Article
You may be surprised to know that intuition, so often equated with emotion, is in fact based on logic, and not only logic, but super logic.
Research has shown that the upper part of your brain, the cerebral cortex, is divided into two distinct paths, joined by a sophisticated network of nerves that shuttles information between the two sides.
This giant 'thinking cap' is the most developed part of your brain and contains your full range of mental skills, such as logic and analysis.
These intellectual skills are supplemented by your five senses. Working together they help you to survive in the world around you.
So what actually happens in an intuitive situation?
Imagine, for example, entering a room where you suddenly feel that it is either welcoming or somehow threatening. In such a situation, your brain completes the most amazing calculation. In a split second, using all your cortical skills and senses, plus the database of your entire life-to-date, it performs an instant compare/contrast with the many new items the room presents to you.
Your brain then punches out a probability estimate of your chance of survival in that room. Depending on the probability print-out, you will either relax or have the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Research has shown that acting upon what is mistakenly called 'gut feeling' (from now on you can call it 'brain feeling') is successful more than 80% of the time, and that if you train your intuition, the success rate rises.
Here are some ways to make your intuition even more powerful.
Stand with your eyes shut and ask a friend, standing some feet away, to approach silently. You then say 'stop' when you feel that he/she is only an arm's length away. You'll be amazed at how rapidly your brain can learn to do this.
Test yourself on distinguishing different smells. For example, look at a vase of flowers and try to associate what you see with what you smell. Close your eyes and by smelling the aroma of the flowers, try to remember what you have seen - thus enhancing the link between the sense of smell and your intuition. Then open your eyes to see how accurate you were. Continue this process until you can hardly tell the difference between eyes open and eyes closed. do similar exercises with your other senses.
Each time your intuition is correct, try to analyse what it was that made you accurate.