I believe everyone has a sixth sense, but it is often undeveloped, stagnant, and repressed due to the culture we are living in. Children often have glimpses of this ability, but when they attempt to share the information with adults, it is passed off as fantasy and imagination. They are told to get real and grow up. Does growing up mean shutting off this sense? Too often it does.
I propose that we help encourage this ability in our children and in ourselves. Parents have an excellent opportunity to help their children develop strong sixth sense, intuition, and spiritual selves. Some methods of doing this are via meditation which can be done as a family or individually , keeping and sharing dream journals, and doing guided imageries. It can be fun to create and direct guided imageries for each other. As you learn about various metaphysical things you can share this information with your children, who will probably be less harsh critics and more open-minded than the average adult. For instance, many kids like cards and will enjoy looking at tarot cards with you. They might even want to make their own personal deck that will be even more meaningful to them. Many kids like rocks and minerals and would enjoy exploring crystals with you. They might even have a lot to tell you about the chemical formations and crystalline structure of them - and if they don't, you can take this opportunity to explore and study that together, too!
When I refer to spirituality I am not referring to any specific religion, and religion is not particularly what I mean by Inner Advancement. Nevertheless, a family's religious education and beliefs is clearly one method for developing personal and familial spirituality, ethics, and morals.
Educators can help by encouraging children to use their imaginations
daily and encouraging positive thinking. You can take your students
on Imaginary Field Trips, which just means group guided imageries. I
think it might also be called Directed Daydreaming. To do this, just
have the students sit quietly or lie down on the floor if there is
room, play some soft music and dim or shut off the lights, and tell
them a story--
Ie. "Imagine you are walking down a path along
a river. You see an animal cross your path. You make a mental note of
what kind of animal it is and take a mental photograph. You continue
down the path.."
When the story is over, you can have them
write about their trip or draw their mental photographs. Then ask them
to share their impressions and memories with the group if they feel
comfortable. With practice, their imaginations will improve. You can
have the students write their own Imaginary Field Trips and select
your favorites to use with the class. Adding relaxation exercises to
the beginning of this exercise is a skill they will be able to use to
calm anger and frustration and center their focus to become better
creative writers and thinkers.
Other activities might include meditation, direct intuition training, study of chakras, peaceful warrior concepts, direct ESP games and training, and keeping dream journals.
I recognize this is a somewhat controversial point-of-view. You don't have to agree with me. I don't mind. Everyone is welcome to their own opinions. I do hope that if you do disagree that you won't discount the rest of the information on this website. I have a MA in educational psychology specializing in education of the gifted and 13 years experience in gifted education.