Understanding Intuition : A Journey In and Out of Science

Understanding Intuition: A Journey In and Out of Science explores the biological and cognitive mechanisms that account for intuition, and examines the first-person experience. The book integrates both scientific and personal perspectives on this important yet elusive mental capacity. It uses specific encounters to illustrate that intuition is enhanced when we can attend to the subtle aspects of our inner experiences, such as bodily sensations, images, and differing kinds of intuitive evaluative feelings, all of which may emerge no further than on the fringe of awareness. This awareness of subtle inner experiences helps forge a more fluid exchange between the unconscious and conscious minds, and allows readers to calibrate their own intuitions. Over the course of the book, readers will gain a deeper appreciation and respect for the unconscious mind and its potential sophistication, and even its potential wisdom. Understanding Intuition is a timely and critical resource for students and researchers in psychology, cognitive science, theology, women's studies, and neuroscience. Stresses the powerful influence of the unconscious mind and its important adaptive role Frames intuition as significant and novel unconscious insight Presents a systematic framework for understanding different kinds of intuition Examines the emotional underpinnings of intuition, giving special emphasis to the role of somatic feelings and their derivatives UNDERSTANDING INTUITION: A Journey in and Out of Science Copyright Dedication Acknowledgments Introduction A Blink of the Eye Intuition as a Process The Interconnected Elements Turning Intuition on Itself References 1 - Some Basic Questions The Scientific Status of Unconscious Intelligence Who’s in Charge A Brief History of the Study of Unconscious Cognition Subliminal Stimulation Intuition Without Subliminal Stimuli The Difference Between Ordinary Thought and Intuition Automatic Thought Emotion/Motivation and Associations Empirical Association Intuition Often Combines Empirical and Creative Associations Active Thought Premises and Goals Tend to Anchor All Thinking in Unconscious Influences Intuition at Its Richest Seems to Come From a Unified Aspect of Mind The Relationship Between Scientific and Artistic Intuition References 2 - Implicit Learning Frequency Learning Artificial Grammar Learning Experiments What the Brain Stores Experiments With Babies Sequence Learning Experiments How Implicit Is Implicit Learning Exploring the Relationship Between Implicit and Explicit Knowledge Implicit Learning and the Evaluative Aspect of Intuition How Important Is Implicit Learning to Breakthrough Intuition References 3 - Intuitive Cognition and Intuition Intuitive Cognition in Scientific Discovery: It Must Be a “Molecular Disease” Intuitive Cognition in Scientific Verification: The Form as well as the Content of the Data was Striking Making Connections Barbara McClintock and Jumping Genes Intuition and Brain Laterality Linear Versus Relational Logic Cognitive Assumptions Underlying the Two Aspects of Mind Pattern Recognition, Brain Laterality, and Intuition References Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Different Levels to the Conclusion An Attempt at a Linear Exposition of the Evidence The Evidence for Each Level of the Conclusion References 4 - The Brain and Perception Classical Versus Natural View of Intelligence Artificial Neural Networks The Brain as a Nonlinear Dynamic System Perception and Complexity in the Brain Chaos and the Brain Rabbits and Olfactory Perception Intuition and the Self-organizing Brain References 5 - Emotion and Motivation Emotions and Evolution Human Emotional Cues The Primary Fear Pathway The Secondary Fear Pathway Emotion and Decision Making A Personal Glimpse of the Role of Emotion in Decision Making The Iowa Gambling Task The Iowa Gambling Experiments and Intuition Deep Integration of Emotion and Cognition Emotion in More Impersonal Cognition Putting It Together References 6 - Mental Imagery, Imagination, and Intuition What Is Mental Imagery Internal Imagery, Imagination, and Intuition Imagination in Science Carl Jung: Sensate Versus Intuitive Perception The Brain’s Two Memory and Learning Systems Intuitive Versus Sensory Science Possibility Versus Potentialities Spontaneous Mental Imagery: Letting the Mind Do Its Own Thing Capturing Spontaneous Mental Imagery Active Imagination References 7 - The Importance of Embodied Experience and Imagery in Intuition A Senior Moment Drawing a Blank Inside Out The Development and Ongoing Integration of Bodily Experience and Cognition A Two-Way Street Two Modes of Intuition: Inside Out and Outside In Embodied Imagery in the Work of Unusually Intuitive Scientists Albert Einstein David Bohm References 8 - A Feeling for the Truth Metacognitive Emotion A Glimpse of the Unconscious at Work Checking What and Why A Privileged View of the Interaction of the Conscious and Unconscious Mind A Mental Buffer Mediating Between the Conscious and Unconscious Mind The Intuitive Self Feelings of Truth Feelings of Illumination and Penetration Truth and a Sense of Wholeness Can a Feeling of Wholeness Be Wrong Why Jung and the Collective Unconscious References 9 - Who Are We Spiritual Intuition and Knowing What One Cannot Know Different Kinds of Spiritual Answers to “Who Are We” Dualism Mysticism Emergence The Collective Journey The Personal Journey References Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Understanding Intuition: A Journey In and Out of Science explores the biological and cognitive mechanisms that account for intuition, and examines the first-person experience. The book integrates both scientific and personal perspectives on this important yet elusive mental capacity. It uses specific encounters to illustrate that intuition is enhanced when we can attend to the subtle aspects of our inner experiences, such as bodily sensations, images, and differing kinds of intuitive evaluative feelings, all of which may emerge no further than on the fringe of awareness. This awareness of subtle inner experiences helps forge a more fluid exchange between the unconscious and conscious minds, and allows readers to calibrate their own intuitions. Over the course of the book, readers will gain a deeper appreciation and respect for the unconscious mind and its potential sophistication, and even its potential wisdom. Understanding Intuition is a timely and critical resource for students and researchers in psychology, cognitive science, theology, women’s studies, and neuroscience. -- ‡c From back cover. "Understanding Intuition: A Journey In and Out of Science explores the biological and cognitive mechanisms that account for intuition, and examines the first-person experience. The book integrates both scientific and personal perspectives on this important yet elusive mental capacity. It uses specific encounters to illustrate that intuition is enhanced when we can attend to the subtle aspects of our inner experiences, such as bodily sensations, images, and differing kinds of intuitive evaluative feelings, all of which may emerge no further than on the fringe of awareness. This awareness of subtle inner experiences helps forge a more fluid exchange between the unconscious and conscious minds, and allows readers to calibrate their own intuitions. Over the course of the book, readers will gain a deeper appreciation and respect for the unconscious mind and its potential sophistication, and even its potential wisdom. Understanding Intuition is a timely and critical resource for students and researchers in psychology, cognitive science, theology, women's studies, and neuroscience."--Page 4 of cover