INTUITION TOOLS

Joel Pearson (2024). The Intuition Toolkit: 

                                  The New Science of Knowing What 

                                  Without Knowing Why.

Pearson has a PhD in neuroscience and to date has over 100 scientific publications.

Intuition is the use of unconscious information to improve decisions/outcomes [this narrow definition of intution makes it amenable to research in the lab].

Evidence for unconscious processes of intution include: 

• proprioception (knowing where our body parts are), 

• vestibular perception (balance and motion), 

• interoception (perception of anything inside the body), 

• blindsight (navigating objects without being able to see them) and 

• blindaction (as we act, we feel what needs to be done)

His approach, based on scientific studies in the lab, and other scientific research [he does not include any spiritual component to intuition, which is a limitation, but is understandable given the scientific hypothesis testing nature of the lab setting), is providing rules for when NOT to use our intution including:

• strong/intense emotions (these cloud the subtle cues of intuition and can lead us astray--best to cool down first before invoking intuition)

• if the situation requires new knowledge and skills, then our intution is of little use as we have little experience to draw on for our intution...on the flip side, mastery of learning enhances our intuition

• craving, impulsiveness, or additiction creates a positive but problematic pull--this is not intuition, best to PAUSE and ask, is this a craving or something i really need?

• any decision related to PROBABILITIES...generally, people are ill-equipped to calculate probabilities for different outcomes in their heads on the spot--better to use logic in these situations

• new environments--our knowledge/skills often don't translate to new situations, thus, we have no experiences to draw on for our intution in these novel environments--best to train/learn in the situations that we want to use our intution in

For practice, choose one of the ideas above, and try to implement it in at least one decision you need to make in the coming week, and/or choose one of the unconscious processes of intuition to explore/research and apply to your life.