Wednesday 5 May 2010

intuition

i sometimes hear people talk about intuition and there is always some discussion of how intuitive the participants are. it fascinates me, this assertion that somebody is or is not intuitive. i wonder how we decide. if i have some very strong and accurate intuitive moments does that qualify me to be called intuitive? or do i need lots of them? does my insight need to be accurate or do we judge intuition just by it's existence?
i have never been confident about saying i am intuitive but i know that i can gather small bits of information and assemble them into a useful whole. and i know that i can do that with some accuracy.
the people i was talking with today told me they can get a sense of a person they have just met in a matter of minutes, whereas i try to reserve judgement. i suppose i like to see my intuitive judgements confirmed by fact before i rely on them.
as the conversation carried on these people described their intuitive powers as being related to pre-empting and to questioning motivations or events. this was a bit of an "a ha" moment for me. i take most things at face value. i don't question things that happen around me unless i have information which leads me to question. time after time i trust. i trust people, i trust the universe. i know that bad things happen but i tend not to anticipate them. i'm built that way and i couldn't change it but i don't think i would want to. i don't have the energy for imagining bad scenarios, i don't have the energy to put plans in place for those bad scenarios, i don't want to be robbed of life while i worry.
i mused over all of this and i wondered whether intuition is just a highly evolved fear so i was interested to find this definition in wiki:

A form of psychic radar employed in an attempt to ‘feel’ out the other situation or person. It usually involves relying on one’s own fear-based interpretations based on past emotional pains or assumed future pains. It is held in higher esteem than an accurate common-sensical appraisal of the facts as perceived by the physical senses.~ Actualism[23]

my friends told me that they don't see me as intuitive and maybe they are right. i don't usually see things through a prism of fear and i usually know what information i have used and what logical processes i have gone through to reach my conclusions.
i expect that i will muse on the phenomenon of intuiton for most of my days, it's an interesting subject. i will also always have a little ironic grin when i think about the day when "intuition" told me that maybe it's less magical than we think.

19 comments:

  1. I knew you were going to write this post.

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  2. I didn't know you were going to write this post. What does that say about me?

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  3. it says that bob is a smart alec.

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  4. I wouldn't say intuition is based on fear. I think it's just a supposed unconscious awareness of something the conscious mind is ignorant of. Like an intuition that a friend is about to ring you.

    But I think "intuition" isn't as irrational as it seems. I think it's a mixture of past experience, shrewd guesswork and little details you've perceived without realising. Like the fact that your friend tends to ring about 9am.

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  5. nick,
    the science says that intuition is a product of our experience, it's just that we cant access the memories which created it.

    and no, i wouldnt say intuition was usually based on fear but that was part of the message i got as i listened to a couple of self proclaimed intuitive women, not that they used the word fear.....

    blech! thats cumbersome.....

    anyway, i'm agreeing with you

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  6. kylies bolg of men, my intution tells me that you are a very good person with much finesse and moxy, and will go far in life as long as you get a jop where you are off your feet{just teasing i went back and re read the blog on professions}and i agree bob is a smart alex or alec

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  7. "....it's just that we can't access the memories which created it." That sounds absolutely right.

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  8. "it says that bob is a smart alec."

    Yep.

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  9. putz,
    it's not intuition thats telling you about my finesse and moxy because that is all hard fact! you probably cant access the memories that tell you that because it was a past life, given that we have just met :)

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  10. Intuition could be a collection of subconscious observation,as Nick comments. It is I believe also tied to one's predispositions. Detectives get a "hunch" and solve a crime, mathematicians use a creative logic from deep subconscious musings over years. Inventors solve problems using a great deal of collected experience,usually of a technological nature and assembling what seems unrelated phenomena. Necessity is mother of invention.

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  11. People constantly surprise me.

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  12. Kia ora Kylie,
    I agree with you, and would rather accept people at their face value until their actions prove them to be someone not worth involving myself with. This seems to get much easier as I get older and more comfortable with my own company or the few real friends I have gathered around me. It means that letting someone "new" in is based on experience and reality, not "intuition". Even in the wild the intuition or gut feelings that many people claim to have for me is most often based on having encountered such conditions before and having a "feeling" based again on prior experience rather than some intuitive guidance. Sorry for the ramble but thats my story and I am sticking to it. Have a great weekend.
    Kia kaha.
    Aroha,
    Robb

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  13. robb,
    au contraire! thanks for the ramble, i had lost confidence on this post......

    have a great weekend
    k

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  14. I have read this post twice now. Interesting. Very interesting! I hone in on people and get a good vibe or not.
    I have nailed more "bad people" in my job than all but one of my co-workers. We share the same "thing". We totally have different beliefs but share the same "thing". So what's that called?! I think people subscribe to the "know/don't know/wouldn't know if I tried" camps.
    I just ate almost a whole box of Gingersnaps. People who know me would know that.
    I think you are totally like my dad. Exactly. You totally know. You totally know but refuse to pass judment on people hoping they choose to redeem themselves. But then again I probably told you something you already know.
    Crazy, eh? Maybe. Stuffed? Yes!

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  15. I think of intuition as a gut feeling. After many years of nursing, I quite often get an intuitive feeling about a patient's injury and how it will heal. As to other things, I'm often quite clueless.

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  16. mollie,
    yes, i do get an idea of what folks are like and when the idea is not so good i do always hope i'm wrong!

    a box of ginger snaps! oh wow!

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  17. nana jo,
    if you were asked why you felt that way about a patient, could you give reasons?

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  18. "the people i was talking with today told me they can get a sense of a person they have just met in a matter of minutes"

    And, having formed a hasty impression, they go on to look for everything that might validate it while denying anything that might portray the person in a different light. Hence, my mistrust of people who pride themselves on their intuition. They like to put people in boxes from which they will admit no escape.

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