Building Your Intuitive Muscle
A discussion with Sonia Choquette, Ph.D.
by Raz Ingrasci
edited by Ellie Weiser
Sonia Choquette is a world-renowned author, storyteller, teacher,
vibrational healer, and intuitive. She is the best-selling author
of 10 books and numerous audio editions. Sonia was educated at the
University of Denver and the Sorbonne in Paris, and holds a Ph.D.
in metaphysics from the American Institute of Holistic Theology. She
is a graduate of the Hoffman Process and serves on the Institute’s
Advisory Council. Sonia recently spoke with Hoffman president Raz
Ingrasci about the crucial role of intuition in our lives. For more
information about Sonia and her work, please visit www.soniachoquette.com.
Raz: Sonia, you often refer to the “sixth
sense” as our most important sense. What is the sixth sense?
Sonia: The sixth sense is the voice of your spirit,
and it communicates to you through the physical body, but it borrows
the awareness of the heart or the gut, even the hairs on the back
of your neck. It is the voice of your soul and your all-knowing
self that is connected to the metamorphic field of all there is.
LN: Why do you consider it our most important
sense?
Sonia: It’s important because it’s
the natural inner barometer that keeps us faithful to what is authentic
for our growth and to what is naturally protective for our safety.
It directs us toward our relational optimum opportunities; it guides
us when we are faced with challenges and are in circumstances of
the unknown; it activates our creativity; it informs us on how to
keep our physical bodies and emotional states healthy and basically
feeds our spirit so that we feel whole and complete.
LN: Is what you call the “spiritual voice”
distinct from the voice a person describes when they say “I
feel it in my gut”?
Sonia: Yes. The spiritual voice communicates
to you. It originates in the heart and then it travels to get your
attention throughout your body. In some people, it’s an actual
frequency or a vibration of awareness that might travel and center
in the gut, hence, the gut feeling. For some it might stay centered
in the heart. My heart just tells me. For some it will center around
the back of the head so it’s like there’s an inner voice
that guides you. But it’s not one-size-fits-all and it can
be all of the above. The frequency of energy informs you vibrationally
about the nature of the situation you’re in.
LN: Does everyone have intuitive ability?
Sonia: Everyone has an inherent intuitive channel.
Science has developed enough studies in which they have isolated
parts of the brain, parts in the stomach, even parts in the heart
that pick-up and respond to vibration. But not everyone is conscious
or appreciative of the intuitive faculties. The general population
still, unfortunately, ignores or invalidates their intuition for
a number of reasons, primarily because they’ve not been educated
about it, or due to family impressions, social training, religious
background, or a lack of awareness. Also, it is a subtle sense so
it takes a certain amount of attention to discern an intuitive feeling
in the moment. Interestingly, I run across a huge general population
that says “I felt that” after the fact. They had that
“I’m not sure” sense but it’s subtle, so
it’s a matter of bringing attention to it and claiming it
as a valid form of information.
LN: I imagine that some people’s intuition
is targeted. For example, if someone’s a brilliant athlete
their intuition’s informing their athleticism. Or if someone
is a great intellect or a great musician it might come to them differently,
and some are spiritually intuitive.
Sonia: It comes through for everybody most obviously
in what you love. That’s because it originates in the heart
in the most authentic self and what you love is an expression of
your most authentic self. That is where the sixth sense demonstrates
itself first. Someone who loves real estate is going to have the
knack for it, or a doctor who loves healing and medicine will have
an intuitive sense with people’s health. The second place
it presents itself is with the people you love; you’ll feel
it in your personal intimates, in your family, with your children.
But the thing is, it can be stretched. Like any muscle it can be
developed to operate in all arenas of your life, and that’s
what it should and can be developed into with the slightest bit
of attention.
LN: You’ve spent your entire career, more
than 30 years, helping people on the intuitive level to be more
closely aligned with their spiritual self. When did you know that
you had the gift of a strong intuition?
Sonia: It was never an “ah-ha” moment.
I was always intuitively aware and when I started school it became
apparent that what I felt in my bones and in my body and what I
could perceive intuitively was neither shared or encouraged by others.
I feel very strongly that we all start at the same place, with a
perfectly functioning intuitive radar, but it gets shut off by our
social conditioning. In my case I didn’t have social conditioning
that interrupted it because in my family, intuition was a valued
sense. Other people who come from families where intuition was a
valued sense also say that it was just very natural and commonplace.
So I’m not unique, though I am very fortunate. I’ve
studied it enough to know that when any person of any age gives
the same support and attention to their intuition, it’ll bounce
right back into operation. It’s a very resilient sense.
LN: People learn to listen to and trust their
intuitive self at the Process. I’m thinking of those parts
of the Process where we recognize our spiritual selves, and also
where we do that beautiful intuitional understanding of our parents’
childhood.
Sonia: What’s so fabulous about the Process
is that it engages the truth that intuition is timeless. It transcends
time and space so you can become accurately informed, which is what
happens in the Process when we have the healing with our parents
and the conversation with the child of our mother and the child
of our father. That accurate informing is a gift of the intuition.
LN: We say that being disconnected from one’s
intuitive self leads to fear and confusion, and conversely, being
connected to our intuition leads to a more authenticated, integrated
life.
Sonia: Absolutely. If we lose all of our senses
but we still have our intuition, we will be fine. But if we lose
our intuition while all our other faculties are still working, I
can’t say that is so. Helen Keller is a great example of this.
She was completely disconnected from her other resources and directly
relied on her intuition, and she became one of the most prolific
healers and teachers of our time.
LN: Right, a miracle person. I’ve heard
it said that a highly intuitive person can sometimes help others
heal more than they can heal themselves. So I have to ask, what
happened for you at your Process?
Sonia: I was motivated to go to the Process for
personal historical problems and because I was working on a book
called “The Intuitive Spark,” about intuition in a family.
At the Process I realized that even in a family like mine which
is highly intuitive, family patterns can override the direct connection
to your intuitive wisdom. Even though I was an extremely intuitive
person when I went in, when I came out my intuition was much more
powerful, expansive, compassionate, lucid and much more patient.
When I left the Process a deep sense of knowing settled in, that
as long as I follow my spirit all things will fall into order. And
now it’s been 12 years and it’s deepened --
LN: Wow, it’s been 12 years? Time flies.
Sonia: I know! That’s one of the reasons
why I enthusiastically encourage my clients and students who are
blocked or have self-doubt or are uncomfortable in trusting their
intuition, to go to the Hoffman Process.
LN: Because as you stop identifying with your
negative patterns…
Sonia: You begin to recapture your authentic
essence, which is the direct informing of the intuitive self. The
Process reveals for most people the spiritual self as a valid and
legitimate self, so they become conscious of this spirit that is
reliable.
LN: One of the things closely looked at in the
University of California research study was spirituality. Not religiosity
but every day spiritual experience, connectedness to people, to
nature, and feelings of oneness. Those spiritual feelings went up
dramatically after taking the Process. Not only did those feelings
stay up, but a year later they had gone up even higher. I believe
that once you give yourself permission to live that way, you cross
through a certain gateway and there it is.
Sonia: It’s like a butterfly out of a cocoon
for a lot of people. They cross a threshold into a new perspective
that’s much richer and deeper. I tell people that once you
become introduced to your intuitive spiritual self you have to work
those muscles because you’ve had years and years of ignoring
them. So in my work, and where I see it working beautifully at the
Process, I’ve created systems in which people can comfortably,
naturally work those intuitive muscles in a way that is subtle and
grounded.
LN: You recently introduced a coaching program
called “Psychic Sit-ups.” Can you tell us about it?
Sonia: Yes, I love it! By doing psychic sit-ups
you get your “intuitive six-pack.”
LN: [Laughter]
Sonia: In working with people for nearly four
decades I know that intuition is like any other muscle -- you have
to work it; to check in with that inner voice and begin to develop
a strong connection. The way to do that most effectively is in bite-size
exercises that attract your attention back to your intuition and
give it a voice and a vote. It’s like “this is what
my emotional body says, this is what my history says, well what
do my vibes say?” I call it that because your intuition is
a vibrational frequency.
LN: What’s the structure of the Psychic
Sit-ups program?
Sonia: The program is one year long. Once each
week you get an email from me in which I introduce a 7-minute video
on an intuitive, fun exercise for that week. It’s typically
small and quite inviting and you can watch it every day and you
can just record your results and watch your progress. This program
keeps people faithful to their intuition without it being a burden.
Whatever day of the week you choose, you receive the video, and
I’ve also compiled the entire library of 52 weeks onto a DVD,
in the event that someone wants to keep revisiting them. It’s
like meeting with a personal trainer every week.
LN: So psychic sit-ups let people get better
at faithfully exercising their intuitive muscle and living more
fully from their spiritual self.
Sonia: Every week a person can get a little stronger,
a little more confident, a little more comfortable. There’s
also a chat room so people can communicate with each other. They’re
having a blast because they have support and community and they
begin to connect with one another and to build this bond with others
vibrationally. They learn first hand that this is a valuable sense
and that they’re not alone in giving this validity and importance
in their life.
LN: That’s beautiful.
Sonia: It was kind of an intuitive hit on my
part to do that. I woke up one day and I thought, I need to teach
people the way I was taught.
I get to remind people that the important thing is to work those
intuitive muscles every day just like any other muscle, if you want
it to be strong and reliable. And it feels good!
LN: That’s fabulous. Thank you so much,
Sonia.
Sonia: Thank you, Raz, and all my love to the
Hoffman community.ø
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