I don’t see the difference between intuition and imagination. Essentially, they are one thing. Here’s why:
Our minds are incredibly creative. They are also fantastic resources and tools that are constantly processing and upgrading, looking to utilize the information they have. What often happens, though, when we have a thought we don’t like, or when a song goes on repeat, or when someone asks us a question and our mind brings something up, the first thing we say is “Oh that’s ridiculous. There’s no way that could be true.” We shove it off to the side and dismiss it.
This comes up a lot, especially in self-work. I’ll ask people to get curious about things so we’re always asking questions to open awareness. I might ask them, “When was the first time you thought you couldn’t trust yourself?” Most often,they’ll sit there and think about it. That’s the first problem, thinking about what the answer is when they’ve already gotten it. Something has already popped up in their minds – a baby in a crib, a three year old walking around with a lollipop, a child playing on a jungle gym – and they’ll think it’s ridiculous. They think, “I don’t remember when I was a baby. There’s no way that could have happened.” When they dismiss it, however, they don’t allow their mind to bring the truth, the awareness, forward. They’ve missed exactly what we are trying to find.
When I provide the question and the clear space and let the mind do the rest, it can show up in a number of different ways. It can show up as a song that repeats in your head. When that happens, you might think, “Of course it’s going to show up. I just listened to it three times.” But the verse that’s repeating in your head is trying to tell you something. That verse is actually key to opening the door to a healing that needs to occur.
Your mind is constantly showing you the way to healing, but when we discount it and say it’s ridiculous, we slowly erode our ability to trust ourselves. When that happens, the thoughts we need to recognize to heal don’t come through, and those intuitive hits or creative sparks we long for, they are clogged as well.
Now for the Harry Potter part:
I don’t want to spoil it for anybody, but after Harry dies, and he’s crossed over, he has this big, profound conversation with Professor Dumbledore about what has happened, where he’s at, and what he can decide to do, As the professor turns to walk away Harry asks one final question. “Professor, is any of this real or is it just happening inside my head?” Dumbledore responds in his infinite wisdom “Of course it’s happening inside your head Harry. Why should that mean that it’s not real.” Now, if Harry had decided to shove that aside, to think it ridiculous, he would have completely missed the choice he had the opportunity to make and the wizarding world may not have been saved.
For me, every thought, every awareness that comes to mind is begging a question. It’s asking to be addressed in some way. I don’t believe in randomness. Every thought is meant to reveal something to you. The goal for everybody is to be open and aware, because If we don’t trust what comes to mind, we are not going to trust our intuition either.
