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86th International Peace Meditation “The Real Need to Know”
“The Real Need to Know”
Feb. 1. 2004 — All of us have had many times when we felt a need to know something as soon as possible. Recently I had a brush with a serious illness that left me wondering for four months until tests finally came back negative. While I was very relieved and happy to know the positive outcome, I cannot deny that the four preceding months were very stressful.
The Presidential election causes months of excitement and media attention as citizens await the final answer as to who will be the next President. This gives much material for the media who take polls and attempt to predict outcomes. It also causes much time to be focused on the next election in many households across the country. Yet, the outcome will only be known when the election is over. Our perceived need-to-know causes us to watch television news for months before the winning candidate is finally known. We feel a need-to-know, perhaps an artificial invention of our media, long before we will actually become personally involved by voting.
In other words, we tend to live in the future, worrying about outcomes over which we personally have little or no control. The worry I did for four months did not change the outcome. The tension could not have been good for me in terms of lost time and emotional stress, yet my need-to-know felt intense.
Our real need to know often becomes overshadowed by our perceived need-to-know. Our real need to Know has to do with the profound intuition we each carry. If we listened more to that inner knowing, our perceived need-to-know would be diminished, and we would encounter much less stress.
For example, we probably have had occasions where we Knew something that factually we could not have known. We have had a feeling, or intuitive sense. Recently I realized that I had failed to listen to that intuitive sense about a person whom I wanted to trust. I would have said that I trusted this person, had anyone asked. Yet, internally I felt a sense of mistrust. I would notice very slight attempts to be evasive, but I justified them. I would notice that the person tended to dominate our conversations while always maintaining that there was hope of a long-term working relationship. This was a business relationship that demanded trust if I were to remain in it. Finally, when facts were undeniable, I ended that relationship. Yet, I had to admit to myself, that from almost the very first encounter, my intuition was not to trust. I failed to trust what I Knew.
A sense of Knowing, or profound intuition, is an important part of who we each are. There may be many different explanations for internal and profound intuition, but it is with each of us. A psychologist might defend it one way, and a cleric another. Different religions may interpret it differently. But, what is almost undeniable is that it exists. We have it. Yet, perhaps too often we ignore it and are hurt in some way in the process.
One of the most important ways that this profound Knowing guides us is with our sense about relationships with others. Consider animals. They rely on their instinct, because not to do so would mean certain death. Animals know whom they prey upon, and who their predators are. They are not confused. Their intuition senses danger, and they respond. The predator uses intuition to catch his prey. He hides, chases, traps, and attacks. If it is one of his own species, the stronger and faster may win the prize. But across species, animals know whom to trust and whom to fear.
Humans may have forgotten that inner instinct as we rely less on that instinct to survive. Our relationships with others are in general not about physical survival. However, our relationships are just as important to our emotional and business survival. Trusting someone who is not worthy of trust has caused many failed relationships, including marriages and business partnerships. You may have heard warnings that selecting a business partner requires as much consideration as selecting one’s spouse. In other words, trust is paramount.
Consider your relationships. Consider those whom you trust completely to be supportive and confidential. You may find those relationships to be very few. Hopefully, your family relationships are secure in the knowledge of trust because, where they are not, there can be much emotional pain. Families have been torn apart with parents and children, or siblings, refusing to speak to one another. Marriages have been dissolved with the inevitable pain and suffering that accompanies such betrayal. Trust is the basis for the entire American justice system. Our legal system will fail when we no longer can believe those sworn to tell the truth. Trust is basic to relationship. Consider the people whom you would not tell something confidential. It may be simply because you are very private, as many are. However, even the need for privacy may be influenced by the feeling that you cannot trust others to be supportive and confidential.
Our real need to Know is at the instinctual level. It is necessary for our emotional, business, and sometimes our physical survival. When we don’t have all the facts, as we make the myriad of decisions we each make daily, we need to trust our “gut” or intuition. Even where our instinct is in direct opposition to the “facts”, our intuition seems to know more about the person or situation that what we can see and understand. Facts can be fabricated; intuition can’t.
Regardless of how we each explain that sense of Knowing, we need to renew our efforts of listening to it. For the next week, at each encounter with another person, look at what you know about that person at the same time as you become sensitive to what you intuitively Know. Note the discrepancies. Are there instances where you believe a person to be trustworthy because you have no factual indication otherwise, but your “gut reactions” are not to trust? Pay attention. Note any changes in your perception of any relationship due to your renewed awareness of you own intuition.
I remember that my Grandmother Conrad Knew when her son was injured in World War II. There was no written or verbal communication. There were no embedded reporters. But, she Knew, and sadly, she was correct. Without media reports on several TV channels hourly, she still Knew.
During the next month, think of the events that you Knew about, or had a sense of, before they occurred. You may think of many. Think of those whom you put your confidence in when you had a sense you should not trust. And begin to apply this renewed awareness in all your relationships. This does not mean to become suspicious. It means to become quiet and listen inside. It may mean that people, with whom you were suspicious, really do not have motives other than to be your friend. It may mean that some, who pretend to be your friends, do have other motives. Step back and Know. Be calm and quiet, and listen. Remain objective, and be sensitive to your inner Knowing. Intuition has saved us, perhaps unknowingly, on many occasions. We can learn to trust it in all of our actions.
This meditation is dedicated to helping each of us become more aware of our sense of Knowing, or profound intuition. During this monthly meditation, let’s enjoy a period of silence in addition to our prayers for others, and ourselves. During that quiet period when you stop all active thought, allow your sense of intuition to guide you. This can begin a new way of living that can improve our safety and security, help us to relate with the right people in our lives, and make decisions that are correct for our personal and business lives. And then, let’s allow this practice of following our internal Knowing help us to establish happy relationships and trustworthy partnerships, make wise choices, and follow our unique life Plan.
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Sue Kidd Shipe, Executive Director
International Institute For Human Empowerment, Inc.
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