What is intuition (and should I trust it)?

Intuition is our ability to know something instinctively without having to discover it or rationalise it intellectually – a deep sense of ‘knowing’ without analytical process. You can’t explain to anyone why – you don’t have statistics or research to back up your perspective. You just ‘know’. Intuition is seen by many as the highest form of intelligence.
– Amisha Ghadiali, Intuition

Over the centuries, we’ve rightly placed an emphasis on being able to verify information and prove that something is as it appears to be, to protect us from charlatans and ne’er-do-wells who may otherwise pull the wool over our eyes (I talk about them here).

Science has been an important component of the human timeline; to establish and test theories, particularly about how the mind and body work, and in developing treatments that can help us live longer and more healthily.

The challenge comes when we neglect the soul in this discussion, and in particular the way it speaks to us: for example, through our conscience, dreams and intuition.

Instinct, Intellect and Intuition

In his book Intuition, Osho makes some important distinctions between instinct, intellect and intuition.

He argues that instinct is biological, that it’s the realm of the body. Instinct is something that we all have and which, in the book The Gift of Fear, Gavin De Becker alludes to as our instinctive reactions to get us out of harms way. These are automatic responses, i.e. we don’t have to think about them – thankfully – because it also includes breathing and digesting food. This just happens, our body “knows” what to do. Instinct is therefore primal because it’s fundamentally concerned with our survival.

Intellect is the work of the mind and is in the realm of thinking, logic – and the ego. This works incredibly well to solve mathematical problems, read maps, to remember history lessons and song lyrics, and helps us plan, organise and centre our needs. However, intellect, Osho says, is “for the mundane life” especially if it ignores the rest.

Intuition is the realm of the soul: of art, creativity, friendship and feeling (enabling emotion regulation); where intellect is “me”, intuition is “we”. it is also where it’s proposed our conscience resides.

We can distinguish intellect from intuition here, as how someone can intellectually talk themselves in to doing something they probably shouldn’t but then feel guilty for it later. Intuition is therefore above the realm of intellect, which also means it’s not something that can be explained; it just “is”. When we start to try and give language to intuition we’ve moved back in to the realm of intellect.

Intuition isn’t woo-woo, but is labelled as such probably because it rails in the face of science if that means the search for “proof”. Unless it’s tangible and quantifiable, society may question its validity and deny it, even implying (erroneously) that intuition is in the realms of “dark forces”. But as De Becker says “Denial is a save-now-pay-later scheme”: it feels like it’s helpful at the time to pretend, or tell ourselves (intellectually) something isn’t “wrong”, but causes a low grade anxiety because we just know the actual truth.

To be clear, there’s nothing “bad” about being cautious, but when we lose the connection between what we know and replace it with what we think we know, decision making can be problematic, even harmful. In his book Blink, Malcolm Gladwell describes it like this:

We live in a world that assumes that the quality of a decision is directly related to the time and effort that went in to making it.
Malcolm Gladwell, Blink.

A reliance on intellect can create many problems, with difficulty making decisions at one end of the spectrum (do you always tend to think with your head or your heart?) which can lead to frustrations perhaps at work; eg. we do a job we hate because we “think” it’s what we have to do, but it gives no sense of meaning or purpose, which impacts our well-being. (A sense of purpose – that benefits the health of the wider world – can be peak soul work).

At the other end of that scale, placing prominence on logic over compassion – control over connection – may well explain the conflict we see in the world today. People may reject feeling something in its rawest state (like sadness), because to feel it is surrender – acknowledging our own personal truth is uncomfortable – and so we may numb out and push people away. Others may try to militantly rationalise and justify behaviours they claim to be “smart” or “logical” even though they may inevitably harm us all.

Rather than IQ being a worthy measure in today’s world, intuition – as part of our SQ – is described as the highest form of intelligence.

Who Experiences It?

If you ask people, many will acknowledge they believe in intuition, trusting their “hunches” or “gut feelings” (the stomach has actually been referred to as “the second brain“).

Poll asking who believes in intuition conducted January 2023; “Coppers Nose” is the term some British police officers use to describe it.

Intuition is innate, which means we all have the capacity to benefit from it. However, when we disconnect from the soul – when we spend more time in our heads that in our hearts – we may need to work on building it.

Build Your Intuition

If you’re making the decision to reconnect with your soul and particularly your intuition, you could start small. One way to “test” your intuition is, without looking at the clock, see if you can guess what time it is. If you’re fairly accurate, your intuition may be where it needs to be. You could work on how accurate you are at reading a room’s (or someone’s – with their permission) “energy”. Or you could also try asking yourself what you’d like for dinner and give yourself two choices: then pick one of them and flip a coin giving each answer “heads” or “tails”. If you’re disappointed with the answer you get (against the one you initially chose), your intuition may need recalibrating.

One way to do this is to enhance your senses; start to mindfully appreciate the sights, sounds and textures of your environment and see if this helps you tune in to what “is”. Mindfulness and particularly meditation is described as a portal to intuition, because we begin to see things as they are rather than how we think they “should” be.

You could also consider the role of your dreams – even nightmares – and whether or not there are any messages contained within them that might help build your intuition. I mention in Answers In The Dark that a great way of working with our dreams is by keeping a dream diary.

Intuition and specifically “gut feelings” are recognised as an important gift in business. To make this point, Harvard Business Review suggest that you learn to make the distinction between fear and intuition. Influencers like Mel Robbins use the language of expansion and contraction (see video below) while Glennon Doyle, in her beautiful book Untamed, speaks of ‘cold and warmth’ to help make business decisions.

In her Ted Talk, Jannine Barron says there are three levels to intuition; 1) those ‘hunch’ moments, so make time to look for synchronicities (what Jung described as “meaningful coincidences”), 2) going by inspiration, as opposed to always being dictated to by our thoughts, and 3) trust that your intuition has a place and is valid. She also emphasises the importance of connecting with nature, and practices like Shinrin Yoku, the Japanese tradition of Forest Bathing. She likens intuition to your own internal algorithm, eg. it picks up on your environment and offers you the messages you might ‘need’.

Ultimately it’s a personal choice whether you decide the concept of intuition is worthy of more consideration and whether to embrace (or trust) it. Maybe just don’t think too much about its importance, in case your intellect starts to unhelpfully control every decision you make.

Delphi is the author of Answers In The Dark: Grief, Sleep and How Dreams Can Help You Heal, out now on Amazon and Hive. The Dreams Maven™ is part of the Helping You Sparkle™ portfolio. You might also like Monday Mojo™. Links to third party sites and references to material in this article does not necessarily mean their content is endorsed, only that you may find them of interest. Please read these policies for details.