intuition examples. Training "Intuition as a way to solve problems

02.09.2020

There are many in history interesting facts when intuition helped to make discoveries, find solutions to complex problems. At the beginning of the book, we already spoke about the role of intuition in the work of great people. What techniques did the geniuses of art and science use when discovering new laws and looking for solutions? This will be discussed below.

About the benefits of classical music

Music is often a source of inspiration. For example, Walt Disney was very fond of the classics. He said that at the first sounds of his favorite works, associations arose in his head. Disney shared his experience in the animated film "Fantasy", in which the music is accompanied by a whole phantasmagoria of colors.

Listen to your favorite songs more often. For many artists, music creates pictures in their heads, which they then embody on canvases. It is quite possible that music will help you find the answer to your question.

Ask the right questions

Albert Einstein spoke more than once about the importance of the exact wording of the question. “Every question already has an answer,” said the scientist. “If you ask the right question, you can easily find the answer.”

The birth of associations

Associations can also arise under the influence of completely non-standard stimuli. For example, Leonardo da Vinci wrote in Notes: “It is not difficult. just stop along the way and look at the streaks on the wall, or the embers on fire, or the clouds, or the mud. you can find absolutely amazing ideas there.”

The painter was also inspired by such things as the ringing of bells, in which "you can catch any name and any word you can imagine."

Each person has their own source of inspiration. Therefore, listen carefully to your inner voice: sometimes the right thoughts come completely unexpectedly, and you will be surprised at the way they arose!

Fashion for diaries

Many people used to keep diaries. Now this tradition is gradually dying out or being transformed (electronic diaries appear). Keeping records is a great exercise for intuition! Rereading your notes, you can note a number of facts, accidents that no one paid attention to before. And yet later such trifles often play an important role.

Researcher Katerina Koks, analyzing many examples, noted that all famous people kept diaries. In their notes, they described their own lives in detail, as if foreseeing that they would become famous in the future. And Isaac Newton, and Thomas Jefferson, and Johann Sebastian Bach and many other personalities kept personal diaries in which they described their feelings and thoughts. In the future, many of the entries were published, and some became real works (for example, Leo Tolstoy used his diary to write a work). Why do all great people leave a legacy in the form of records and diaries? It is assumed that regular journaling contributes to the development of outstanding intelligence.

Sleep - the answer to the question

Of course, dreams are a mystery of our subconscious. Everything seems to be clear here: with the help of dreams, the subconscious communicates with us. However, the way in which this happens is surprising in itself. And it is even more amazing when in dreams we find the solution to a difficult problem!

This, in fact, happened to many scientists, among them the chemist August Kekule. Once he worked all day on a chemistry textbook and in the end felt that he had not done anything useful. The frustrated scientist thought that his thoughts were occupied with something else, and pushing his work aside, he sat down by the fireplace. Peering into the flame, he thought about the benzene molecule, the structure of which was a mystery. Gradually the chemist plunged into a state of drowsiness. And then. Then what is now called a miracle happened.

Half asleep, Kekule saw strange, fantastic shapes in the flames of the hearth. Atoms passed before his eyes, moving in long rows in the fire, writhing like snakes. Suddenly one of the snakes seized its tail and swirled rapidly and furiously. The scientist woke up as if from a flash of lightning.

Kekule realized that he had a solution to a problem that had been tormenting him. The subconscious itself prompted the answer, and the chemist spent the whole night working on the problem. In 1865, he stated that the benzene molecule was composed of six carbon atoms. Surprisingly, the combination of atoms strikingly resembled a snake that the scientist had dreamed of.

Nightmares and sewing machines

Another invention mankind owes to sleep.

Inventor Elias Hove thought about creating a sewing machine, but to no avail. He did absolutely nothing.

One night Hove saw nightmare: he was pursued by a gang of cannibals who intended to cook an appetizing dinner out of him. The horde of cannibals had almost overtaken him, and death was inevitable. The inventor even saw the tips of the spears of the cannibals, sparkling with a cold sheen. Unexpectedly, subconsciously, Howe noted that each of the tips had a hole - the same as that of a sewing needle. At this point, the inventor woke up covered in a cold sweat.

Hove later realized that the nightmare was the answer to the problem he had set for himself. After all, in order for the sewing machine to work, you only need to move the eye of the needle down to the very tip. Howe followed the advice of his subconscious, and soon the first sewing machine appeared.

Intuition (from intuitio - “contemplation”, from the verb intueor - I look closely) is knowledge based on close attention to the essence of things, events and phenomena.

How to effectively use your "sixth sense"
to succeed in your studies, career, business and personal life?

Intuitive thinking has not been studied enough for science to offer a ready-made algorithm for the development of intuition that works for all individuals equally. However, there are ENOUGH research in the field of intuitive knowledge, historical examples and developed methods for the development of individual intuitive thinking in ANY person. So why don't we apply this to our lives? Moreover, EVERY person has intuitive thinking as well as analytical thinking as a potential ability of birth. Potential means requiring development. However, we are haunted by myths about intuition.

Myths about intuition:

"Intuition is the opposite of logic."
"Intuition is a product of the activity of the right hemisphere."
"Intuition is our unconscious."
"Some people have intuition and others don't."
"Intuition is developed in women, and logic in men."
"Intuition is a gift that is given from above and cannot be influenced."

Intuition in business

Akio Morita, CEO of SONY, calls intuition the main component creative thinking and cornerstone technological innovation and the development of new products: “Machines and computers do not have the ability to create, since simple information processing is not enough for creative activity. Creativity requires human thought, spontaneous intuition and courage.” Managers and leaders with experience become wiser on an intuitive level. Intuition lies not only in our brain, but also in the body. Its manifestations can be conditionally attributed to the “head”, “heart”, “hands” and “inside”.

Would you like to develop these levels of personal effectiveness? Then let's look at 4 differences of the "intuitive" mind:

Speaks the language of feelings.
Acts quickly and spontaneously.
It is a complete “pattern recognition system”.
Offers us hypotheses, not facts.

intuition in science. Historical example

Nikola Tesla is considered a prominent representative of the intuitive method of research in science. In contrast to Thomas Addison, who is the personification of a galaxy of experimental scientists who achieve their goals by trial and error. Nikola Tesla is the greatest inventor of the 20th century, the author of several thousand inventions. Enthusiastic admirers call him the Lord of Lightning, the Father of AC, the Magician and the Man who invented the 20th century! A unit of measurement of magnetic flux density, a street in Croatia, an airport in Serbia are named after him, his face flaunts on banknotes, and he himself is considered in his homeland national hero along with great rulers and warriors.

Nikola Tesla, a Serb by nationality, was born in the province of Lika, which was part of the Austrian Empire. His father is an Orthodox priest who possessed many abilities: he knew several languages, had an excellent style of writing articles, and had an excellent memory. Mother - Duka Mandic - a representative of one of the most glorious traditions of Serbian families, was a talented needlewoman, could not read, but knew many national poems by heart and came up with many useful devices for her home.

As proof of Tesla's intuition, they cite history of the creation of the alternator: when Nikola was in his second year at the Higher Technical School, a DC machine with a collector was brought to the physics classroom. After observing the operation of the dynamo, Tesla declared that it was possible to build an alternator and do without a collector. Tesla was ridiculed because at that time in science, the use of alternating current was considered impossible. Tesla lived with this idea for several years. How does Tesla's famous intuition work?

According to legend, he was walking with a friend in the park, reciting Goethe's Faust by heart, and suddenly saw a diagram of a future generator. “Suddenly, the truth dawned on me. On the sand, I sketched diagrams with a stick, ”Nikola Tesla recalled. And it took several more years before the generator and other equipment created by Tesla served to create the world's largest power plant at Niagara Falls.

Tesla had the intuition of a physicist. Leonardo da Vinci is an artist. Mozart is a musician.

In what area would you like to develop intuition?

Leadership. Oratory. Management. Marketing. The medicine. Pedagogy. Art. The science.

Making decisions. Relationship. Parenting. Purpose. Prediction of the future.

We respect every choice. For those who are already READY, the program " DEVELOPMENT OF INTUITION" has been developed and the best time and a place to unleash your intuitive thinking.

For those who think, we offer 10 principles of intuitive knowledge:

Principle 10. Keep true to your intuitive personality.

Principle 9: Do things right, do the right things, and follow the right path.

Principle 8. Listen to your head, heart and intuitions.

Principle 7. Express your intuitive feelings.

Principle 6. Develop skills and knowledge (competence).

Principle 5. Beware of weak intuitive feelings.

Principle 4. Rely on the first impression and take it into account.

Principle 3. Do not get confused in your Self (distinguish between emotions, intuition, insight, stereotypes, etc.).

Principle 2: Switch mental gears.

Principle 1: Recognize your intuition.

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Do you want to effectively combine analysis and intuition? To achieve success in education, career, business and personal life? Make the right decisions in complex and time-limited situations? Develop your brain or become a leader?

What is waiting for you?

Debunking the myth of intuition.
The flip side of intuition: logical fallacies, prejudice, stereotyping, self-deception.
Intuitive successes and mistakes.
Somatic markers of Damasio.
Five Rules for Good Intuitive Judgment.
Ten principles of intuitive knowledge.
Intuitive knowledge of the future.
Intuition and choice of partner.
Intuition and decision making.
Intuition and extrasensory perception.
intuition and creativity.
Intuition and Entrepreneurship. Income from intuition.
intuition and leadership. Aristotle's Intuitive Leadership. A set of leader values. Vector.

Practice: Crystal Ball, Devil's Advocate, Time Out, Extra Time, Pulsing, etc.

Meditations: "Healing", "Golden Light", " Cash flow”, “Waiting for sunrise”, “Dynamic”, etc.

You can also receive:

Enneagram testing.
Your psychological portrait.
Composite of psychological portraits (relationship with a partner).
Tarot consultation.
Family consultation.
Coaching for individuals and families.

Format: mini-lectures, demonstrations, games, actions and events.

The whole family can participate. For children - the program "I am a leader" - a program of intuitive development in English.

In psychology, there are several types of intuition, and there are different classifications. The most common and common is the European classification, based on basic human characteristics. Modern European psychology distinguishes the following types of intuition:

1) physical, or bodily. This kind of intuition is based on a person's physical sensations;

2) emotional. It is based on emotions;

3) intellectual, about which philosophers and scientists talked so much;

4) mystical. This kind of intuition is perhaps the most controversial because its driving mechanism cannot be clearly described.

What does it look like in practice? Each of us is dominated by one type of intuition, and on the basis of it we interpret events. If you ask a question about how this or that business will turn out, then people with different type intuitions will predict its ending, based on different impressions. A person with physical intuition will imagine what his physical condition will be like - fatigue, energy boost, apathy, stress - and draw conclusions about the success of the event. The intellectual will direct his ability to calculate everything to the situation and try to "scan" it. He will construct his image, which will tell him the solution.

The emotional type will be based on how he feels at the end of the venture. I want to make a small remark: in many respects, the predominance of one or another type of intuition in a person is associated with the national mentality, traditions, and upbringing.

Intuition is also classified according to gender, age, nationality. It has long been noticed that in women intuition is more developed. This has nothing to do with physiological characteristics - it’s just that women from time immemorial have been more closely connected with everything subconscious, mysterious, perceiving, which is why they have learned to listen to the prompts of their subconscious.

Psychologists have noticed that the manifestation of subconscious premonitions is subject to age-related fluctuations. The child's intuition is not clouded yet, nothing blocks it, but as they grow older, the ability to trust instinct is lost. This happens because our entire civilization is aimed at evidence, that is, from school we are taught that only what can be touched, seen, scientifically proven is true. Over time, the ability to perceive, and most importantly, trust intuitive information is lost. The people we call intuitives just managed to happily avoid it.

The child treats his fantasies, desires, intuitive sensations as a reality. For him, there is no impossible and "invented": for him, both Santa Claus and the neighbor's grandfather are real. In his imagination, he connects them, so for him there is no question: "Does Santa Claus exist?" The child asks: “What will Santa Claus give me?”. Children trust their intuition, they do not dismember it with cold analysis.

Adults, of course, treat such things condescendingly. If the kid tells his parents that he saw a terrible monster on the wall in his room, then he will be teased. But the child not only fantasizes: this is how his intuition shows the hidden aggression of an adult, shows the fear of punishment. Only it appears in a completely different form than when children grow up.

Adults prefer to remain silent about their fears or explain them rationally. A person who has reached adulthood will not present his fear in the form of a monster or an evil Baba Yaga. He will simply look for a cure for fear, turning to psychologists and doctors. Very often, children's direct perception is realized in some kind of phobias: someone is afraid of heights, someone is afraid of flying on an airplane, someone is snakes, etc. We call such fears unconscious and correctly determine the reason: this intuition is trying to reach us.

Intuition is a subtle matter, and it is very susceptible to external influences. Our physical ailments have a particularly strong effect on it. Illness burdens our perception, closes access to the information channels of the Cosmos, since all forces are aimed at fighting the disease. Problems with intuition arise in a person at the age of 28–30. True, I will make a reservation that the gift of foreboding is often confused with worldly experience, and the older a person becomes, the more often intuition is replaced by life wisdom. At this age, a person already knows exactly what everything should be. rational explanation and intuition has nothing to do with reason.

She is situational and fragmented, she speaks in an incomprehensible language, and adults are against any prejudices. Intuition, when informing about the future, draws some meaningless and ridiculous, from the point of view of common sense, pictures. As a result, we turn away from it, and yet the subconscious very often sends us warnings.

One of my acquaintances constantly ordered a cup of coffee with milk in the buffet next to her work. She did this all the time, and there was no reason for her to give up her daily coffee. But one weekday, at the mere mention of coffee with milk, she did not feel well, and she did not take her favorite drink. After a while, everyone who took coffee with milk that day was hospitalized with a diagnosis of “intestinal disorder”. Obviously, the milk was stale, and my friend was the winner. And there are hundreds of such examples.

The problem with intuition also arises because, by the age of thirty, the abilities of the subconscious are so closely intertwined with other mental processes that they are difficult to recognize. An adult perceives intuition prompts through the prism of logic, acquired knowledge, and circumstances. It, like logic, can be obscured by feelings, emotions, unnecessary knowledge.

The most dangerous age for intuitives is 35–45 years. On top of the mid-life crisis inherent in all, the depletion of bioenergy, which is so important for intuition, is superimposed. It has long been recognized that the lowest point of human energy is 41 (according to Chinese teachings - 42) years.

At this time, a person has exhausted all the resources stored since childhood, going full restructuring of consciousness, so the connection with the Cosmos is broken. Then everything returns to normal, however, after 45 years, life experience begins to work actively, and intuition manifests itself only in flashes of insight.

Thanks to science, we know that a person needs intuition for the process of knowing the world, and knowledge, as you know, can occur in various ways. Similarly, the ability to foresee differs depending on what sphere of human activity it serves. This classification is related to the ways of expressing the information received.

1. Professional intuition. This type of subconscious feeling develops in a person engaged in a certain profession - a doctor, teacher, manager, military man, politician, athlete, psychologist, etc. It is associated with the steady accumulation of skill, with the acquisition and development of special skills necessary for one or another professions. Professional intuition helps to find the right and optimal solution to the problem, save time and effort to resolve difficulties, and reveal unclear points in the situation. The sixth sense also allows you to choose the necessary means and techniques of expression.

2. Scientific intuition. This type is most often manifested when a person, as a subject of cognition, faces a very important cognitive task that requires the exertion of the moral, intellectual and physical forces of the body. At this moment, a person concentrates on the task at hand, looking for all sorts of ways to express and resolve it. Scientific intuition involves the search for a logical justification for the collected facts or phenomena. At this time, the scientist, the inventor is constantly focused on the object of research, that is, on the problem that occupies him. As one of the components of the scientific process, scientific intuition operates in a specific language. In principle, this kind of intuition coincides with creative intuition.

3. Creative intuition - highest form the gift of premonition. Some researchers include scientific and artistic intuition in creative intuition. The fact is that creative intuition is based on insight. It works when, it would seem, it is impossible to find a way out, when the limit of the tension of the intellect, will, and feelings of a person is reached. Creative intuition is an expression of a long-term and hard-won result. This kind of subconscious premonition is a necessary and important condition for the flow of the creative process. Although various scientists and philosophers can be found different points view on this problem, one thing is obvious - great scientific discoveries and masterpieces of art appear largely due to intuition.

American scientist Graham Wallace devoted a lot of research to the phenomenon of creativity. His interests included both creative intuition and the creative process. He built his concept based on the self-observations and memoirs of famous scientists - the German physiologist, physicist and mathematician Hermann Helmholtz and the French mathematician Henri Poincaré. In 1926, Wallace published the now classic four-step creative process. In essence, Wallace did not make any breakthrough - he simply synthesized what was known before him.

The first stage is preparation. This is the stage of posing a problem, diving into it, collecting practical material, etc. Philosophers before Wallace spoke about the same, arguing that any business is preceded by a stage when nothing works, when all attempts to solve the problem are futile, the way out is not visible and begins it seems that this problem should not be dealt with at all.

The second stage is "hatching the eggs". This is the most painful and long period during which the problem is nurtured. The human brain is working on a task, it is looking for its solution, although the person himself is not working on it. In ancient times, the term "hatching eggs", or "incubation", denoted a certain special action. A person came to the temple and stayed there overnight to get an answer to his question or to be healed of an illness. This action describes the state of the scientist, the creator, who is waiting for the solution of the problem. Philosophers also call this time the period of growth, when Nature must do her work.

The third stage is insight. This is actually insight, discovery, Archimedean "Eureka!". Actually, if we continue the comparison, insight is what a person in the temple is waiting for. At this moment, there is a sharp jump, the transition of the accumulated amount of information into quality. The solution always comes in the form of a symbolic image, a sign that is difficult to describe in words.

The fourth stage is fixation. The final period of the process, which is associated with logic. Consciousness copes with the experienced shock and begins to act logically. The symbol-image is translated into words, given scientific explanation opening, etc.

From this diagram it is clear that moments of insight are rare guests in human life. Enlightenment may or may not come. Why some people are overshadowed by brilliant ideas, while others are not, is unknown to science, and, apparently, will not become known. Although modern scientists, relying on Wallace's scheme, have identified a behavior pattern leading to insight. It is, in general, not a secret for anyone: you have to work long, hard and persistently on the problem that interests you, study all possible sources, collect extensive material, passionately desire a solution to the problem, do not give up at the first failures, and then ...

Let's digress a little from theoretical reasoning. I want to give examples from the life of the greatest minds of mankind, so that you understand the validity of Goethe's statement that genius is 1% luck and 99% overwork. Intuition can give you a great discovery, but only when you put all your effort into it.

I have already spoken about the great titan of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci. He attached great importance to intuition, the work of the unconscious, in the life of the creator. Five hundred years before the Austrian physician Sigmund Freud, he spoke of the key role of the subconscious in artistic and scientific insights. Leonardo advised all artists and inventors to study the natural world and memorize their associations in order to embody them later in creations. In his Notes, the great Florentine instructed: "It's not difficult... just stop along the way and look at the drips on the wall, or the embers on fire, or the clouds, or the dirt... you can find absolutely amazing ideas there...". Centuries later, this method of spontaneously arising associations will be adopted by the Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach. But Leonardo did not stop only at visual impressions - he also connected auditory receptors. All in the same work, he argued that "in the ringing of bells you can catch any name and any word that you can only imagine." It is quite possible that the ringing of bells hastened the moment of insight of the genius of the Renaissance.

The inventor of the sewing machine, Elias Hove, was a workaholic. He worked for a very long time on the development of the first sewing device that could facilitate the work of milliners, but he was always missing something. He was already desperate when he had a nightmare: Hove got on a wild island, and a crowd of cannibals chased him. He could not escape from the savages - they had already almost overtaken him, brought sharply sharpened spears over him. Howe was struck in a dream by the fact that holes were drilled in the tips of these spears.

The savages did not eat the inventor - he woke up from fear. But in the morning, he understood the hint of his subconscious: for the sewing machine to work, it was necessary that the eye of the needle be at the bottom, not at the top. The night's sleep was the moment of insight that helped Elias Howe to find the right solution, and the seamstresses to find a new tool.

Another evidence of the power of intuition is the work of the great Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His brilliant music amazed contemporaries, and not so much the music as its creation. Mozart, as it seemed to his contemporaries, wrote his masterpieces as if in between times, without making any visible effort: either he composed symphonies while playing billiards, then while walking, or whistling lightly and carelessly the newly composed overture to the opera " Don Juan" before its premiere. The musical genius himself said that he did not “compose” anything - musical works appear in his head already ready. Here it is - a typical example of creative intuition, which is realized in the in-site: it reads the information as a whole, in the form of an undivided unity. We find confirmation of this in the letters of the brilliant Austrian composer. He writes that he sees his creation as a whole, "like a dazzlingly beautiful statue"; he hears them in unity: “I do not listen in my imagination to the parts in succession, I hear them sounding simultaneously. I can't tell you how much fun it is!" An even more impressive example of insight is the work of the English physicist, inventor, one of the most prominent scientists in the history of mankind, Michael Faraday. It was he who created the theory of electromagnetic fields and lines of force, which inspired the work of Albert Einstein. “What is so unusual about this?” - you ask. And what is unusual here is that Michael Faraday ... did not know mathematics and other exact sciences. He can safely be called an "intuitive from physics", since he made his grandiose discoveries with the help of intuition.

Thus, the theory of lines of force, which revolutionized scientific world, he designed with rubber bands. His proof did not contain any mathematical formula and not a single message on how to apply this theory. Faraday simply knew that there were lines of force in nature, and then it seemed to him that they were like rubber bands - that's all. When later another English scientist, James Clark Maxwell, gave a mathematical justification for Faraday's theories, the discoverer did not understand a word in them and asked Maxwell "to translate the hieroglyphs into human language, which I myself could understand." Is this not proof of the omnipotence of intuition? The famous German chemist Friedrich August Kekule, who lived approximately at the same time as Faraday, on the contrary, was a very scientific and theoretically savvy person. He entered the history of science as the inventor of the benzene ring formula. This discovery was preceded by years of hard, intense and fruitless work. Kekule was close to opening chemical formula gasoline molecules, but she eluded him. This went on for quite a long time, the scientist was exhausted by the useless struggle with nature. But one day the stage of “hatching the egg” was completed and something happened that, along with Newton’s apple and Mendeleev’s dream, is considered the greatest miracle of science of the new era. Tired of thinking, Kekule fell asleep and had a very vivid and colorful dream. He looked at the flames of the fireplace, and they formed into chains of atoms. These chains turned into snakes that writhed, attacked the chemist, but did not bite him. One of these snakes grabbed its tail and started spinning wildly. Kekule woke up as if struck. He began to feverishly write down the idea that came into his head, and the formula for the gasoline molecule would automatically come out from under his pen. In 1865, Kekule reported to the scientific community of chemists that the benzene ring was made up of six carbon atoms, which were connected to each other, like a dancing snake, he saw in the moment of insight.

Facts proving great importance insight for the development of science, there is a great variety. One of them is described in the book by V. I. Orlov, dedicated to great inventions: “Bridge engineer Brown (inventor of suspension bridges. - ed.) was poring over a project for a bridge over the River Tweed on his veranda. The paper in front of him was clean, the work did not stick, the bridge did not work. Desperate, Brown left the drawing board and went to freshen up in the garden.

It was the beginning of autumn. Tenacious, silver threads in the sun tangled in the bushes, floated in the wind, and Brown removed them from his lips and eyelashes. It was Indian summer, and a lot of cobwebs appeared in the garden. Brown lay down under a bush, but immediately jumped up, blinking his eyes. He saw a clue in the sky.

He saw a blueprint in the sky, clearly drawn in silver lines on blue. Brown involuntarily read it the way engineers read blueprints: the little bridge shone in the branches, surprisingly light, simple and bold. It was a bridge, not just a web on the branches. The wind shook the branches, but the web did not break. And the more closely Brown peered into this web, the more the elastic threads lengthened and thickened, becoming heavier before his eyes.<…>.

Now Brown knew where to start and what to strive for. He again sat down with drawings and calculations and soon made an invention: he began to build suspension bridges, without expensive and complex foundations supporting the bridge from below. The following significant case is connected with Einstein. Once a journalist asked a physicist if he writes down his brilliant ideas, and if so, where: in a notebook, in a card index or in a notebook. To this, Albert Einstein replied: “My dear, worthwhile ideas come to mind so rarely that it’s easy to remember them!” Illumination is the fruit of a huge inner work of the unconscious, which checks all received data with the data bank of the Universe. If you live by some idea, then one fine moment you will experience an unforgettable sensation of insight, which is incomparable in terms of the strength of experience.

Photo by @Svetlana Shmeleva

As someone aptly put it, prayer is a conversation between man and God, and intuition is a conversation between God and man.

Why is intuition needed?

Intuition is often perceived by people as a kind of mystical power. If a person predicts subsequent events or the actions of others, he can be recognized as a clairvoyant, putting some secret magical meaning into this concept. Or is intuition just a skill that can be developed?

If you translate the word "intuitio" (intuition) from Latin, you get a fairly simple and understandable - "contemplation, close observation." In general, the whole mystical raid thus disappears.

Methods of cognition based on intuition and logic appeared in antiquity and were perceived on the same level.

In the modern world, intuitive thinking is more often attributed to women, and logical thinking to men.

However, in psychology there is no division by gender - intuition in psychology is inherent in both men and women in equally, the only question is that more often we ourselves choose to make decisions. Since men, as a rule, prefer to act rationally in everything, to control their consciousness, then the formation of intuitive decisions in men in this case does not occur. Men often do not even wonder why intuition is needed. However, many psychologists, including Carl Gustav Jung, for example, believe that intuition is an integral part of the personality, which helps a person determine his attitude to the whole world and to himself.

From childhood, we are taught to prove, to reason logically, to give arguments, so the intuitive approach begins to fade into the background. Although everyone knows the stories about how scientists made great discoveries, seeing them in a dream, composers wrote works of genius that they thought they heard in their half-asleep. All this confirms that the truth that appeared “out of nowhere” is sometimes the only true one. And it’s worth listening to yourself, even if it defies explanation, without thinking about why intuition is needed.

Modern psychology distinguishes several types of intuition:

body intuition

People with developed physical intuition rely on the clues they receive from the physical sensations of their body, from their well-being.

Here is an example from the life of a famous and successful entrepreneur on the Stock Exchange George Soros. In his book Soros on Soros, he describes his physical sensations in response to fluctuations in stock prices:

"I feel pain. I rely heavily on animal instincts. When I actively managed the Foundation, my back hurt. I interpreted the onset of sharp pain as a signal that something was wrong with my affairs. The pain in my back told me what was wrong (say, lower back for short-term investments, left shoulder for currency), but it encouraged me to troubleshoot, which I otherwise might not have done. This is certainly not the most scientific way to manage investments.”

From the above passage, it is clear that Soros does not rely on those scientific knowledge and terms, such as “bullish trend”, “sideways trend” or “bear trend”, which are filled with all kinds of stock trading textbooks. On the contrary, Soros, in his words, completely trusts his instincts, to which he ranks intuition. Pay attention, according to Soros, it turns out that intuition refers to instincts. And as you know, all people are endowed with instincts from birth. This proves that all people have intuition.

emotional intuition

Reliance on our feelings, emotions, vague fears and irrational phobias. Emotional intuition does not answer questions, it simply signals the danger or safety of actions and situations.

Intelligent intuition

This is the real source of progress, creativity, scientific achievements In other words, it is the backbone of human civilization. Intellectual intuition can be professional, scientific or creative. Each of the subspecies of intuition has a process of long-term “ripening” of an intuitive solution, here is an approximate diagram of the creative process:

- preparation, formulation of the problem and collection of information
- maturation, gestation of the problem
- epiphany
– interpretation, logical processing of the task and fixation

a) Why a professional needs intuition - an example

Inventor of the sewing machine Elias Howe for a very long time he worked on his first sewing device, which could facilitate the work of seamstresses. Only one key element was missing. He was already desperate when he had a nightmare: Hove is on a desert island, and a crowd of cannibals is chasing him. And so, fleeing from persecution, Hove falls exhausted and the savages overtake him. They raise their spears over him, and then he clearly sees in the tips oblong holes… This is how the needle for sewing machines appeared.

b) Why does a scientist need intuition - p example

One of the brightest and most interesting practical discoveries is the discovery by the German chemist Friedrich August Kekule main component of gasoline. He invented the formula for the benzene ring.

This discovery was preceded by years of hard work that did not bring results. But at some point, tired of thinking, Kekule dozed off, and he had a very vivid and colorful dream. He looked at the flames of the fireplace, and they formed into chains of atoms. These chains turned into snakes that writhed, attacked the chemist, but did not bite him. One of these snakes grabbed its tail and started spinning wildly. The picture of a snake grabbing its tail and spinning so impressed the scientist that he immediately woke up and began to write down all his thoughts regarding the formula of the gasoline molecule. In 1865, Kekule reported to the scientific community of chemists that the benzene ring was made up of six carbon atoms (which connected to each other like a snake biting its own tail). His discovery helped to make a new breakthrough in the theory aromatic hydrocarbons famous A.M. Butlerov.

c) An example of creative intuition

Creative intuition is based on insight. Music is a typical example of creative intuition. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who, according to the recorded testimonies of his contemporaries, heard his works already in finished form, and did not compose musical fragments and transitions between them.

Summing up, we note for ourselves that now we know why intuition is needed and we can turn our conscious attention to our individual channel of intuition, which is a priority for us when we make decisions. In addition, now we understand that intuitive solutions can come to us both immediately (in the form of, for example, anxiety) and over time (every fruit must ripen).

Exercises for developing intuition

Listen to the sensations and read the signs

Don't demand direct answers from your intuition. Don't try to explain your every step to yourself. Stop asking yourself why you need intuition and what to do with it. Listen not to the voice of reason, but to your vague sensations and signs of the body.

Relax and drown out the inner noise

The more thoughts in the head, the less room for intuition. Yoga, walking, hobbies and hobbies - do everything regularly to stop the noise of thoughts in your head, internal dialogues. Intuition will not come while you are tense or busy with the thought process.

Loneliness is not a punishment, but a gift of fate

See loneliness as a blessing, not a punishment. Only in solitude can you free yourself from the burden of other people's opinions and be alone with your intuition.

Science has not proven that a person can develop intuition, but here you should trust your eyes: brilliant scientists, artists, writers and composers were able to create their creations and discoveries with the help of natural abilities, life experience and intuition.

When it comes to intuition, the trading community is divided into two camps. Some believe that intuition in trading is very important and is almost the main decision-making mechanism, while others do not take intuition seriously and even ridicule intuitive traders. Which of them is right and is there a golden mean in this matter? What is intuition and does it have the right to participate in stock trading? Let's try to figure it out.

Intuition in trading- what it is?

When it comes to defining intuition? as phenomena in principle, even scientists experience difficulties. The thing is that intuition is a little-studied mechanism that still leaves many questions for specialists. At the same time, today no researcher denies that intuition has a place to be and with its help you can quickly make the right decisions.

A little veil of secrecy was lifted by the studies of D. Kahneman and his colleagues, who found that the brain has two decision-making mechanisms, conventionally called System 1 and System 2. System 1 is responsible for quick, intuitive conclusions and decisions that do not require mental effort, while System 2 is responsible for logical conclusions and making informed, considered decisions. Both mechanisms are necessary for normal human life, so intuition is an important part of a person's personality. However, does it apply to trading?

“Intuition is not a trifle. It is data processing so fast that the mind does not perceive it. So said the character of one popular television series, and Scientific research partly confirm this statement. In most cases, a person owes his experience to making quick intuitive decisions in a particular issue or situation. Simply, when faced with a situation that has occurred many times before, our mind does not waste time on another logical analysis, but acts on a familiar pattern and passes the decision to System 1. For experienced traders, intuitive conclusions about the market or decisions to enter a trade sometimes occur as well. quickly and automatically, like a normal person brushing their teeth or eating.

Benefits of Intuitive Trading Decisions

The main advantage of trading by intuition is the speed of decision making. Guided by intuition, a trader spends much less time and effort on analyzing the situation. Of course, this is not always an advantage, because if a trader is a beginner, intuition can deceive him. On the other hand, for experienced traders, intuitive solutions are a great way to save time without losing efficiency.

The second advantage is that a trader who listens to his intuition is more confident. Although the analysis and application of successful strategies can produce positive results on their own, when they are backed up by an intuitive decision, a trader learns to truly feel the market.

Intuition: possible pitfalls

Although intuition is a valuable tool, it is still imperfect. The following are the main traps that a trader guided by intuition can fall into.

Insufficient experience.
Studies show that intuition works well and with a minimum of errors if a person has enough knowledge and experience in the field. When experience and knowledge are not enough, intuition can falter and lead to serious errors. Therefore, before practicing intuitive trading, it is worth studying at the Alexander Purnov Trading School and practicing the acquired skills in real trading.
extremes.
Intuition is useful, but if you make it the main mechanism for making decisions, you can make a mistake. The greatest successes are achieved by traders who skillfully combine analytical methods and intuitive approach, and not those who go to extremes, completely rejecting one or the other.
Intuition = emotion.
Those who hold the opinion that the intuitive approach is the emotional approach are greatly mistaken. This is more often main reason that intuition is considered a frivolous approach. In fact, intuition has little to do with emotions, because in order to hear its voice, a trader needs to be calm and focused, as in an analytical approach to trading.

To avoid the above mistakes, it is worth having a balanced view of trading. Intuition in trading is not a pseudo-scientific approach that does not bring benefits, but it is not a panacea for all problems.

Many traders ask, is it possible to do without intuition in trading? Yes it is possible. And many successful traders who are guided by exclusively rational methods in making decisions will confirm this fact. But there are a lot of very successful world-famous traders who consider it necessary to cater to their intuition in trading.

Should you take intuition into account and develop it? The decision is yours. And you can get more interesting articles on the topic of finance after subscribing to our blog.