An inner voice, an incomprehensible source of confidence, a strange premonition not based on logic - intuition has many manifestations. What explains intuitive insights, can they be trusted, and if so, how to use the information received in such an unusual way? Let's try to figure it out.
That morning, for some reason, Alexander bought a newspaper that he had never bought before. “I don’t know why I did it,” he says, “as if something pushed me. And then the newspaper literally opened itself on a page with ads, and among them I immediately saw the address of an apartment for sale. The area where I have always dreamed of living, and the price is right! I called the realtor, went to look - and for ten years now, we have been living in this apartment!"
Moments when we, against our will, do unusual things happen to us often, and we usually tend to explain them by the work of intuition. According to the short psychological dictionary edited by Petrovsky and Yaroshevsky, intuition is "knowledge that arises without understanding the ways and conditions of its receipt." By accepting this definition, we thereby admit that not everything can be explained using the logic we are used to.
Attempts to find a scientific explanation
So should the sixth sense be trusted? “No,” scientists have answered for many years. Arising out of nowhere, not correlating with any of the five human senses (touch, charm, hearing, taste, sight), intuition did not interest the scientific world for a long time.
In 1958, American sociologist James Staunton decided to find out if people trust their intuition. He analyzed information on more than 200 train crashes and more than 50 plane crashes and found that on successfully completed flights, the cabins of trains or aircraft were filled on average by 76%, and in emergency cases - only by 61%.
15% of passengers before the trip, trusting their intuition, refused to travel. But why didn't it work for the others? It is logical to assume that intuition sent signals to all passengers without exception, but most of them simply ignored them, submitting to more powerful stimuli - determination, curiosity, or call of duty.
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Later, the leading American neuroscientist, professor at the University of Iowa (USA) Antonio Damasio and French neuropathologist Antoine Béchard studied the reaction of the human nervous system, making a decision "at random." At the Iowa State University College of Medicine, they conducted an experiment: 16 participants took turns drawing cards from a deck, while the winner was waiting for a serious cash prize.
And here's what is surprising: if a player drew a card that later turned out to be lucky, his nervous system worked as usual. When the participant wanted to draw a losing card, he began to worry, the nervous system, as if anticipating failure, gave him an alarm signal. After processing the results, the scientists suggested that "there is an unconscious mechanism governing behavior, which should be recognized as an integral part of thinking."
Today, the ability to instantly sense the sense of truth, bypassing logical thinking, is being studied in many scientific centers around the world. Dr. Dick Biermann, head of the Department of Psychology at the University of Amsterdam, says: "Many experiments confirm that sometimes the human mind can really get ahead of ourselves and, having made a small leap into the future, warn us of danger."
Learn to pick up signals
One of the most successful businessmen, George Soros, has repeatedly admitted that he conducts financial affairs, relying not so much on the arguments of reason as on physical sensations: any wrong decision causes him sharp back pain.
Each has its own "indicator". Someone has a presentiment of danger at the bodily level: for example, it can be signaled by a stomach spasm or goosebumps that cover the skin. Someone is prompted by a sudden inexplicable desire or, on the contrary, an acute reluctance to perform any action. Someone discerns a warning in words accidentally heard, someone is helped by visual images. In any case, intuition is always acutely felt.
One of its main properties is spontaneity. “If literally out of thin air there appears a solution to a problem over which we have been tormented for a month, there is nothing surprising in that,” explains psychologist Sergei Stepanov. - It's just that the brain analyzed the information and answered the question posed earlier without additional orders. With intuition, it's different. Sometimes we get an answer even before we have time to formulate a question!"
In this case, thoughts and decisions arise as if by themselves, without any apparent tension of the mind. So, Natalia, mathematician and head teacher of a prestigious physics and mathematics school, has been taking part in interviews with applicants for 15 years. “As soon as an applicant enters, I can already see whether he will be able to study with us or not,” she says. - Of course, the decision is made by the commission, but for all the years of my work my intuition has never let me down!"
Another manifestation of intuition is empathy, the ability to understand the world of another person's experiences, to join his emotional life. This phenomenon is actively used in psychotherapy. “How can you heal without intuition? - asks the psychotherapist Tatyana Bednik. “It’s part of human nature, and it is rooted in empathy and compassion. It is important for the psychotherapist to believe the sensations and not try to immediately drive everything that happens into a rigid rational framework."
Can intuition fail us
Some intuition helps, others can do a disservice. “Premonitions turn out to be false when people wishful thinking,” Sergey Stepanov explains. "In such cases, it is not intuition that is mistaken, but we ourselves, taking our own hypothesis for an insight that came from above." Unconscious desires often do not allow to correctly interpret the signals of the inner voice.
“My mom has a very good intuition,” says 28-year-old photo editor Yulia. “But with regard to my friends, she is always mistaken: she too wants everything to be good with me.”
“I dreamed of getting this position so much that during the interview I took the elementary politeness of the people who spoke to me as a sign that I would certainly be hired,” says 34-year-old Anna. “Lord, how upset I was when I realized my mistake!”
Another hindrance is our fears. “Most of them are born from past experience,” explains Tatiana Bednik. - Experience becomes a part of us and prevents us from perceiving new things. Attitudes that are ingrained in flesh and blood like: "I never succeed," "Love is not mine," "At my age, this is already unrealistic" - make it difficult to understand what the inner voice is whispering."
In other words, when deciphering messages coming from the depths of consciousness, excessive emotionality - it does not matter at all whether it is with a plus sign or with a minus sign - can confuse all cards and ultimately cause harm.
Intuition is the art of trusting yourself
Intuition is a unique mechanism that allows you to use deep sensations and thereby strengthen confidence in your own strength. “It is important for clients to find an explanation for the unusual things that happened to them: premonitions, unexpected insights, strange physical sensations,” says Tatiana Bednik. "They understand their importance and strive to learn how to interpret them correctly in order to use them wisely in the future."
Psychotherapy helps to get rid of the existing blockages, teaches you to understand yourself and not remain captive to clichéd ideas about yourself and the world around you.
“Starting with this,” continues Tatiana Bednik, “a person gradually gains confidence in himself, in his abilities.” Listening to intuition does not mean becoming a controllable machine. Capturing and understanding its signals without trying to underestimate or exaggerate their importance is the best way to use this amazing feature of human thinking.
6 TIPS TO DEVELOP YOUR INTUITION
- Meditate regularly in any way. In this way, you will clear your mind and equip your “internal reserve space”. Try to meditate at the same time, preferably in the morning, in a designated area.
- Pay attention to physical sensations. Track how the body reacts to a particular situation, and try to understand what this means.
- Learn to be calm. Use your moments of solitude to understand yourself.
- Explore your options. Do mini experiments throughout the day. For example, try to guess who is calling you. And if you suddenly feel that something unusual is happening to someone close to you, call yourself.
- Keep a diary. Every day, write down your hunches (it does not matter if they were confirmed or not) and physical feelings: you will become better at understanding your behavior and will be able to feel the difference between assumptions and signals of intuition.
- Always tell the truth whenever possible. If you live in a lie, the sensations will also be false.