In this episode of “5 Minutes,” Dr. Robert Svoboda explores omens and the importance of understanding and interpreting them with discernment.

The example I would like to give you happened to me a few weeks ago. I was sitting in a quiet place performing Homa, fire worship. I had finished perhaps half an hour earlier, so there were some nice hot coals remaining. I was sitting outside, minding my own business, and a question had come into my mind that I was quietly considering.

Suddenly, from the underbrush came what looked like two small green lights. At first, I thought it was a firefly, but it was not flashing. Then I thought it might be a click beetle, but it was not that either. I turned my flashlight toward it and wondered if it was some kind of luminous centipede, but it was not that either.

Later, I discovered that it was a firefly larva. Unlike flying fireflies, these larvae keep their lights on continuously rather than flashing. But at the time, I did not know that. What I did know was that I had been thinking about a question, and suddenly this light appeared and began moving toward me.

The larva circled me three times and wandered around, apparently inspecting the area. Firefly larvae spend much of their lives on the ground, sometimes for weeks or months, and they eat various small creatures. So it was simply looking for food. It came very close to me, and I was amazed because something like this had never happened to me before.

This is where the question of the omen comes in. I had a question, and then this unusual event occurred. When you are trying to use an omen to answer a question, one of the many things you have to remember is the relative magnitude of the question and the omen.

What you do not want to do is have a small question and then receive an extremely impressive omen and assume that the full power of that omen must apply to the question. This experience was impressive because it had never happened to me before, because this small creature came close to me, and because it was something that has not happened again. It was clearly unusual.

But does the unusual quality of the event necessarily extend to the question? That is where judgment and discernment are required. It is one thing to be impressed by an experience, but it is another thing to determine how much of that impression should be applied to the meaning of the omen.

The experience itself is one thing. The omen is another thing.

Sometimes an omen is very direct. You ask a question, and something simple and obvious happens, such as a rock falling from a pile and causing a clear result. That kind of omen is easier to understand.

Sometimes, however, the omen is not so direct. In those situations, you need to allow your mind to become very calm and quiet. You need to create enough inner stillness to evaluate the degree to which the significance of the omen should be connected with the question.

Often, you are simply looking for a yes or no answer. But sometimes the question is more complicated. In this particular case, because I had just completed Homa and my mind was already relatively calm, the unusual nature of the experience allowed me to consider the question with a degree of clarity and discernment that I might not otherwise have had.

This is not something that will happen all the time, just as you may never have a firefly larva come close and inspect you. But messages from nature can appear at any moment.

It is important not to become overwhelmed by the impressiveness of the message when you are trying to understand the answer to your question. You can still appreciate and be amazed by the experience, but the question and the answer require their own careful consideration.