I shall dare propose another method here, which might disagree with John's proposed method but that's just my personal experience.

I have to agree with your friend who validates his ideas by which ones actually feel right for him. The only thing I have found that I can trust is my feelings and emotions about any subject. The reason for this is that everybody has their own agenda and have their own opinions and this has sometimes led me to a decision making point where I am asking myself, right I have these x number of people telling me these x different things and I think they are all worthy of my trust but who do I listen to. Should I go ahead and do it the way I feel inspired to do it?

At different points in my life, I have experienced hard times when I haven't listened to my feelings. Without a doubt, the best things that I have experienced and my greatest achievements in life have been when I have been inpired to do those things and they felt right. I have now learned to trust my feelings and emotions about all subjects although I have to say it is not easy to practice this concept all the time. I am still trying to master it and live by the moto 'If it does not feel like hell yeah...then it's hell no...'. In case my moto did not make sense, I mean I want to achieve a point where I will only do things if I feel an inspiration or a strong inclination to do it.

It is when our feelings get distorted or we discard them thet we usually get in trouble.

Our emotions are our compass needle with point us in the right dirrection.

If you belive (like me) that their is our physical body with our physical brain and our mind and their is our Higher Self, which is the one who orchestrates all the events in our lives so we don't get "of corse" in our life.

The physical brain is not DESIGNED to access the future. It's purpose is to know and anazyle how something is HAPPENING or has HAPPENED. It's not in his "function" to assest how something WILL HAPPEN. That is our Higher Selfs' job.

Let's use an analogy that our mind wonders in the valley and sees only 10 meters ahaed of him. Well our Higher Self is up their on the mountain top and it can see clearly the road we are taking.

Well only seeing 10 meters ahead the road might seem fine, but from a broder perspective (Higher Mind's) in 100 meters the bridge might be out.

So the Higher Self communicates to you by feelings and emotions (always in your dream states). Using symbology, feelings he can push you in the right direction.

Of course we were thought to believe that our surface mind has to know everything so we overheat it by making it think over and over again about things that haven;t yet happened. It's not it job! Stop doing it! Instead start relying on your emotions and feelings.

I had countless axapmles of when not listening to my emotions didn;t pay of and lots when they actually did.

So just relax your mind and comunicate to it that it doesn;t have to do all the work by itself.

One of the ways of assesing if your emotions are genuine and if your ideas are goos is to write them down and put them aside for a week. Then after a week if you look at the same idea and it still feels good and worth pursuing, DO IT!

Another thing is that people more often than not attach so much expectaion on a certain task, that if they follow their feelings and then don;t get what they expected, they assume it's wrong.

The thing is the feeling mightev been their just to push you in the right direction and getting the thing itself wasn't the goal at all. The trick is to TRUST your feelings and your Higher Self. Delibarate long and hard at a problem but after you make a decision STICK to it. Trust that it's their to serve you and you will have a positive outcome no matter what.

I think about it and try to examine the idea from all angles, weigh up the odds and see how I feel about it. I usually do some research but, at the end of the day it's all about how it feels. If it feels right and I get excited about it, I do it. If it doesn't feel right, nothing will make me do it. And yes, I am a pragmatic person too.

What if the person within our own consciousness is the same person encountered by everybody else within themselves. In other words, the "I am" that is within me is the same "I am" that is within everyone else (not on the surface but becomes so as we travel deeper within ourselves).

If this is the case, then when you depend on advice from many others, because you are not trusting your inner souce of guidance, you are essentially asking for advice from a different point of reference of yourself (the other person). But where do these other people go to find the answer to your question? They search for an answer within themselves, which is in a way second hand information from the source that you know as "Myself".

So seeking advice from everybody else is very valuable in arriving at a point of understanding & a point of reference. but ultimately the decision should be made from how it feels within. This accomplishes two things. First you learn to trust the inner guidance. But second and the most important one, you take responsibility for your own decisions & don't blame another if it doesn't work out.

I truthfully don't know yet. If I found out or have an better idea or have gather more information than I will let you know.

Just some quick thinking I would say if your reality you were manifesting with your thoughts and speaking came into existance or into the physical than you would know, right. Remember keep doubt out even if it takes a while. Get back with you later.