Lecture on Intuitive Intelligence by Jonas Nordstrom, PhD.

Summary

In this lecture, the speaker explores the concept of intuition and intuitive intelligence, drawing from personal experiences and scientific research. They discuss how intuition, as a refined unconscious process, can guide decision-making and is particularly effective in high-pressure situations. The speaker shares practical exercises to help develop and calibrate intuitive signals, emphasizing the importance of aligning thoughts, emotions, and actions for better decision-making and personal well-being.

Takeaways

• 🧠 Intuition is a process where unconscious sensory data is processed and presented as conscious insights or understandings.
• 👨‍🎓 The speaker's PhD research focused on intuitive intelligence, which is the subject of the lecture.
• 🌪️ A personal story illustrates the power of intuition, where the speaker's instinct saved him and his daughter from a falling tree branch.
• ❄️ The conscious mind processes significantly less information than the unconscious mind, which is always assessing sensory data.
• 🧐 Intuition can manifest in different forms depending on one's dominant sense, such as visual images, auditory signals, or kinesthetic feelings.
• 🧘‍♂️ Developing intuition involves learning to think deeper rather than just thinking more, often facilitated by practices like meditation and reflection.
• 🔍 Research shows that intuitive decision-making can lead to better outcomes, especially in high-pressure professions like firefighting or military service.
• 👨‍🔬 Expert intuition is developed through pattern recognition, where experts like fire commanders make rapid decisions based on their extensive experience.
• 🤔 The unconscious mind can perform mental simulations, similar to how chess players strategize, to predict outcomes based on past experiences.
• 🤝 Somatic markers are physical sensations that provide intuitive signals, which can be positive or negative depending on the situation.
• 🔄 The 'toss the coin game' is a practice to help calibrate one's intuitive yes and no signals and to make decisions that align with one's inner feelings.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the lecture?

The main topic of the lecture is intuition and intuitive intelligence, exploring how it works and its importance in decision-making.

How does the lecturer's personal story with his daughter Astrid relate to intuition?

The lecturer's story illustrates intuition through his sudden feeling of danger that prompted him to move his daughter to safety moments before a tree branch fell where they were standing.

What is the iceberg analogy used by the lecturer to describe the human mind?

The iceberg analogy is used to describe the conscious and unconscious parts of the mind, where the conscious part is the tip of the iceberg and the much larger unconscious part is beneath the surface, processing vast amounts of sensory data.

What is the difference between instinct and intuition according to the lecture?

Instinct is described as an automatic response below the conscious level, while intuition is a refined process where unconscious sensory data has been processed and presented as conscious hunches, insights, or understandings.

How much sensory data does the conscious mind process compared to the unconscious mind, as mentioned in the lecture?

The lecture states that the conscious mind processes about 50 bits of sensory data per second, whereas the unconscious mind processes 50 million bits per second.

What role does meditation play in developing intuition, as discussed in the lecture?

Meditation is discussed as a way to think deeper about experiences and future actions, which can lead to better prioritization and decision-making, thus aiding in the development of intuition.

What is expert intuition and how does it relate to pattern recognition?

Expert intuition is the ability of professionals with extensive expertise in their field to make fast decisions based on limited information using pattern recognition, a process where new experiences are compared to past patterns unconsciously.

Can you explain the concept of somatic markers as introduced in the lecture?

Somatic markers are physical sensations in the body that correspond to our emotional responses, which can be positive or negative, and serve as intuitive signals guiding our decision-making.

What is the 'toss the coin game' mentioned in the lecture and how does it help in practicing intuition?

The 'toss the coin game' is a practice where a coin is used to make a decision, and the individual observes their body's reaction to the outcome. This helps in recognizing and calibrating their intuitive 'yes' and 'no' signals.

How can desire for pleasure and fear of pain distort intuitive signals, as discussed in the lecture?

Desire for pleasure and fear of pain can distort intuitive signals because they create strong emotional responses that can overshadow the subtler intuitive data, leading to decisions based on wishful thinking or anxiety rather than true intuition.

What is the importance of aligning thoughts, emotions, and actions according to the lecture?

Aligning thoughts, emotions, and actions is important for congruence and reducing inner conflict, which can lead to better outcomes for oneself and others, as well as a more harmonious and effective decision-making process.

Outlines

00:00

🌱 Introduction to Intuition and Its Role

The speaker begins by expressing their fascination with intuition and intuitive intelligence, a subject they've studied extensively, including for their PhD. They share a personal anecdote about their daughter, Astrid, to illustrate the concept of intuition. During a windy day, an intuitive feeling prompted the speaker to move Astrid away from a falling tree branch, highlighting the rapid, unconscious decision-making process. The speaker explains intuition as a function of the unconscious mind, which processes significantly more sensory data than the conscious mind. They introduce the idea that intuition is a refined process that presents unconscious data as conscious insights, which can manifest in various sensory forms depending on an individual's dominant sense.

05:02

🔍 Expert Intuition and Pattern Recognition

The speaker delves into the concept of expert intuition, using the example of a fire commander who, based on his extensive experience, quickly recognized a dangerous situation and ordered his team to evacuate, avoiding a potential disaster. This decision was facilitated by pattern recognition, a process where the brain subconsciously compares new experiences with stored patterns. The speaker explains that this process is handled by the older parts of the brain, which can also trigger physical sensations. They discuss how the commander's unconscious mind picked up on subtle cues like heat level, sound, and the ineffectiveness of water, which collectively signaled danger. The speaker also shares a personal story about recognizing a subtle change in his wife's appearance, illustrating how the body can react to intuitive signals even before the conscious mind fully processes the information.

10:03

🎭 Somatic Markers and Intuitive Signals

The speaker introduces the concept of somatic markers, which are physical sensations in the body that correspond to our thoughts and emotions. They guide listeners through an exercise to identify positive and negative somatic markers by thinking about someone they like or dislike. The speaker explains that these markers can indicate our intuitive yes or no signals, which can be calibrated by recognizing consistent physical sensations associated with positive or negative outcomes. They suggest using these signals to guide decision-making and provide a method to practice this skill through a 'toss the coin game,' which helps to discern the body's intuitive reaction to potential choices.

15:11

🛠️ Calibrating Intuitive Signals for Decision-Making

The speaker discusses the importance of calibrating our intuitive yes and no signals by reflecting on past experiences where decisions led to positive or negative outcomes. They share a personal example of realizing the importance of listening to initial intuitive signals in business decisions. The speaker emphasizes the value of aligning thoughts, emotions, and actions for congruency and better decision-making. They also introduce a 'toss the coin game' as a playful way to practice listening to intuitive signals in everyday decisions, explaining how the body's reaction to the coin's outcome can provide insight into the true preference of the subconscious mind.

20:12

🚧 Overcoming Intuitive Signal Distortions

In the final paragraph, the speaker addresses the challenges of discerning true intuitive signals from 'junk data' caused by desires for pleasure or fears of pain. They explain how these strong emotional states can overshadow the subtler intuitive signals, leading to decision-making based on wishful thinking or anxiety rather than genuine intuition. The speaker suggests that practices like meditation and introspection can help filter out this noise and clarify the intuitive signals. They conclude by encouraging listeners to develop their intuitive skills and to be mindful of the potential distortions that can affect the accuracy of their intuitive guidance.

Keywords

💡Intuition

Intuition refers to the ability to understand or know something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning. In the context of the video, intuition is presented as a powerful tool for decision-making, often surfacing as a 'gut feeling' or instinctual response. The lecturer shares a personal story where intuition saved him and his daughter from danger, illustrating the concept's practical application and significance.

💡Unconscious mind

The unconscious mind is the part of the mind that operates outside of direct awareness and is associated with automatic processes and hidden influences on behavior. The video discusses how the unconscious mind processes vast amounts of sensory data, contrasting it with the conscious mind's limited data processing capabilities. This concept is central to understanding the origins of intuition, as the unconscious mind is portrayed as a 'supercomputer' that informs our intuitive responses.

💡Instinct

Instinct is defined as an innate, typically fixed pattern of behavior in response to certain stimuli. The video differentiates between instinct and intuition, suggesting that while instinct is an automatic response occurring below the conscious level, intuition is a more refined process that involves the unconscious processing of sensory data into conscious insights or understandings.

💡Somatic markers

Somatic markers are physiological responses in the body that signal an emotional reaction to a thought or memory. The lecturer uses the example of meeting his wife with a different hairstyle to illustrate how somatic markers can create a sense of something being 'off' until the brain registers the change. These markers are part of the intuitive process, providing bodily sensations that can guide decision-making.

💡Pattern recognition

Pattern recognition is the ability to identify regularities or patterns in data. In the video, pattern recognition is highlighted as a key process in expert intuition, where professionals like fire commanders use their accumulated expertise to quickly identify and react to critical situations based on patterns they've learned from past experiences.

💡Mental simulation

Mental simulation involves imagining different scenarios and evaluating them based on past experiences. The video gives the example of chess players who mentally simulate various moves and choose the one that 'feels' most promising. This concept is related to intuition as it demonstrates how the mind can process complex information and arrive at decisions that feel intuitively right.

💡Yes signal and No signal

These terms refer to the positive or negative intuitive responses one might have to a decision or situation. The video encourages individuals to calibrate their 'yes' and 'no' signals by recognizing the somatic markers and emotional responses associated with positive or negative outcomes. This calibration helps in tuning into one's intuition for better decision-making.

💡Desire for pleasure

Desire for pleasure is the longing for enjoyable experiences and can sometimes distort intuitive signals by creating wishful thinking. The video warns that this desire can lead to the creation of positive mental images that may not align with one's deeper knowing, thus clouding the intuitive process.

💡Fear of pain

Fear of pain encompasses various negative emotions such as anxiety, insecurity, and fear of failure, which can also distort intuitive signals. The video explains that when these fears are triggered, they can create strong bodily sensations that overshadow the subtler intuitive data, making it harder to trust one's intuition.

💡Meditation

Meditation is a practice of focusing the mind and achieving a mentally clear and emotionally calm state. In the video, meditation is presented as a tool for developing intuitive skills by filtering out 'junk data' such as desire for pleasure and fear of pain. It allows for clearer access to intuitive signals by quieting the mind and enhancing self-awareness.

Highlights

The lecturer shares a personal story about intuition saving them from danger, setting the stage for the topic.

Intuition is compared to the tip of an iceberg, with the vast unconscious processes beneath representing the majority of brain activity.

The unconscious mind processes 50 million bits of sensory data per second, a million times more than the conscious mind's 50 bits.

Intuition is defined as a refined process that presents unconscious sensory data as conscious insights or understandings.

Intuition can manifest in different forms depending on an individual's dominant sense, such as visual, auditory, or kinesthetic.

Developing intuition involves learning to think deeper rather than more, which can lead to better decision-making.

Research shows that intuitive decision-making often produces better results than relying solely on analytical reasoning.

Expert intuition is developed through pattern recognition, allowing experts to make fast decisions based on limited information.

The story of a fire commander illustrates how expert intuition can prevent disaster by recognizing subtle cues.

The unconscious mind performs mental simulations, similar to how chess players strategize, to guide intuitive decisions.

Somatic markers are physical sensations in the body that signal whether an intuitive decision is positive or negative.

Positive somatic markers include feelings of warmth, relaxation, and increased energy, indicating a good decision.

Negative somatic markers, such as tension or coldness, can signal that a decision may not be beneficial.

Calibrating yes and no signals involves recognizing somatic markers associated with positive and negative past decisions.

The 'toss the coin game' is a technique to practice intuitive decision-making and discern between inner desires and true intuition.

Desire for pleasure and fear of pain can distort intuitive signals, and introspection can help filter out this 'junk data'.

Aligning thoughts, emotions, and actions according to intuitive signals leads to better outcomes and reduces inner conflict.

The lecturer concludes by encouraging the development of intuitive skills for better decision-making in everyday life.

Transcripts

Welcome to this lecture in intuition and intuitive intelligence.

This is a subject I'm very fascinated about and I hope you feel the same afterward.

I actually did my PhD, my dissertation, on this subject and we'll go through some of that information here.

But let me start with a short story. A few days  ago, my daughter Astrid, here on the picture,  

two years and about two months old. We are playing in the yard.

It was very windy and all of a sudden I get this feeling, I have to pick her up and move away really fast.

My body was kind of in a state of anxiety, and I pick her up to turn around,

move towards our house, and all of a sudden we heard this loud noise.  

A big branch from the tree is falling  down right on the place where we were standing.  

Afterward, I was shocked and of course  relieved, and was thinking "What is this."  

Of course, I knew what it was, intuition, and  that's what we're going to talk about.

What happened is people just have this feeling  "I just knew what to do" or "My body just reacted,"

and the reason for that is, if we think about our brain and mind it's like an iceberg,

the conscious part of our brain is the tip of the iceberg,

and then we have unconscious processes underneath the surface,

assessing a lot of sensory data for us. In this case, it was the wind, noises.

For me, it was the emotional state of feeling danger or feeling adrenaline,

that wake up before something dangerous happen, that made me react.

So we can think about the conscious mind processing much less information than the unconscious mind,

and according to research done by this Norwegian professor, consciously our mind process about 50 bits of sensory data a second,

while unconsciously 50 million bits a  second, that's a million times more data.

So when it comes to intuition, we can think about intuition  as a process where we assess instinctual data.

I was reacting more instinctually with Astrid, in that sense that my body reacted,

then my conscious mind kind of allowed my body to go along with that instinctual reaction.

So the definition I do here is instinct is an automatic response below the conscious level,

while intuition is a refined process in which unconscious data sensory data has been processed and presented

as conscious hunches insights or understandings, for example, it can be represented in other ways,

a little bit depending on your strongest sense. If it's visual, it can come as pictures.

If it's auditory, you can hear something or see a word in front of you.

Or, if you're more kinesthetic, body-oriented, you feel how your body is reacting.

So all the time the brain is processing sensory data for us, and what we can think,

when we develop our intuition, it's like we actually learn how to think deeper, instead of thinking more.

Often in a stressed society, we think that we need to control things, I need to think and be aware of things, and put in control measures.

While when we meditate, reflect on things, we actually think deeper about what we are experiencing and what we're about to do,

and, when we do that, my experience is that we'll be able to prioritize better.

Thus, achieve more but do less. So, hopefully, you will be able to use some of the tricks we go through here today.  

But first a little bit about some of the science behind this.

A lot of research has been done regarding business leaders, pilots, firemen, military personnel, and stock analysts.  

I myself served in the military for five years,  was stationed in Afghanistan 2002, in Kabul.  

Before that in the Balkans. Often we needed  to make fast decisions with limited information.  

For people that are in professions like this,  where you can't think about every move you make,  

you can't make a pro-con list before you make a decision,

research demonstrates that intuitive decision-making produces better results compared to only using analytical and logical reasoning.  

A person who has researched this quite a lot is the psychologist Gary Klein.

On one occasion, he is researching a fire commander, and at this time his team is called out to kitchen fire.

His team arrives at the place. They take out the equipment  they need to use. They move into the house.  

After about two to three minutes, the commander  realizes, for some reason, he didn't exactly know why,  

that I have to pull the team out. So he gives  the command "pull out, pull out."

His team is a bit confused. We just got here, why do we need to pull out.

A few minutes later something interesting happens. The floor in the kitchen collapses, and,

if his team would have stayed there, they would have fallen through the floor in the kitchen,

down onto the real fire that was underneath the kitchen.

Gary Klein calls this expert intuition. People  that have built up a lot of expertise in their profession, 

they seem to be able to use a process called pattern recognition  when they make fast decisions based on limited information. 

In this case, the commander, based on all his past experiences and knowledge came into this situation with a lot of old patterns.  

Most of them he's not aware of. It is just built into him.

A little bit like when you communicate to people, you can get a sense of someone lying.

You might not think about what it is that made you feel this way. You just get a feeling something is off here.

Same here. It's based on your experience of talking to people. The commander comes into a new situation.

Then the new pattern, whatever his experience is there, is automatically compared to his old experiences.

We call this a pattern recognition process, where similarities and differences in patterns are being compared.

This is done by the old parts of the brain, the brain stem, the limbic system.

Some of these parts are connected to creating muscular tension in the body. So you often feel these signals in the body.

What did the commander more specifically act upon?  When the psychologist started asking questions,  

they were able to elicit the sensory data he was acting upon. One thing was that the heat level in the kitchen was too high.  

Normally when it's a kitchen fire, it's not that hot in the room.  

At the same time, the sound level was too low. If the fire would have been in the kitchen,  

it would be more noise. The third thing is that the water they used did not extinguish the fire.   

The commander knew this unconsciously, not consciously.  His unconscious mind, the supercomputer, informs him,  

something is off here, he feels a warning signal.  The unconscious mind performs something called a mental simulation.  

This is something chess players do. When they play chess, they mentally simulate  

different scenarios and then they go with the one  that feels best to them based, on their experience.  

In this case, the new scenario was to evacuate. It could be in the form of a picture,

it could just be a sensory experience in his body, to move away from there.

You could actually sometimes feel that your body wants to move away, and you can go along with that,

or it could be words or thoughts or something in his inner mind, or a mix of all of this.

I call that the yes signal. Go ahead with a new scenario. This is something we're going to calibrate in a moment.

Your no signal, your red flag, and your yes signal. Let me give you another example.

Maybe a silly one, but still important to me. This is my wife Maria. We met about 10 years ago.

We started dating and on this occasion, we were supposed to meet in the city of Stockholm, outside a coffee place.

I see her, I hug her, and all of a sudden I get this somatic experience, something is off, I can't understand what it is.   

We keep talking and my mind is busy trying  to understand what is it that is different.  

After 5-10 minutes, I realized what it was. She had  cut her hair, not this short. I'm not that slow.

But a few inches. All of a sudden my body was so happy that it realized what it was.

Because up till then, it had been a nagging sensation within,  like something is off but I can't put my finger to it.  

This is an example of, we see something, the nervous  system process sensory data for us, and gives us  

somatic markers in the body. The same for you now.  If you imagine playing along a little bit.

You can close your eyes, if you want to, and you can think about a person you like.

You can imagine seeing this person in front of you. Maybe remembering the last time you spent time with him or her.

Maybe hear that person's voice,

and just notice how does your body react  when you think about this person you like.

Are you breathing faster or slower?

Where in your body do you get the  sensation? Stomach, chest, or throat?

How big is this area?

Is it the size of a golf ball, tennis ball, or football?

Just pay attention  to this area in your body.

If you want to, you can put a matching  color to the area. Just to make it more visual.  

It doesn't matter what color you  choose, it to just make it more visual.  

In a moment, I'm gonna ask you to think  about a person you don't like.

A person you dislike. So you can choose a person from your past, or from your present, that you don't like.

Imagine seeing this person. He or she might be sitting next to you.

You hear that person's voice,

and, once again, you can notice  how your body reacts to that.

Is your breathing changing?

Is your posture changing?

Maybe you feel tension in some areas  of your body, the neck, chest, or stomach?  

And, once again you can put a matching color  to the sensations you feel in your body.

I don't want to leave you with this unpleasant feeling,  so we'll end by thinking about the person you like again. 

So imagine talking to the person you like.  Maybe remembering the last time the two of you met.

Just notice how your body and your sensory  experience is changing a little bit.  

On a physical and emotional level. If you have closed  your eyes, you can open them again.

What you're feeling in your body is something we call somatic  markers. We can have positive somatic markers and  

negative somatic markers. Some examples of positive  somatic markers could be higher levels of energy,  

expansion in the area of the chest or stomach, it's  easier to breathe, increased heart rate,

a sensation of warmness, joyfulness, muscular relaxation, you may want to move or jump, openness, and harmony.  

This is basically when the stress response is  deactivated, muscular tissue can relax,

more blood can flow into that area, might make it warmer and  more comfortable. The opposite to when we think about  

the person we don't like, a tiny stress response is  activated, producing negative somatic markers.

For example, tiredness or less energy, compression in  the area of the chest, or stomach, or maybe the throat.  

It's more difficult to breathe,  pain or anxiety in the stomach.  

Emotions can be triggered, a sensation of coldness,  a sensation of being stressed, muscular tension,  

and the body moves more slowly, closeness, sweating  sometimes one can feel wanting to move away from that person.  

In order to develop the intuitive language, we can calibrate our yes and no signals.  

We do that by noticing a lot of different  somatic markers, maybe three to four to five.   

When you think about the person you like, what are the three, four, or five different sensations you were experiencing? 

You can actually write them down if you want to, or make a mental note of them.  

It's the same with the no signal. If you think about the person you don't like,

what are the three to five things you were experiencing in your body?

Let's continue calibrating our yes and no signals. You can think about a life-changing situation,

when you made a decision where you directly knew or felt that it was not good for you, but for different reasons you did it anyway,

and it had a negative outcome. That's the no signal. It could,  for example, be you met your partner, and already during  

the first two, three days you had this nagging  feeling that something is off, this is not good for me,  

but I still want to date this person. There is a conflict within us.

Or it could be you agreed to take a job but you could at the same time feel there is something off here.

Your unconscious mind is informing you this may not be good for you.

See if you can find a few of these situations where you said yes but your body told you not to do it, and later on you realized it wasn't good for you.  

Personally, I realized quite some years  ago, I had my first business, that I spent a lot of time doing things

hoping for certain things to happen. I maybe spend 100 hours on one project, another 100 hours on another project, in the direction of expanding my business,

but it never led anywhere. Later on, when I started meditating, I realized that already at the beginning of those projects,  

I could feel that this wasn't going to succeed.  So nowadays I think that signal, when that signal comes up,

I try to understand why do I feel this sensation again, and then I either try to change our approach or I even stop walking down that path.

because I realize it's a dead-end. In that sense, I can save a lot of energy and put that energy into things and projects that will have a positive outcome.

Then we come to the yes signal. You can do the same thing here. You can think about a situation where you instinctively felt that everything would go well,

and then also had a positive outcome. Maybe first you were scared. For me, this was one time when I chose my first degree.  

I wanted to become an engineer. So I chose this  university and I remember sitting reading a pamphlet  

about this university and in my belly I could feel  this warmness spreads upwards, as an inspiration.  

I felt lighter, and throughout that entire day,  I was very happy. That's my yes signal.

It can be different levels of intensity, but that's still  how I feel when my yes signal is activated.

See if you can come up with a situation where you  made a decision that told you to go ahead with this,

this is good for you, and afterward it was good  for you. So you kind of know that this really was a yes signal.

This is something you can come back  to later again, calibrate these yes and no signals.

It's something we practice over and over again,  to understand these signals better and better.  

This is a language that takes some time to develop.

So let's say, now you calibrated your yes signal  and no signal, both from thinking about a person you like,

your yes signal, and the person you dislike, the no signal,

or here two different life-changing situations that trigger your yes signal and no signal.

A way to use it in your everyday life, something that I and my wife use it, is "toss the coin game."

What we do is, sometimes when we have a tricky decision, often we do it in non-dangerous situations,

like our everyday life, with regard to hobbies, or who should  we meet, and what should we do and not do.

So then we bring out the coin. Heads might symbolize no, and and tails yes, and then we think, like,

okay we have to obey the coin. If it says no, we have to not do it,  if it says yes we have to go along with whatever  

option it is we have to go along with. Then we  toss the coin, and when it lands we look at it,  

and here's the key part of the exercise. We notice how the body reacts.

If it's happy and relieved, yeah, then it's probably good.

Let's say we were supposed to attend a dinner last weekend. We tossed the coin, we were very busy and a little bit tired, so we didn't really feel to go there,  

but we felt on a mental level, we  should go there, to invest in the relationship.  

That conflict we can have sometimes. The coin actually said no and we were both very relieved, and then we kind of knew,

okay, maybe this is okay, maybe we don't need to go.

My personal experience is if I'm congruent  with what I'm feeling on a deeper level,

meaning that my thoughts are aligned with my emotions, and then with my actions,

often that turns out to be a good thing, both for me and the people in my surroundings.

Versus if I think one thing, feel another thing, and do a third thing. I have these inner conflicts that I am acting upon.

Often I experience that this creates more chaos within me and in my surroundings.

So my experience is if I'm truthful to myself, my inner deeper feelings, often that's also better for people in my surrounding.

So I allow myself to, as often as possible, act on this intuitive guidance. Or if it's the opposite,

let's say we are a little bit afraid of doing something,  it could be when we decided to move from Sweden to the United States.

I don't think we tossed the coin, but if we would have, and the coin says yes, then we would probably have felt,

okay, there is some fear involved here, but that fear is okay.

If we don't think about what we're afraid of, do we feel excited,  is the yes signal activated then?

So this is a game you can play to practice your intuition.

There are few things, when it comes to intuition, that can distort the intuitive signal,

and those two things are desire for pleasure and fear of pain.

It's like these signals have a stronger  volume than your intuitive data.

So when we do introspection and meditate, it can be important  to discern the intuitive signal from these signals,  

which I call junk data. Basically inner noise  that has stronger volume than intuitive data.  

So let's say desire for pleasure, that could be  wishful thinking, I'm hoping for something to happen.

I hope that this new partner is going to be someone I love. I hope this new job is going to be great for me.

Then we produce images in our head and those images produce a positive feeling.

But maybe it's not grounded in your deeper knowing of what's good and bad for you.

So that's the desire for pleasure. On the other hand, something  else that can distort the intuitive signal is fear of pain,

like anxiety, insecurity, sadness, afraid of  failure, what others think of me.

When we are in a situation where our fears are being triggered, that also has a much stronger sensation in your body and your intuitive data kind of dissipates.

So we need to be aware of the junk data. Meditating, doing introspection, is a great way of filtering these two groups of junk data.

Thank you very much for listening. I hope you learned a lot, and  good luck with developing your intuitive skills!