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What Is Intuition, And Can You Cultivate It? Essay

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What is Intuition, and can you cultivate it? Part One

The subject of these articles will be "intuition". So first let 's look at a definition of intuition: Intuition definition: 1- immediate apprehension by the mind without reasoning, 2- immediate apprehension by a sense.

Now if we examine these two definitions we can see that they are self-contradictory. The first says intuition occurs "without reasoning" yet the second definition says "by a sense".

So, which is it? Because if intuition begins with a (sense) as in the # 2 definition, then the assertion here is that we have some 'sensory capacity ' to be 'intuitive '.

However, sensory data needs processing to be used.

Hence, that processing is 'reasoning ' on some level (even if it is on a sub-conscious level). So we have the apparent contradiction between definition #2 and definition #1. Because definition # 1 says intuition is "without reason".

It seems that intuition is inherently hard to define. But consider what a Chief Justice of the Supreme Court said about what was legally 'pornography '. The judge said, "I can 't define it, but I know it when I see it".

So, in regard to our intuition, do we know it when we have experienced it? Do we recognize when "intuition" has been a factor in our behaviors, our choices or our actions?

Let me relate a personal experience here that helps expand on this thought.

About 16 years ago I was teaching a RMCAT style, scenario based self-defense class with the armored

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