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Throughout the series we're chatting about all things intuition. What it is, how people connect with it, and how it can be so much more than we often have let ourselves believe. We’ll dive deep into insights, lived experiences, and share findings from a research project interviewing over 50 highly intuitive mediums and empaths from around the world. Join along to follow the insights from these conversations with doctors, nurses, therapists, CPAs, healers, and everything in-between as they shared their journeys connecting with their intuitive abilities. Let’s dive in! Learn more about the research & stay connected at Intuitivebynature.com/podcast
Hello, and welcome to the Intuitive by Nature podcast. I'm Bonnie Castamacima, and it's incredible being here with you. In this series, Celeste Page Sample and I are gonna be chatting about all things intuition. What it is, how people connect with it, and how it can be so much more than we've often let ourselves believe.
Bonnie Casamassima:Welcome back, everybody. We are so excited to jump into today's episode. We're gonna be talking all about community. This is one of the big findings we found in the research. Celeste, I'm so excited to jump in today.
Bonnie Casamassima:How are you doing?
Celeste Paige Sample:I'm doing great, Bonnie, as always. I'm excited to be here in community with you.
Bonnie Casamassima:Likewise.
Celeste Paige Sample:So in today's episode, the key theme we're going to focus on is societal and self acceptance. We're vital for intuitive abilities to flourish. And if you've been following along with us, then you know that in episode 3, we really focus on self acceptance and that part of the journey. Today, we want to slow down and talk about societal and that part of the journey where we really gained an understanding of how intuitive abilities can be amplified when connection is fostered through community.
Bonnie Casamassima:I know one of the things we found with this is community was really, really complicated to unpack in the research.
Celeste Paige Sample:Definitely.
Bonnie Casamassima:Yeah. Right? I remember us going back and forth and diving in. So just to set the context of it, right, it these were open ended questions that we had of people asking them about their journey, connecting with their intuition as a reminder and callback of the process that we talked about in episode 1. And people can answer any way they wanted.
Bonnie Casamassima:And out of the 50 participants, 41 people answered and talked specifically around community. So again, they were open ended questions, not focused on community, but so many people talked about it. And it wasn't always black and white. Right? There was a lot of room for what we like to call the gooey.
Bonnie Casamassima:Right? The middle, the, kind of here and there ness of it. For some people, they talked about a community being one of their biggest supports on their journey, connecting with their intuition. And others talked about certain communities were actually a really big hindrance for them in their journey with their intuition. So I know we're gonna dive into this.
Bonnie Casamassima:That's what we're really uncovering and unpacking. Celeste, would you start with defining what community is?
Celeste Paige Sample:As you said, Bonnie, we really could have done a whole series about community. Like you said, from the support into the hindrance, but also just defining community. Literally, like, what is it? Right? Webster's dictionary defines community as a group of people living in the same place or have a particular characteristic in common.
Celeste Paige Sample:So in the research, people shared about their communities being groups like their family, their friend group, or, you know, the family friend groups, religious based groups and also mentorships. So educational spaces, all those places where you can have a group of people that have some type of characteristic in common.
Bonnie Casamassima:Even just seeing the different ways in which people talked about community and the different frameworks around it, you know, from family to friend groups to religious groups, etcetera. It's a lot to unpack. So let's go ahead and dive deeper into what was supportive for people within community. And then we'll flip that and talk about the hindrances as well. I pulled a few quotes around this just to really anchor in the details And I'll go ahead and read one here.
Bonnie Casamassima:The first one is quotes. Had you told me how much healing would happen in a few months in community, I might not have believed it. End quotes. Another person shared, quotes, Meeting other highly sensitive intuitive empaths in community has been very powerful. Celeste, I'm curious.
Bonnie Casamassima:Are there ones that really stood out to you when we're looking at ways in which community was supportive for people?
Celeste Paige Sample:There was a participant that shared, quote, community support pushed process of trusting my feelings faster, end quote. That one really resonated with me personally because I can do a lot of research and study on my own, but I really need that outer acceptance that that outer pro like, the mirror. Right? People are we mirror each other, and community is such a beautiful place to find a mirror where someone can tell you, yeah, you can trust that.
Bonnie Casamassima:Absolutely. You know, it's the same. As a researcher, I really am so used to receiving lots and lots of external information and then see if patterns emerge and then defining what that is. But to have my own personal experiences witnessed and then seen by others in community and then other people sharing theirs can be really powerful in that trusting of my own experiences. It really works in this, almost this, this infinity loop.
Bonnie Casamassima:Right? Yeah. Right? You know, the more that you share your experiences internally, the more that other people witness them, they share theirs, you root in and trust yours even more
Celeste Paige Sample:fully. It
Bonnie Casamassima:can be really beautiful.
Celeste Paige Sample:Yeah. What you're saying, Bonnie, really goes along with this quote from another participant that I wanna read real quick. So they say, quote, being around others in community, having affirmation of experiences happening to me, and then people affirming them to be true for them as well has been very powerful, end quote.
Bonnie Casamassima:You know, Celeste, that really reminds me of one of the research participants, a story that they shared, and I'll paraphrase here because I don't have the direct direct quotes. But they were talking about an experience where someone at work came up to them, and they didn't always talk about their intuition or their abilities at work. And this person that was a coworker, out of the blue, walks up to them and says, Hey, have you ever heard of the word empath? And does that mean anything to you? And I remember the research participant shared that their whole body just lit up and they got excited and they had their hand in their pocket at the time and they pulled out a stone and they said, absolutely.
Bonnie Casamassima:It's like, I really resonate with that. I can be really sensitive to stressful environments or energy around me. And the person was talking about, you know, keeping their conversation really neutral, kind of higher level. And then as they were talking, they noticed that they had taken the stone out of their pocket and had it in their hand just in conversation. And then the coworker that came up to them reached into their pocket and had another stone and said, do you have a worry stone as well?
Bonnie Casamassima:And it was such a beautiful human connection moment. And then that led to this conversation around their enjoyment of crystals and then that led to conversations around energy connection and it led to them both really connecting as empaths in this environment that maybe they wouldn't have done previously, but they both felt really safe in that community connection in an environment that was more, you know, this corporate setting created this really nice sense of safety and connection with them. So I thought it was such a beautiful experience that really ties into when people talked about community being really supportive. Mhmm. It it feels that the essence of that story.
Celeste Paige Sample:Yeah. It really does. And I really like the the depths of community that that story also echoes, you know, that they these two people found a subcommunity within their work community. Right? And how that can deepen their their journeys individually.
Celeste Paige Sample:That also reminds me that another participant said, quote, having mentor and friends let me practice was supportive, end quote. That thought in the story you just told, emphasize community and how it can be super subtle, but so powerful. And they also give us a little window, a little nugget into next week when we talk about practices.
Bonnie Casamassima:Cliffhanger. Join us again next week to learn more on that one.
Celeste Paige Sample:Yes. In all our episodes, we really do give you guys we share with you all quotes from our participants. And one of the reasons we do that because it is qualitative, data. Right? And we're trying to show you how we get to the essence of things, because it like the last story, it's a little bit of this and a little bit of that and really teasing out the information.
Celeste Paige Sample:So in the spirit of that, when we talk about hindrances, that can sound kind of harsh, and we but we wanna respect those moments that were less desirable. Right? And one way we talked about that was there being missed connections or moments of misconnection within groups. So one person shared with us, quote, my family and my husband don't get it because I know how to act like I'm not a highly sensitive person, end quote.
Bonnie Casamassima:Yeah. Absolutely. And really honoring the depth of people's experiences with this share. I know that's the ultimate goal that we have with this podcast share is really honoring these sacred experiences of people and the humanity in all of it, and that very rarely is it all one or the other. So holding space for that range.
Bonnie Casamassima:Yeah. Building on the misconnections, this one really stood out to me, and I feel like it reflected a number of people's shares when they talked about community or those misconnections being a hindrance. It goes, quote, As a child, it was normal to me. I connect very closely with nature and animals. I was very quiet and kept what was going on to myself.
Bonnie Casamassima:It was not supported by my surroundings and family. And around my early teens, I shut everything down. End quotes.
Celeste Paige Sample:Yeah. That's a hard one. Definitely makes you feel a lot of things. Another participant shared, quote, culture made me feel alone, end quote. And it's so simple, but for me, it's those very simple statements that really everything that are so profound because that culture made me feel alone.
Celeste Paige Sample:That could be like any culture. Right? Religious culture, our societal culture. And you think about those 10 years that this other participant talked about, the early teen years shutting it down. You think about high school culture, Like, there's so many places in culture where you really couldn't feel alone if you don't have the words to talk about these things or you don't feel safe Mhmm.
Celeste Paige Sample:To share.
Bonnie Casamassima:We wanna hold so much space for the range of experiences people had. And there's one that I'll share and I wanna apologize in advance if this is something that's a little bit heavier for people and, you know, share a potential trigger warning for people. Quote, My partner threatened to take away my kids due to not understanding my abilities, end quotes. I can't imagine having to go through that type of experience with the person later sharing. Like, this felt so true for me.
Bonnie Casamassima:It felt so real for me. And it all worked out for them in the end. But in the middle of their process, this is something that they were, working with with those misconnections.
Celeste Paige Sample:Right. That that's the thought. I'm I'm glad that story had a happy ending, but honestly, just the thought of that. And when you really think about it, it's like so many people probably face very similar challenges of being put in positions where they feel like they have to choose themselves or someone else or, you know, neglect themselves for the sake of the whole or whatever it is. But that that comparison of, you know, am I allowed to choose myself because of my society?
Bonnie Casamassima:Yeah. Absolutely. I'll read one more example of people's experience where community was a hindrance. They said, quote, I had an angelic experience at age 5. My family told me to keep it to myself, life.
Bonnie Casamassima:Connection with their intuition was just normal in childhood. It just was. It wasn't anything that they had to learn. It just was. And many people shared in childhood that they had these misconnections and that led to them shutting down with it.
Bonnie Casamassima:So it's really powerful, really powerful.
Celeste Paige Sample:Yeah. And and all in all, these hindrances happened when participants were in the wrong communities. They found themselves in the wrong communities altogether, or they were in communities that weren't supportive to them.
Bonnie Casamassima:So we've shared some experiences where community was supportive for people and also where there were these misconnections or these hindrances. Let's talk a little bit about what we found in the research to be some of those key differences between the 2. I'll kick it off. One of the biggest things we saw was when there was curiosity versus judgment. When people share their experiences and were met with a state of curiosity versus judgment, that tended to be really supportive and not only creating a personal connection between the person sharing and the person witnessing, but also in the embodiment of the truth of these abilities for people.
Celeste Paige Sample:Agreed. And when I think about curiosity versus judgment, I think that goes back to the conversation about people mirroring how we mirror each other. When you are coming from a place of curiosity, that marrying can be informative. When when it's not curiosity, when it's judgment, then it's definitely more of an experience of projecting where someone is telling you, oh, well, you it you should be doing this and you shouldn't be doing that. And you really see how their fears are projected onto you and and create those hindrances, create those misconnections.
Bonnie Casamassima:That was another key finding that we found with what were the differences between these supportive communities or misconnections or hindrances. It was very safe for a person to express their own experience, regardless if it was the same as someone else's experience in the community. And then the third and final one is that support led to a deepening of the trust of their inner self. So again, it was looking at that cyclical relationship when people were witnessed in curiosity versus judgment, when it was safe for them to share their experiences, even if it was different than other people's experiences. They felt very supported.
Bonnie Casamassima:And that led to that deepening of their own inner trust, which then created a ripple effect for creating safety for others around them with it. It was really beautiful to see those findings. With all of this, we really wanna make sure that we're honoring our process. Everybody's experience might be unique. So really honor your process, create space for yourself and each other regardless of what that is, and keep following what resonates for you and supporting what resonates for others around you.
Celeste Paige Sample:I love that. And ultimately, the research found that intuitive abilities were amplified when there was supportive community, and that is to say both fellowship and connection, and a safe place to communicate experiences.
Bonnie Casamassima:Absolutely. I feel like this quote that someone shared really synthesizes what you just talked about, Celeste. And it says, quotes, the more community normalizes, the more people are comfortable opening up about it, end quotes. And I can completely resonate with that with my own experience, you know, coming from the academic world and being a very analytical researcher and professor, I didn't talk about this with anybody in that world. And it wasn't really until I, in my own journey, you know, started connecting with friends who are connected with their intuition, that I started realizing that these abilities and experiences were, were normalized and then amplified in the process.
Celeste Paige Sample:Yeah. And that amplification can be so much fun. Right? It really can be. Yeah.
Celeste Paige Sample:And it was subtle things for me. Like, I literally walked into a room, once recently and the energy that I literally was just amplified because of the other people that were in that space, because of the intention. Everyone came to that space with the intention to connect, and so when I walked in, like, I felt that. I felt my intuition and all that just completely amplifying. I was like, this is cool.
Bonnie Casamassima:Right. Yeah.
Celeste Paige Sample:It's like, I want more of this. Yeah.
Bonnie Casamassima:Well, what is this and how do I subscribe to more of it? Exactly.
Celeste Paige Sample:This is so yummy. Does this come from me?
Bonnie Casamassima:Oh my gosh. This is amazing. It can also be very terrifying if we don't have that framework, you know, like walking into spaces where it's almost overwhelming. Like, it's almost like you feel, for me at least, least, you know, it feels like you're, like, walking through this, like, really thick fog in a room. Yeah.
Bonnie Casamassima:Or, like, sometimes you almost, like, hit a brick wall. Right? Or on the flip side, like you're talking about, where it almost feels like there's a weightlessness to the room, and it's almost like there's you feel very spacious in in the environment. Yeah. Yeah.
Bonnie Casamassima:So having a framework and being around each other in community can be so powerful, so powerful when it's a supportive community. Right?
Celeste Paige Sample:Yes.
Bonnie Casamassima:So, in closing, we're really curious. Do you, the listeners listening and joining along, have an experience where community was detrimental or a support for you in your intuition experience. We'd really love to know and continue to learn from each other. So shoot us a note at podcast at intuitivebynature.com or leave a comment wherever you are listening to this podcast today. It's so incredible being with you along this journey as we unpack this rich data.
Bonnie Casamassima:In the meantime, keep being your USU, and goodbye for now.
Celeste Paige Sample:Toodles.