Intuition: Consciousness, Intention and Trust

Consciousness brings to our personal awareness the fruits of our intellect and of our intuition.  It is only with consciousness that communication and choices are possible.  Consciousness is the most basic attribute of life.

Dr. Stuart Hameroff is a Professor of Anesthesiology and Psychology with 5 books and well over 100 published papers.  He co-founded and is associate director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona.   He takes on simple issues, like  "What is Life", using quantum mechanics and the biology of living organisms (especially microtubules) to formulate a credible model of consciousness.  This can be rather complex and confusing, but what follows are three summary statements from Hameroff's paper entitled, "Funda-Mentality: Is the Conscious Mind Subtly Linked to a Basic Level of the Universe?"

1.  "The basic idea is that consciousness involves brain activities coupled to self-organizing ripples in fundamental reality. "

2.  "Consciousness may involve subtle links between the brain and fundamental spacetime geometry. "

3.  "Cells and synapses are far more complex than simple on­off switches. Consider the paramecium, a single cell organism which gracefully swims, avoids predators, learns to escape from capillary tubes, and finds food and mates. Observing intelligent behavior in unicellular creatures C.S. Sherrington said in 1951: 'Of nerve there is no trace.  But the cell framework, the cyto-skeleton, might serve.'  Lacking synapses, paramecium utilizes its cytoskeleton for communication and organization.  Neurons have a rich and dynamic set of cytoskeletal microtubules which regulates synapses, and tremendously increases potential computational capacity (e.g. 10¹⁶ bit states/second/neuron). More importantly, neurons are alive and we don't yet know what that implies for consciousness."

Intentions direct energy in obvious ways, such as when we walk to a destination, and in less obvious ways, such as when remote viewers gather information from distant places and/or times.  Another area where intention directs energy is distant healing or closer healing techniques often referred to as "laying on the hands" or "therapeutic touch".   

Here is an excerpt from an abstract by Russel Targ of a paper he presented at the Year 2000 Remote Viewers Conference.  He speaks to both RV and healing:
Since ancient times spiritual teachers have described paths and practices that a person could follow to achieve health, happiness, and peace of mind. Considerable research has indicated that any sort of spiritual practice is likely to improve ones prognosis from any serious illness. Many of these approaches to spirituality involve learning to quiet the mind, rather than adhering to a prescribed religious belief. These meditative paths would include all the mystic branches of Buddhism, Hinduism, mystical Christianity, Kabalistic Judaism, Sufism, and many others. What is hinted at in the subtext of these teachings is that as one learns to quiet his or her mind, one is likely to encounter psychic-seeming experiences or perceptions. For example, in The Sutras of Patanjali, the Hindu master tells us that on the way to transcendence we may experience all sorts of amazing visions, such as the ability to see into the distance, or into the future, the ability to diagnose illness, and to cure them.

Not all investigators and practitioners of RV or healing believe that the quieting of the mind or a spiritual approach is essential for psi functioning.  For example, in a recent report of curing mice of breast cancer, the approach used was not a spiritual one, nor were the practitioners even believers.  Yet, the cure rate was 88%.  Here are two quotes from this study, entitled, "The Effect of the 'Laying On of Hands' on Transplanted Breast Cancer in Mice", by William Bengston and David Krinsley reported in the Journal of Scientific Exploration:
After witnessing numerous cases of cancer remission associated with a healer who used "laying on of hands" in New York, one of us (W.B.) "apprenticed" in techniques alleged to reproduce the healing effect. We obtained five experimental mice with mammary adenocarcinoma (code: H2712; host strain: C3H/HeJ; strain of origin: C3H/HeHu), which had a predicted 100% fatality between 14 and 27 days subsequent to injection. Bengston treated these mice for 1 hour per day for 1 month. The tumors developed a "blackened area," then they ulcerated, imploded, and closed, and the mice lived their normal life spans. Control mice sent to another city died within the predicted time frame. Three replications using skeptical volunteers (including D.K.) and laboratories at Queens College and St. Joseph's College produced an overall cure rate of 87.9% in 33 experimental mice.

The techniques did not involve belief of any sort, nor did they include meditation, focused visualization, spiritual discipline, or lifestyle changes.

So, the specifics of belief, the use of meditation, visualization, spiritual discipline, lifestyle or other techniques vary between RV practitioners as well as distant/near healing practitioners.  What seems to be fundamental is (1) the clear intention to achieve some goal and (2) the ability to "let go" of the egocentric mindset, or equivalently, to trust that the outcome will be as intended.

Trust is defined as "To have or place reliance" or "Reliance on something in the future".   The word reliance indicates that trust involves more than yourself.  RV and healing share the mysterious intuitive state of transcendence where the intellectual egocentric mindset is set aside and there is a "trust" in God, a higher power, a universal intelligence, etc...or sometimes, it is enough to simply set aside the intellectual and trust the intuitive.

One example, involving a trust in God, is illustrated here with a quote, in a question and answer format, concerning Targ and Katra's book, Miracles of Mind: Exploring Nonlocal Consciousness and Spiritual Healing :
Question: What does this kind of psychic ability (remote viewing) have to do with the spiritual healing that you also talk about in your book?

Answer: We are all capable of both of these human capacities that entail mind-to-mind connections. Worldwide psychic research data from more than 50 years show conclusively that our awareness is able to transcend distance and time, and come back with useful information. In remote viewing, our mind experiences distant places and events. For the spiritual healer, this connection is achieved by surrendering awareness to God, and through this, making a mind-to-mind connection with the patient.

The act of deeply intending for some outcome and then trusting in the result involves releasing, quieting, or diverting the egocentric mind so the intuitive mind can shine.

Go to another section of this issue:
Physics: "God Particle" Observed - Maybe     Applications: Associative Remote Viewing (ARV)