A Column by Dale KetchamAs a writer have you ever found yourself down on your knees asking for help from above? Perhaps because of a scene that isn’t working but you can’t figure out why? Or maybe you’ve written twenty thousand words headed nowhere?

It was at such a time when I happened upon a book entitled-Practical Intuition : How to Harness the Power of Your Instinct and Make It Work for You ( ISBN: 0-7679-0034-0). The author is Laura Day, and she’s written another book, Practical Intuition for Success, which I’d like to get my hands on too.

The first time someone tried to convince me I was naturally intuitive occurred years ago, when I was at a health spa. Our days were filled with early morning woods walks, yoga, meditation interrupted by organic vegetarian “meals.” Each night a guest speaker would educate us on some aspect of this new-age lifestyle before we dropped off to sleep exhausted from all that meditation.

This one night the speaker passed around a basket of small packaged snack foods-almonds, potato chips, a Whitman chocolate sampler, raisins, cookies, and such. We each picked one. Then she asked us all to stand up, hold the bag of food against our “gut,” close our eyes and asked ourselves silently if this particular food was something we should eat. For the next few minutes, we all swayed violently forward (yes) or backward (no) reacting to the different foods, and even changed floor positions to convince ourselves we were responding to some internal truth and not warped floor boards.

Segue to the present. At RWA National, a group of us were discussing problem scenes-scenes that refused to be written because of a plot snag. Someone blurted out, “Take a nap!” Apparently whenever that happened to her, she immediately gravitated to the sofa, keeping the problem fresh in mind. Often when she woke up minutes later, she had the solution.

I’ve often heard “answers come in dreams”- Churchill and Einstein were big into short snoozes. Practical Intuition describes tuning into your intuition as a wakeful dream state. Apparently there are people who rely regularly on intuition, rather than logically “working” through the situation. Since it didn’t involve sweat, aggravation and wasted time, it seemed like cheating, I definitely wanted in on it!

Here are a few things I learned from the book-

The intuitive state is simply one in which you gather information without relying on yours senses or mental processes. A little relaxation, a comfortable seat and several deep breaths will get you there. Think of the top of your head opening up to receive intuitive information.

Searching intuitively is being open to perception without expectation or any feeling attached to it. Intuition always activates in response to a question. The answer comes in images, sensations, impressions or symbols- that’s the language of the subconscious.

Next comes interpreting, or translating, the information and piecing them together. It requires a little more than “going with your gut,” which rightfully implies that intuition does not take place in the head, although the interpretation stage does. The pages are packed with examples.

The book’s main message is that we are already intuitive. We’re doing it all the time-just imperfectly. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, my body did a big, bend over, nose-to-the-floor YES to the Whitman chocolate sampler.

About the Author
For Dale Ketcham putting her butt in the writing chair is no longer a problem. Getting out of it is. Their guide-dog-in-training and their recently adopted retired guide dog forge a blockade whenever she’s at the computer. Which is why she was there to receive the call from Thorndike Press saying they wanted to reprint her book FIRST MATE in hardcover. The release date is March 2004.

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