Modern psychologists distinguish the following types of intuition (paths or channels for intuitive answers to come to us):

1. Body (or physical) intuition
People who have developed this kind of intuition receive intuitive clues through actual physical sensations - pain or pleasure, apathy or energization. Such people are in touch with the sensations of their body and draw conclusions about their potential success in this or that event based on their well-being.

2. Emotional intuition
Emotional intuition appeals to our feelings, and with the help of, for example, “inexplicable” anxiety, anxiety or fear, it signals to us: “something is wrong here.”
Emotions (anger, fear) from time immemorial have served us to quickly classify the degree of danger of the current situation (there is no time to think!), Therefore, this type of intuition does not give clear answers, but tries to warn us, using a sense of primal fear, of a danger that threatens our life or health .

3. Intelligent intuition
This kind of intuition is somewhat slower than the others. Intellectual intuition serves us as a source of new creative and scientific discoveries. Intellectual intuition, in turn, is divided into the following subspecies (not much different): professional, scientific and creative.

4. Professional intuition
This kind of intuitive subconscious cognition develops in people who have been engaged in a certain profession for a long time, such as medicine, politics, business, sports. It is based on the accumulation and holistic understanding of one's own professional experience. Thus, the experience accumulated by the subconscious helps professionals to make "non-standard" decisions in their field.
An example of professional intuition:

“The inventor of the sewing machine, Elias Hove, worked for a very long time on his first sewing device, which could make the work of seamstresses easier. Only one key element was missing. He was already desperate when he had a nightmare: Hove is on a desert island, and a crowd of cannibals is chasing him. And so, escaping from persecution Hove falls exhausted and the savages overtake him. They raise their spears over him, and then he clearly sees oblong holes in the tips of savage spears ... ”
This is how the sewing machine needle appeared, and its design made the process of machine sewing possible.

5. Scientific intuition
This kind of intuition is manifested in scientists, especially at those moments when the process of cognition is stalled. Such moments require from the scientist an enormous effort of all the moral, intellectual and physical forces of the organism.
One of the brightest and most curious practical discoveries is the discovery by the German chemist Friedrich August Kekule of the main component of gasoline. He invented the formula for the benzene ring.

This discovery was preceded by years of hard work that did not bring results. But at some point, tired of thinking, Kekule dozed off, and he had a very vivid and colorful dream. He looked at the flames of the fireplace, and they formed into chains of atoms. These chains turned into snakes that writhed, attacked the chemist, but did not bite him. One of these snakes grabbed its tail and started spinning wildly. The picture of a snake grabbing its tail and spinning so impressed the scientist that he immediately woke up and began to write down all his thoughts regarding the formula of the gasoline molecule. In 1865, Kekule reported to the scientific community of chemists that the benzene ring was made up of six carbon atoms (which connected to each other like a snake biting its own tail). His discovery helped to make a new breakthrough in the theory of aromatic hydrocarbons of the famous Alexandra M. Butlerova.

6. Creative intuition
Finally, we come to the kind of intuition that is considered the highest form of intuitive knowledge. It is usually attributed to artists, although it is often associated with scientific intuition.

Creative intuition is based on insight. A characteristic example of creative intuition is the activity of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who, according to the recorded testimonies of his contemporaries, heard his works already in finished form, and did not compose musical fragments and transitions between them...

Summing up, we note for ourselves that now we can turn our conscious attention to our individual channel of intuition, which is a priority for us when we make decisions.

Our world is very rich. You just need to feel it, to see with the help of intuition the life that you deserve.

* But how to determine what is most important for you, what you really want, why did you come to this world? Watch yourself. Is there really nothing in the world that you really like? And you dream that later, when there will be more free time, you will definitely do this? When - later? When there will be no more strength, health and desire will disappear, dissolving in the daily struggle with worries and problems, with yourself and your unwillingness to do what your soul does not lie to? Or maybe, if the thoughts to do something seriously have already appeared, then the moment has come? Just think about these questions.

One of the brightest signs that intuition gives us in connection with the type of activity is boredom. Take a closer look at yourself, listen: you began to say that you would be happy to grow beautiful flowers. You buy books on floriculture. You give people advice that helps them grow beautiful but difficult-to-care plants. Do you think that it will not bring income? Why not!

Or maybe your biggest dream right now is to study foreign languages even if you don't have time for it. All of these are intuition clues. In today's information world, languages ​​can be profitable, just like other knowledge and abilities.
Therefore, the first piece of advice: do not spare time and money for your interests and hobbies. First, these are signs of intuition about the possible paths on which success awaits you. Secondly, any knowledge not only can, but will bring you income. Learn and success will follow. By the way, by purchasing this book, you have already taken the first step on the path of learning and self-development. Knowledge is never redundant!

The second rule of a person who strives for success is optimism. Optimistic thoughts about money, about your future, imbue us with powerful positive energy that attracts success to us. These thoughts must take root in the soul, because no affirmations about welfare and success will not help you if deep down you continue to worry that nothing works because you are a failure in life.

But there is no need to dismiss negative emotions, especially if they appear suddenly, suddenly: your intuition talks to you through emotions! This is the most direct and accessible channel of communication with her. Negative emotions - fear, anxiety, etc. - warn of danger, warn against the wrong direction of movement. If you decide to invest in some profitable enterprise, but felt suddenly vague anxiety, this, of course, is not a reason to abandon what was planned. But maybe you should better check where exactly you are investing your money in order to avoid or reduce possible losses?

The path to business success

John Rockefeller III, one from representatives dynasty of American millionaires, explained how to achieve success: “The path to success is determined by two simple principles. Find a job that interests you and that you are good at, and when you find it, put your whole soul into it without a trace, all your energy, ambition and natural abilities.

In psychology, there are several types of intuition, and there are different classifications. The most common and common is the European classification, based on basic human characteristics. Modern European psychology distinguishes the following types of intuition:

1) physical, or bodily. This kind of intuition is based on a person's physical sensations;

2) emotional. It is based on emotions;

3) intellectual, about which philosophers and scientists talked so much;

4) mystical. This kind of intuition is perhaps the most controversial because its driving mechanism cannot be clearly described.

What does it look like in practice? Each of us is dominated by one type of intuition, and on the basis of it we interpret events. If you ask a question about how this or that business will turn out, then people with different types of intuition will predict its ending, based on different impressions. A person with physical intuition will imagine what his physical condition will be like - fatigue, energy boost, apathy, stress - and draw conclusions about the success of the event. The intellectual will direct his ability to calculate everything to the situation and try to "scan" it. He will construct his image, which will tell him the solution.

The emotional type will be based on how he feels at the end of the venture. I want to make a small remark: in many respects, the predominance of one or another type of intuition in a person is associated with the national mentality, traditions, and upbringing.

Intuition is also classified according to gender, age, nationality. It has long been noticed that in women intuition is more developed. This has nothing to do with physiological characteristics - it’s just that women from time immemorial have been more closely connected with everything subconscious, mysterious, perceiving, which is why they have learned to listen to the prompts of their subconscious.

Psychologists have noticed that the manifestation of subconscious premonitions is subject to age-related fluctuations. The child's intuition is not clouded yet, nothing blocks it, but as they grow older, the ability to trust instinct is lost. This happens because our entire civilization is aimed at evidence, that is, from school we are taught that only what can be touched, seen, scientifically proven is true. Over time, the ability to perceive, and most importantly, trust intuitive information is lost. The people we call intuitives just managed to happily avoid it.

The child treats his fantasies, desires, intuitive sensations as a reality. For him, there is no impossible and "invented": for him, both Santa Claus and the neighbor's grandfather are real. In his imagination, he connects them, so for him there is no question: "Does Santa Claus exist?" The child asks: “What will Santa Claus give me?”. Children trust their intuition, they do not dismember it with cold analysis.

Adults, of course, treat such things condescendingly. If the kid tells his parents that he saw a terrible monster on the wall in his room, then he will be teased. But the child not only fantasizes: this is how his intuition shows the hidden aggression of an adult, shows the fear of punishment. Only it appears in a completely different form than when children grow up.

Adults prefer to remain silent about their fears or explain them rationally. A person who has reached adulthood will not present his fear in the form of a monster or an evil Baba Yaga. He will simply look for a cure for fear, turning to psychologists and doctors. Very often, children's direct perception is realized in some kind of phobias: someone is afraid of heights, someone is afraid of flying on an airplane, someone is snakes, etc. We call such fears unconscious and correctly determine the reason: this intuition is trying to reach us.

Intuition is a subtle matter, and it is very susceptible to external influences. Our physical ailments have a particularly strong effect on it. Illness burdens our perception, closes access to the information channels of the Cosmos, since all forces are aimed at fighting the disease. Problems with intuition arise in a person at the age of 28–30. True, I will make a reservation that the gift of foreboding is often confused with worldly experience, and the older a person becomes, the more often intuition is replaced by life wisdom. At this age, a person already knows for sure that everything must have a rational explanation, and intuition has nothing to do with reason.

She is situational and fragmented, she speaks in an incomprehensible language, and adults are against any prejudice. Intuition, when informing about the future, draws some meaningless and ridiculous, from the point of view of common sense, pictures. As a result, we turn away from it, and yet the subconscious very often sends us warnings.

One of my acquaintances constantly ordered a cup of coffee with milk in the buffet next to her work. She did this all the time, and there was no reason for her to give up her daily coffee. But one weekday, at the mere mention of coffee with milk, she did not feel well, and she did not take her favorite drink. After a while, everyone who took coffee with milk that day was hospitalized with a diagnosis of “intestinal disorder”. Obviously, the milk was stale, and my friend was the winner. And there are hundreds of such examples.

The problem with intuition also arises because, by the age of thirty, the abilities of the subconscious are so closely intertwined with other mental processes that they are difficult to recognize. An adult perceives intuition prompts through the prism of logic, acquired knowledge, and circumstances. It, like logic, can be obscured by feelings, emotions, unnecessary knowledge.

The most dangerous age for intuitives is 35–45 years. On top of the mid-life crisis inherent in all, the depletion of bioenergy, which is so important for intuition, is superimposed. It has long been recognized that the lowest point of human energy is 41 (according to Chinese teachings - 42) years.

At this time, a person has exhausted all the resources stored since childhood, there is a complete restructuring of consciousness, so the connection with the Cosmos is broken. Then everything returns to normal, however, after 45 years, life experience begins to work actively, and intuition manifests itself only in flashes of insight.

Thanks to science, we know that intuition is necessary for a person for the process of knowing the world, and knowledge, as you know, can occur in various ways. Similarly, the ability to foresee differs depending on what sphere of human activity it serves. This classification is related to the ways of expressing the information received.

1. Professional intuition. This type of subconscious feeling develops in a person engaged in a certain profession - a doctor, teacher, manager, military man, politician, athlete, psychologist, etc. It is associated with the steady accumulation of skill, with the acquisition and development of special skills necessary for one or another professions. Professional intuition helps to find the right and optimal solution to the problem, save time and effort to resolve difficulties, and reveal unclear points in the situation. The sixth sense also allows you to choose the necessary means and techniques of expression.

2. Scientific intuition. This type is most often manifested when a person, as a subject of cognition, faces a very important cognitive task that requires the exertion of the moral, intellectual and physical forces of the body. At this moment, a person concentrates on the task at hand, looking for all sorts of ways to express and resolve it. Scientific intuition involves the search for a logical justification for the collected facts or phenomena. At this time, the scientist, the inventor is constantly focused on the object of research, that is, on the problem that occupies him. As one of the components of the scientific process, scientific intuition operates in a specific language. In principle, this kind of intuition coincides with creative intuition.

3. Creative intuition is the highest form of the gift of foreboding. Some researchers include scientific and artistic intuition in creative intuition. The fact is that creative intuition is based on insight. It works when, it would seem, it is impossible to find a way out, when the limit of the tension of the intellect, will, and feelings of a person is reached. Creative intuition is an expression of a long-term and hard-won result. This kind of subconscious premonition is a necessary and important condition for the flow of the creative process. Although different scientists and philosophers can find different points of view on this problem, one thing is clear - great scientific discoveries and masterpieces of art appear largely due to intuition.

American scientist Graham Wallace devoted a lot of research to the phenomenon of creativity. His interests included both creative intuition and the creative process. He built his concept based on the self-observations and memoirs of famous scientists - the German physiologist, physicist and mathematician Hermann Helmholtz and the French mathematician Henri Poincaré. In 1926, Wallace published the now classic four-step creative process. In essence, Wallace did not make any breakthrough - he simply synthesized what was known before him.

The first stage is preparation. This is the stage of posing a problem, diving into it, collecting practical material, etc. Philosophers before Wallace talked about the same thing, arguing that any business is preceded by a stage when nothing works, when all attempts to solve the problem are futile, the way out is not visible and begins it seems that this problem should not be dealt with at all.

The second stage is "hatching the eggs". This is the most painful and long period during which the problem is nurtured. The human brain is working on a task, it is looking for its solution, although the person himself is not working on it. In ancient times, the term "hatching eggs", or "incubation", denoted a certain special action. A person came to the temple and stayed there overnight to get an answer to his question or to be healed of an illness. This action describes the state of the scientist, the creator, who is waiting for the solution of the problem. Philosophers also call this time the period of growth, when Nature must do her work.

The third stage is insight. This is actually insight, discovery, Archimedean "Eureka!". Actually, if we continue the comparison, insight is what a person in the temple is waiting for. At this moment, there is a sharp jump, the transition of the accumulated amount of information into quality. The solution always comes in the form of a symbolic image, a sign that is difficult to describe in words.

The fourth stage is fixation. The final period of the process, which is associated with logic. Consciousness copes with the experienced shock and begins to act logically. The symbol-image is translated into words, a scientific explanation is given for the discovery, etc.

From this diagram it is clear that moments of insight are rare guests in human life. Enlightenment may or may not come. Why some people are overshadowed by brilliant ideas, while others are not, is unknown to science, and, apparently, will not become known. Although modern scientists, relying on Wallace's scheme, have identified a behavior pattern leading to insight. In general, it is not a secret for anyone: you have to work long, hard and persistently on the problem that interests you, study all possible sources, collect extensive material, passionately desire a solution to the problem, do not give up at the first failures, and then ...

Let's digress a little from theoretical reasoning. I want to give examples from the life of the greatest minds of mankind, so that you understand the validity of Goethe's statement that genius is 1% luck and 99% overwork. Intuition can give you a great discovery, but only when you put all your effort into it.

I have already spoken about the great titan of the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci. He attached great importance to intuition, the work of the unconscious, in the life of the creator. Five hundred years before the Austrian physician Sigmund Freud, he spoke of the key role of the subconscious in artistic and scientific insights. Leonardo advised all artists and inventors to study the natural world and memorize their associations in order to embody them later in creations. In his "Notes" the great Florentine instructed: "It's not difficult ... just stop along the way and look at the streaks on the wall, or coals on fire, or clouds, or mud ... there you can find absolutely amazing ideas ...". Centuries later, this method of spontaneously arising associations will be adopted by the Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist Hermann Rorschach. But Leonardo did not stop only at visual impressions - he also connected auditory receptors. All in the same work, he argued that "in the ringing of bells you can catch any name and any word that you can only imagine." It is quite possible that the ringing of bells hastened the moment of insight of the genius of the Renaissance.

The inventor of the sewing machine, Elias Hove, was a workaholic. He worked for a very long time on the development of the first sewing device that could facilitate the work of milliners, but he was always missing something. He was already desperate when he had a nightmare: Hove got on a wild island, and a crowd of cannibals chased him. He could not escape from the savages - they had already almost overtaken him, brought sharply sharpened spears over him. Howe was struck in a dream by the fact that holes were drilled in the tips of these spears.

The savages did not eat the inventor - he woke up from fear. But in the morning, he understood the hint of his subconscious: for the sewing machine to work, it was necessary that the eye of the needle be at the bottom, not at the top. The night's sleep was the moment of insight that helped Elias Howe to find the right solution, and the seamstresses to find a new tool.

Another evidence of the power of intuition is the work of the great Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His brilliant music amazed contemporaries, and not so much the music as its creation. Mozart, as it seemed to his contemporaries, wrote his masterpieces as if in between times, without making any visible effort: either he composed symphonies while playing billiards, then while walking, or whistling lightly and carelessly the newly composed overture to the opera " Don Juan" before its premiere. The musical genius himself said that he did not “compose” anything - musical works appear in his head already ready. Here it is - a typical example of creative intuition, which is realized in the in-site: it reads the information as a whole, in the form of an undivided unity. We find confirmation of this in the letters of the brilliant Austrian composer. He writes that he sees his creation as a whole, "like a dazzlingly beautiful statue"; he hears them in unity: “I do not listen in my imagination to the parts in succession, I hear them sounding simultaneously. I can't tell you how much fun it is!" An even more impressive example of insight is the work of the English physicist, inventor, one of the most prominent scientists in the history of mankind, Michael Faraday. It was he who created the theory of electromagnetic fields and lines of force, which inspired the work of Albert Einstein. “What is so unusual about this?” - you ask. And what is unusual here is that Michael Faraday ... did not know mathematics and other exact sciences. He can safely be called an "intuitive from physics", since he made his grandiose discoveries with the help of intuition.

Thus, he developed the theory of lines of force, which revolutionized the scientific world, with the help of rubber bands. In his proof, there was not a single mathematical formula and not a single message on how to apply this theory. Faraday simply knew that there were lines of force in nature, and then it seemed to him that they were like rubber bands - that's all. When later another English scientist, James Clark Maxwell, gave a mathematical justification for Faraday's theories, the discoverer did not understand a word in them and asked Maxwell "to translate the hieroglyphs into human language, which I myself could understand." Is this not proof of the omnipotence of intuition? The famous German chemist Friedrich August Kekule, who lived approximately at the same time as Faraday, on the contrary, was a very scientific and theoretically savvy person. He entered the history of science as the inventor of the benzene ring formula. This discovery was preceded by years of hard, intense and fruitless work. Kekule was close to discovering the chemical formula of the gasoline molecule, but it eluded him. This went on for quite a long time, the scientist was exhausted by the useless struggle with nature. But one day the stage of “hatching the egg” was completed and something happened that, along with Newton’s apple and Mendeleev’s dream, is considered the greatest miracle of science of the new era. Tired of thinking, Kekule fell asleep and had a very vivid and colorful dream. He looked at the flames of the fireplace, and they formed into chains of atoms. These chains turned into snakes that writhed, attacked the chemist, but did not bite him. One of these snakes grabbed its tail and started spinning wildly. Kekule woke up as if struck. He began to feverishly write down the idea that came into his head, and the formula for the gasoline molecule would automatically come out from under his pen. In 1865, Kekule reported to the scientific community of chemists that the benzene ring was made up of six carbon atoms, which were connected to each other, like a dancing snake, which he saw in a moment of insight.

There are a great many facts proving the great importance of insight for the development of science. One of them is described in the book by V. I. Orlov, dedicated to great inventions: “Bridge engineer Brown (inventor of suspension bridges. - ed.) was poring over a project for a bridge over the River Tweed on his veranda. The paper in front of him was clean, the work did not stick, the bridge did not work. Desperate, Brown left the drawing board and went to freshen up in the garden.

It was the beginning of autumn. Tenacious, silver threads in the sun tangled in the bushes, floated in the wind, and Brown removed them from his lips and eyelashes. It was Indian summer, and a lot of cobwebs appeared in the garden. Brown lay down under a bush, but immediately jumped up, blinking his eyes. He saw a clue in the sky.

He saw a blueprint in the sky, clearly drawn in silver lines on blue. Brown involuntarily read it the way engineers read blueprints: the little bridge shone in the branches, surprisingly light, simple and bold. It was a bridge, not just a web on the branches. The wind shook the branches, but the web did not break. And the more closely Brown peered into this web, the more the elastic threads lengthened and thickened, becoming heavier before his eyes.<…>.

Now Brown knew where to start and what to strive for. He again sat down with drawings and calculations and soon made an invention: he began to build suspension bridges, without expensive and complex foundations supporting the bridge from below. The following significant case is connected with Einstein. Once a journalist asked a physicist if he writes down his brilliant ideas, and if so, where: in a notebook, in a card index or in a notebook. To this, Albert Einstein replied: “My dear, worthwhile ideas come to mind so rarely that it’s easy to remember them!” Illumination is the fruit of a huge inner work the unconscious, which checks all received data with the data bank of the Universe. If you live by some idea, then one fine moment you will experience an unforgettable sensation of insight, which is incomparable in terms of the strength of experience.

play an important role in acquiring new knowledge logical thinking, methods and techniques for the formation of concepts, the laws of logic. But the experience of cognitive activity shows that ordinary logic in many cases is insufficient for solving scientific problems; the process of producing new information cannot be reduced to either inductively or deductively developed thinking. An important place in this process is occupied by intuition, which gives cognition a new impulse and direction of movement.

The presence of such a human ability is recognized by many eminent scientists of our time. Louis de Broglie, for example, noted that theories develop and often even change radically, which would be impossible if the foundations of science were purely rational. He became convinced, in his words, of the inevitable influence on scientific research of the individual characteristics of the scientist's thinking, which are not only rational in nature. “On a closer examination of this issue,” writes Louis de Broglie, “it is easy to see that just these elements are important for the progress of science. I, in particular, have in mind such purely personal abilities, so different in different people, as imagination and intuition Imagination, which allows us to imagine at once a part of the physical picture of the world in the form of a visual picture that reveals some of its details, intuition, which unexpectedly reveals to us in some kind of inner insight that has nothing to do with a ponderous syllogism, the depths of reality, are possibilities organically inherent in the human mind; they have played and are playing a significant role in the creation of science every day" ("On the Paths of Science", Moscow, 1962, pp. 293-294). “Through these leaps great conquests of the mind are made. That is why the human mind is able to eventually prevail over all machines that calculate and classify better than it, but can neither imagine nor anticipate. “Thus (a striking contradiction!), human science, essentially rational in its foundations and in its methods, can achieve its most remarkable conquests, -

draws Louis de Broglie, - only through dangerous sudden jumps of the mind, when abilities are manifested, freed from the heavy shackles of strict reasoning "(Ibid., p. 295).

We will not dwell here on questions of imagination, attention, memory, ingenuity, and some other human abilities (emotions, will, etc.); this is the subject of a special discussion. Let's focus on intuition. Intuition, as a specific cognitive process that directly produces new knowledge, is just as universal, inherent in all people (albeit to varying degrees) ability, like feelings and abstract thinking.

Intuition lends itself to experimental study. Of the works devoted to the study of intuition through experiment, one can single out the works of Ya. A. Ponomarev, Olton, K. Fakuoara.

The prevalence, universality of intuition is confirmed by numerous observations of people in ordinary, everyday conditions; there are frequent cases when in a non-standard situation that requires a quick decision in conditions of limited information, the subject makes a choice of his actions, as if “foreseeing” that it is necessary to do just that, and nothing else.

Human culture knows many cases when a scientist, designer, artist or musician achieved something fundamentally new in their field, as it were, by way of "insight", "on a hunch".

Let's take a look at some facts.

In the history of music, cases are not uncommon when a musical thought came to a composer at the most unexpected moment, say, in a dream. For example, Giuseppe Tartini once saw in a dream the devil playing a delightful melody on the violin. Waking up, Tartini immediately wrote it down and later used it to compose one of his most famous works - the violin sonata "Devil's Trills" (See: "Intuition and scientific creativity". Analytical collection INION. M., 1981. P. 17).

A curious incident happened to the inventor in the field of electrical and radio engineering, Nikola Tesla (1856-1943). One day, while walking with a friend, he suddenly came up with a solution to a technical problem. American psychologist J. Gowen reports; he walked towards sunset and recited poetry; at this time a thought, like a flash of lightning, illumined him; the idea of ​​an alternating current electric motor came to him as a revelation. He stood in a trance, trying to explain his vision to a friend. The images that appeared before Tesla's mental gaze were distinct and tangible,

like metal or stone. principle of rotating magnetic field became clear to him. Thus began a revolution in the world of electrical engineering. (See: "Intuition and scientific creativity". M., 1981. P. 17).

The greatest achievements of theoretical science are also connected with the action of intuition.

An interesting view of A. Einstein on the work of a theoretical physicist and his judgments about his own work (See: Karmin A.S. "Scientific thinking and intuition: Einstein's formulation of the problem" // "Scientific picture of the world. Logical-epistemological aspect". Kyiv, 1983). He believed that there was no inductive method that could lead to the fundamental concepts of physics. A hypothesis may be "inspired" by empirical facts, but is not directly deducible from them - otherwise it would not be a hypothesis. The scientist can and should be free to create various hypotheses to explain the observed phenomena. The question of which of the proposed hypotheses should be accepted and which should be rejected is decided by an empirical verification of the consequences arising from them. A. Einstein adhered to this installation in his scientific activity. The initial provisions of his theory of relativity were not formulated as inductive generalizations of experimental data (although he took into account empirical facts when creating it), they were products of "invention", "guessing", i.e. products of intuition. And Einstein told his former classmate Jacob Erath that the idea of ​​the relativity of simultaneity came to him as a result of a sudden intuitive guess. One morning he woke up and suddenly realized that events that happen simultaneously for one observer may not be simultaneous for another. As M. Wertheimer noted on the basis of conversations with A. Einstein, he also came to the idea that the speed of light is the limiting speed of signal propagation, also intuitively. From the special and general theory of relativity, by means of logical-mathematical deduction, consequences were obtained that are comparable with observational and experimental data and confirmed by these data. A. Einstein believed that a theory can be tested by experience, but there is no way from experience to theory. However, the path from sensory experience to theoretical concepts exists - this is the path of intuition, intuition (and not logic) connects them. "If you don't sin against logic," said A. Einstein, "then you can't come to anything at all." (Einstein A. "Collected scientific works". M., 1967. T. IV. S. 572). "The true value is, in essence, only intuition"

(Quoted by: Klyaus E. M. "Albert Einstein" // Einstein A "Physics and Reality". M., 1965. P. 337).

Of no small importance is intuition in the sphere of philosophical knowledge. Intuition is associated with the idea of ​​Aristotle's syllogisms, the idea of ​​combining philosophy and mathematics by R. Descartes, the idea of ​​I. Kant's antinomies, and many others. (See, for example: Lapshin I. I. "Philosophy of invention and invention in philosophy". Pg., 1922. T. P. (Sec. "Creative intuition of philosophers" and "Analysis of the above cases").

B. Russell noted that sometimes his attempts to force a move through creative work proved fruitless, and he became convinced of the need to patiently wait for the subconscious ripening of ideas, which was the result of intense reflection. "When I'm working on a book," he wrote, "I dream about it almost every night. I don't know if new ideas come up or old ones come to life, often I see whole pages and I can read them in my dream." (Quoted from: "Intuition and Scientific Creativity", p. 17).

The phenomenon of intuition is extremely broad and not always everything that is considered intuitive really deserves such a name. In thinking, for example, inferences are not uncommon, the premises of which are not formulated explicitly; the result of such inferences is unexpected, but not at all intuitive, as some scientists believe. It is not necessary to take for intuition that which belongs to the realm of instincts, is characterized by automatic reactions in a similar environment and has physiological mechanisms in the subconscious or unconscious sphere of the subject. Sometimes one speaks of "sensory intuition" as perception by the senses ("intuitive" premises of Euclid's geometry, etc.). Although such usage is possible, it is identical to "sensory-sensitive". As a specific phenomenon of cognition, the concept of intuition has many meanings.

We understand intuition intellectual intuition (lat. intellectus - the mind, the thinking ability of a person), which allows you to penetrate into the essence of things.

And another extremely important feature is characteristic of intuition - its immediacy. It is customary to call direct knowledge (as opposed to indirect) such that is not based on logical proof. Intuition is direct knowledge only in the sense that at the moment a new position is put forward, it does not follow with logical necessity from the existing sensory experience and theoretical constructions (Kopnin P.V. "The epistemological and logical foundations of science", p. 190). If you keep in mind

that intuition refers to the intellect and is associated with a reflection of the essence of objects (i.e., if we distinguish it from sensory-sensitive and instinctive), then we can take as its initial definition such a definition: intuition is the ability to comprehend the truth by direct observation of it without substantiation with the help of evidence.(See: "Philosophical Encyclopedic Dictionary". M., 1989. S. 221). All the above cases of manifestation of intuition (and their number can be significantly expanded) fit this definition entirely.

But all of the above demonstrates at least two other features of intuition: suddenness and unconsciousness. The solution to the problem in all the above examples (the search for a new concept, topic, idea, etc.) always came unexpectedly, by chance, and, it would seem, under conditions unsuitable for creativity, one way or another contrasting with the conditions of a purposeful scientific search.

Intuitive "vision" is made not only accidentally and suddenly, but also without obvious awareness of the ways and means leading to this result.

Sometimes the result remains unconscious, and intuition itself, with such an outcome of its action, is destined for only the fate of a possibility that has not become reality. The individual may not retain (or have) any recollection of the experienced act of intuition at all. One remarkable observation was made by the American mathematician Leonard Eugene Dixon. His mother and her sister, who were rivals in geometry at school, spent a long and fruitless evening solving a problem. At night, the mother dreamed of this problem: and she began to solve it aloud in a loud and clear voice; her sister, hearing this, got up and wrote it down. The next morning, she had the right decision in her hands, unknown to Dixon's mother. (See: Nalchadzhyan A. A. "Some psychological and philosophical problems of intuitive knowledge (intuition in the process of scientific creativity)". M., 1972). This example illustrates, among other things, the unconscious nature of the phenomenon called "mathematical dreams" and the operation at the unconscious level of the human psyche.

In this way, human intuitive ability is characterized by: 1) surprise problem solving, 2) unconsciousness ways and means of its solution and 3) immediacy comprehension of truth at the essential level of objects.

These signs separate intuition from mental and logical processes close to it. But even within these limits, we are dealing with quite diverse phenomena. In different people, in different

conditions, intuition can have a different degree of remoteness from consciousness, be specific in content, in the nature of the result, in depth of penetration into the essence, in significance for the subject, etc.

Intuition is divided into several types, primarily depending on the specifics of the subject's activity. Features of the forms of material practical activity and spiritual production also determine the features of the intuition of a steelworker, agronomist, doctor, and experimental biologist. There are such types of intuition as technical, scientific, everyday, medical, artistic, etc.

By the nature of novelty, intuition is standardized and heuristic. The first of these is called intuition-reduction. An example is the medical intuition of S. P. Botkin. It is known that while the patient was walking from the door to the chair (the length of the cabinet was 7 meters), S.P. Botkin mentally made a preliminary diagnosis. Most of his intuitive diagnoses turned out to be correct. It can be said that in this case, as in general when making any medical diagnosis, there is a summing up of the particular (symptoms) under the general (nosological form of the disease); in this respect, intuition really emerges as a reduction, and there seems to be no novelty in it. But another aspect of consideration, namely the formulation of a specific diagnosis for an often ambiguous set of symptoms, reveals the novelty of the problem being solved. Since such an intuition still applies a certain "matrix"-scheme, it can itself be qualified as "standardized".

Heuristic (creative) intuition differs significantly from standardized intuition: it is associated with the formation of a fundamentally new knowledge, new epistemological images, sensual or conceptual. The same S. P. Botkin, acting as a clinical scientist and developing the theory of medicine, more than once relied on such intuition in his scientific activities. She helped him, for example, in putting forward a hypothesis about the infectious nature of catarrhal jaundice ("Botkin's disease").

The heuristic intuition itself has its subspecies. For us, it is important to subdivide it according to the epistemological basis, that is, according to the nature of the result. Of interest is the point of view according to which the essence of creative intuition lies in a kind of interaction of visual images and abstract concepts, and heuristic intuition itself appears in two forms: eidetic and conceptual. Let's consider this question in more detail. (Statement of the presentation

Photo by @Svetlana Shmeleva

As someone aptly put it, prayer is a conversation between man and God, and intuition is a conversation between God and man.

Why is intuition needed?

Intuition is often perceived by people as a kind of mystical power. If a person predicts subsequent events or the actions of others, he can be recognized as a clairvoyant, putting some secret magical meaning into this concept. Or is intuition just a skill that can be developed?

If you translate the word "intuitio" (intuition) from Latin, you get a fairly simple and understandable - "contemplation, close observation." In general, the whole mystical raid thus disappears.

Methods of cognition based on intuition and logic appeared in antiquity and were perceived on the same level.

In the modern world, intuitive thinking is more often attributed to women, and logical thinking to men.

However, in psychology there is no division by gender - intuition in psychology is inherent in both men and women equally, the only question is that more often we ourselves choose to make decisions. Since men, as a rule, prefer to act rationally in everything, to control their consciousness, then the formation of intuitive decisions in men in this case does not occur. Men often do not even wonder why intuition is needed. However, many psychologists, including Carl Gustav Jung, for example, believe that intuition is an integral part of the personality, which helps a person determine his attitude to the whole world and to himself.

From childhood, we are taught to prove, to reason logically, to give arguments, so the intuitive approach begins to fade into the background. Although everyone knows the stories about how scientists made great discoveries, seeing them in a dream, composers wrote works of genius, which they thought they heard in their half-asleep. All this confirms that the truth that appeared “out of nowhere” is sometimes the only true one. And it’s worth listening to yourself, even if it defies explanation, without thinking about why intuition is needed.

Modern psychology distinguishes several types of intuition:

body intuition

People with developed physical intuition rely on the clues they receive from the physical sensations of their body, from their well-being.

Here is an example from the life of a famous and successful entrepreneur on the Stock Exchange George Soros. In his book Soros on Soros, he describes his physical sensations in response to fluctuations in stock prices:

"I feel pain. I rely heavily on animal instincts. When I actively managed the Foundation, my back hurt. I interpreted the onset of sharp pain as a signal that something was wrong with my affairs. The pain in my back told me what was wrong (say, lower back for short-term investments, left shoulder for currency), but it encouraged me to troubleshoot, which I otherwise might not have done. This is certainly not the most scientific way to manage investments.”

It can be seen from the above passage that Soros does not at all rely on those scientific knowledge and terms, such as “bullish trend”, “sideways trend” or “bearish trend”, which are filled with all kinds of stock trading textbooks. On the contrary, Soros, in his words, completely trusts his instincts, to which he ranks intuition. Pay attention, according to Soros, it turns out that intuition refers to instincts. And as you know, all people are endowed with instincts from birth. This proves that all people have intuition.

emotional intuition

Reliance on our feelings, emotions, vague fears and irrational phobias. Emotional intuition does not answer questions, it simply signals the danger or safety of actions and situations.

Intelligent intuition

This is a real source of progress, creativity, scientific achievements, in a word, it is the backbone of human civilization. Intellectual intuition can be professional, scientific or creative. Each of the subspecies of intuition has a process of long-term “ripening” of an intuitive solution, here is an approximate diagram of the creative process:

• - preparation, formulation of the problem and collection of information
• - maturation, gestation of the problem
• - epiphany
• – interpretation, logical processing of the task and fixation

a) Why a professional needs intuition - an example

Inventor of the sewing machine Elias Hove for a very long time he worked on his first sewing device, which could facilitate the work of seamstresses. Only one key element was missing. He was already desperate when he had a nightmare: Hove is on a desert island, and a crowd of cannibals is chasing him. And so, fleeing from persecution, Hove falls exhausted and the savages overtake him. They raise their spears over him, and then he clearly sees in the tips oblong holes… This is how the needle for sewing machines appeared.

b) Why does a scientist need intuition - p example

One of the brightest and most curious practical discoveries is the discovery of a German chemist Friedrich August Kekule main component of gasoline. He invented the formula for the benzene ring.

This discovery was preceded by years of hard work that did not bring results. But at some point, tired of thinking, Kekule dozed off, and he had a very vivid and colorful dream. He looked at the flames of the fireplace, and they formed into chains of atoms. These chains turned into snakes that writhed, attacked the chemist, but did not bite him. One of these snakes grabbed its tail and started spinning wildly. The picture of a snake grabbing its tail and spinning so impressed the scientist that he immediately woke up and began to write down all his thoughts regarding the formula of the gasoline molecule. In 1865, Kekule reported to the scientific community of chemists that the benzene ring was made up of six carbon atoms (which connected to each other like a snake biting its own tail). His discovery helped to make a new breakthrough in the theory of aromatic hydrocarbons of the famous A.M. Butlerov.

c) An example of creative intuition

Creative intuition is based on insight. Music is a typical example of creative intuition. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who, according to the recorded testimonies of his contemporaries, heard his works already in finished form, and did not compose musical fragments and transitions between them.

Summing up, we note for ourselves that now we know why intuition is needed and we can turn our conscious attention to our individual channel of intuition, which is a priority for us when we make decisions. In addition, now we understand that intuitive solutions can come to us both immediately (in the form of, for example, anxiety) and over time (every fruit must ripen).

Exercises for developing intuition

Listen to the sensations and read the signs

Don't demand direct answers from your intuition. Don't try to explain your every step to yourself. Stop asking yourself why you need intuition and what to do with it. Listen not to the voice of reason, but to your vague sensations and signs of the body.

Relax and drown out the inner noise

The more thoughts in the head, the less room for intuition. Yoga, walking, hobbies and hobbies - do everything regularly to stop the noise of thoughts in your head, internal dialogues. Intuition will not come while you are tense or busy with the thought process.

Loneliness is not a punishment, but a gift of fate

See loneliness as a blessing, not a punishment. Only in solitude can you free yourself from the burden of other people's opinions and be alone with your intuition.

Science has not proven that a person can develop intuition, but here you should trust your eyes: brilliant scientists, artists, writers and composers were able to create their creations and discoveries with the help of natural abilities, life experience and intuition.

There are many in history interesting facts when intuition helped to make discoveries, find solutions to complex problems. At the beginning of the book, we already spoke about the role of intuition in the work of great people. What techniques did the geniuses of art and science use when discovering new laws and looking for solutions? This will be discussed below.

About the benefits of classical music

Music is often a source of inspiration. For example, Walt Disney was very fond of the classics. He said that at the first sounds of his favorite works, associations arose in his head. Disney shared his experience in the animated film "Fantasy", in which the music is accompanied by a whole phantasmagoria of colors.

Listen to your favorite songs more often. For many artists, music creates pictures in their heads, which they then embody on canvases. It is quite possible that music will help you find the answer to your question.

Ask the right questions

Albert Einstein spoke more than once about the importance of the exact wording of the question. “Every question already has an answer,” said the scientist. “If you ask the right question, you can easily find the answer.”

The birth of associations

Associations can also arise under the influence of completely non-standard stimuli. For example, Leonardo da Vinci wrote in Notes: “It is not difficult. just stop along the way and look at the streaks on the wall, or the embers on fire, or the clouds, or the dirt. you can find absolutely amazing ideas there.”

The painter was also inspired by such things as the ringing of bells, in which "you can catch any name and any word that you can imagine."

Each person has their own source of inspiration. Therefore, listen carefully to your inner voice: sometimes the right thoughts come completely unexpectedly, and you will be surprised at the way they arose!

Fashion for diaries

Many people used to keep diaries. Now this tradition is gradually dying out or being transformed (electronic diaries appear). Keeping records is a great exercise for intuition! Rereading your notes, you can note a number of facts, accidents that no one paid attention to before. And yet later such trifles often play an important role.

Researcher Katerina Koks, analyzing many examples, noted that all famous people kept diaries. In their notes, they described their own lives in detail, as if foreseeing that they would become famous in the future. And Isaac Newton, and Thomas Jefferson, and Johann Sebastian Bach and many other personalities kept personal diaries in which they described their feelings and thoughts. In the future, many of the entries were published, and some became real works (for example, Leo Tolstoy used his diary to write a work). Why do all great people leave a legacy in the form of records and diaries? It is assumed that regular journaling contributes to the development of outstanding intelligence.

Sleep - the answer to the question

Of course, dreams are a mystery of our subconscious. Everything seems to be clear here: with the help of dreams, the subconscious communicates with us. However, the way in which this happens is surprising in itself. And it is even more amazing when in dreams we find the solution to a difficult problem!

This, in fact, happened to many scientists, among them the chemist August Kekule. Once he worked all day on a chemistry textbook and in the end felt that he had not done anything useful. The frustrated scientist thought that his thoughts were occupied with something else, and pushing his work aside, he sat down by the fireplace. Peering into the flame, he thought about the benzene molecule, the structure of which was a mystery. Gradually the chemist plunged into a state of drowsiness. And then. Then what is now called a miracle happened.

Half asleep, Kekule saw strange, fantastic shapes in the flames of the hearth. Atoms passed before his eyes, moving in long rows in the fire, writhing like snakes. Suddenly one of the snakes seized its tail and swirled rapidly and furiously. The scientist woke up as if from a flash of lightning.

Kekule realized that he had a solution to a problem that had been tormenting him. The subconscious itself prompted the answer, and the chemist spent the whole night working on the problem. In 1865, he stated that the benzene molecule was composed of six carbon atoms. Surprisingly, the combination of atoms strikingly resembled a snake that the scientist had dreamed of.

Nightmares and sewing machines

Another invention mankind owes to sleep.

Inventor Elias Hove thought about creating a sewing machine, but to no avail. He did absolutely nothing.

One night, Hove had a terrible dream: he was pursued by a gang of cannibals who intended to cook a delicious dinner out of him. The horde of cannibals had almost overtaken him, and death was inevitable. The inventor even saw the tips of the spears of the cannibals, sparkling with a cold sheen. Unexpectedly, subconsciously, Howe noted that each of the tips had a hole - the same as that of a sewing needle. At this point, the inventor woke up covered in a cold sweat.

Hove later realized that the nightmare was the answer to the problem he had set for himself. After all, in order for the sewing machine to work, you only need to move the eye of the needle down to the very tip. Howe followed the advice of his subconscious, and soon the first sewing machine appeared.