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Namah Case study

continued focus on the story, moved the fear itself to us in a powerful passing thought,
projection out of a conceptual — mental state a sensation, a feeling or an inclination. It
and more into an actual concrete reality state, can speak to us in a presentation of facts,
where he was later able to disconnect from circumstances and moments that arise in a
his imagined fears. gestalt fashion. It can unveil an entire story
or situation, like a dewdrop reflecting a vast
Reliance on the presence and power of intuition landscape. This “more comprehensive, more
perfect, more essential” state is not arrived
Intuition is a topic amply addressed by Sri at through consecutive logical thought and
Aurobindo in The Life Divine. He writes: reasoning. Most of us, I believe, possess this
capacity and through a process of awareness,
“The sages of the Veda and Vedanta relied it can be honed and become a powerful
entirely upon intuition and spiritual experience. instrument in helping us work with patients.
It is by an error that scholars sometimes
speak of great debates or discussions in the As the 13th century Persian mystic Sufi poet,
Upanishad. Wherever there is the appearance Jalul-ud Din Rumi articulates in the following
of a controversy, it is not by discussion, poem entitled, ‘Two Kinds of Intellect’:
by dialectics or the use of logical reasoning
that it proceeds, but by a comparison of “There are two kinds of intellect; the first is
intuitions and experiences in which the less acquired -
luminous gives place to the more luminous, the Thanks to it, you learn like a schoolboy
narrower, faultier or less essential to the more Books, teachers, reflection, concepts, all kinds
comprehensive, more perfect, more essential. of sciences.
The question asked by one sage of another You learn and your intellect grows superior.
is ‘What dost thou know?’, not “What dost But conserving this knowledge is always a
thou think?” nor ‘To what conclusion has thy burden.
reasoning arrived?’ Nowhere in the Upanishads The other intellect is God’s pure gift;
do we find any trace of logical reasoning urged Its heart is in the breast of the soul.
in support of the truths of Vedanta. Intuition, When the water of divine gnosis jets from the
the sages seem to have held, must be corrected heart
by a more perfect intuition; logical reasoning It never becomes stagnant or old or dirty.
cannot be its judge (1).” And if it can’t flow outside, what does that
matter?
Intuition is a human state of consciousness, It keeps foaming up from within the heart (3).”
veiled to various degrees to all of us, yet still
accessible. Like many disciplines or talents, it Intuition was in place in this case and in
can be become an ever-increasing part of our particular came at a specific moment in
knowing and can be further refined. my work with Andrew. Towards the later
part of our third and last session, Andrew
In working with patients, Intuition can be spontaneously shifted gears. He stopped
a source of razor-like precision, helping us responding to my endless questions about
hone directly into the core issues. It can reveal the zombies and changed the topic. His entire

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