Definition of Intuition

Is there a universal definition of Intuition?

Each person may have his or her own definition of intuition. This brain function is difficult to define—at least with a definition that is recognized universally. According to Sophy Burnham, author of The Art of Intuition, intuition is the subtle knowing without ever having any idea how or why you know it. Intuition is different from thinking, from logic, or analysis. It is a type of knowing without knowing. Scientists believe that intuition is always there, whether or not you are aware of it. An article published in the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine defines intuition as a process by which information that is normally outside the range of cognitive processes is immediately sensed and perceived in the body and mind as certainty of knowledge or feeling about the totality of a thing distant or yet to happen. This experience is very different from the processing of normal awareness that occurs incrementally. Intuition is a sense of the whole all at the same time. It can generate a positive sense of excitement or a negative sense of dread. In working with women who have been date raped, I cannot count the number of times I heard variations on a theme. For example: “When he picked me up, I had this sudden dis-ease about going on this date. Too bad I dismissed the thought.”

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Intuition: Reality or Fantasy

I am fascinated by human intuition. The people I talk with think it is a figment of my imagination. What is your opinion?

 Perhaps because don’t yet come close to understanding the brain and how it functions, it is difficult to define human intuition precisely . Many individuals have had an intuitive flash of insight or gut awareness of something that had not yet occurred—only to have that insight or gut awareness proven later on to be correct. The common belief has been that intuition was primarily a function of the brain or mind. How to explain what has happened, however, is a horse of a different color. There have been studies about intuition. The military launched studies related to the power of intuition, and the staff who made intuitive decisions during combat that ended up saving lives. Add that to a plethora of anecdotal reports, and it appears that intuition is an important factor in human interactions and may form the basis for many everyday decisions—although often unrecognized as such. Even when not discussed, most people have a sense that intuition exists. Reportedly Steve Jobs said that intuition was more powerful than intellect.

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Sensing Intuition

How can you experience intuition?

 You might:

-        -      Have a strong impression that you need to take a specific action immediately

    -        Perceive an internal mental picture about something only to recognize it in reality some later on

-        Mentally ‘hear’ or sense that you need to stop something that you are currently doing

-        Experience a strong physical sense in your body as an aversion toward or an affinity to something or someone

-        Experience a flash of insight or perceive a solution to a problem when you are day-dreaming or doing an unrelated task

-        Dream about something literally or symbolically, in which case you would need to ponder the symbols and sort out what the dream might be trying to tell you.

-        Disregard an impression and later on realized you needed to pay attention to it

 Some suggest that when you dream about people you know, the dream is really about characteristics in those individuals that also apply to you, positive or negative, which gives you the opportunity to evaluate your behaviors and course correct as necessary.

Dreaming & Intuition

Can intuition help you come up with a new idea in a dream?

 ·       According to Encyclopedia Britannica, German chemist August Kekule von Stradonitz (1829–1896) is famous for having clarified the nature of aromatic compounds, which are based on the benzene molecule. He claimed to have had a dream while dozing in which he saw the figure of a snake that seized its own tail in its mouth, giving Kekule the idea for the benzene ring.

 ·       James Dewey Watson, KBE (hon.), an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist and a co-discoverers of the DNA structure, reportedly got the idea from a dream. Reportedly he dreamed of a double sided spiral staircase—which makes sense when you recall that the spiral DNA strands look something like a twisted ladder.

·       According to NOVA, one night Einstein was riding home in a Bern streetcar. Looking back at the famous clock tower that dominated the city, he imagined the streetcar racing away from the clock tower at the speed of light. His ponderings eventually resulted in the theory of relativity (events that were simultaneous in one frame of reference were not necessarily simultaneous in another) and the world's most famous equation, E = mc².

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Location of Intuition

 

Can you help me understand more about intuition? Like, where is it in the brain?

 Intuition can be described as an instinctive sensation about something. Intuition is believed linked with the right frontal lobe. All undamaged human brains are believed to contain the mental faculty of intuition. However, it may be a bit like a sense of humor, which is also linked with the right frontal love. Meaning, that function is present, but it typically needs to be honed. The female brain is believed to have a sixth sense of intuitive knowing because of the global way in which their brains are wired. According to neuroscientist Beatrice de Gelder, PhD, humans all process things that they’re not consciously aware of—it’s a sensation of ‘knowing.’ Because humans are also so dependent on a sense of sight, they are not used to trusting their internal intuitive vision track. Joy Hirsch, PhD, director of the fMRI Research Center at Columbia University Medical Center has been reported as saying, “If you find yourself in a situation where you feel nervous, your brain may have spotted a reason for concern without you even knowing it. Pay attention to the sensation.” It can be life-saving.

Information Inflation

My doctor says my mother (who has Alzheimer’s) is experiencing something called Information Inflation. Can you explain that in plain English?

 According to studies by the National Institute of Health, individuals with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) are more susceptible to certain kinds of memory distortions as compared to healthy older adults. Imagination inflation is a specific type of memory distortion in which people are more likely to falsely remember that an item has been seen or an action has been performed when it has only been imagined in their brain or mind’s eye. For example, the individual may mistakenly believe they took their medications, turned off the stove, locked the door or any number of other actions when in reality, they have only thought about or imagined actually doing these actions.

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Mere Exposure Effect

Why do I tend to do the same things repeatedly instead of branching out and trying something new?

 The Mere Exposure Effect, also described as the Familiarity principle, posits that we tend to develop preferences for things simply because we become familiar with them. The more familiar you are with something, the more likely you are to repeat it. Studies have shown that individuals are more likely to adopt ideas that they are repeatedly exposed to, especially by the media. Sometimes this is a helpful thing—as in developing healthy habits. Sometimes it is an unhelpful thing—repeating old habits instead of an option with which the individuals is initially unfamiliar. Learn to become aware of what you do and ask yourself if this is a good path to continue to follow or it would be better to take a new path and learn new skills.

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