Very often I write or I read articles/posts about gems and crystals; inevitability there are always comments along the lines of- “knowing such and such information about gems/crystals is un-important because all you need is your intuition to guide you.” This idea has never sat well with me, as an exclusive way of thinking about how intuition should be used. It has me contemplating about blind intuition vs. informed intuition and how balance is usually always best.
What is Blind Intuition?
When I was training in intuitive work we were encouraged not to practice or make a habit of intuitively readings friends and family members. In training we practiced with complete strangers, this is also what I would call blind intuition.
Since we know a lot and we feel a lot about our friends and family, intuitive information that has to pass through the filters of the mind (our impressions, beliefs and perceptions) and our emotions (our feelings and attachments), the more you know about a person, the more filters there are to pass through leaving a much greater chance of distorting that pure intuitive information.
When I am teaching gemstone energy workshops I encourage people to use blind intuition to make a gemstone selection as an exercise. It’s a great exercise because they are often so surprised after I tell them why they may have been attracted to that particular gemstone, at how attuned they were to what they needed without knowing the specifics. So in this way, blind intuition is definitely a helpful tool.
My concern comes when you operate solely from a place of blind intuition. I believe you could be short changing yourself and if you’re energy worker, short changing your clients. Going with the example of gemstones/crystals and blind intuition, you walk into a store to purchase a gemstone or crystal for yourself and go to what you’re immediately attracted to, you feel you don’t really need the specifics of how and why this gem is the one, just go with your gut, take it with you and it will work as intended for your good. Another example, you are an energy worker and apply the same logic. You use energetic tools like crystals without a strong foundation of knowledge because you believe since they are energetic your intuition will guide you in what is helpful for your client. No further inquiry needed.
Again, I feel this kind of blind exercise is a good basic one. But if you approach any energetic tool or therapy (and there are many) like gemstones and crystals always with this basic mind set for yourself and clients, your intuition will only serve you on that basic rudimentary level.
Not sure what I mean? Let’s talk about what I’d call informed intuition.
Informed Intuition
Back to my intuitive training, when we were learning about how intuition works in medical intuitive, Tina Zion’s workshops she talked about how receiving intuitive information would become its own language for you based on your own frame of reference and knowledge. Another great teacher of intuitive development, spiritual medium, Drew Cali has a great story about this as an example with mediumship. He speaks of when he first started out and receiving names in readings, sometimes the name he received wasn’t the name of the person in spirit he was connecting with but the name was in reference to a person he knew in his own life to make him understand the relationship of the person passed on. Example: getting the name Mary that refers to your own grandmother to help you understand the person in spirit is a grandmother to the client.
My point is, if you have none or limited knowledge of a subject, do not expect your intuition to step in and make you suddenly knowledgeable. If you get a flat tire and have never picked up a tool in your entire life, your intuition probably won’t magically give you the step by step instructions to change the flat tire and be on your way because this knowledge would be out of your frame of reference and skill. However, it would probably give you guidance in a safe direction to get help. I definitely find this in my own sessions, sometimes my intuition is trying to make me understand something about a client’s work or life I don’t really have a reference to in my own life so what does come through is very simplistic and at times a bit harder to grasp.
Putting this concept into my own work with gemstone energy. I’ve spent years, ten years in fact, studying, training and deeply connecting with gemstones as transformative energetic tools. And what I’ve really been finding out in the past two years particularly is the combination of my knowledge and intuition is culminating into truly remarkable work for my clients. When the quality of your frame of reference is rich, the intuitive information that comes through is equally as rich, detailed and specific. The details and specifics are what I aim for to help give my clients the best and most beneficial experiences.
My analytical mind holds the information of what gemstone can be useful in certain circumstances but coupled with my intuition I can quickly zero in on a gemstone and the specific reasons the vibration of that gem would be useful to a certain individual given their own energetic makeup. I started noticing this idea of informed intuition when driving into sessions. I started getting “downloads” of specific gemstones to use and why. In my training I learned various therapies and techniques to apply gem energy to the body for different effects, all the sudden the techniques I had learned started changing and becoming even more intricate, individual and specific then I had learned them and I was guided by intuition to combine things in new and different detailed ways.
I fully believe this expansion in my energy work would not have rendered equally profound effects for my clients if I assumed blind intuition as my sole guide. If you are operating by simply laying stones on people where you feel drawn to or putting them in your pocket for the day because it felt right and forgetting about it, you’re missing out on so much more your intuition can offer you.
I believe this concept of blind versus informed intuition goes way beyond just talking about gemstones/crystals of course. It’s just one way I see it pop up regularly and felt I could shed some light. I write this piece to encourage people to think about and view their intuition and how it works a bit differently so it serves you best in life and work. And to consider if maybe you have been limiting your intuition by a belief that blind intuition is all you’ll ever need. Again, balance is usually always best.
Erin Sikopoulos, LMT
Intuitive and Gemstone Energy Medicine Practitioner
Intuitive Development Educators:
Tina Zion, Medical Intuitive and Psychic Medium
Drew Cali, Spiritual Medium