If you were to take gold samples into a laboratory and analyze them repeatedly, they would prove to be gold, every time. Maybe they will reveal varying grades of purity, but the elements that make them up will be the same. Like all minerals, gold exists in a fixed state. It can be melted down, yet essentially, it does not change. In contrast, if you take extrasensory perception, faith healing, certain medical diagnoses, and the rulings of judges and juries and subject them to scientific scrutiny, they will almost always fail to be provable. Does this make these unreal or without practical use? Hardly.

God made the material world in such a manner that it is mostly predictable. We can use wood and brick to build a house, for instance, without worrying whether it will turn to jelly. In contrast, the mental and emotional world of human beings is far less dependable. We are susceptible to fear, self doubt, and chemical imbalances in the brain; which is why no one, save for an actual prophet, is 100% accurate in his or her intuitive perceptions. Unless it is purely the product of divine inspiration, human intuition is imperfect. Just as sight, smell, hearing, touch, and taste are sometimes impaired, so also can the sixth sense be flawed.

Almost every evaluation and judgment that is rendered by a human being is subject to error. The best doctors can deliver incorrect diagnoses and prognoses, the most unbiased of jurors sometimes let the guilty go free, and even seasoned judges put the innocent in jail; not because they are careless or unqualified, but because they are imperfect. In this respect, I am no different. Despite my best efforts, I, too, make mistakes.

As a teenager, I asked my spiritual mentor, Mary Frances Whittaker, about making errors in extrasensory perception. I will never forget her words: "Boy, it don't matter if you're wrong or right, hit or don't hit, heal or don't heal, help or don't help, as long as you expose people to love. That's all that matters." While her admonition still guides me today, over the years, I have learned that, with time and experience, each of us can learn to better discern and utilize his or her intuitive abilities, for we all possess them. Were she alive today, I know that Mary Frances would agree when I say that prayer and practice are the best means to gain a heightened awareness of the sixth sense and all of its most positive uses.