If a child learns that intuition is something to disparage and that obedience is safer than decision-making, the effects may carry through to many levels of behavior. The image that occurs to me is a hospital syringe full of coloured dye being shot into my brain; it just kind of settles, and can influence decisions in areas that have nothing to do with the origin of the belief. "Listen to your intuition." How long has intuition been regarded as suspect and ridiculed? Think about "women's intuition." And now executives are paying big money to learn to pay attention to that gut instinct, and communicate their feelings to others.
In my journal I wrote, "I'm wondering if there wasn't a rather sinister reason for children to be taught not to pay attention to that little voice. Because those who did pay attention would be better able to make decisions about whom to trust. Maybe "Mr. XYZ makes me sick to my stomach" had a far greater meaning than a child would be expected to understand—yet that child knew.
I remembered times over the years when my intuition told me that I was in danger or should not trust a particular person. Finding out later that my worries did have a foundation—that my intuition was amazingly in tune with the truth—was certainly no comfort. At one point I hadn't protected myself; at another, I hadn't protected my children. Nuernberger (1986) says: "Whenever you face a problem that includes a personal threat, depersonalize it so you can maintain mental clarity" (p. 183). |
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