Intuition
In recent years intuition has emerged from obscurity, even
suspicion, to be honored as the valuable life tool that it is.
What exactly is intuition? According to Merriam-Webster it's
quick and ready insight; immediate apprehension or cognition;
the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or
cognition without evident rational thought and inference.
According to Intuition magazine online, it's a "natural mental
faculty, a key element in the creative process, a means of
discovery, problem solving, and decision making."
Remember those math problems you got the correct answer for, but
you didn't get full credit because you couldn't show your work?
Intuition isn't some mystical talent; it's something we all have
and can develop more of.
Where does intuition come from?
In their book, _A General Theory of Love, authors Drs. Lewis,
Amini, and Lannon agree that we acquire complicated knowledge we
can't describe, explain, or recognize.
They cite researchers Knowlton, Mangels, and Squire, who asked
subjects to predict the weather in a simple computer model. They
designed the experiment so that even though the cues looked
worthless they did relate to the outcome but the relationship
between cues and effects it was way too difficult for logic to
unravel in even the smartest person.
No one was able to figure it out, but that still got better at
this system they couldn't understand or describe! After just 50
trials, the average subject was right 70% of the time, which
means some were doing far better than that. What they were doing
was gradually developing a feel for the situation, getting the
gist of it.
We tend to believe that success can only come from
understanding, but in reality our brains, when presented with
ample opportunity, can unconsciously extract the underlying
rules. "Such knowledge," say Lewis, Amini, and Lannon, "develops
with languorous ease and inevitability, stubbornly
inexpressibly, never destined for translation into words."
Things we can't describe, but we "know," come from our implicit
memory which provides this "camouflaged learning." Spoken
language, for instance, is a complicated set sounds and rules we
couldn't possibly describe; yet we all learn to speak it as kids
with no formal instruction.
In his book, _Language Instinct_, Steven Pinker observes that we
all know that "thole, plast and flitch are not English words but
they could be, whereas vlas, ptak, and nyip cannot be English.
How? Well, just because, but wouldn't you agree?
The advantages of intuition? It's much quicker and surer. You
have a greater grasp on reality, as it were, when you don't
confuse things by bringing in the neocortex. "Reason," said
Pascal, "is the slow and tortuous method by which those who do
not know the truth discover it."
We all have it and we can
http://www.topten.org/public/BA/BA623.html develop it. Work with
a coach, invite your intuition into your life, and pump up the
volume.
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