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There are some things that you just know that you know. We experience reality within our own minds; this phenomenon isn't new to humankind. In fact, our ancestors paid much more heed to the inner knowing that today we call intuition. This inner way of knowing, or intuition, is different from the knowledge gained through experience or from phenomena outside of ourselves.
In the minds of ancient people, there was a clear-cut division between the external stimulus and the internal impression. That is, knowledge that came from inside ourselves was considered of equal importance to knowledge gained through outside sources. As Nel Noddings and Paul Shore (1984) report in Awakening the Inner Eye: Intuition in Education, visions or insights among ancient people were looked upon as functions of great importance. The seer or oracle was always a prominent member of the community. Intuitive insights or experiences were regarded as sources of knowledge, as messages from the gods, or as evidence of the seer's exceptional power.
To the classical Greeks and Romans, both rational (analytical, logical reasoning) and intuitive knowledge were valid. In fact, intuition was believed to be special; it frequently superseded rational conclusions. Noddings and Shore (1984) suggest that the entire philosophical school of idealism flowing from Plato is based on the notion that intuition is a reliable source of knowledge. Idealism contends that only mental reasoning is knowable; therefore, reality is essentially spiritual or mental.
Aristotle believed that thought consists of images. images have the power to evoke emotions that reveal inner knowing. He stated that intuitive reasoning graphs the first principles. He termed intuition a leap of understanding, a grasping of a larger concept unreachable by other intellectual means, yet fundamentally an intellectual process.
Buddha taught that intuition, not reason, is the source of ultimate truth and wisdom. It follows then that, in Zen meditation, the discriminating conscious mind is quieted and the intuitive mind is liberated, as the meditator seeks truth and wisdom. In Eastern philosophy, intuition is considered a faculty of the mind which develops during the course of spiritual growth.
In the Meditation Schools of China and Japan - "Ch'an" in China, "Zen" in Japan - emphasis is placed on candid searching. Competent instruction awakens into an experience and insight that defy explanation through rational speech. To the aspiring Buddhist monks, this awakening is a revelation of their inner truth and wisdom.
For the Hindu, intuitive insights are achieved through meditation and disciplined control of the mind. Intuition usually illuminates universal cosmic issues, not concrete problems. Intuitive experience is linked closely with spirituality and aesthetics. One aim of Yoga, as practiced by the Hindu, is the systematic development of intuition. Intuition is considered a stable, reliable function of higher levels of consciousness from which a wide range of information is accessible.
Carl Jung, one of the more influential psychologists of modern times, drew attention to the role of intuition in intellectual functioning. He stated that information is received in two ways: (1) externally, through the five senses and (2) internally, through intuition. To help in understanding the difference, it can be put this way:
When sensing, you
- perceive with the five senses
- attend to practical and factual details
- are in touch with the physical realities
- attend to the present moment
- confirm attention to what is said and done
- see "little things in everyday life"
- attend to step-by-step experience
- let your eyes tell your mind
When using intuition, you
- perceive with memory and association
- see patterns and meaning
- project possibilities for the future
- imagine or read between the lines
- look for the big picture
- have hunches or ideas out of nowhere
- let the mind tell the eyes (Sisk Or Shallcross, 1986)
Frances E. Vaughan (1979), in Awakening Intuition, provides an overview of intuition. She says that the broad range of intuitive human experience falls into four distinct levels of awareness: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Although these levels of experience often overlap, they are usually easy to categorize according to the level at which they are consciously perceived. Mystical experiences, for example, are intuitive experiences at the spiritual level; as such, they don't depend on sensory, emotional, or mental cues for their validity. Intuition at the physical level is associated with bodily sensations, at the emotional level with feelings, and at the mental level with images and ideas.
Intuitive experiences at the physical level produce bodily sensations similar to the "jungle awareness" that alert primitive people to possible danger. This awareness is different from instinct, which is unconscious. Jungle awareness can be experienced in a city when certain situations cause you to shiver or to have a stomachache or a headache. Such bodily responses, or cues, reveal information concerning yourself and your environment. Vaughan suggests that tuning in to what the body is telling us can help us make decisions about the situations in which we find ourselves. If, for example, a specific situation consistently makes you tense, you can choose to avoid the situation or make appropriate changes to ease the tension. Paying attention to physical intuitive cues can make a significant difference in how you relate to your environment. Make a list of physical reactions that you have experienced, while driving, or at work, for instance. Are there some that occur over and over again in similar circumstances? Are such circumstances tension producing? If so, what changes might you make to ease these situations?
On the emotional level, intuition becomes conscious through feelings. Vaughan describes the emotional level of intuition as being sensitive to other people's "vibes" (vibrations of energy), such as immediately liking or disliking someone or something with no apparent justification, or having an inexplicable and vague sense that you should be doing something. Jot down experiences where you felt sensitive to other people's vibrations of energy. If possible, check this out with the others involved as to whether or not they experienced the same thing.
Intuitive cues on the emotional level often involve relations with other people and seem to take on an almost telepathic quality. Have you ever telephoned a friend or relative who was just about to call you? (One co-author frequently experiences this with her mother who lives a few hundred miles from her.) "Woman's intuition" (discussed later at length), is on the emotional level of intuitive awareness. Traditionally, society was tolerant of women openly expressing emotions but not of men doing the same. This allowed women more freedom to experience self-awareness.
The mental level of intuitive awareness often becomes apparent through images, or through what might be called "inner vision." Because intuition on the mental level is associated with thinking (although all types of intuition are rooted in the mind), it is most often linked with problem-solving, mathematics and science (but not limited to those fields). Intuition on this level can be recognized when suddenly there is order where there had been chaos. This can occur in a flash or after long, arduous work. Western cultures tend to value the latter approach. First there occurs an exhaustive application of logic and reasoning, followed by a subsequent intuitive flash. This approach is associated with the discovery and invention involved in technological progress. Remember the times when you worked long and hard on something and the solution seemed to come to you "out of the blue?"
Educated guesses that we make, or the formulation of hypotheses and new
theories, fall into the category of intuition on the mental level. Einstein was
an advocate of taking "intuitive leaps" in the formulation of new theories. In
The Universe Within, Morton Hunt (1982) quotes psychologist Donald
Norman on the subject of intuitive leaps:
We leap to correct answers before there are sufficient
data, we intuit, we grasp, we jump to conclusions despite the
lack of convincing evidence. That we are right more often
than wrong is the miracle of human intellect.
Fritjof Capra (1977) in The Tao of Physics notes the
important part that intuition plays in scientific thought and discovery:
The rational part of research would, in fact, be useless if
it were not complemented by the intuition that gives scientists
new insights and makes them creative.
Capra speaks of "spontaneous insight" as being analogous to "getting" a
joke.
We can take an intuitive leap; we can work long and hard with rational
processes and then experience a solution in a flash of insight; or we can
choose to "sit on it" (or sleep on it). Incubation con be a valuable asset to
an intuitive process. Incubation gives the mind time to let a chaotic disarray
fall into a pattern of order. Sid Parnes, a researcher and consultant in
creative problem-solving, calls it "letting it happen."
Whatever path or paths you follow for utilizing the mental level of intuitive
awareness, it is important to continue its nurture to insure that we do not
lose one of our most precious assets. In The Intuitive Edge, Phillip
Goldberg (1983) states:
When we mistrust (intuition) or let it atrophy by persisting
with exclusively rational-empirical thought patterns we end up
tuning in with mono to a stereo world.
The spiritual level of intuitive awareness is associated with mystical experience and, at this level, is "pure." According to Vaughan, "Pure, spiritual intuition Is distinguished from other forms by its independence from sensations, feelings, and thoughts." Spinoza, a noted philosopher defined spiritual intuition as the knowledge of God. Frances Vaughan relates, philosopher James Bergenthal equates this knowledge with man's experience of his own being and says that man knows Got through his deepest intuitions about his own nature.
In yoga, spiritual intuition is known as soul guidance. It emerges spontaneously when the mind is quiet. Spiritual intuition is the basis from which all other forms of intuition are derived. Activating spiritual intuition means focusing on the transpersonal rather than on the personal realms of intuition. The personal and the transpersonal can b. considered as two modes of knowing or as two different levels CF consciousness. In Western thinking, the personal is the ordinary waking state of consciousness in which the world is perceived objects and events existing separately in time and space. The transpersonal means "beyond the personal." In transpersonal consciousness, the underlying oneness of the universe becomes apparent, and the ordinary confines of time and space are experientially transcended. Both of these realms of human function are available to us. Reason is the mode of knowing appropriate to the personal level. Intuition is the mode of knowing appropriate to the transpersonal level. We need to accept both, expanding our understanding and experiences of consciousness to include both.
It is beneficial to examine another way of organizing how you might think about intuition. Phillip Goldberg (1983) categorizes six functional types of intuition: discovery and creativity, evaluation, operation, prediction, and illumination.
Discovery Intuition is similar to discovery in its revealing nature; but where discovery reveals singular truths, facts, or verifiable information, the creative function of intuition generates alternatives, options or possibilities. Ideas generated may be factually right or wrong, but will be more or less appropriate to the situation. Similar to a brainstorming session, creative intuition produces a quantity of ideas from which the ideal solution can be selected, while discovery intuition reproduces the single answer sought in a more factual situation, such as, "what is the structure of the DNA model?" The single "right" answer comes in a flash of knowing.
Evaluation intuition signals "yes" or "no" when one is confronted with choices. Goldberg (1983) distinguishes between rational analysis or intuition in making evaluations, using an example from Tom Duffy, a financial planner who states: "I might make contingency plans on the basis of a formal analysis of technical data, but the actual decision - to commit or hold off or abandon - is a question of timing, and for that I look to my feelings. "
At times, logic may dictate a move in one direction, but intuition urges another. A friend of ours still keeps on his dresser the ticket for an airplane trip that "something inside" told him not to take, even though it was an important business trip. The plane crashed and all its passengers were killed.
To stimulate your evaluation intuition, try this: Do a logical analysis of an upcoming event (The Super Bowl, Academy Awards). Based on your analysis, predict the outcome. Then, ignoring your rational decision, play your hunch on the outcome. Later, check out your results.
Operation intuition acts like a sense of direction, steering us this way or that. Where evaluation intuition works when there is something to evaluate, operation intuition most often precedes anything specific, kind of nudging you toward or away from a situation. The situation may be potentially dangerous or perhaps a major positive turning point in your life. This type of intuition is sometimes referred to as a lucky accident, or being in the right place at the right time, or responding to a gut feeling without much information to go on, or coincidence. Think back on your recent experiences. Is there anything that you can attribute to a lucky accident?
Prediction intuition allows us to predict what might happen in the future. We form hypotheses, we foresee future events, we forecast outcomes of situations. Predictions can be warning devices or positive feelings about future activities, or hunches that help us to organize or time these future events. For example, we might exercise extra caution in driving a car because prediction intuition may warn us of possible impending danger. Or we may feel pleasantly anticipatory toward attending an event, not knowing ahead of time that we will see someone there for whom we really care.
Illumination intuition is similar to what Frances Vaughan (1979) calls the spiritual level of intuitive awareness. It has been called, in other places, according to Goldberg (1983), samadhi, satori, nirvana, cosmic consciousness, self-realization, or union with God. Understanding illumination intuition helps us understand all forms of intuition; cultivating it simultaneously cultivates the other functional types of intuition.
(Doris J. Shallcross, Dorothy A. Sisk: Intuition, An Inner Way of Knowing, Bearly Limited 1989)
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