From: keg@strathspey.llnl.gov (Keith Grant)
Newsgroups: alt.hypnosis
Subject: Re: Can Intuition be taught/enhanced
Date: 23 Dec 92 17:51:11 GMT
Organization: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Originator: keg@strathspey.llnl.gov


In article <1992Dec21.205603.13725@atlastele.com>, sameer@atlastele.com writes:
|> Hi,
|> I wanted to get your opinions on how should one go about enhancing 
|> intuition or "hunches". How does one charecterize hunches from 
|> random thoughts. Where does "gut feel" come from. Can hypnosis be
|> used to enhance these feelings.
|> Thanks,

I tend to view hunches as as conclusions drawn from a combination of experience
and unconscious information in situations where the information of which I am
conciously aware is insufficient to force a single conclusion or decision.
We learn, of necessity, to not be consciously aware of much of the information
with which we are constantly bombarded.  We also learn to combine much 
information into digestible patterns.  For example, to be able to recognize
happiness or anger on someone's face without being consciously aware of the
details of facial positioning and movement.  

Hunches can come from the congruence or incongruence of an observed/subject 
person's modes of presentation.  Does the body positioning, movement, vocal 
intonation, and verbal content all say the same thing or do they contradict?  
Is the body language appropriate to the given context in the culture in which 
it's occurring?  Is the tempo appropriate or is there a sense of being forced
to a premature conclusion.  Is the person's total presentation consistent with
their past behavior or are there subtle differences.

I believe, partially from my own experience, that intuition can be enhanced
by practicing conscious awareness.  If you want to be a better communicator,
for example, pay attention to the nuances of how people around you are
communicating with each other - the movements, tempo, intonation, and
mutual pacing, and implied verbal messages the accompany the explicit verbal
communication.  With practice, you can learn to unconsciously note these so
that much more can be concsiously accessed as needed.  The other component
is to be  aware of your feelings (comfort/discomfort), give credit to the
totality of your experience, and to ask yourself what it is about that 
specific situation or person that is leading to the feeling.  With practice, 
it gets easier to obtain specific answers.

The "gut feeling" is one of the ways you unconciously communicate your
experience to your conscious mind.  Bandler and Grinder, in some of their
books, use the phrase "kinesthetic verification".  I vaguely recall that it
was in conjunction with the methodology of successful spellers being to picture
a trial spelling with "kinesthetic verification" of its correctness.  This 
also helps to weed out the spurious "random wanderings", although even those
are worth noticing.

Can hypnosis help?  I find it can be a help in enhancing my awareness of
external events instead of my internal events (what Bandler and Grinder
referred to as an "uptime trance" and Zen calls living in the moment) and 
in accessing the details behind my hunches.  My abbreviated self-induction
would go something like:

There is something about this situation that I find disquieting although I'm
not yet consciously aware of why (pacing my own experience).  I'm closing my
eyes and sinking down into a state where I can picture, hear, and feel what I 
need to become aware of (pacing and direction).  As I review what's been 
occurring, very much like watching a movie, I can become aware of details 
that I had previously overlooked - details that are important for me to be 
aware of.  I can notice and highlight what exactly it was about this situation 
that some part of me was uncomfortable with ,,, (from which point I have all 
the options of still, slow-motion, accelerated motion, or replay available on
a good VCR).

With practice, the technique can become as fast and accurate as an instant
replay for a sports event.  
-- 
  +-------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
  I                         I Common sense and a sense of humor are the     I
  I Keith Eric Grant        I same thing, moving at different speeds.  A    I
  I keg@strathspey.llnl.gov I sense of humor is just common sense, dancing. I
  I                         I (or perhaps dancing is just common sense)     I
  +-------------------------+-----------------------------------------------+
  I For certain it is, that any ideas expressed above are of my own humble  I
  I opinion and bear nary a relation to the policies or positions of LLNL   I
  I or of any agency or contractor of the U.S. Government.                  I
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