What is Intuition?

In simplest terms, intuition is the mental process of acquiring information and knowledge directly into the mind, without the use of reasoning, sensing or even memory (in the usual sense of that word). Some persons deny the very existence of intuition, presuming that the senses and intellectual mind are responsible for all their acquired knowledge. Others suppose that it has a religious or emotional basis; this may be partially true, for our deepest inner experiences certainly have a strong intuitive component. Most persons perform most intuitively in their dreams, in moments of reverie, during childhood, in crisis and at the time of death.

Intuition is not a rare phenomenon, or just a subject suited for parapsychological study. It is used by everyone every day as a essential companion to rational thought, even though the modern mind is mistakenly inclined to credit its finest ideas and most critical decisions to the intellect and the body of accumulated knowledge in the brain. While most persons are not very aware of the intuitive process working within their minds, everyone has the potential to tap this inner resource at will and bring it under control. One may then utilize this natural and universal human capacity—without the intervention of "thought"—to acquire new information, knowledge and understanding whenever it is desired or needed.

The source of intuitive information is not specifically known. It may lie innately within the human mind in some mysterious way, or external to it yet somehow accessible. Nevertheless, like human language, our inability to explain it in familiar terms does not need to prevent us from using it. For many centuries intuition has been well acknowledged, and its source called the Collective Unconscious, the Akashic records, God's Book of Remembrance, the Book of Life and other names. Every major religion has its own term for it.

Intuition is not the same as "psychic," though the two are related, for intuition is the underlying mind process responsible for the best psychic performance. It is behind our strongest and revealing dreams. The major findings from a century of competent research into ESP and most other parapsychological phenomena can be credited to the intuitive process. Intuition has enabled many of the most amazing creative feats of artists, writers and even scientists, as the record of their accomplishments and discoveries reveals.

Intuition is almost the same as "faith," which in the best sense of the word denotes a deep-seated certainty, an unshakable knowing. It shares with intuition the kind of acceptance that transcends reasons and logic: "the evidence of things not seen." But the term faith is also used commonly in a broader and more vague sense that does not include intuition. Genuine intuitive knowing also transcends belief, or tentative knowledge that awaits testing and full acceptance. The rational mind is not comfortable with the notion of faith because faith seems to demand acceptance of a statement or idea without any reasonable basis for it. This is literally true, because faith is not rooted in reason.

While the source of intuitive information lies beyond what we call the subconscious mind, it passes through this part of the mind on its way to conscious awareness. It is therefore subject to blockage or distortion by bias, preconceived notions, strong emotional needs or poor intention. Part of what one learns in intuition development and training involves the opening and cleansing of the intuitive channel so the information can flow clearly and cleanly. Because of these distortions, non-personal intuitive information must always be independently verified before applying it, just as with new information from any source.

Intuition has until recently never found its way into the field of psychology, which has its roots in medicine, which emerged in turn out of rationalistic and materialistic science. Most psychiatrists and psychologists have had little experience and no professional training in intuition or intuitive performance. They cannot explain intuition from the models of the mind familiar to them, so they tend to regard it as a problem to be solved or an illness to be cured. This unfortunate situation is being slowly corrected nowadays with the emergence of new branches such as transpersonal psychology.

The "information" accessible through intuition consists not only of objective facts—statements that can be said to be true of false—but also subjective human knowledge: comprehensive understanding, broad perspective, accumulated experience and knowledge that cannot even be described verbally. Intuition feeds each person's acquisition of private self-knowledge, as well as his perceived and evolving relationship with the greater reality of which he is a part. Intuition nourishes him as he encounters challenges along his life path. It does so by giving him "information" of a greater sort than provable facts.

Intuition can be seen in this last sense as the communication link between man's outer world of daily life and his largely unconscious inner world, his deep inner source of knowing and his personal essence. This very personal aspect of intuition is surely its grandest and most significant "application." It impacts and underlies all other more practical and speculative ways in which intuition can be brought into the world and used.

Of all the hard facts of science, I know of none more solid and fundamental than the fact that if you inhibit thought, and persevere, you come at length to a region of consciousness below or behind thought ... and a realization of an altogether vaster self than that to which we are accustomed. ... So great, so splendid is this experience that it may be said that all minor questions and doubts fall away in face of it. [Edward Carpenter]