Looking beyond the horizon

Is it possible to know the future? To peep out of the corner of your eye, even if not in its entirety and colors, at least a shadow of images to come. To penetrate beyond the horizon of events - where reason and logic do not know the way, but only a strange and unpredictable path of intuition leads...

How many times has the human race been deceived by unfulfilled prophecies and vague dreams of visionaries and soothsayers. How can we distinguish the quiet voice of the inevitable, the contours of changeable possibilities, and the play of the imagination carried away by dreams? To know how our word will resonate, and having learned - to change, to keep yourself from taking the wrong step? Does this future even exist? Where is it now?

Does the future exist?

"Nothing is more inevitable than the unforeseen."

Paul Valerie

Where is that which is nowhere to be found? How, with what third eye, does one see it? What happens when the impossible does happen, and how does one dispose of this strange miracle? Which of us is not familiar with the sudden feeling, the sudden understanding that this is how it really is?

Sometimes we did not listen to the insights, only later, convinced of the justice of prompting, and how indebted to him those of us who, disregarding the apparent illogic and meaninglessness of what was discovered, decided to use the sudden unsolicited advice from nowhere. The opposite is no less common. Everyone, perhaps, has been deceived in their expectations. To form opinions, to experience feelings, to think, plan and act in a state of unshakable confidence in one's own rightness, and only after days, months or even years, to be convinced of a clever self-deception, facing its not always pleasant consequences.

Sometimes the first impression about the person we meet is correct - but how often it fails us! How close and inevitable seemed sometimes the result of our efforts - but all of a sudden everything turned out differently. How many times we knew exactly what the person we were talking to would say or do, or happen in the next minute. Or a year from now. There were times when we even turned around at the sound before it was heard....

All this arouses a natural curiosity, and the subject of predictions, prophecies, and visions has been one of the most popular throughout the ages. Not only is there no general and clear explanation of the phenomenon in the relevant literature, but often its very existence is questioned by many quite respectable people! Equally common are those who, contrary to the obvious, will assert that their intuition has never been wrong!

It is not clear why these people do not shine with the mystical halo of inspired prophets, are not overflowing with happiness, and do not rule the World, having comprehended the hidden course of things.... After all, it seems obvious that by possessing the technology of knowledge of the future, one can reach any heights. Well, or at least financial success at the expense of playing the stock market and stock quotes.

Although, here we are faced with completely mysterious and insoluble questions. What is time? Where are the past and the future right now - do they really exist, and therefore can be sources of any information, or do they not exist, being nothing but abstract constructs in the minds of people?

Are the past and the future singular, or is the world a multiverse? Is the course of events predetermined, or is everything possible to change? Or maybe all these questions are just husks of words, imperfect images of consciousness and language, hiding a reality much deeper and indescribable, the gateway to which is what we call intuition?

Trying to find the answer, one can see so many mystic, psychoanalytic, occult, philosophical, religious and other notions and beliefs about the essence of intuition, the gift of prophecy and the nature of time and mind - that one can become dizzy! Intuition tells me that something is wrong here....

And she is, as is often the case, right! The fact is that under the common name of Intuition or Foresight, there is not one, but THREE completely different phenomena! And their influence on our lives, their nature and origin are more distant from each other than fire, air and water. Let's get acquainted with them in order.

The Mystery of Time and the Mystery of the Mind

"To look too far is shortsighted."

Winston Churchill

The first, and the most fantastic among them, is true direct knowledge. It is inexplicable within the framework of modern science, and different schools and systems of philosophy provide very different models and descriptions of it, but one thing is certain: it exists.

According to some views we are all connected by a certain unified information field, a kind of cosmic Internet, to which we just do not know how to connect; according to others, time and space are just fictions, constructions of mind, ways the consciousness structures perception, already containing the whole totality of knowledge of what was, is and will be, and it is enough to remember what we already know; according to others, awareness, mind, is not a product of human brain, and even some field associated with it, but the Fundamental Reality

In any case, this direct knowledge is apparently available to everyone, and sometimes, for reasons that are not entirely clear, appears spontaneously and unexpectedly. Perhaps with effort and special practices we can acquire the ability to use it as we see fit.

Many schools of modern psychology, contrary to the obvious, continue to ignore evidence of this phenomenon, fearing to encroach on the materialistic picture of the world inherited from past centuries. Although Freud, the founder of scientific psychology, described many cases of this kind. In order to explain them at least somehow, remaining within the framework of modern notions of reality, however, he had to create very sophisticated and dubious theories and constructions.

In contrast, Jung, and after him the followers of modern transpersonal psychology, have been bold enough to suggest, and even describe and investigate, various forms, levels and manifestations of what mystics of all times have called Cosmic Consciousness, or the one universal mind. These studies, though, are only the first steps into the unknowable, and it is too early to draw final conclusions. But the two subsequent manifestations of "foresight" have been much better researched over the last hundred years, and we can make claims about them with near certainty.

Concentrated experience and unconscious competence

"What you don't know, you don't want."

Ovid

The second is our concentrated experience of life. The Mastery of Life, manifested apart from our conscious will, acquired over the years. We know it will happen because it has happened more than once. Sometimes it serves us well, and sometimes it fails us, because life is constantly changing, and what was right yesterday may be wrong tomorrow, and experience is very limited compared to the inexhaustibility of the universe.

This quality is invaluable at the level of everyday actions, everyday life, or professional mastery. It is achieved by regular exercise and repetition. Thanks to it, a professional driver, an experienced sportsman, a businessman, or a politician can react precisely in the most complicated situation, literally anticipating the development of events. Knowledge and experience, which require conscious assimilation, effort, and analysis in the beginning, pass the threshold of awareness with time, starting to manage behavior in autonomous mode.

Given the tremendous speed of subconscious processes compared to conscious ones, this allows a trained and experienced professional to achieve fantastic accuracy and efficiency. And the same ability to act, think and feel automatically, on the basis of previously gained experience, often fails where experience is unique every time - in personal relationships, in art, creativity, and even in economics and business. Experience then becomes a trap that prevents one from responding and acting appropriately, setting in motion over and over again outdated and ineffective mechanisms, thoughts, and feelings.

The trap of self-affirming prophecy

"Imagination begets event."

Montaigne

The third is just our own secret unconscious fears and hopes, and it is their quiet intrusive voice that sometimes whispers what seems to be True Knowledge. The important thing here is to be careful not to confuse their call, separating hidden prejudices from experience, and knowledge from true Wisdom. The human mind is the greatest magician, and easily turns its own mirages into reality.

Here we often encounter the phenomenon of self-fulfilling prophecy. First, a person creates, on the basis of past hopes, childhood fears and teenage fantasies, a certain idea of a probable development of events. Then, there is a process of pseudologic conviction of himself in the inevitability of such a future.

This is how a response program is created and written into the subconscious mind, inevitably leading exactly to the intended result. It includes a filter of perception, which simply excludes from the consciousness all information that does not correspond to the expected, strengthening the appropriate, and correcting and distorting the neutral so that it would fit into the formed picture of expectations and strengthen it with continuous confirmation.

A person who assumes deceit on the part of everyone around him will ignore every manifestation of decency and trust, interpret doubts in favor of his own fears, and intensify his worries about real, even the most insignificant, manifestations of dishonesty in every possible way. Another component of this program is the familiar automatic response.

Existing belief constantly manages the behavior of such a person, manifesting itself in every gesture, word, intonation and action in such a way as to cause with maximum probability in the surrounding world and other people exactly the expected reaction. And they, at the same subconscious, and sometimes quite conscious level, read the information manifested in thousands of details - and react in full conformity with it. This is how one gets into the vicious circle of fulfilling prophecy.

How to become a prophet

"It is much easier to find error than truth. Error is immediately visible,

 "but the truth is hidden in the depths, and it takes effort to find it."

Goethe

So how do you develop the "right" intuition, avoiding the pitfalls and self-fulfilling prophecies? Is it possible to become a visionary? And if so, is it not dangerous? Won't we upset the delicate and delicate balance of time, cause and effect by playing with prophecies and predictions? Here the answer depends on each person.

If one considers everyone around as unreasonable little children, from whom one should keep away the matches, or incorrigible villains, from everything ready to make a weapon, then "What the Creator in his wisdom has hidden from the eyes of mortals, it should not be revealed...". If one is inclined to consider oneself responsible and mature enough - then, if there is a skill so important and useful, it is wise to master it and develop it in oneself with all one's strength. Not for fun, or for street fortune-telling using the lines of the hand, but for the purpose of constructing one's own life in a meaningful way. And simply for the greater safety of oneself and one's loved ones.

The first is to deal with your own fears, expectations and fantasies. Clear your mind from obsessive inner chatter and pseudo-logic. Learn to recognize your own automatisms, and learn to manage them. It is better to do this under the supervision of a professional psychologist so as not to get bogged down in your own fantasies and prejudices, and to save a lot of time. Next: to exercise attention and memory in every way. In addition to the general beneficial effect, it will help to notice more often the quiet voice of truth, the very immediate knowledge that we usually just do not notice in the noise of our own thoughts and fantasies. And perhaps that truth will indeed set us free.

7.06.2022