God Is in the Details

There are many things to gripe about when it comes to looking back on the 2004 presidential election, but I always felt my temperature rise most sharply when one particular insult was being gratuitously, and by both parties, used—the comment that someone was a "waffler." It made my skin crawl, partly because it's such a silly word for both a candidate and a party with which to associate themselves, but mostly because the insult turned a valuable set of traits into a small-minded and negative thing. Rather, I think this "waffling"shows that a candidate has compassion, versatility, and an open approach that responds appropriately to the challenges at hand. It shows an understanding of the changing complexities of the world, all qualities that would make for a well-reasoned and adaptable leader.

Is it strange of me to think about politics in light of intuitive development? I don't think so, especially given the new approach taken by the book I have in mind. Just like the complexities of world issues, our lives are bursting with endless fine details and nuances. To interact with it all, we need to think on our feet, understand our personal strengths, and acknowledge that we evolve and develop as much as our issues do. Discover Your Psychic Type, by Sherrie Dillard, is a beautiful book that recognizes the highly nuanced relationship between our unique personalities and how we relate individually to the extrasensory world. Dillard introduces us to the four intuitive types—spiritual, physical, emotional, and mental—and shows us how to determine which type we most embody. These intuitive types are archetypal blueprints that can lead to greater awareness of your life and your soul's path. For example:

• Emotional intuitives journey through the path of the heart
• Mental intuitives are evolving from ego to enlightenment
• Physical intuitives are expressing the divine made physical
• Spiritual intuitives are on a journey into the experience of enlightened freedom

With exercises and visualizations for each type, Dillard shows us how we each process information and how to fully embody our unique traits. However, the crucial and eye-opening part of Dillard's message is that we are never only one intuitive type; we take on traits from every type in complex ways, weaving them into our own personal approach. Dillard gives us the language we need to transcend categories and be a number of things at the same time. In a way, she teaches us to take on the qualities of the savvy leader I mentioned above. So let's not think of it as waffling. Let's think of it as understanding the many dimensions that live within our hearts and the world at large.

An excerpt from Discover Your Psychic Type: Developing and Using Your Natural Intuition, by Sherrie Dillard:

"The goal of developing our intuitive and psychic ability by understanding our type is to internally integrate the four types and then to transcend them. As we grow in psychic and spiritual awareness, we come to a turning point that we all will eventually encounter. We first work with psychic, spiritual energy at the level we find comfortable. We come to this energy through the mental, physical, emotional, or spiritual approach. During this process, our growth may be rapid. We may feel confident and embrace the process. Then we are given a choice. We can grow beyond ourselves, beyond our level of comfort and control, or we can stall and withdraw. It can be difficult to step out of what we consider the norm, and we find ourselves fearful at times. It might be that we worry inner transformation will result in loss or change in our external life. We may fear rejection by family and friends or loss of income and social acceptance. We may be apprehensive about the unknown and the spacious freedom that lies before us. Yet it is only at this juncture, when our fears are most intense, that we can transcend our limitations and glimpse our true potential."