Chapter Thirteen
The Place of Intuition
If one listens to the faintest but constant suggestions of his genius,
which are certainly true,
he sees not to what extremes it may lead him;
and yet, that way, as he grows more resolute and faithful,
his road lies.
- Henry David Thoreau
Given the limits of reason, it is very fortunate that there is another human capacity, another tool better suited to dealing with the complex issues of life – that marvelous human ability known as intuition. Jean Jacques Rousseau concluded that intuition is "the sovereign intelligence which sees in a twinkle of an eye the truth of all things." Plato called it "divine madness'.' Even Kant, after saying that we must follow reason, was forced to the recognition that “imagination” (by which he meant something very related to intuition), is the energy that “drives our being,” and that all of our “knowing” arises from this place of imagination.
At its best, intuition is an instantaneous, direct grasping of how things fit together, bringing the many complex pieces of a puzzle into an ordered relationship – and providing in a flash, in some mysterious way, an answer to a question or a problem that takes all the factors into account. It is as if the correct combination of a lock has been dialed – all the tumblers falling suddenly into place – and the lock opens. This moment is closely related to Mozart’s experience of seeing in his mind’s eye a whole piece of music, a whole new creation, in one instant. These powerful intuitive flashes often bring with them an unquestionable sense of “knowing,” a profound sense that the right answer has been found, the right path has been discovered. Because of the certainty such moments bring, intuition is often the source of our deepest truths and our most important realizations.
This kind of intuition has been seen as crucial for human knowledge and understanding for a very long time. Many philosophers, from Aristotle to Augustine, Descartes to Bergson, Spinoza to Whitehead have made it a pillow of their understanding of how we acquire knowledge – and wisdom. Even that pillar of empiricism, John Stuart Mill (empiricism is the system that asserts that all knowledge is derived from the senses), was compelled to admit: "The truths known by intuition are the original premises from which all others are inferred."'
Many of the greatest scientific breakthroughs have been based on intuition, from Descartes’ dream-inspired creation of modern science to Einstein’s first glimpse of relativity while in a “drifting” state on a train leaving Zurich. Many, many other examples could be given, such as August Kekule von Stradonitz’s molecular structure theory (called by one observer “the most brilliant piece of prediction in the whole history of science), which began with a vision while riding on a streetcar in London. Or there is the Bohr model of atomic structure – an idea which came to Niels Bohr in a dream – and which won for him the Nobel Prize. In fact, as discussed by Ken Wilber in Quantum Questions, all the founders of quantum physics were self-avowed intuitionists and transcendentalists, for they had come to see that time and space themselves were not hard and fast material things, but were in fact deep intuitions.
One of the wisest explorers of the nature and importance of intuition was Harvard professor Pitirim A. Sorokin, one of the 20th century’s greatest sociologists. Through his years of study and reflection he came to see that there are three forms of truth – sensory, rational, and intuitive – and that of these three, “there is hardly any doubt that intuition is the source of real knowledge. It is especially indispensable in the apprehension of those aspects of true reality which are inaccessible to the senses and to reason.”
For Sorokin, intuition is "the source of true knowing," for it provides the possibility of knowledge that has an accuracy and appropriateness far beyond the capacity of the senses or of reason. Intuition provides a connection to “an awareness that flows through the underlying deep connectivity of things and events.” In other words, it somehow gives us a glimpse into the Unseen Order.
A great example of how difficult it is to posit fundamental values or beliefs without reference to this underlying dimension – as accessed through intuition – comes in the most famous words written by that child of the Enlightenment, Thomas Jefferson. Though fiercely committed to the Enlightenment’s attempt to ground all values and beliefs in human reason, when Jefferson came to write the words that would give ultimate justification to the American experiment, he penned these lines: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
But self-evident in what way? Most people in the world of that time did not accept this idea as “self-evident.” Further, most human beings through history did not believe this idea was self-evident. Nor was Jefferson’s appeal to reason, for there was no rational argument made to defend it. The best explanation for this is that Jefferson knew this idea was not rationally “self-evident.” No. It was purely an assertion that there is some underlying value that exists, beyond reason, that is a higher value than the one most people saw at that time, one that was undeniably true even though it could not be rationally justified.
Jefferson’s appeal in the Declaration of Independence was to ask everyone to look deeper, to use their intuition, and surely they would see that this value he was enunciating as the founding principal of the new nation was right, beyond all logical argument, in some ultimate way. He was asserting that this idea was not just being made up by the American revolutionaries, but that it had an independent existence in some deep ground of truth, and that anyone who looked deeply enough would discover its truth for themselves.
If there is any doubt about this interpretation, simply read the next lines from Jefferson’s pen for confirmation: “We are endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights.” In this there is absolutely no doubt that Jefferson, the ultimate humanist, was saying that there is some Unseen Order, and the “rights” of the citizens of the nation he is founding find their final justification in that ultimate ground.
Intuition in our Daily Lives
All of this leads inexorably to the conclusion that as we consider the most important issues in our lives, the cultivation and development of intuition is crucial. It is the one faculty that can somehow take in the whole picture, the whole gestalt, as a decision is being made. Because our conscious minds can only focus on a limited number of things at one time, only intuition can grasp the whole for an instant, can sometimes “see” how the whole picture – both conscious and unconscious elements – fits together in a relevant way.
At the University of Amsterdam, a group of scholars captured the importance of letting go of “rational” decision-making when dealing with complex decisions. As reported in Science Magazine, February 17, 2006:
When faced with a major decision, such as buying a car or a house, it's best to do your homework, and then forget about it for a while and let your unconscious churn through the options.
. . . unconscious deliberation may lead to a more satisfying choice than mere conscious deliberation alone, at least for major decisions.
Conscious deliberation is fine for the less important, more mundane everyday choices like deciding which shampoo or towels to buy, but not for bigger decisions.
There are several possible reasons why conscious thought sometimes leads to poor judgment, the researchers say. Consciousness has a "low capacity," causing individuals to consider only a subset of relevant information and they may inappropriately weight the importance or relevance of this information.
In contrast, the human subconscious has a higher capacity to integrate more information, which can lead to better choices.
The take-home message is that when you have to make a decision, the first step should be to get all the information necessary for the decision. Once you have the information, (It is) best left to unconscious thought -- to 'sleep on it' -- when the decision is complex."
The novel finding from these studies is the "idea that we can think unconsciously and that unconscious thought is actually superior to conscious thought for complex decisions."
Consider for a moment: this study was focused primarily on practical decisions like buying a house or car. Now imagine how much more the conclusions of the study would apply to questions and decisions beyond the material realm – such as dealing with love, creative expression, pursuing one’s hopes and dreams, and wrestling with the values and beliefs that will guide one’s life. For these things, the words of Ralph Waldo Emerson ring clear: “Meantime, whilst the doors of the temple stand open, night and day, before every man, and the oracles of this truth cease never, it is guarded by one stern condition; this, namely, it is an intuition.”
To say this more prosaically: When you are dealing with the most important issues of life, there is great value in first collecting all the facts as best you can. Then it is quite valuable to consider the pieces and the alternatives very rationally one by one as thoroughly as possible. Then, at some point, for the best decision to arise, you must turn the decision-making process over to the mysterious “black box” of your inner sense of things. There is really no other good alternative, for no matter how much you wish to be rational, it is completely impossible to be rational about most decisions – for the very simple reason that there is no way to assign measurable values to the various factors at play.
Let’s say, for instance, that you are considering something simple like trying to choose a hobby. (Most of us don’t exactly choose a hobby, it just seems to happen – a natural and non-rational way.) But lets say that you decide you want to be rational about it. You might read books about various leisure activities, talk to your friends about what they enjoy, and then reflect quite rationally about which fits your nature, taking into consideration the time you have available.
All of this is valuable. But when decision time comes, this cannot be done rationally, for there is no way to assign any measurable value to the factors you are considering. How many points does the excitement you feel for each alternative count? How many points are subtracted for the difficulties of each alternative, for the cost, or for the anxieties some of the alternatives create in you. How many points for the recommendation of your spouse, or the negative council of a friend? These things simply cannot be rationally compared. After weighing all the factors as best you can, the only workable alternative is to sit with the decision for a time, to turn it over to the black box inside, and hope that an “aha” arises – that a “sense’ of what is right or best or appropriate arises out of that mysterious place.
Countless examples could be given. We like to believe that our system of justice is fairly rational, and in some ways it is. But at the heart of the American justice system is trial by a jury. A noble concept, and amazingly effective over the years. However, many studies have shown that when a juror comes to make a decision, it is not “reason’ to which they turn, but basically a “gut sense” of guilt or innocence.
The same is true for the foundation principle of democracy, a vote of the people to select its leaders. Study after study has shown that voters take in a certain number of facts and arguments, and then they make a felt sense decision, coming to a “feeling” sense of which candidate seems most right from their point of view. Rational arguments might then be given, but the gut decision precedes the rational arguments – the arguments then being chosen in support of the decision, rather than the other way around. How else to explain that thoughtful, intelligent people constantly come to completely different decisions as to who to support in an election, and both groups then give what they think are “rational’ arguments for why their point of view is “right.” It could not be otherwise, for there is no way to give measurable values, values that can be compared rationally or objectively, to the hundreds of factors at play in any election.
The Problem with Intuition
However, there is still a great problem. How do we know, at any given moment, whether what seems like a deep intuition is really that, or just a whim or desire masquerading as intuition? Most of us have had the experience of thinking that we have had a clear “knowing” about something, only to discover later – to our chagrin – that things did not work out as we had envisioned. Was the intuition wrong, or were we mistaken that it was a true intuition?
For myself, I have had experiences that correspond closely to the states described by Plato and Rousseau and Sorokin and all the others, states characterized by a clarity and sense of certainty that is unmistakable. A few times this knowing has been so strong that there was just no doubt about its validity, and the insights from these moments have almost always proven to be true (sometimes by being confirmed by later events, and at other times by leading to what seems in retrospect to be the best possible outcome). However, for me, these moments of such striking clarity and conviction have occurred only rarely.
In a second category are moments when I have a sense of knowing – but “I” don’t like what I am sensing. I take these moments to be times when my ego does not like what my deeper intuition is saying – my ego self would prefer a different path or conclusion, so it strongly questions the “intuition.” In almost all these cases, in retrospect, my intuition was right, whether my ego self followed the guidance or not.
A third category consists of times when I feel some sense of “knowing,” but it is much less clear, and the conviction is less strong. In such times, which are frequent in my life, I have to decide whether to wait for a clearer conviction, or go forward with the faint sense of knowing I already have. (Sometimes waiting is not possible, or becomes a decision in itself, such as the necessity at certain moments to decide: Will I take the job offer? Help that person who is in trouble right now? Speak out on this issue that is being decided now? Begin a relationship with this person I just met? Accept an invitation I just received for next week?) In these times, I often try to do things that have helped me gain clarity in the past – which sometimes help, and sometimes do not. Spending so much time in these waters, it becomes a lifetime’s work – like learning to be a river pilot – learning to navigate these life streams. However, the belief that there is a place of knowing that one can search for, and sometimes fine, is like the knowledge of the river pilot that there is a clear channel that others have reported, if, using all your skills, you can discern it correctly.
In a fourth category are the moments in which I have a sense of “knowing,” and follow it – only to discover that things are not working out so well. What went wrong? If I am really honest with myself, I can usually tell – in retrospect – that what I took for intuitive knowing was not that at all, but merely one aspect of myself wanting a sense of gratification or achievement or pleasure that did not fit with the overall flow of my life. Looking back, I can see that I fooled myself, or a particular whim or desire tricked “me” – using my trust in intuition to get what it wanted. (The comedian Flip Wilson used to justify his questionable actions with, “The devil made me do it.”) Just so, how do we know when an inner voice is a deep knowing – the true whisper of intuition – versus one of our many whims masquerading as insight – the devil in disguise?
An example: A strong sense arises that I need to tell someone the “truth” about something I think they have done wrong. I tell them, but later begin to get the chilling sense that I was not following a deep intuition at all, but a strong urge to be “right,’ or to show how smart I was, or to show the other person up. Urges for sexual gratification, power, fame, wealth, and to be right are powerful forces that can lead each of us to act in ways that we convince ourselves are “right” in the moment.
How then do we tell the difference between a true intuition, and our whims and sometimes destructive desires? The unfortunate answer is that it is quite difficult –basically a lifetime’s work. It requires painful honesty with oneself, and gradually developing the ability, though trial and error – mistake after mistake – to begin to tell the difference. You must have the maturity and self-knowledge to distinguish between your projections and what might be a deeper truth. You must know yourself well enough to begin to discern the difference between fantasy and true knowing. But if you know the difference is there, then through close and honest attention you can begin to learn to navigat e these treacherous waters more and more skillfully.
And the potential rewards are truly great. Even that apostle of the end of the sacred, Friedrich Nietzsche, came to glorify the crucial role of this mysterious knowing in our lives. From Thus Spoke Zarathustra:
One hears, one does not seek; one takes, one does not ask who it is that gives; like lightning a thought flashes out, out of necessity, complete in form . . .
It is a rapture, the enormous excitement of which sometimes finds relief in a storm of tears; a state of being entirely outside oneself with the clearest consciousness of fine shivering and a rustling through one’s being right down to the tips of one’s toes; a depth of joy in which all that is most painful and gloomy does not act as a contrast but as a condition for it, as though demanded, as a necessary colour in such a flood of light . . .
Everything happens in the highest degree involuntarily, as in a storm of feeling of freedom, of power, of divinity.
If there is a chance that this is true, that any one of us might be able to touch for ourselves this state of knowing Nietzsche and so many others have described, then one of the most crucial tasks of life is to find a way to experience this knowing for ourselves, to access this freedom, this power – this connection to divinity – in the living of our lives. But to do so requires us to master the incredibly difficult task of discerning between deep intuition and the promptings of our less profound urges and desires.
*For further discussion and more examples, see Willis Harmon’s Higher Creativity
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