What Is Intuition?

If you read my last article on Free Will*, you will have already come to understand my own personal perspective on probability mathematics (if you haven’t read that article yet, I suggest you go and read it before moving on)…

Taking this concept a step further, let’s now explore the idea of intuition.

Intuition, as most people experience it, is “the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning.”

In Joe Dispenza, D.C.’s acclaimed book Evolve Your Brain: The Science Of Changing Your Mind*, he makes mention of two notable facets to mind; the body-mind and the mind-mind. Being a licensed chiropractor, black belt martial artist, spiritual practitioner, and someone who was able to heal their crippling back injury through visualization and proper nutrition after being medically diagnosed as never being able to walk again, he definitely posseses some level of understanding to back up his claims!

To better rationalize this body-mind and mind-mind concept and how it relates back to intuition, Dispenza explains the phenomena like this:

The conscious mind takes in information all the time through the body's five senses. This information, coupled with rational problem solving skills (“mental accounting”) allows us to prescribe our “best guess” on a given situation.

Now, have you ever taken a shower, sat quietly, or gone for a walk and then all of a sudden a “eureka” moment hits you? Intuitively, you know what the answer “should” be. This is the body-mind weighing in additional information it has already taken in to the mind-mind — for, similarly to how the conscious mind is always taking in data, so too is the physical mind. Our physical bodies are constantly taking in and filtering out information it does not deem necessary for the conscious mind to become aware of, until it is (another concept I touched upon in a previous article, "Fuelling Your Subconscious."*)

So, what exactly is going on here? The conscious mind has gotten out of the way of itself in order to allow new information to be added to our "mental accounting" and, thus, without consciously rationalizing it, we are better able to “predict” the future — or, as I would put it in order to relate it back to my idea of Free Will, “solving for random” to a level which we could not otherwise have done so consciously. It is probability mathematics solved beyond mind.

My own personal experience with this phenomena is best exemplified during my first black belt examination. Throughout the test, my friend (and primary training partner)* and I were made to run around the room, non-stop as our head instructor called out various ways in which each of us were to break a series of bricks lying in the centre of the room.

Amid the sprints and bellowing ki-aps (battlecries to bring attention and focus back to the mind), I knew it was soon going to be my turn. “BJ!” I stopped, “break only the bottom brick.” In complete astonishment, I looked over at the pile of bricks and thought to myself, “he wants me to strike those two bricks, but only have the bottom one break?! How am I suppose to do that?” And as if right on cue, I felt a sudden rush of calm and understanding wash over me and a smug grin flashed across my face. I ran over, knelt down, and struck. Nothing. Not an ounce of confidence wavering, I struck again *crack* I knew that “what I consciously didn’t know” was going to work! I struck again. *crack* and half of the bottom brick fell to the floor. To my astonishment, and the chagrin of my instructor, I had done it! Intuition had served me well.

Granted, before you start to think of this as some sort of mystical woo-woo, know that brick breaking actually isn’t that hard… Esoterically, it’s one of the most illusive things you can accomplish in the martial arts, but scientifically, it can be done with very little effort (if you want to see my explanation of brick breaking, click HERE* — an understanding I only came to after countless hours of practice while going over my experience, trying to figure out what exactly I had done.)

So, what is intuition? I personally believe that intuition is “high-level problem solving to a degree beyond conscious, rational thought”. Why? Because thought can quickly turn to bias; which can quickly overshadow objective observance; clouding what really is to come by what you want to come.

How can you access intuition? Think less, feel more.

“Once your mind becomes absolutely still, your intelligence transcends human limitations.” -Jaggi Vasudev.

-in sum; think less, feel more. It will serve you well in life!