Card #35 – Gut Feelings

What is happening with your primal self? What does your body and animal self tell you? We have a “second brain” called the enteric nervous system in our gut that has between 100 and 600 million neurons. What does your gut tell you?

Often your gut may warn you about a real hazard that your rational mind hasn’t registered. If you ignore such warnings, you get blindsided. For example, in A Guide to the Perplexed Interdimensional Traveler I wrote:

In his potentially life-saving book, The Gift of Fear, renowned security consultant Gavin de Becker provides numerous case histories that demonstrate that most victims of violent crime rationalistically overrode distinct intuitions warning them of impending danger. Our intuition is much more acute (and much faster) than our conscious thinking, especially in rapidly unfolding life-or-death situations. Many of Gavin de Becker’s clients, often celebrities, are stalked or harassed by anonymous threats. Gavin discovered an intriguing and effortless way to find the identity of an anonymous harasser. I don’t have the book in front of me, but it goes something like this:

Gavin: Who do you think it could be?

Client: I have no idea.

Gavin: OK, just as a game I want you to pick the name of anybody you know — anybody, right off the top of your head.

Client: OK — Bob.

Gavin: Any reason to think it might be Bob?

Client: Oh, no way, it couldn’t possibly be Bob; he’s such a nice guy, so polite, he sent me a dozen red roses last week.

Almost inevitably, the person the client picked off the top of her head will turn out to be the harasser.

Consider this an auspicious time to listen to what your gut is telling you.