bring intuition into the practical usage by the masses.
—VK, Canada

After many years of practicing and observing intuition development, I don't see science involved in it at all really. To me, science and physics are actually subsets of metaphysics; they do not explain metaphysics, they crystallize out of metaphysics, just as the body crystallizes out of the aura. I also don't agree that understanding intuition scientifically is what is required for the masses to use intuition consciously. Intuition defies scientific proof because it is larger than science. And people will accept and use it commonly as they realize they have already been doing so. This occurs when we shift from the perception of the head alone to a perception based on body-mind unity. Until then, intuition is relatively invisible or intangible. Intuition cannot be known by people perceiving totally from the upper part of the brain, especially the left brain.

THE VOICE IN MY HEAD
I am 35 years old and have experienced a voice in my head talking to me. It is a soft voice and I react differently to it than to common thoughts. I feel happy to hear from it, though I cannot command it to appear as I want. How can I use it more in my daily life—for example, to keep motivated in losing weight, in my studies, and to make decisions?
—Susanne, Sweden

The voice you hear may be a phenomenon called "direct voice" which is often a mild mediumistic experience. It differs from the voice of conscience in your mind, or the "little voice" of intuition. With Direct Voice it sounds like a literal voice belonging to another person, and sometimes it can produce sound effects like someone knocking at the door, the phone ringing, or various clunks or banging noises. It really doesn't matter what it is, though—what matters is how you use it. I recommend you sit down with a journal and invite the voice to speak to you, especially in response to a specific question, issue, or problem you'd like to solve. Then stretch your awareness up a bit, as if you're reaching for a high note, and let yourself relax at the new level and receive whatever comes. You may hear a word, or imagine you hear a word. It doesn't matter if the voice is literal or imaginary, it's still coming via your own perception. Just write down what you perceive that you're hearing. Then let the words, phrases, or sentences come—any way they want to. You just take dictation. Also, next time you hear the voice uninvited, sit down and work with your journal to explore the deeper meaning of what was said. Extend the message.

INTUITION AND THE BODY'S SENSE OF ITSELF IN SPACE
I'm curious about the connection between intuition and the body's sense of itself in space. I had knee surgery recently and in physical therapy I'm doing extensive balance work to retrain the proprioceptive (Penney's note: "stimulation produced by the body tissues") mechanisms in my system. About a week ago I met a person who literally made me weak in the knees with a kind of shaking excitement. Coincidentally, the person next to me in the conversation suddenly lost their balance and fell. I've been conflicted about this ever since. Could the concentrated work on my proprioceptive network have made me more open to receiving intuitive "hits"?
—Richard

Yes, doing extensive, subtle work to improve the pathways of flow in the body will cause a "rewiring" of subtle circuits in the brain, and will help you become aware of more subtle sensations, both within your own body and in the field around you, which includes other people's bodies and events. Your body is becoming the wonderful brain center it really is! We are amazingly telepathic, and it's not surprising to me that your knees weakened and your friend actually fell in response to the new person. I'd bet that the person was unconsciously running a sort of "alpha male or female" inner posture, and both you and your friend responded with the instinctive urge to humble yourselves, much the way wolves do. It probably wasn't really excitement, but more a subtle response to authority. Your bodies all communicated directly with each other. Watch this with everyone you meet from now on and see how your body responds to other bodies. It may not be as dramatic, but we are constantly positioning ourselves and adapting to each other this way.

SYNCHRONICITY AND GETTING TO THE "BE" STATE
I recently came across The Intuitive Way at a neighborhood bookstore. I was initially skeptical, but decided to pick up the last copy. I am still reading it and doing the exercises and I just wanted to say Thanks! The book has opened up a new way of looking at and approaching matters for me. One little "miracle" that occurred with your book was that when I was doing the exercise where I was writing on an intuitive experience that struck me in my life, I was writing about a fellow trader and how we met up after my return from Europe. Believe it or not, that fella ends up calling PRECISELY when I was writing about him, and spooky as it sounds, what you described as intuition WORKS, and this is something I won't forget for awhile.I do have some problems trying to get to the BE state and know exactly what it feels like for an extended period of time, and my subconscious still plays havoc with me from time to time, so much so that I can empathize totally with that Adrian Monk character in the series "Monk." Well, guess it's time to read the chapter on the subconscious, and thanks once again for a really useful, helpful and most of all, NO BS book!
—Tim, Singapore

Getting into the BE state isn't really so hard; it's mainly a matter of suspending your thoughts, stopping the internal dialogue, periodically throughout the day. Then dropping your attention into your body, becoming aware of the experience of what's coming through your senses (without words and description). If you can remember what it feels like to just "be with" a comfortable friend, or just "be with" a favorite pet, you can approximate the state where the mind is comfortably still, yet your awareness is wide open and engaged. In the book I talk about it as the "feminine mind," the kind of awareness that doesn't need to act, change, or control—but is content to observe, include, appreciate, be with, and understand. That feminine mind state is entirely present moment-oriented. So, drop into the body, pay attention to beauty and the senses, bring all your awareness into the EXPERIENCE of the moment—and you've got it.

MASCULINE AND FEMININE ENERGIES IN THE DIVINE FEMININE
You stir a lot of my thoughts in your newsletter. One thing was your talk about identifying with a female god. You mention Kannon and this stands out for me. A friend gave me a beautiful statue of Kannon after his trip to Japan and it has been an inspiration for some time. Kannon is particularly interesting because for all the femininity, Kannon is male. Here is a quote from a web page about Kannon: "The Male Goddess (huh?) Originally male in Indian mythology, the Kannon is more often portrayed as female in China, Japan and other Asian countries. Although Kannon is translated as Goddess of Mercy, the 'goddess' part is doubtful, for according to Buddhist teachings, a female bodhisattva is impossible—and unsupported by any canonical text—and sexually specific depictions of Kannon are always male."

This was not that difficult for me to accept because I knew Kuan Yin first and then discovered that Avalokiteshvara was her origin and was considered male. So I had already seen this force as truly sexless but representing itself through different gendered personages. It's useful to recognize that elegance is not feminine although it has been identified that way in the present culture. It is also the epitome of this bodhisattva that a male energy would appear as an elegant, soft, loving, and yielding being in order to serve its compassionate purpose: "The Kannon can appear in many different forms to save people according to their time and place. The Avalokitesvara Sutra mentions 33 specific forms. Says Shaku Soen, lord abbot of Engakuji Temple: 'She will be a philosopher, merchant, man of letters, person of low birth, or anything as required by the occasion, while her sole aim is to deliver all beings without exception from ignorance and suffering.'" Notice the mixed gender references in the quote. The beauty of Kannon is this existence between gender definition. This in itself represents the idea of molding oneself, out of compassion, to fit the purpose of the soul. Lao Tzu's description of water in your newsletter perfectly fits what Kannon is: elegant and yielding while also an anchor of strength.
—Brian Myers, Dana Point, CA

Thanks so much for this fascinating insight about Kannon and Kuan Yin/Avalokiteshvara! It makes sense to me that the closer to enlightenment we get, the more integrated our masculine and feminine energies become. And I do think the soul is a sexless force, which ideally would like to express through each of us as sometimes feminine, sometimes masculine, depending on what life calls for. It seems to me that if we can equalize our yin and yang qualities, we can become equally adept at nurturing, healing, attending to, being with AND pioneering, manifesting, catalyzing, and creating—and that would please our souls, because we'd be capable of so much broader a range of activities within a single lifetime. You might also read the introduction I wrote for my poetry book, which addresses this issue as well. Thanks again for contributing this thought-provoking information!

A.D.D. AND INTUITION
Do any of your books address strategies for adults with attention-deficit disorder? That is, how may adults who lack the usual filters for distraction work with your process? Also, does medication aid or interfere with sensing intuition?

With ADD I find that paying attention to the sensations in the body, especially to the underused more animal-like senses such as smell, taste, and touch can help us slow down, be in the present moment, and appreciate what's around us. We can learn to train our attention by dropping out of the future into a more direct experience and engaging with the environment instead of feeling separate from it. Start by paying attention to any object at hand. Touch it, smell it, taste it, see it from all angles. Feel into it and keep paying attention, going into it with your awareness until you join it. Pretend to be that object—how does it experience time? What does it know about? Doing this with something every day helps demonstrate unity of self with environment, which facilitates the experience of safety. I believe ADD results from gaps in the consciousness which gives us the illusion that we are isolated, and therefore at risk from unknown dangers in the big bad world. This unconscious "stance" creates systemic anxiety that creates internal pressures that cause us to speed up. My sense is that medication can assist in the process of centering and dropping down into the body. It's a first step that can ease the chronic tendencies to jump out of experiences which may have become stuck through electrochemical habit. As the brain chemistry calms down, we then have a chance to reprogram ourself by directing intention into our attention, teaching the mind new habits of focusing and "being with." Eventually, I think it's possible to wean oneself off medication. If you want to notice your intuition, you will—drugs or no drugs.

PRECOGNITION OF SEPT 11
I'm enjoying your newsletter and finding your questions thought-provoking and profound. In answer to your question "Did you have any warning about the events of Sept. 11?" I had two very strong warnings. Exactly a week before, I was walking into the college to teach my tai chi class, and I pointed out to one of my students that there was a cloud in the sky exactly the shape of North America and it had explosions coming out of it. I commented that it was "all blown up." Then 3 days before the event, I KNEW that terrorists were going to blow up the Trade Center. My thought was "I don't understand why they are going to hit the Trade Center again—they already hit it a few years ago." The second warning came four years ago when a friend who was in a remote viewing class in Atlanta called me, very upset because she and two others had viewed a "terrible terrorist attack on NYC." I can still recall the anxiety in her voice. So I guess my big question is what are we to do when we receive this kind of information? I felt badly that with the foreknowledge I was unable to do anything to stop it.
—MM, TexasThe credibility of psychic registries has not been established to date, nor do very many of us in the general public know about them. Perhaps if it were a more common practice, and easier, to register precognitions, we'd have an information source that could warn of potentially dangerous events the way science monitors and predicts potential earthquakes. Jeffrey Mishlove has set up a discussion group for this purpose, open to anyone, at >premonitions@yahoogroups.com<. Meanwhile, all you can do is follow your own conscience, case by case. One person might have called the agency responsible for security at the WTC, someone else might have called all the people they knew in NYC and warned them, while another might have simply prayed, contributing to the peacefulness around the souls who were choosing to go through the trauma. You can start by getting in the habit of telling SOMEONE about your visions, and having it be more a topic of conversation, bringing the images out into the open.

INTUITIVE WRITING
After being blown away by your eulogaic poem for your friend and your encouragment to write, I realize an idea has haunted me, an idea for a kind of prose poem about my childhood which I will now write over the weekend. And one of the reasons it won't go away is AT MARCUS' VIEWING and what you said. So thanks.
—RM, New York

It pleases me when we influence each other for the better, just by trusting our own desires. I was so moved by my friend's death, and enjoyed the experience of the way the poem flowed into and out of me so spontaneously, that I shared it with a friend, and she said, "You need a poetry corner on your website!" I have rarely shared my poetry before, because it felt vulnerable to do so, but suddenly it felt OK, even fun, to add poetry to the mix. I guess we never know when something we do will inspire another, and for that reason I believe that we always must offer what's overflowing from us to the world. R, I hope you will offer your prose poem to others as you see fit, in hopes that it will spark off another spontaneous chain of creativity! So, thank YOU!

IS IT THE CONSCIOUS OR SUPERCONSCIOUS MIND?
How can one know if one's superconscious, and not simply one's conscious mind, is active? Direct writing questions are very difficult for me in this regard; I usually feel a warm feeling around my solar plexus and a pleasant "pressure" all around my head when tuning in-but I could wait for ages like that, without words really popping up. Finally, by closing my eyes, and trying "harder" (I probably shouldn't, should I?) I do have glimpes of "pictures" to which I then do associate a word or two. When looking at the final result I almost always wonder: superconscious or conscious? Any trick on how one can "check this out"?
—AC, Switzerland

I find it helpful with direct writing to imagine an active verbal being inside me, who is an expert in translating the ineffable into clear language. When I ask myself a prompting question, I simply allow the first bit of a sentence or thought to start to flow, and I write down a couple words, and let others trickle in behind those. I don't try to think out the whole answer before I write, or whether the words I get are making sense. It sounds like your perception may be tactile/kinesthetic, then visual, then auditory, in that order. You might try teasing your auditory sense into action a bit, by asking yourself to "hear" a word, any word, then write it down. Imagine someone is talking loudly to you inside your head or blurting out a single word or phrase. Just write down what you hear. As to whether it's your superconscious or conscious mind, you must make an agreement with yourself that what comes to you in these processes is simply going to be useful, valuable, and pertinent—otherwise you don't need to waste your time with it. That way, you'll receive increasingly clear information that becomes more and more superconscious.

RECOGNIZING GUIDANCE THAT COMES NONVERBALLY
I've always had "flashes" of intuition as long as I can remember. I recently began feeling as though I was thinking my way through all the decisions in my life, rather than being led by my inner wisdom, and I was desperate for guidance that felt right. I went to the library, and as I browsed through, there was your book, which I devoured. I realized as I read through it and did the exercises, that I had been wanting my intuition to communicate with me with words, my preferred mode of communication. I started to develop other ways to receive information that could guide me, and it's been amazing. I intend to continue this process of developing a path of communication with my intuition, and using it my daily life.
—C, New York

Yes—it's true that intuition rarely comes directly in words, though it's not uncommon to hear a voice speak or yell a word or short phrase to you, often as a wakeup call of some kind. I used to be a graphic designer, and in the early days of my training as an intuitive, I would commonly see answers or have dream images that appeared as words set in regular, italic, boldface, uppercase, or lowercase type, and of varying point sizes, depending on the importance of the message!