Originally Posted by
LaTeeDa 
I do believe that gut instinct always steers you right. I believe it is the higher self looking out for me in ways I don't always understand or heed. The biggest problem I have is the ability to discern the gut instinct. The parts of me that are conditioned by culture, bias, etc., are generally not my gut instinct, but something else pretending to be it--such as my ego. I also have to try and sort out the committee of voices that try to pretend to be the gut instinct as well (mom, dad, that harsh grade-school teacher, my ex-husband, the person who once told me my forehead was abnormally large, etc.) So, my ongoing challenge is to learn what is my higher self, and what is not. I don't expect to ever completely master it, but getting it right more and more often is what I'm trying for.
L
This is exactly what I think, although I can only speak to, and from, my own experience. My gut instinct does steer me in the best direction that it is possible for me to go... always. It isn't omniscient, it doesn't always make objective sense, and it doesn't have something to say about every situation, but it is, absolutely, the best I've got. Like LTD, the more I listen to it, the more clearly I can discern it from the host of impulses competing with it.
To me, life is like one of those 3-D computer generated images that look like a chaotic jumble of colors and shapes swirled at random. If you relax your eyes just right, the image emerges from all that, but you have to learn to look at them with your eyes unfocused... just so, and then you see what's in the picture. Gut instinct is the tool that allows me to do that.
But, I've come to realize that not everyone experiences this.