Learning to Perceive · What you learn
What intuition is
Please note: the workshops are currently held in German only. I plan to offer workshops in English at a later date. If you would like to learn this and organize a workshop in English yourself, you are welcome to send an inquiry to [email protected].
Intuition is a way of interpreting impressions, alongside the mind. It begins where you can name and distinguish what you perceive. And it is something very down to earth.
Learning to Perceive · Foundation
For me, intuition is not something you simply receive. It names, it distinguishes, and it asks again when something doesn’t fit.
That puts it closer to a craft than to a gift. And it works together with the mind, not against it.
Where intuition begins for me
When they think of intuition, many people think of a feeling that is suddenly there. For me that is only the beginning.
Rico’s words
Because for me intuition isn’t something you simply sense and then you feel something. For me intuition begins when you can name it clearly, when you can differentiate it, and also, when something isn’t right, when you find out what you didn’t recognize or what has changed.
Rico Brunner, workshop
Whether you say you see something or you sense it doesn’t matter. Some put it one way, others another. What matters is what you do with the impression afterwards.
Two ways to interpret the same impression
An impression on its own doesn’t say anything yet. You can interpret it with the mind, by thinking about it. You can also interpret it with intuition. Both are ways to the same goal, and neither ranks above the other.
How the mind works you learn at school, from childhood on, every time you talk. How intuition works you learn almost nowhere. That’s why one way feels familiar and the other strange.
Why gut feeling is only the tip
Everyone knows gut feeling: a short yes or no that is suddenly there. I compare it to the tip of an iceberg. A small part is visible, the larger part lies beneath.
Gut feeling is a signal without context. It doesn’t tell you what exactly it means, how reliable it is or how you should interpret it. Those questions only begin afterwards. Intuition, as I understand it, is the whole thing: the signal and the questions about it.
Why intuition belongs on the ground
Many people expect intuition to be something spiritual, almost lofty.
Rico’s words
For many people intuition is something, something spiritual, that is almost a bit lofty. And from my experience, intuition is actually the opposite.
Rico Brunner
Intuition is something very down to earth. Down to earth means: what you sense, you have to bring down to the ground before you can use it. You put the subtle impression into a form you can do something with in everyday life. And intuition can’t find out everything you would like to know. The mind can’t do that either. Both can be wrong, which is why both need practice.
What intuition shows and what the mind makes of it
Intuition can’t interpret. It makes things visible. The mind then looks at what is visible from different angles and asks the questions about it. Intuition shows what comes out of each angle. That’s how, step by step, an impression turns into information.
It wasn’t like this for me from the start. I had to learn to give up some of my mind’s power. It had to learn that intuition knows some things better than it does. That was hard. The other way round, perception needs the mind as a companion; otherwise, left alone with many possibilities, it is overwhelmed.
Why many people believe they don’t have good intuition
You really want to get a particular apartment. Your gut feeling speaks up, maybe with a yes, maybe with a no. At the same time your mind has a clear wish. If your intuition is not well practiced, it tunes itself to the mind and confirms its wish. It feels like intuition, but it is the wish. If it then doesn’t work out, it seems as if intuition has failed.
Rico’s words
And that’s one of the reasons why so many people think they don’t have good intuition. Not because they have bad intuition. But because their intuition is too little practiced and so can’t differentiate enough.
Rico Brunner
There is no such thing as a person without intuition. The question is how far you let it in. A simple exercise for this: take your time, close your eyes, go to the feeling you have, and try to distinguish what part of it is the mind. How distinguishing continues is explained under Learning to distinguish.
Sensing a lot doesn’t mean distinguishing well
In the energy field I see two things separately: how strongly someone’s intuition is built in, and how well they use it. There are people with very strong intuition who hardly use it. And there are people with less strong intuition who use it very well.
Rico’s words
And the art isn’t the intuition, it’s asking the questions. And that’s why there are people who don’t sense that much who have much better intuition than people who sense a lot and can’t deal with it.
Rico Brunner, workshop
The area you perceive with is small. Roughly estimated, it is perhaps three percent of the energy field, and that differs from person to person. What is perceived is processed in the large remainder, in stability. If you take in more than you can process, you are overwhelmed. So sensing more is not automatically better. More on this under Solid ground instead of a swamp.
What this can mean for you
Maybe you are in a time right now when a great deal is flooding in on you. Then it is a relief to know that it’s not about sensing more, but about sorting things out. Maybe you want to be able to follow your gut feeling more often in everyday life and tell it apart from your wishes. Or you want to develop your perception further and learn to ask more precisely. In all three cases it begins at the same place: with you, and with a question.
Questions that come up often
- Is intuition the same as gut feeling?
- No. Gut feeling is a single signal, the tip. Intuition, as I understand it, is the signal together with the questions you ask about it.
- Is intuition something esoteric?
- In my experience it is the opposite: something very down to earth. You bring a subtle impression down to the ground until you can do something with it in everyday life.
- Do I have intuition at all?
- Yes. There is no such thing as a person without intuition. Often it is not well practiced and goes along with the mind’s wish. Then it looks as if you have none.
- Can I find out everything with intuition?
- No, no more than with the mind. Both can be wrong. That’s why you check what you perceive and ask again when something isn’t right. More under Why even good perception can be wrong.
- Do I have to choose between the mind and intuition?
- No. Intuition shows, the mind asks. You need both.
How you learn to check a perception is explained under Learning to distinguish. What is practiced for this in the workshop is explained under What is practiced in the workshop.