Throughout the spiritual history of humanity visioning and some form of divination like the I Ching have been used to answer the questions raised by individuals at all levels of awareness. In this book rational intuition is the result of combining “the Change”—a simplified new version of the I Ching—with the visioning process to give you a reliable way to capture divine ideas and understand their meaning. Each approach has its advantage and one approach may be better suited for your purpose than the other. The intuitive discernment of answers that only rely on visions takes longer to understand because you need several visions to sort out recurring themes and reach acceptable conclusions. Getting answers to questions that rely on the Change alone are easy to discern but have few vision insights.
In the pages that follow this book makes apparent how you can listen to God directly for enlightenment and guidance when you don’t know what to do, and for assurance that what you are about to do will work out well. In addition to using examples from the lives of real people and situations, the method of rational intuition becomes known through applications to the universal social problems of illegal immigration, underemployment, and fighting terrorism. When viewed from spiritual perspectives, rational intuition greatly enhances how to get, comprehend, and discern God’s ideas.
Visioning and the Change start with the premise that you’re open-minded about what you want, where to go, or what to do, and as such you seek to catch divine ideas for inspiration and answers. Visioning is a form of inner observing that takes place when the conscious mind is quiet. A vision is a "dream" you have while semiconscious, or awake, and focused on listening to the divine. It is a form of thinking without words. Visioning and the Change are methods for listening to the ever-present divine broadcast. As long as you have the desire to receive and follow God’s ideas, you have the right attitude for each method. The answer to the question of how often and how long to do visioning varies from person to person. A good rule of thumb is to do it as often as you can if you need guidance and answers to questions.
Just as biblical authors worked with visioning long before creating the Bible, early creators of the I Ching used it as an oracle to listen to the unconscious long before any religion was established. The development of the Book of Changes or I Ching in Chinese first as a book of divination used mainly by pagans, and then as a book of wisdom, gave birth to Taoism and Confucianism which in turn supported the growth of Buddhism. The Change not only simplifies the I Ching’s use and form but also reinterprets its message in the language of biblical and psychological wisdom. The Change offers an intellectual understanding of visioning, and along with visioning provides a rational understanding of intuition and the experience of oneness. Like the I Ching, the Change answers questions in a way that gives you the feeling of being addressed by a living being in full possession of the thought and facts involved. I have reinterpreted the original meanings of the 64 hexagrams signs given by Chinese philosophers for their circumstances based on the teachings of Jesus and C. G. Jung, which have great relevance for your circumstances.
When your spiritual practice makes use of visioning and the Change you’ll move you toward a life of unity with the Self where no one aspect of personality (ego, persona or shadow) is allowed to dominate in expression at the expense of other aspects. Those who seek to catch and express wisdom from the Self, or God’s ideas, will face many opportunities to manifest the divine and transform their state of being from lesser to greater joy, health and fulfillment.
Properly used, visioning and the Change will help you align your will with the Divine will. This does not mean giving up your ideas and desires at all. It simply means accepting that God has a better way of getting the things you want than you do. In general, you should be skeptical of the things you desire. Before pursuing big things, you should ask yourself if it’s appropriate or beneficial to you. Before spending a lot of energy being attached to the things you want it’s better to spend a little time asking the Divine for its opinion. Is it a good idea or desire to have what I want in the way I want it? If the answer is yes, you can bring it into manifestation with a high probability of success. If the answer is no, you can still push for manifestation even though success may be doubtful.
Central to the visioning process as made popular by Michael Bernard Beckwith, founder of Agape International Spiritual Center, is asking the right questions. Beckwith uses four basic questions for the visioning process, and encourages people to adapt the process for their environment and purposes: “What is God’s idea of itself as my life? What must I become to manifest this vision? What must I release to become this vision? What gifts and talents do I now possess that can be used to serve this vision?”
Visioning and the Change are both concerned with manifesting unity more than with manifesting personal material success, especially if that success is likely to cause difficulties to others or adversely affect our character or peace of mind. Consistent reliance on visioning and the Change for guidance from the divine, regulates the forces of the unconscious, allowing equal expression of all aspects of the whole. In time, you will attain unity the highest degree of peace and personal fulfillment as opposing forces and elements within the whole become reconciled. You can learn this in weeks, months or years and like anything else, practice makes perfect.