Every time you have a gut feeling, a hunch, an aha! moment, simply put it down on paper without trying to analyze it. If you do this faithfully, what you'll have in a week is major evidence, your own evidence that your intuition is trustworthy.

The Monthly Aspectarian: Sonia, I usually like to start by asking for people to briefly tell their story.

Sonia Choquette: My story begins with the fact that I grew up in a family of seven children. My mother had been a prisoner of war during World War II. After liberation, she married my father . . . as a child -- she was only 15 -- and came to America. My family life was very much oriented around the fact that we are sixth sensory beings. I never had an experience or an understanding of myself as anything less than intuitive. That was natural. Often, people will ask me, "When did you realize you were intuitive" -- or psychic, which I believe is just refined intuition. If you use anything frequently enough it's going to get better and better. So, I never had a moment where it turned on. It was always a part of the context of my life and my expectation of myself.

TMA: You didn't have it squelched like so many children do.

SC: Exactly. People have asked me, "When did I lose my intuition? Why did I get disengaged?" and I tell them; "We're all born fully conscious. Look in any baby's eyes! They know what's going on." But we are negotiated out of it. We lose it not by death blows but by the death of a thousand tiny pinpricks of suggestion that we cannot trust what our inner self, our spirit, is telling us. So, in my family context, not only was it not squelched, it was celebrated. It was primary. Our sixth sense was considered the first. I tell people the reason I got this thing going is I was no dummy, I was one of seven kids and I learned early in life to get my mother's attention. To be the best one at listening to my inner voice was considered a good thing . . . to listen to our intuition, to check in with our self power instinctively . . . that's how she saved her life during the war.

TMA: How many of your siblings recognize themselves as psychic?

SC: No other siblings are actively pursuing a vocation in the intuitive arts but every one of them actively and openly acknowledges intuition as fundamental to their life path.
We're all in some artistic field. I have a sister I work with often who does healing bodywork and trance channeling and is really clairvoyant -- she talks to your body and does healing that way.

TMA: They use it in their daily lives.

SC: Absolutely. One brother is an engineer and has worked in the Sahara desert looking for oil and uses his intuition to find it. It's so much a part of our lives. People have said to me over the years, "I wish I had your gift." And I agree that I have a gift, but it is not the gift of being special. I had the gift of having no interference. I believe that anyone at any age who can create an atmosphere where they do not challenge or censor or intellectualize away their spirit, can reclaim their intuitive voice and hone it to a very fine degree because it is inherent in who we are. It is part of our matrix as spiritual beings.

TMA: I think children pick up fairly early that the adults -- who are as gods in their lives -- are not seeing what they're seeing.

SC: I think what children do is to pick up brilliantly the truth of situations. But they go to their trusted elders, or to the ones who seem to have the authority, at any rate, for verification.

TMA: And the adults say, "No, that's not real."

SC: It used to be most of the adults said no. Now it's changing, fortunately, and so I think that what we're going to see in the next ten years is a very psychic group of people emerging, a very psychic group of children. You and I are peers, and in our age group, we are changing the atmosphere. But still there is a conspiracy that goes around to deny that what we feel is true and real for us. I think the voice of intuition is the voice of what is true and real for us personally. If we are taught to defer to outside authorities to dictate what is true and real for us, we lose confidence and we lose connection with our inner barometer. I think intuition is akin to the obvious in terms of what is true and real for us. My function in life -- I've written three books already and a fourth one's on the way in a couple of months -- is to help spread the parameters of what we feel is part of our natural makeup. I believe that being intuitive and being psychic, which means of the soul, is as natural to who we are as seeing, hearing, tasting, touching and smelling.

I have the unique experience at 42 years old of having spent 30 years actively, publicly, in the role of intuitive psychic. I've spoken with a lot of people in very intimate ways and I've never met anyone who has not suggested they, too, had a psychic experience or two or three. But the difference is, they didn't have the context in which to embrace it as natural and, more importantly, essential to happiness.

TMA: It's said that everybody is psychic and I've often said that the psychic is really just a person who is a little more aware than the person they're sitting next to.

SC: Basically, I think it comes with, first, the paradigm or point of view that this is natural. And, practice. When I teach, I tell people to perceive becoming intuitive and psychic like the art of seeing stars. When's the last time you looked up and saw a star? When you do, it engages you. It's so unusual and so bright and so exciting . . . and as you look closer, you see another and another and another and in a matter of a few minutes, the entire Milky Way explodes before your very eyes. And yet it was there all along. And that's what tuning in to our intuition is all about: it's more an exercise of attention and noticing and acknowledging what we are perceiving rather than what most people have been conditioned to do, which is to shoo it away like a fly or shut it down or ignore it or jump away from it. How many actually embrace it as a gift? That 's what I try to teach . . . that this is a gift that you can receive through the art of awareness and noticing.

TMA: Are you teaching any sort of meditation to help attune?

SC: Yes, even in my first book Psychic Pathway. The pathway is a 12 week self-discovery process to get to know your spirit, your intuitive voice. I set it up like a journey because it is an adventure, a journey into your soul. And I say that the journey needs for you to take along a couple of things for the trip. One is a pocket journal and one is the tool of meditation. Still today, meditation, for most people, feels like a huge assignment. To attain an altered state of awareness, much like the Buddha up on the mountain . . . who's got time for that? People say, "Even if I do try, I'm not reaching the level of consciousness that I think I should be zoning out on." And so they get discouraged.

I teach meditation as turning inward instead of outward, and just checking in with quieting the mind chatter, going to another part of yourself that wants a meditative kind of awareness. I recommend if you can sit for five minutes quietly and just focus on some beautiful music or just take a couple of deep breaths and get yourself to really oxygenate your lungs for a few minutes, breath deeply -- that's meditation.

TMA: When one achieves even a moment of silence, one finds that there's a bright and shining awareness that remains.

SC: Absolutely. The way I like to explain it is, the world goes from black and white to color. All of a sudden it brings you into the present moment. Out of the mental vicious cycle of the future and past, the woulda-shoulda-coulda that takes you away from being in the moment.

The other tool, the small pocket journal, is because most of us extinguish our intuition like a fireman going after an arsonist. What we need to do is to start noticing it and putting it into the physical plane. So my suggestion, in Pathway, is every time you have a gut feeling, a hunch, an aha! moment, without trying to analyze it, simply put it down on paper. In that act, you're doing two things. One, you're telling your subconscious mind, "This is important." Because when we write it down, we're putting value on it. And two, once it's down on paper, it's actually setting up this possibility, this venue, for more things to come. What you'll have in a week -- it only takes a week if you do this faithfully -- what you'll have in a week is major evidence, your own evidence that your intuition is trustworthy.

I know people well and they usually won't do this, so here's Plan B. I say, if you have a hunch, simply speak it out. In the car, in the shower, while putting on your shoes, mumble it. But don't censor. Just give it expression. Give it a voice. Condition yourself to put it in the world.

TMA: And just see what happens.

SC: There you go . . . just be curious.

TMA: One of my favorite lines from A Course in Miracles is "The voice of God is as loud as our willingness to listen to it."

SC: Perfect! That's beautiful. That expresses exactly what I'm teaching, which is it's always there, but it won't interrupt. It's your show! You can let it alone. It's a partnership, and the Universe will guide you just like it guides the trees to bloom every year. But we determine to what degree we want that. That's our gift -- which is, we choose how much guidance we want.

TMA: People will ask, "Well, how do you know when it's -- the Voice?"

SC: Well, there's a couple of hallmarks about really identifying an intuition versus wishful thinking.

TMA: One way to tell is that the Voice will never say, "Dummy, I told you not to do that!"

SC: Right. It won't flatter, insult, manipulate, cajole or in any way evaluate.

The other thing is, when you listen to your intuition, in your whole body, starting right in the center of your heart outward, you'll feel satisfied. There is a sort of a physical ta-ching! What I often try to bring people's attention to is that intuition will first resonate through your body; when you listen to it, your body will register it as, "That's right." You won't be intuitive in your head. It's in your belly, it's in your hips, your chest, your throat, in your gut -- it's not between your ears.

TMA: Another important thing for people to know is that it's not always momentous things. It can be very mundane.

SC: Yes, thanks for bringing that up. What I talk to people about is the fairy tale about the intuitive, the princess and the pea. It's not Elvis breaking through the clouds, it's being able to perceive the most subtle, small hints in the moment. It's a thousand bits of light flickering by rather than a sparkling fireworks show. It's the firefly show! It's always in the mundane, because it's in the mundane where we live.

TMA: It's easy for some people to think that a psychic flash is supposed to save somebody's life or change their life in a big way.

SC: The voice of intuition is there to make your daily life more joyful, more playful, more productive. I ask people in a workshop, " Why develop your intuition? What would you do with it that you couldn't do without it?" And the answer is, "Make better decisions."

TMA: And improve the quality of your entire life.

SC: Right! You can make decisions that will bring you more joy, more convenience and also, it will take the pressure off. It will show you you're not alone. It's a very loving, benevolent voice, a very humorous one . . . that's another mark of intuition: it's very funny.

We have this idea that life is a struggle, me against the world, it's dog eat dog out there -- that's totally inaccurate. It can be that way; we can choose to create that, it's popular. But the intuitive life is easier without being less work. Life's not less work but it's easier because you always are creating a space and a place for help.

TMA: You may even work harder, but it will be a lot more efficient.

SC: Certainly in my personal experience and for clients I've worked with for over 32 year, it's more affirming of life itself. Not only does it make your own life better but it makes you a light in the world as well. You become one of the healers' teachers. When you work with your intuition, you become a model for someone else who's struggling. "It can be easier than this." You are that important in that work. Of course a Universe that would flower a tree on schedule would totally be wired to help you. You are magnificent! Your path is important, your expression and the unfolding of who you are is essential to the beauty of the planet. It's all wired to help you.

I think it's also about creating less fear. The intuitive person is not a fear filled person. We all have fear, it's basic to our instinct to survival, but we won't be consumed and driven by it. We will recognize it as, 'Well, that's fear, and now I will open up a space for some guidance here." So we create a safer world. I think if we're really going to look at the big, big picture, the benefits of embracing and actively reclaiming your sixth sense makes for a safer world. Because when you look from an intuitive perspective, there's room for everybody. It's not me against you, we're all in it together.

TMA: The hardest part for me personally, at least, is to remember.

SC: There you go! Which is why what I suggest in all of my books is little games to play to make it fun. Creating habits to remember. And the best way to remember is by being playful. Here are the two words that I try to use to jog people to remember; you see, the front door to the intuition is these two words: I wonder. I wonder what my instinct is on this. I wonder what my guides would say. I wonder what my Higher Self would do. I wonder what he really means. I wonder where I left my keys. I wonder what my calling in life is. I wonder how to find Peoria in the dark. It invites in more than your input knows; it puts you in a receptive place to receive.

I do think that your intuitive consciousness can be greatly debilitated by a few habits that our society has imposed upon us. Not enough water, not enough sleep, not enough real, quality food and not enough quiet time. Those are four things that are basic: water, adequate rest, at least one good, home-cooked loved meal a day, and a few minutes of quiet, meditative time are foundational for an intuitive life.

SONIA CHOQUETTE, Ph.D., is the author of three books about intuition, the psychic and their connection to spirit. Her most recent book, The Wise Child: A Spiritual Guide to Nurturing Your Child's Intuition, follows the success of her previous books, The Psychic Pathway and Your Heart's Desire.

Sonia is also the author and narrator of the 1998 best-selling Nightingale-Conant audiocassette program, Your Psychic Pathway: Listening to the Guiding Wisdom of Your Soul. Her second audiocassette, Creating Your Heart's Desire: Principles for Living the Life You Really Want, was also released last year.

A popular radio and television guest, she has also given workshops in Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Boston, London and Athens, among others.