This "psychic" business comes up over and over again. And I just had a conversation with my friend Dario about it. I wanted to know if there were two kinds of psychic experiences: the Ni psychic experience, and the Ne psychic experience. Because I didn't know how else to explain it anymore.
And he told me the coolest thing!
"Ni is 6th for INFP. I really believe, from
observation, that the 6th
function is the 'doorway to wisdom' for each type. It's the
ancient
Chinese martial arts master that we hate at first (a senex/witch), who's
mean to us, but eventually through training we come to see the truth of
it. So for INFP, Ni IS their doorway to wisdom, and it's a mystical
one!"
~gasp!~
Now INFJs don't usually experience Ni as "mystical." We experience it as a normal way of being -- because it is our "heroic" function, we use it in a very active way, as a familiar and trusted "tool." We are often puzzled when others describe having "mystical" experiences, because our archetypal use of Ni is vastly different. (This is where you'll want to go back and try to understand the John Beebe archetypes section.)
When Keirsey describes his INFJ wife's use of Ni, *he* portrays her use as being quite mystical. I wonder if that accurately mirrors her own experience of using Ni, or if using Ni seemed perfectly normal to her. For Keirsey, Ni would also be the 6th function, so perhaps he was reflecting some of his own experience with that portrayal.
It seems Dario's explanation could go a long way toward reconciling the Ni/Ne "mystical" conflict. Whatcha think?
And oh yeah.... the INFJ's 6th function -- their doorway to wisdom -- would be introverted Feeling. (How's that for type justice?)
