Is there a point to living a life without intuition?

"The unexamined life is not worth living" Socrates

I can certainly understand his point here and I really live by this in a lot of ways. I have been pondering on the slider scale of intuition/sensing in the myer's briggs personality model. Thinking for yourself vs. accepting things at face value.

One of my base beliefs is equality. Everyone's life is valuable and everyone has experience to offer, and experience worth sharing no matter what their life is like. I'm sure most agree and have held this view for a long time.

Now It seems to me that intuitive types have an experiential advantage over sensing types. Basically they get more out of life. They really seem to squeeze more value out of their life experiences. They are on their own path and they know it. Everyone is on their own path, but many don't really seem to realize it. This sort of thing comes into play.

I have come to realize with certain people around me that there are some who have close to 0 intuition in them. What is the point of having practically no intuition and little introspection? Why be concious without it!? That's the big question here. These types respond emotionally to anything outside the norm with disdain and disbelief, like their life depends on the status quo or something. I just don't get it.

What good is conciousness without the ability to think for yourself?

So while I see everybody as equals I cannot help but feel that intuitive types have an experiential advantage. So what am I missing? When it comes to introvert vs. extrovert, neither really has an experiential advantage, same with the rest of the model as far as thinking/feeling and judging/perceiving. But it really comes down to intuition vs. sensing where I see an advantage to intuition.

Especially when it comes to "examining one's life" or "examining one's self"
I can only reconcile equality with this experiential difference by assuming that conciousness and life itself is priceless and has so much to offer that the rest of the experience is just a bonus. But maybe I am missing something and there is more to it. Comments please, I rewrote this a 2nd time to try and make it shorter to little avail.

Perhaps you are seeing different levels of consciousness in it's learning. I would consider the gap between animals and humans. Then use that gap to compare to the one between 'status quo' humans and deeply 'in tune' humans.

From there I could study the level of consciousness and what is learned by animals and possibly conclude that it's a staircase of experience building upon itself much like our experience in school (or what should have been our experience in school).

The 'status quo' humans may not be ready to take the next step up. And therefore the structure built for them (school) is what they cling to until they are ready to go forth and be an adult in the world (universe). That step requires a higher level of responsibility than being in school.

I think animals usually rely on intuition more so than many humans do. Perhaps it is more like consciousness vs. unconsciousness. Like everyone always says to wake up from this dream, referring to the status quo, no questions asked life. So those who rely on intuition in life are like the conscious awake people and those who rely soley on experience are unconscious, only their basic functions are running, they have no control over it until they wake up. Sometimes we can wake them up and sometimes you just have to wait for them to do it on their own...or not.

[edit on 6-12-2008 by cancerian42]

Originally posted by Novise
I have come to realize with certain people around me that there are some who have close to 0 intuition in them. What is the point of having practically no intuition and little introspection? Why be concious without it!? That's the big question here. These types respond emotionally to anything outside the norm with disdain and disbelief, like their life depends on the status quo or something. I just don't get it.

I know I do this; where I feel I know what someone else is going through to the point seeing that they are just tied to a system that they can't or at least refuse to escape as if they have no effort think for themselves...

but I have come to understand that I do not know what is exactly going through that person's mind. what I would see as 0% intuitive understanding or 0% self-evaluation is not fair. Even if another tells me what their values, concerns, thoughts are, and I compare them with my own in evaluation of how they are capable of understanding themselves, I don't know how they really reflect on their own thoughts.

I also think we don't see the moments in another person's life when they are most likely very introspective. I cannot evaluate another person's experience based off their actions and responses, their self reflections and the affect to their values are theirs and theirs alone.

what I believe is the best experience in life, may be frustrating and helpless to someone else - If someone is only living for simple peace and happiness, then there is no need for an examined anything, the most basic positive emotional reactions come from experiencing the externals of life (what makes you happy) and not from trying to reason or contemplate, which can even result in stress for those that have a hard time changing their automated way of thinking.

I just believe some are more susceptible to conform and be shaped by their surroundings, teachings, material possessions vice others; who keep suspicion in what they come across, understand it, and then understand why they understand it.

it is just a whole different level of thinking in short.


Many people yes do take the material/physical world for their status quo (that is the majority). Intuition and being able to recognize other energies, values, and deeper understanding is a completely different world on its own. It is the spiritual side of you.

reply to post by cancerian42


Instinct or intuition? What is the difference?

I see a clear progression of consciousness because I take into account the manipulation taking place on humans. If we were to use technology to interrupt the brain patterns of animals they will exhibit the same patterns of zombification as their human counterparts.

Also, environment affects the process as well. Take a cat that lives in a dumpster vs a cat that lives in a loving home. The dumpster cat will act more on the instinct of "run from larger animals". The loving home cat will be freer from survival worry and therefore naturally tap into the deeper consciousness of the universe (intuition). I've seen this in action. If you are an animal lover try approaching a street cat and pet it. The cat will most likely run no matter how loving your vibes are.

Expand that to humans. Manipulated humans and those pushed to concentrate on survival will be more apt to revert to instinct. Still there are more advanced consciousness humans that can take on any environment and not be fazed. And here too we see a clear progression in consciousness.

I guess my point is that we should take all variables into account when attempting to understand where others are coming from.

[edit on 6-12-2008 by OmniVersal]

I try whole heartedly to live off my intuition, its getting easier, but you have to remove the ego first.

I personally couldnt see the point in living an unexamined life. but thats just me. Others happily go about life never knowing anything more than what they see or are told. But for me, i just couldnt do it.

Yeah I think I agree with pretty much everyone here. A lot of us enjoy an introspective lifestyle and see others who don't seem to do it. Also we cannot know what is going on with non-intuitive types in their heads and we can't know what they are like when they aren't around us.

"I see a clear progression of consciousness because I take into account the manipulation taking place on humans." Omniversal

I would take what you said a step further. Even if the manipulation does not make them feel "small" or put them in survival mode, it still can turn their life into multiple choice and diverts attention away from the self.

What will I wear today?
Where will I go out tonight?
How should I deal with my relationship with x person?
Do I really like my car?
And so on

All of these choices can use some amount of intuition. Maybe the less intuitive types use up their intuition muscle making mundane decisions like this, and that adds all the spice to their life that they require. Or it just exhausts their intuitive side to where they just don't have the energy to think for themselves the rest of the day.

It was funny after I wrote this I went to the grocery store and didn't know what butter to get so I just got what my parent's always used when I lived there. For me, choosing butter is not something that I care about so I just went along with the status quo I knew. Maybe these people just don't care about certain things and it would never bother them that they aren't thinking for themselves.

After reading all the posts and thinking about it I guess it really comes down to what you are being intuitive about. I mean you can spend all day trying to figure out who your favorite quarterback is based on watching them all play and that's intuitive, but it doesn't get you any closer to examining yourself. Asking "What about me causes me to choose this quarterback" might.

So maybe it's not intuition at the end of the day and more about focus. Focus on the petty or meaningful, shallow or deep thoughts, etc. Not that shallow thoughts cannot be meaningful.