Distinguishing Rapid Process of Thought from True Intuition

We occasionally meet people who seem to be highly intuitive. With very few facts, and with a very fast response time, they seem to understand and decide things successfully that we are struggling to deal with, and for which we need considerably more time. In some cases, there may be the functioning of the higher power of intuition, but actually in many cases, there is simply a rapid correlation response going on in the brain. Sometimes this is a matter of experience and instantaneous pattern recognition. In others there is a store of knowledge which has accumulated and just a few data points guides them to the direction and trajectory of what is taking place. They may have a very efficient synapse network built in their brain to speedily move data along and correlate it with their decision-making apparatus. In still other cases, there is a memory that may arise from prior dream experiences or inner visits to the akashic record so that the event is already ‘known’ to some degree.

The true action of intuition is a powerful force, like a ‘stream of light’. People who have such experiences describe the lightbulb suddenly “lighting up” or some other references to the appearance of a light of inspiration that is sudden, dramatic and clear. The Rig Veda refers to the ‘rivers of heaven’ which, as Sri Aurobindo has described to us, represent the powers of intuition and other powers of consciousness descending from a higher realm of awareness into the being.

The Mother writes: “There is also another form but that one is much more difficult to observe because for those who are accustomed to think, to act by reason — not by impulse but by reason — to reflect before doing anything, there is an extremely swift process from cause to effect in the half-conscious thought which prevents you from seeing the line, the whole line of reasoning and so you don’t think that it is a chain of reasoning, and that is quite deceptive. You have the impression of an intuition but it is not an intuition, it is an extremely rapid subconscious reasoning, which takes up a problem and goes straight to the conclusions. This must not be mistaken for intuition.”

“In the ordinary functioning of the brain, intuition is something which suddenly falls like a drop of light. If one has the faculty, the beginning of a faculty of mental vision, it gives the impression of something coming from outside or above, like a little impact of a drop of light in the brain, absolutely independent of all reasoning.”

“This is perceived more easily when one is able to silence one’s mind, hold it still and attentive, arresting its usual functioning, as if the mind were changed into a kind of mirror turned towards a higher faculty in a sustained and silent attention. That too one can learn to do. One must learn to do it, it is a necessary discipline.”

Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, Powers Within, Chapter XXI Intuition, pg. 159