Is this intuition or isn't it?

Tonight I sit in my living room and watch some TV. A thought enters my brain out of no where.

Some would say I had an idea. However I've often wondered if thoughts can actually come to people from outside their minds. So many times I've been with my friends and have had something funny or ironic happen in front of us to which we both respond to in the same manner. We usually laugh it off and assume it was a coincidence...

...but I think we may have been reading each others minds.

What is Intuition?

Intuition has many related meanings, usually connected to the meaning "ability to sense or know immediately without reasoning", and is often regarded as a divine or prophetic power

FROM: en.wikipedia.org...

Recently I've been reading several e-books and different articles here on ATS.com and many of them suggest that it is possible to learn how to be telepathic/psychic/telekinetic, and so on and so forth. As well many people on here claim it's true and say they have done so and all it requires is a little practice. However proof of these abilities is still a rare find indeed and often the "instructions" I've been reading are extremely vague and obviously are describing someone's own personal experience of their trial and error.

One of the e-books I read on the subject of "psi" said that if you visualize a "blue electric energy" that (I'm paraphrasing now) that will activate your real "psi." What? So just thinking of something makes it real? Then how do I know when I'm making an actual "psi energy ball" or just using my imagination? There is no way to tell the difference unless someone else sees it or it can be documented via video/photo/etc.

PSI:

Psionics is the study and/or practice of using the mind to induce paranormal phenomena. Examples of this include telepathy, telekinesis and other workings of the outside world through the psyche. The topic is widely discussed in fiction.

Here is an example of someone using their psi abilities with a "psi wheel"

YOUTUBE LINK

And here is a DVD set sold from a regular old magic shop's website (one in Boston I've been to many times!) that teaches you the magicians way to be psychic.

PSI DVD SET link

And now, a little about me. You see, my background is magic. I've been an amateur magician since I was seven years old. Naturally whenever I see a video claiming to be documented proof of telekinetic powers or of psychic abilities my brain automatically tries to "figure the trick out." Hell, that's what magicians do to each other! Whenever we see a trick or "effect" we don't know how to do we instantly try to figure it out based on our knowledge of slight of hand and magic techniques. Usually I can figure most other magicians out in 1-3 viewings of the trick in question. So you see why is so hard to convince me of something! I'm a natural skeptic! Plus I believe in Ockham's Razor:

The principle states that the explanation of any phenomenon should make as few assumptions as possible, eliminating those that make no difference in the observable predictions of the explanatory hypothesis or theory.

Now back to the original topic and my main question:

If I'm, say, working at a liquor store and a guy in line just gives me a bad vibe that says "I'm gonna rob you" is that because I am having some kind of intuitive message or am I just really good at reading people?

OR

I'm with my friends and we suddenly get the same idea at the same time is that because we're both having a moment of telepathy or, seeing as how we're friends, is it because we both know each other very well and are good at reading each other considering we are well adjusted to our behaviors?

So, to sum it all up: Is intuition the same thing as simply being a good reader of body language? How can we prove either?

Steve

intuition is alittle more than reading body language.

Ill give an example which Im sure has happened to everyone atleast once.

You have a basketball and you jokingly throw it an entire courts length at the hoop. As soon as it leaves your hand a feeling comes over you. A feeling like clarity of which your projectile was thrown in perfect alignment to hit exactly in the middle of that hoop. The ball isnt even half court yet so you question yourself. "No, this cant be." But sure enough, swish.

So maybe its luck, but you sure knew how perfectly you unintentionally through that ball as soon as it left your hands.

Maybe thats not intuition, but just your brain subconciously working out the mathmatics of your projectile. I dont necessarily think intuition comes from outside of your mind. I think it comes from the subconcious or unconscious, but that doesnt make it any less important.

So I dont really think it matters whether your subconsciously reading body language or not. The point is that its there to help you out and sort of act like a guide to manuever through all the BS. What it exactly is I dont think is important as long as you know when it is working. Explore it yourself and experiment with it in your lifes scenarios. I sort of see intuition as the same thing as following your heart.

[edit on 10-3-2009 by Wisen Heimer]

reply to post by the13thdeceptionist


Nice topic,

I had this kind of situation happen a lot in the past. And I always called it "advanced intuition". What happens to me is sometimes I know what's going to happen next, what somebody is going to say or even going to think before they even do. I don't think it's only reading body language because it can happen also with situations unrelated with other people. It's not a"vision", it's not exactly seeing the future. The feeling is like the mind can process the only reasonable outcome of the situation faster than reality itself and it knows what's gonna happen because it is the only possible thing that will happen. Hopes it makes sense. This amazed a lot of friends in the past but unfortunately now it's happening less and less often. I guess aging, daily stress and the every day worsening situation are taking the toll on this "ability".

Originally posted by the13thdeceptionist
If I'm, say, working at a liquor store and a guy in line just gives me a bad vibe that says "I'm gonna rob you" is that because I am having some kind of intuitive message or am I just really good at reading people?

I believe you're sensing something whether it is an unusual appearance, sound, smell or combination thereof. My dog loves people, but one neighbor he started to growl and bark at. He's a smoker and has a limp (two characteristics he'd likely not encountered before). I believe he knew something was "off" but couldn't place his paw on it and therefore went into defensive mode. After calming him and showing him the neighbor was no danger he's much friendlier to the 'stranger'.

Originally posted by the13thdeceptionist
I'm with my friends and we suddenly get the same idea at the same time is that because we're both having a moment of telepathy or, seeing as how we're friends, is it because we both know each other very well and are good at reading each other considering we are well adjusted to our behaviors?

My father used to say, "Similar minds think alike" instead of the whole "great minds think alike". Also notice that we often surround ourselves with friends who have the same interests we do, like the same jokes, etc. It would be more unusual to hear that you've got a friend that you have absolutely nothing in common with than one who thinks like you do.

Originally posted by the13thdeceptionist
So, to sum it all up: Is intuition the same thing as simply being a good reader of body language? How can we prove either?

I think it's a very useful tool. I used to berate it a bit saying you cannot make a judgement based upon it, however I made the mistake of disregarding it altogether and ended up in some dangerous situations. When intuition is telling you something, flag it, note it, even investigate it. Surely it could be nothing...but it also can most certainly be something very important. Without going into too much detail: "Test everything" as its said Biblically.

[edit on 11-3-2009 by saint4God]

The friend thing from another poster is right on. You friends with someone because you enjoy the same things and think alike for the most part. So for something like that never to happen would be more odd and less likely than for it to happen.

As for intuition I've always had a firm belief that the human mind can ascertain a situation quickly and subconsciously and then from that the brain will feed your consciousness with something like "that's gonna end up bad" or "I shouldn't eat that somethings wrong with it". In some situations it can actually predict the outcome because there is enough available information the brain can relate to past experiences to make a firm legitimate and logical guess that 9 times out of 10 is correct.

The bad thing is when people suddenly think their gifted. Then they start to try and perform the same feats with the consciousness. Nothing wrong with that until they make a mess of things because they don't have the available data to them for their brain to make an informed choice subconsciously but consciously the believe they do because they've done it before. But consciously don't realize they are lacking the information needed to make an accurate choice.

The reason a psychic may give you your lucky lottery ticket numbers every week but they don't come up ever.

I could be totally off but from everything I've ever seen or experienced this lends the most credence to me.

Originally posted by Darthorious
As for intuition I've always had a firm belief that the human mind can ascertain a situation quickly and subconsciously and then from that the brain will feed your consciousness with something like "that's gonna end up bad" or "I shouldn't eat that somethings wrong with it". In some situations it can actually predict the outcome because there is enough available information the brain can relate to past experiences to make a firm legitimate and logical guess that 9 times out of 10 is correct.

The bad thing is when people suddenly think their gifted. Then they start to try and perform the same feats with the consciousness. Nothing wrong with that until they make a mess of things because they don't have the available data to them for their brain to make an informed choice subconsciously but consciously the believe they do because they've done it before. But consciously don't realize they are lacking the information needed to make an accurate choice.

This was an excellent contribution to the thread and think it's right on. I'd like to add also that there's a greater propensity for people that need to have things organized and make continuous sense to have a greater intuition. Sherlock Holmes is a great example...no matter what arrangement objects were found in a room, he always asked himself why they were where they were. In a dusty house, he could notice the one thing that was not dusty and therein lies a clue. What seemed like 'magic' was merely paying close attention. He asked Dr. Watson (paraphrase) , "you've walked up the stairs to the second floor, right?" Dr. Watson said yes, many times. "How many steps are there?" Dr. Watson could not answer. Holmes said, "There are 17. You saw the steps but you did not observe..."

[edit on 11-3-2009 by saint4God]

This happens all the time to me and my brother...

We're not twins or anything like that, we're about 1 year apart in age, to be honest in appearance and interests we're about as different as it gets.

It happens too often for us to be coincidence that we'd both be in the room when one of my friends would be talking and me and my brother would say the exact same thing WORD FOR WORD in response.

When we first started to notice it, it was funny but now its just weird, we sometimes even start whistling or humming the same song at the same time.

I can even remember times when we both start up a conversation from silence to either each other or a different person at the same time again word for word.

Reflecting back on it now we've also said "I was just about to say that" or "I was just thinking exactly that" quite often

Again maybe it's the brother thing but theres definitely some kind of connection between us, maybe we're just more sensitive to each others frequencies or something, I dunno not an expert on the subject but I'm sure there are people out there who are sensitive to a broader range of thought.

My father used to say, "Similar minds think alike" instead of the whole "great minds think alike". Also notice that we often surround ourselves with friends who have the same interests we do, like the same jokes, etc. It would be more unusual to hear that you've got a friend that you have absolutely nothing in common with than one who thinks like you do.

This can be the correct explanation for many situations of this kind but what about when it happens with random people you meet? Or when no other people are involved? I lean more toward the basketball analogy by Wisen Heimer.