Intuich On The Mind! "I Conjure, Think, Maybe You Are Mistaken " - Blogs, Self-development

Often people hide the limitations of the mind with intuition. When intuition works, they say "I did it intuitively", and when not - "without thinking." The belief that intuition will never let them down, usually "suffer" people with a low level of criticality to what is happening or high self-esteem.

The more confident you are that your intuition won't let you down, the more likely it is that this will happen. In the Russian language, everything is associated with intuition only positive, spiritual, supernatural. And if the decision was made on the basis of the same psychological mechanisms, but it led to negative consequences, then it will not be called an error of intuition. Rather, they will say: “the devil was beguiled,” “I was out of my mind,” “I don’t know what came over me” … Intuition is a brand that, as a rule, “covers” all “good” decisions and does not cover mistakes.

This concept is so extensive that it is impossible to cover all views on its phenomenon in one article, and we will dwell only on some aspects.

Like errors in thinking, there are errors of intuition. They are based on three illusions ¹.

¹ Myers D. Intuition. Opportunities and Dangers.

SPb.: Peter, 2013.

Illusion of perception

Errors of intuition are often determined by errors of perception and misjudgment of probability.

How far is the point from the apex of the triangle? The answer to this question belies the accuracy of intuition. The point is halfway between the apex and the base of the triangle, although intuition says it is closer to the top.

The illusion of correlation

The perception of connections where they do not exist - when a cause-and-effect relationship is attributed to successive events. This illusion can be illustrated by an anecdote about the beaten Ivanov, who concluded that there were twelve blows precisely because he was beaten at midnight.

Persistence of beliefs

People with low criticality to their conclusions determine in advance the roles, place of this or that person, proceeding only from external factors or the information received. Beliefs to a much greater extent form the "picture of the world" than the "picture of the world" forms beliefs.

I conjure, think, maybe you are deluded ²

² From a speech by Oliver Cromwell.

Belief in the infallibility of your intuition is not as harmless as it seems. Suffice it to recall the Spanish inquisitors who were confident in their infallibility, who burned people at the stake, and the Spanish revolutionaries who were infallible in their communist righteousness, who shot the descendants of the "inquisitors".

If we accept that intuition is not a conscious experience (like, for example, the experience of playing the piano, which makes it possible to sight-play), then how to bring it to the level of awareness? And how to understand that this is just personal experience and not ordinary sanity, which leads to ordinary delusions?

I recall the statement of Zhvanetsky: "Why look ahead when all the experience is behind?" - based on past experience in a rapidly changing environment, it is far from always possible to draw a correct conclusion about the future. The world is changing rapidly, and past experiences must be treated with caution, otherwise your whole life will flow in the past.

Israeli and American scholars examined more than 1,000 court decisions from eight senior Israeli judges who preside over parole boards. The meeting lasts an average of 6 minutes (maximum 40 minutes), the commission decides from 14 to 35 cases per day. Psychologists divided the decisions of cases into two categories: "the application was accepted" and "the application was refused" and began to watch when these decisions were made.

It turned out that decisions on early release are made most often at the beginning of the day and after lunch (in 65%). By lunchtime and by the end of the day, the probability of such decisions drops to zero! Interestingly, the decision when there will be a break is made by the judge and the start time of the break is inconsistent and unpredictable. Scientists say that the conventional wisdom that "justice depends on what the judge ate for breakfast" is unfortunately very similar to the truth.

Why are we wrong? Because, based on the principle of saving effort, it is more profitable for the brain to make the decision that requires less energy, time and intellectual courage to produce. Such a decision, as a rule, is routine or familiar. A person is not always able to be rational, often he does not have enough brain resources, and therefore he has to "complete" the picture of the world for self-explanation, relying on pseudo-intuition and illusory ideas. This is self-deception. As well as the phenomenon that social psychologists call "hindsight" - the intuitive feeling that we knew in advance about a fait accompli.

NOT ONE BRAIN …

When you are encouraged to develop your intuition, the advice usually boils down to one thing: "Turn off your brain." There is a constant opposition of the intuitive and the rational. I believe that intuition and a rational mind should complement each other.

The very formulation of the question of what to trust, the voice of intuition or reason, is unreasonable, it is much more important to understand and delimit the areas of where you need to rely on reason, and where on intuition. It must be remembered that there are both errors of thinking and intuition. To talk to your “I”, you must first find it. Many intuitions do not turn to their true self, but to their chimeras.

A large class of life problems are solved through statistics, common sense and cognitive methods. Where you can count, check, collect additional information, if you have the time, contact the experts - in such cases it is better to trust the arguments of reason. Where this is impossible or it will lead to high costs, it makes sense to listen to intuition, if, of course, it is yours.

Our "gut intuition" helps us avoid trouble, but sometimes it also leads to trouble

D. Myers “Intuition. Opportunities and Dangers"

The problem with intuition is that they are trying to extend its conclusions to those areas and situations where it is often mistaken: to social phenomena, business areas, in which it is more effective to apply rational approaches. It makes sense to apply intuition where rational knowledge does not work well, for example, in interpersonal relationships. In any case, it is always worth paying attention when intuition contradicts a rational decision, and, conversely, when a rational decision contradicts intuition, you need to be especially vigilant. The choice of the mind in agreement with the heart is always more correct than the choice of either the mind or the heart.

Decision making is almost never in its pure form: intuition or reason is, as a rule, two sequential, and sometimes parallel processes with feedback between them, there is a constant switching: reason reason - intuitive - reason reason - intuitive again.

In general, intuition is not self-confidence, it is agreement with that part of oneself that explains and predicts the future in those moments when we cannot get reliable rational information. And the correct intuitive decision arises only when we have trained ourselves to listen and trust the inner signals that come, including through bodily sensations.

In order to adequately react and make decisions, several things must be kept in the field of attention at once: thoughts about the situation (analysis), what bodily sensations and emotions are associated with the situation. This triumvirate is called awareness. Being in a conscious state, you can live with your heart in harmony with your mind.