Someone the other day on this blog, an anonymous poster, cheekily suggested that my wife Jennifer had come up with PGS, possibly because she’s so wise and all-knowing. Which she is, that’s true!
But she didn’t come up with PGS. That was me, and it came as a result of something that happened to me several years ago.
My intuition saved my life.
I was in New Orleans working on a movie. I was in early pre-production, but had to return to Los Angeles for a few days, which meant catching the first flight out.
I woke up late, left my hotel in a rush and drove to the airport. It was dark, before dawn, and the roads were empty. I had to drop the rental off before checking in for my flight, and I was worried I’d miss the plane. So I was driving fast.
As I approached an intersection, I heard a “voice” telling me to slow down. I had a green light up ahead and if anything, my inclination was to speed up, to make sure I got through on the green and I didn’t have to wait for a red light.
But this “voice” was insistent. Telling me to slow down. It was very strange. I wasn’t in the habit of hearing voices, particularly not ones giving me driving instructions!
What made it stranger was there were no cars on the road, no traffic at all, nothing to indicate any possible danger. But because this voice, this feeling, was so weird, I slowed down.
As I entered the intersection, a huge eighteen wheeler ran the red on the cross street and hurtled through, missing me by inches.
If I hadn’t slowed down, if I hadn’t listened to that voice, I’d have been killed.Â
I had to pull over, I was so shaken up by what had just happened. And I was confused too. What was that voice? Where did it come from? What just saved my life?
After the movie was completed, I started to research intuition, and I began to read of other instances where “voices” had saved lives. There are many instances on 9/11 – and others too, including the Titanic. And instances where people had attributed an intuitive impulse to a major breakthrough in science, in research, in writing a best seller, in a major sporting achievement, in finding a life partner, in all sorts of things.
And that’s when I came up with the concept of a Personal Guidance System. Something inside us, and outside us, that tries to steer us through life, to enable us to fulfil our life potential, whatever that might be.
I likened this to a GPS in a car – in that we can choose to turn our GPS on or off, we can have it running in the background and ignore it, or we can allow it to guide us to where we wish to go, avoiding roadblocks and obstacles, taking short cuts, taking highways.
Similarly we can choose to listen to our intuition, let it guide us, or we can ignore it.
This blog isn’t the place for me to detail PGS – however if you’re interested, check out:
https://www.facebook.com/pgsthefilm
Anyway, that’s where it came from. This “voice” saved my life. And ever since I’ve wanted to know what it was, and where it came from. And perhaps more importantly, how I can access it readily and incorporate it into my everyday life.
That’s why I wanted to walk the Camino allowing my PGS to guide me. And I’m hoping that in making the film, some of my questions will be answered.
PGS - The Way 
Bill, was that your first experience with your PGS? Do you remember hearing that inner voice when you were a child?
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Hi Sister –
I’ve always been very much led by my intuition. That’s how I met jennifer, and that’s how I’ve taken all the major decisions in my life.
But my parents tell me that I was a “I Can See Dead People” child. As a youngster (and I can’t remember this) when my folks took us driving, evidently I would always be able to predict a graveyard coming up, even in towns I’d never been to before. I was aged about 3-4yrs.
So I’m not sure –
Bill
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Ah Bill, at least you only saw graveyards coming up. I knew that people were going to die…. a horrible burden for a child. Even as a young adult, what a burden. I once confided in a friend and said, if I have this gift, why always death, never anything happy and joyful, I don’t want this. It wasn’t until years later, once I had come to Canada and found someone that could explain. I also was then strong enough to shut those doors… well, until 8 years ago… all that changed again. However, no longer am seeing death and I am so grateful for that.
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Ingrid –
you must have been fun to be around!!
Thank goodness you don’t still have that facility – particularly since a lot of the people you might now be hanging around with are at that particularly vulnerable stage in their lives…
🙂 😀
Bill
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That’s interesting, Bill. I felt it all my life, too. When I was very small, it was about little things, like knowing when a package would come,and what was under the wrapping of Christmas presents without opening them. But by the time I was five my parents stopped taking me to group events, because I always knew who was going to die soon.I guess I was a bit of a social problem quite early on!
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My goodness, Christmas spoiled?!
🙂
But you did, and obviously still do, have a facility. A sensitivity.
A very precious thing, but also burdensome too, I can imagine.
Bill
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Dear Bill, that “voice” is there for everyone. It saved my last Thursday, remember. I think sometimes we just ignore it, because we are so busy and so much is going on in that head of ours. I believe it is the same voice that sometimes gives your promptings, what I mean by that is, you feel like you ought to do something, like pick up the phone and call a person without a reason, to the extreme of changing plane reservations. As a parent, especially mothers, we usually always keep telling our kids to be careful, just as a habit, just like saying hi and bye and other standard things we say. Goes in one ear and out the other. Because of certain sensibilities or “gifts” I have, I was very careful to not overuse telling my kids to be careful. I wanted them to truly listen when I did say it. They knew, to be extra cautious that day. Most often, they would come home and tell me of what happened and that they were lucky not to have been involved, simply by being more aware that day. My family is used to my warnings and so far have been lucky, simple by being more alert. This intuition, inner voice, PGS, sight, prompting – it is powerful. People should tune into that power more readily and not be afraid to exercise its blessings.
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Dear Ingrid,
you are absolutely right. And how clever of you to not misuse the “be careful today” line!
Even to this day, my mother still says it to me. And I see it as an act of love, but it’s lost its potency as a forewarning.
You’ve kept that potency.
But yes, it infers itself into so many areas of our life, and it can help us, should we allow it.
Bill
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Hi Bill,
Cheeky? Touche! 😉 Actually, I only asked who thought up the PGS – you or Jennifer. Most importantly, this concept has been brought to people’s attention – and I like the term Personal Guidance System much better than intuition!
What an incredible experience that was with the voice telling you what to do! I’m so glad you listened! I go with intu, eh, PGS much of the time (but it’s easier when one is a solitary sort), but have not yet heard the voice. Will look forward to that experience – perhaps when I walk the Camino in Sept?
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haha Terry!
I “out” you!
🙂
Not only did the term Personal Guidance System seem to fit my take on all this, but it also allows for various belief systems.
For instance, let’s take a GPS in a car. You can have your navigation data pre-loaded when you buy the device, you can connect it to a website and download it, or you can go wireless and be directly connected to a satellite while you’re driving.
Lets say each of us has a GPS device within us – an “instrument,” if you like. Depending on what you believe, you can believe that instrument has been pre-programmed, or you can believe that you can control the programming, through the equivalent of downloading software updates, or you can believe that the instrument is getting its guidance from some distant celestial source, such as a satellite, or God.
So then you get into such areas as higher self connections, guardian angels, quantum mechanics, the interconnectedness of all energies etc – a panoply of interpretations, according to whether you wish to consider this spiritually, religiously, or empirically.
Personal Guidance System obviates that. It is truly non partisan! Bring to it whatever interpretation you wish, but acknowledge that it works, that it exists, and that it’s there for the betterment of your life, and the lives of those whom you touch.
Bill
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Its important not to misuse that voice, as Ingrid so wisely points out. It can be a powerful feeling to know what will happen, or what someone may be thinking, and that can become dangerous if you use it to control others with your “gifts” Sadly, exactly that happens to a lot of people, and most of us don’t realise how powerful the pull of evil can be. We’ve been trained to think evil is just a concept, or a character in a horror film.The next thing you know, you’ve warned someone not to take the train, and even the best intuitives are sometimes wrong-and catching that train could have led to meeting their soulmate, or someone who needed their help, or could have changed the entire direction of their life.
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So true Sister, there was no way I was going to even utter a word to people as a child. I constantly was admonished by my mother “not to tell stories”. And I really didn’t want to say anything, I just didn’t understand what was happening, it was continuous nightmare – awake.
BILL, I was a riot… 🙂 rebellious and in your face when possible and yes, I am very grateful to not “see” that anymore… considering YOU are getting old now. 😉
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Yes Ingrid,
I was thinking that perhaps it’s best we never meet….!
😀
Bill
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Another cheeky commenter here. I know of another PGS, and like yours, it can be listened to, heeded, ignored – but, unlike yours, it can’t be turned off. It’s an anagram of DOG 😉
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We could well be speaking of the same dog Rachael!
😀
Bill
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I’m not so luck or unlucky (depending on what your take is on the PGS in your life) but I do act when someone pops into my mind, usually over a period of a few days, and when I do contact that person, there’s usually a good reason for my ‘concern’, although I never know whether it’s good or bad news for them, so at least I get spared that! I usually say that they’ve been in my head for a while and ask if there’s a particular reason for that and invariably there is! Mind you it was only after my life changed with a turn for the better, that I had the quietness and capacity to hear that voice, so personal turbulence is not necessarily conducive to ‘hearing’, I guess!
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I see a gleam of the Pre-Camino Bill by wanting “to be credited” with PGS. What does it matter who did what. In part, you have been blessed by having her “energy” around you . Who cares what people think!
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This is not about ownership, this is about genesis.
Bill
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