Intuition or 6th sense

6th sense, gut feeling, inner voice, intuition, no matter how you call it, but you probably won’t deny that it works. Can you think of an example from your life? Have you ever relied on intuition during your exams?
When you hired an employee?

Or guessed the name of a new acquaintance? How many times you have had to make a decision and listened to your subtle inner voice? Some skeptics may say that the manifestation of the 6th sense is nothing but a coincidence. What is it an accident or fate, apsychic ability or inner wisdom we tried to figure out.

What are scientific approaches?

According to many researchers, intuition is far more material than it seems. A social psychologist David Myers, PhD, explains that the intuitive right brain is almost always “reading” your surroundings,the body can register this information while the conscious mind remains unaware of what is going on. Another theory suggests you can “feel” approaching events specifically because of your dopamine neurons. “The jitters of dopamine help keep track of reality, alerting us to those subtle patterns that we can’t consciously detect,” Jonah Lehrer, author of How We Decide (Houghton Mifflin, 2009) notes.Scientists have established that most of our brain forms our subconscious brain. While only 1/3 of our brain is actually the conscious brain. The sixth sense is a part of that subconscious mind which in turn is the part of our soul. Philosophers believe that we as souls are a part of the ‘mind of universe’ hold the knowledge of everything(‘collectiveunconscious’ by Carl Jung).Sometimes we get a glimpse of this knowledge when we need it; this is known as the sixth sense. 

How many types of intuition exist? 

Scientists define three types: 

1. Ordinary intuition, the classic gut feeling that we get which makes us feel as if we know the choice to make; 

2. Expert intuition, which is the sort that comes from special training and experience; 

3. Strategic intuition, when we are confronted with a particularly difficult problem that we cannot seem to figure out how to solve. When that happens, sometimes we will take a break and think about something else for a while, and the right answer suddenly will come to us. 

Sometimes we have several vague feelings at once, it can be mixture of supersicions, fairs etc. So how to choose which gut feelings to trust?

“Thereis a range of how people experience intuition” says Judith Orloff, PhD, a Los Angeles–based intuitive psychiatrist and author of Second Sight (Three Rivers Press, 2010) 

“Some people hear an inner voice, other people get a physical sensation, like in the pit of their stomach, some have vivid dreams, and some see visual clues, like symbols. The key is inidentifying how your body gives you its messages.” 

He suggests that it is a matter of “combining the linear mind and intuition” and striking the right balance between gut instinct and rational thinking. 

Here are five gut feelings that Orloff and other experts recommend you pay attention to: 

1. “Something feels wrong in my body.” 

2. “I am in danger.” 

3. “I want to help.” 

4. “I know how to do this.” 

5. “This is it!” 

How to develop your intuition? 

One of the experiments we had last Saturday was ‘feeling’ colours. I watched it when I had practical training with kids in one psychology centre. The task is rather simple, try to guess the colour with closed eyes. I was amazed how easily kids coped with that task. Probably there is no better advice than to just listen and trust your intuition and use any chance to practise. Try guessing games. They are funny and do not demand a lot of time or efforts. For example you can try guessing the name of people you meet, guess the colour of the car that will come around the corner. You can find some more advice if you follow the links below. 

Trust yourself and your intuition won’t let you down. :)