Intuition and Flow: Embracing Your Multisensory Nature
Have you ever had a moment where a sudden insight or hunch seemed to appear out of nowhere? Maybe it was a solution to a problem, a gut feeling about someone, or a seemingly random thought that guided you in a certain direction. For many of us, these moments feel almost magical, as if they’re coming from a place beyond our usual five senses. And in a way, they are.
This is the beginning of a profound shift in understanding how we experience life — not just through our basic senses, but as multisensory beings. Gary Zukav, in his influential book The Seat of the Soul, introduces the idea that we are evolving from five-sensory humans into multisensory ones, capable of perceiving reality through more than just what we can touch, see, or hear.
At the same time, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a leading psychologist in the study of optimal experience, described the flow state — a magical place where our actions seem to move effortlessly, guided by an internal rhythm or instinct. These two ideas are intricately connected. As we embrace our multisensory nature, we open the door to greater alignment with flow, where intuition becomes a guiding force, and life starts to unfold with more ease.
Let’s explore how shifting from a five-sensory perspective to a multisensory one unlocks our intuition and helps us find flow, making our experience of life more meaningful and aligned with the deeper wisdom of the universe.
From Five Senses to Multisensory Awareness
We all begin life as five-sensory beings, relying on our physical senses to navigate the world. This is how we learn most of our lessons — by seeing, hearing, or physically experiencing something. While this method works, it’s often slow and can feel like we’re constantly meeting resistance. Gary Zukav explains in The Seat of the Soul that this five-sensory way of learning is dense and requires repetition through trial and error. It’s like trying to force your way through life, inch by inch.
However, as we evolve, we become multisensory beings, opening ourselves to subtler forms of guidance — hunches, gut feelings, intuitions, and sudden insights. From the five-sensory perspective, these experiences seem like curiosities, almost random. But for the multisensory person, these subtle forms of guidance are far from random; they’re essential messages from a deeper source — whether you call it the soul, the subconscious, or universal intelligence.
Zukav explains that multisensory living involves an awareness that goes beyond physical input. It’s the ability to tune into inner guidance and make decisions not just based on the five senses, but on a broader and wiser perspective. This means you’re not only experiencing life through your immediate environment, but you’re also consciously receiving signals from within — promptings from your soul or a higher intelligence.
The Surfing Analogy: Duck Diving vs. Finding the Channel
To illustrate the difference between living as a five-sensory and a multisensory being, let’s take a deeper look at an analogy from surfing.
When you’re learning to surf, one of the first things you have to master is duck diving. This is the technique surfers use to push their board under an oncoming wave to get out past the break. It requires effort, and you have to dive under each wave to make it to calmer waters. In life, this is how five-sensory humans often operate: we deal with obstacles one by one, using physical effort to push through challenges. It’s tiring, and sometimes it feels like we’re constantly facing resistance.
But there’s a different approach. Experienced surfers know about the channel — a natural path in the ocean where waves break less intensely. By finding this channel, surfers can paddle out to the open sea with minimal effort, avoiding the crashing waves altogether. This is like multisensory living: instead of fighting through every wave of life, you learn to navigate through intuition and inner guidance. You flow with life rather than against it.
The channel is a metaphor for that inner wisdom we all have access to — the place where intuition and guidance lead us to the path of least resistance. This doesn’t mean challenges disappear, but it does mean you can face them with greater ease because you’re moving in alignment with the natural flow of life.
If you prefer a scientific explanation, consider the difference between conscious and subconscious processing. The five-sensory approach is like trying to think through every challenge consciously, step by step. It’s labor-intensive and can be slow. The multisensory approach taps into the subconscious mind, which processes information faster and more intuitively, drawing on past experiences and deeper wisdom. It’s like having an internal GPS guiding you toward the best path, rather than forcing your way through every obstacle.
The Gift of Intuition: Guidance from Within
So what does it mean to embrace your multisensory nature? It means recognizing that intuition isn’t just a random quirk of human experience — it’s a key part of who we are. In his book, Zukav explains that as multisensory beings, we have access to compassionate and impersonal help in every moment. Intuitive insights, hunches, and gut feelings are messages from our higher self or even from divine guidance, assisting us in navigating life’s choices.
But to access this guidance, we need to cultivate awareness. The first step is becoming conscious of your feelings. When you experience a strong emotion — whether it’s frustration, anxiety, or even excitement — pause and ask yourself, “What is this trying to teach me?”
In The Seat of the Soul, Zukav gives an example of a husband who distrusts his wife. His inability to trust leads him to misinterpret her actions and words, creating tension in their relationship. If the husband could tune into his feelings, asking, “Why do I feel this way?” he would see that his distrust wasn’t about his wife at all. It stemmed from his own fears and past experiences. By becoming aware of this, he could break the cycle of misunderstanding and begin to heal.
Flow State: The Intersection of Intuition and Action
So how does this all tie into flow state?
Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi describes flow as a state where you’re fully immersed in what you’re doing. It’s when action and awareness merge, and you lose track of time because you’re so focused. In this state, everything seems to unfold naturally, almost effortlessly, because you’re in sync with the task at hand.
This is where the multisensory experience and flow overlap. When you’re tuned into your intuition and inner guidance, you’re more likely to enter flow because you’re not battling against your environment or second-guessing every move. Instead, you’re moving with the current of life — just like the surfer who finds the channel.
Flow state isn’t something we reach by sheer willpower; it happens when we’re open, present, and receptive to the moment. The more we practice tuning into our inner guidance — whether through meditation, mindfulness, or simply paying attention to our feelings — the easier it becomes to enter flow.
The Bridge Between Spirituality and Science
Whether you view intuition as divine guidance, messages from your soul, or simply the workings of your subconscious, the principle remains the same: we have access to wisdom beyond our five senses. In the spiritual realm, this may be described as messages from a higher power, but from a scientific perspective, it’s the subconscious mind processing information that the conscious mind might miss.
When we trust this guidance, we align ourselves with the flow of life. We stop relying solely on our five senses to navigate the world, and we open ourselves up to something more — whether that’s the voice of the divine or the quiet wisdom of our own minds. In doing so, we experience life with greater ease, clarity, and purpose.
Trusting Your Multisensory Self
Becoming a multisensory human is about more than just tuning into your intuition — it’s about recognizing that life can be navigated with more grace and ease when we’re in alignment with the flow of life. Whether you’re catching a wave in the ocean or navigating a difficult decision, remember that there’s always a channel — a path of least resistance — that’s waiting to guide you.
All you need to do is listen.
