Customer Reviews

Intuition: Knowing Beyond Logic

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I thought I would mention that it has been over 5 years since I first read this book, since that would likely be relevant to those reading this review. But I know that the transformation I experienced from reading this book, and my gratefulness for it, will be with me forever.

This book was my first introduction to Osho. A freshman in college at the time, I was in the midst of a serious spiritual exploration. I had recently read a number of books from the Conversations With God series, which are amazing, but which were ironically acting as a sort of dogma for me. I went around preaching the lessons from those books (overtly or otherwise) and was totally convinced that I was on the spiritual path that was right for me -- and even, dare I say, that I had at least some of the "answers." But there was something about those books that bothered me -- if having a conversation with God was something we were all supposed to be able to experience, why wasn't I experiencing it, and why didn't I feel the books were helping me to do so (in spite of their insistence that this was possible)?

I had no idea that I had become closed-minded, and that Conversations With God was serving as a religion for me--one that taught love and moved far beyond conventional religion--but a religion that was nonetheless limiting.

This book blew me away. After reading it cover to cover, I realized what truth is really about. Our ideas about what truth is, our prior beliefs, the entirety of what our culture teaches us about spirituality--are all irrelevant if they are not grounded in actual awareness and experience. This "idea" is much harder to grasp than it seems. I don't think anything else at the time could have managed to break me out of my way of thinking. I thought I was open to any and all spiritual ideas. It was only Osho who truly opened my mind, heart, and being. If you organize your life around a set of intellectual beliefs, however uplifting, this book will set you free and put you back in touch with your heart, and your intuition.

One reviewer said she thought this book was awful because she was struggling with her faith, and the book only made her doubts greater. But that is the whole point of Osho--to make you question everything until you are truly free to see the truth for yourself, without all of that so-called "knowledge" from the past clouding your vision.

To be more specific, this book changed my life in part because it made me realize that my real passion is music. So, instead of continuing to move in the direction of a career in web development, where music would have been relegated to just a hobby, I switched my major to a degree that also included music, and now I am enrolled in a masters program in music composition. I will always be grateful for Osho, who I feel pushed me in this direction at a young age, rather than just being another person who sacrificed his dreams for the sake of practical and monetary concerns. Anyone who wants to live their dreams more fully would benefit from reading this book.

More importantly, this book opened me up to the whole world of Osho, which is truly vast--I am sure there is a gem for everyone somewhere in his works. I have to issue a caveat--you should be careful not to read Osho too literally. The important thing is the message.

In spite of (or perhaps because of) being a book about moving beyond the intellect, "Intuition" revolutionized my whole way of thinking. I have come to the point where I don't even believe anything that Osho says unless it rings true in my own experience--and that is really saying something.

We live in a world where people will hate--or even kill--as a result of a belief that is not even authentically their own; one that they learned from a book, or from their religion or culture (atheists are not excluded from this, by the way). I now see the world more clearly than ever before. And on every level, Osho has helped put me in contact with a much deeper wisdom within myself than I had ever known before--my own.

It is for this wisdom that I am truly grateful.

To have intuition you have to move into a higher level of consciousness and sensitivity. Otherwise, if you are half-sleep as the mayority of people are, it is impossible to understand intuition. Osho is very clear stating that intuition is not an intellectual pursuit or intellectual analysis made with your mind. You have to move beyond the mind, to the "witnessing consciusness" to contact a higher dimension. You cannot buy a book on intuition and expect to have it after you finish reading it. We in the West want everyting ready-made instant coffee. Intuition does not work that way. Osho tells us like it is and I am sorry if somebody is hurt.

I have read Osho books back to back and am amazed that his teachings never overlap - his thoughts are fresh - his message clearly stated. I find it very difficult to stop reading Osho.

This is one of my favorite Osho books. There are modern day best sellers out there like the relatively new book BLINK that touch on similar concepts of learning how to use your "hunch". But this book was written long before that, and I believe more concisely and bluntly challenges the way we sometimes think. I like his stories on why many of us fail to get in touch with our power of intuition and his suggestions on what we can do to connect with this ability.

I'm still balancing the art of when to use my intuition and when to use my logic. But I've learned to pay close attention to those random moments when I felt a hunch or just had a strong feeling about something. I hope to be in closer touch with my power of intuition, but I also know, that immaturely following the path of intuition can also lead you astray, as you are then controlled by potentially your ego or your fear or your desire, which can disguise themselves as intuition.

So it's a journey, and I'm glad that Osho was able to shed some light on this ancient art of "knowing" which seems to have been repressed in our modern world. I am still on my journey, but I believe books like this help me move forward in the direction of finding that authentic guide within me.

The basic message of this book is that the most creative output arises out of intuition as against constructing it using a logical knife and applying deductive reasoning. It's more of a Romanticism vs Rationalism argument in a black and white manner with seemingly nothing in between. Yes, intuition is the core, the nucleus, the higher state and this was known to the creative people of all ages i.e. from the Rishis (who composed the Veda and the Gita) to Einstein who said "The only real valuable thing is intuition" to the creative people of our own age. But the idea/thought that arises out of intuition subsequently need to be followed by a deductive apparatus to take it to its culmination (or, perhaps, the notion of culmination is irrelevant?)

What OSHO does here is to make everyone aware of the power of intuition in a lucid manner. The problem with this book, however, is that it is pretty repetitive.

Many of us have been taught not to trust our own powers of discernment. If we did, our powers of Intuition would be much more accute.

What's "right" according to someone else may not be right for us. We need to retrain ourselves how to "inquire within". OSHO trusted his own insights since he was a child and told his followers to do likewise...even if they were in disagreement with OSHO's!

The Real Voice Of Authority comes from Inside - not outside and I know of no one who asserts this fact more vehemently than OSHO. He is also very easy to read and has a way of cutting through and dispelling all the bologna that has been conditioned into us by clearly exposing the flaws and falsity of our conditioned beliefs which clouds the Realness of our Essential Nature - a Realness that can be directly recognized once we start trusting in our Intuition.

I can't say in a thousand words what Osho means to me. I would say that Osho is a being that touches the unbelievable.
What you must understand is that Osho talks to a multitude of different kinds of minds and so it is difficult to say which book on him is a good start.
In some readings he explains is approach and methods, in others he just brainwash all your assumptions and false beliefs.
In this book he uncovers the secrets of being born as someone that needs intuition as a way to unlock the confusing tricks of our mind and knowledge.
In other books he talks on intimacy, courage, old religions, traditions and ways of knowledge and plainly explains how to step into the unkown.
And the unkown is not the unknowable, you have to set your mind and your thoughts in a way that whatever you will ever know is mental and cognitive. You are the necessary bondage and the unique reality. And Osho ultimatly makes you think and act for yourself out of inner freedom. You can find it to have more weight or more lightness but the BEING is the same, and his words just make you cool down to abundance.
It makes you think in so many different ways and also gives place to an essence that is not the ego, the false personality produced by external circunstances. In spite of ego he lifts you alone with existence and with your uniqueness and inner freedom.

Celebrate light! Dance with Life!

Fantastic book. I highly recommend it to any spiritual searcher or even just a casual reader.

I just started this book but I have a feeling that I am going to read all of OSHO's books. He is that knowledgeable! I have already had many revelations after only 40 +pages into it.

Osho had a beautifully simple way of expressing what he wanted to say. Even though we do use our intuition we are loathe to acknowledge how significant a role it plays in our lives. We live in a world where the left brain is regarded as god, yet it can only spurt forth facts. Our right brain, our limbic brain and our prefrontal lobe have far more to offer that is of value if only we give them the space to be heard. Osho weaves lovely funny stories in amongst his book that helps illustrate what he is wanting us to understand. Wonderful!
Dr. Gunta Krumins-Caldwell author of On Silver Wings