Sarah Louise Hannah: An interview with the author, Patrick Marsolek
From High Note Press – The publication and blog of Sarah Hannah
S: Patrick, congratulations on your latest book. I've always found my own intuition a fascinating realm, yet, I must confess, it's been a process of learning from my mistakes. Your title suggests there's a way to bypass trial and error.
P: It's very common that people learn to pay more attention to their intuition after not doing so and experiencing some difficulty as a result. Seeing how our intuitive senses can have such a real effect on our lives helps us see their importance, and decide to pay more attention to them. But I do also think you can avoid more mistakes and hardship by attending to messages and information you receive that are not always rational and logical. If you make a practice of using your intuition, it does become easier to recognize. With practice, you get the message sooner and experience more ease and flow in your life.
S: I agree with Marcia Emery in the Foreword, that our intuition can become a trusted partner. In your introduction, you write of your own evolution…how you’ve come to value both the rational mind and the impulsive creative essence and you’ve managed this through practice and attention. Can anyone learn how to do this?
P: I do firmly believe anyone can come to a place in themselves where they have full access to the full range of their inner resources. Granted, some of us are more logically dominant, or the reverse, more intuitive and creative. Whatever your strengths, you can cultivate the parts in you that would help you be more balanced. Often times, this balancing comes with maturity. As we grow, we begin to value the wholeness of ourselves. A Joyful Intuition outlines many different practical ways of using your intuition and creative inner connection in a balanced, rational way.
S: “I had a hunch…” “There was this feeling in my gut…” Are these intuitive signals and if so, how can we learn from A Joyful Intuition what it all means so that we don’t have to end those comments with…should-a; could-a, would-a?
P: Yes, these are common expressions of intuition, that many people experience. These are the body's expressions of other ways of knowing. In A Joyful Intuition, I outline many practical ways of decoding these signals. It begins with paying attention and allowing these sensations and perceptions into your awareness. From there, you can practice allowing the 'not knowing' that comes with unknowing information, and letting the signals come more fully into your conscious awareness. As you validate these other channels of perception, they begin to provide more information. You also begin to see what they mean for you. Context has a lot to do with it. A gut feeling might be a sense of 'rightness' or 'wrongness'. But it also might mean that you have indigestion. As you pay attention for yourself, you will come to know, and trust, what it means for you. This discovery can be a wonderfully creative and fulfilling path that is inherently self-empowering.
S: Your style of writing throughout engages me. Every page is filled with affirmations, in fact, I’m reminded of your first book, Transform Yourself – A Self-Hypnosis Manuel. The manner in which you present the exercises guarantees success.
P: Since A Joyful Intuition also came from classes that I teach, it is also intended to be very accessible and comfortable to readers. I believe this kind of learning and self-exploration can be fun, engaging and easy. As always, the path to the self begins in the present. In a class or a book, I would begin with asking, "What is happening now in your body? What is alive in your heart?" If you, the reader, take a moment and attend, you will step into more self-awareness and joyful discovery.
S: In a later chapter, you write about the value of being congruent. It’s a word I use to define my own practice but I first had to become aware of how a State of Incongruent was sabotaging my best efforts to make changes in my life. Define congruent for me and my readers and give us an example of how intuition can help it to flourish in our lives.
P: I use congruent to refer to an inner alignment of conscious, subconscious, and higher conscious needs and intentions. Initially, one may not even know what their unconscious or higher conscious intentions are. A meditative or intuitive practice will help with this. Sitting with, or watching yourself will help you observe what is important to you and what makes you feel alive and whole. These feelings help to reveal your deeper intentions. A Joyful Intuition guides the reader into that kind of self-discovery.
An example of this would be if I have a choice of two different jobs. In my conscious mind one seems logically better. Perhaps it pays more or has a better health insurance plan. But when I look at the other job, I notice that I feel more aliveness imagining myself in that position. As I sit with that feeling I realize that this job would engage my spirit more, that the work would feel more fulfilling and even challenging in a delightful way. To me that is a perception of congruence.
S: In the Appendixes, there are references to Remote Viewing. I was a spontaneous Viewer in the months leading up to 9-11. Later I learned that this was a common phenomena around the world and if we all had been able to share these strange experiences (I didn’t know such a science existed until after the fact), we would had access to an incredible amount of information, including how, what, when, and where…perhaps everything but the “why.” Do you believe we’re evolving (or remembering and re-emerging) as a species to a point where we’ll be able to collect information and influence the outcome by placing greater value on intuitive input?
P: I believe science is catching up and finally beginning to explain and validate many extended human capacities. Those who have an open mind, can see many examples of proof that intuition (including remote viewing), precognition and even distant influencing are very real phenomena. This is validating to those who have been having these kinds of experiences. I'm not sure though, if society will embrace these gifts and include them more openly into part of our everyday lives. That seems to depend as much on the 'mood' of popular culture. In terms of evolution, I do think we are evolving into a more globally connected species. So, it would make sense to me that our innate capacities will manifest more on a global level. Perhaps this will happen in a beautiful orchestrated way to help us through this difficult time on our planet.
S: Your book is so well laid out, it could be used as a text. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we introduced (or reintroduced) Intuition as a suggested course of study in our schools? And is there a benefit from doing this work in a group versus on your own?
P: Yes, I would love to see the basics of sensory awareness and intuition taught in schools. I believe if we valued these other modes of knowing and being early on, it would lead to more healthy and independent people. As to doing it in a group, I think there are benefits to learning intuition in a group and individually. As an individual practice, it helps you honor and validate yourself. You learn self-sufficiency and get to focus on exactly how your mind/body system works. In a group though, you get to share and hear from other's experiences. In a group you see more of the range of diversity of perception, ways of thinking and ways of feeling. Also, there is the piece of sharing yourself with others – being seen, being heard, and seeing and hearing others. I believe we are communal creatures. This is an essential component of our human development. In the technological times that we live in, it's all to easy to isolate ourselves. Thus, this kind of group practice can help meet those basic essential needs that we all have.
S: The image on the cover draws me right in. During what seemed like the darkest time in my life, I journaled:
I feel a candle burning brightly in the darkest recesses of my soul.
I think if I can find my way to it, Ill be able to work my way out of this wretched place…
Do you think I might have been writing about my intuition, that deep inside I really did have the answers?
P: Certainly. I do think that within us we have access to all the answers and information that we seek. You may perceive the connection to your deeper self in image form; as a candle, a well, or even an open space – depending on your own internal symbolism. When you touch the living energy of that internal connection, through meditation, centering, creative writing or journaling, you can access that wisdom and let it flow into your conscious life. In that way, your own inner intuitive connection may be very expressive and evolving, and bring a richness into your daily life in the form of creativity, intuition, and even comfort and deeper connection.
S: Why Joyful Intuition?
S: Sandy Corcoran, recently relocated to Helena, writes on her website, starwalkervisions.com
"In this sped up cycle, our fears and insecurities are up for each of us to face and release, as the structures to our current reality no longer serve who we are becoming. We are entering the close of 5 celestial cycles all at the same time: besides the end of the Piscean age, we are closing a great cycle of 144,000 years, a grand galactic cycle of 26,000 years, a world cycle of 5,125 years, and the Mayan calendar cycle (mirrored in many other cultures history)."
Would you agree this is a fair assessment of the pressure many are feeling in their bodies and psyche, and if so, how can your book, A Joyful Intuition, relieve some of those fears?
P: In the physical universe, I would agree that it seems humanity is at a threshold of a time of transition. It may have to do with certain physical cycles, or it may have to do with the collective evolution of awareness. I'm not sure what exactly it is. This does manifest in our daily lives in the pressures we experience as well as the planetary challenges and crisis' we face in the environment. As we become more conscious of our interconnectivity, we can begin to understand how we are part of the solution and new possibilities as well as part of the old patterns that need to change.
S: Leave us with a summary, something to carry with us until we have a copy of A Joyful Intuition, in our hands.
P: I believe a practice of being present with what is alive in you with conscious awareness will help you stay balanced and self-connected through this kind of transformation. In this sense, A Joyful Intuition can be very helpful. It outlines a practice for opening that connection with yourself in a healthy, loving way. Then, from that connection, you can begin to perceive guidance and insight about choices that are in your life, and thus, live more congruently with your whole self, or deeper spirit. This is the core of learning to live with the intuitive senses we all have.