Mmmm? - what exactly is intuition? - if it's unconscious processes that result in thought, experience and action, then 99.999.....% of brain activity is intuitive. If we forget all the inner machinations for a minute it's helpful to look at the brain as a black box. The amount of data coming into the brain every second from the external world via all our senses is of the order of a few Megabits/sec. Where does all that data go? - because it would be impossible to process it to give us, in effect, a real-time experience! The answer is that it gets dumped in the brain's recycle bin (except it doesn't get recycled - we don't have the memory capacity). That dumping process takes about 13 milliseconds, so everything we experience in conscious awareness is always slightly in the past. After all that filtering, the data rate that simulates conscious awareness is a mere 30 bits/sec. To get a handle on how low this is, in order to communicate your voice reasonably clearly down a telephone line, it requiries a minimum data rate of 64 kilobits/sec between transmitter and receiver. So a mere trickle of new data is all that is required to refresh our sense of reality. That's because most of our reality is constructed from within and what we see hear and feel at the interfaces of our senses are very low level cues for a massive internal process of intuition that constructs a much richer experience of reality. That reality isn't the truth however, for example if you look at the top corner of a room you will see three angles where the two walls and ceiling meet. Those angles are all seen to be larger than 90 degrees, but our abstract brain knows better - they are really 90 degrees!
All most interesting, but as for Meditation, yes, OK, but if it becomes ritualistic, I should be careful. I find a short rest in the afternoon clears my brain and allows, I hope, intuition to rush in and help to solve problems or anxieties. The same is probably true of dropping off to sleep and deep sleep. But just being quiet in a lovely place and thinking positive thoughts is also possible. But, of course, Meditation works for many people, no doubt. Unfortunately, we all have to live in this mad world, but good to try from time to time, to not live in the world and let the brain escape to our consciousness out to the bit we left behind.
Mmmm? - what exactly is intuition? - if it's unconscious processes that result in thought, experience and action, then 99.999.....% of brain activity is intuitive. If we forget all the inner machinations for a minute it's helpful to look at the brain as a black box. The amount of data coming into the brain every second from the external world via all our senses is of the order of a few Megabits/sec. Where does all that data go? - because it would be impossible to process it to give us, in effect, a real-time experience! The answer is that it gets dumped in the brain's recycle bin (except it doesn't get recycled - we don't have the memory capacity). That dumping process takes about 13 milliseconds, so everything we experience in conscious awareness is always slightly in the past. After all that filtering, the data rate that simulates conscious awareness is a mere 30 bits/sec. To get a handle on how low this is, in order to communicate your voice reasonably clearly down a telephone line, it requiries a minimum data rate of 64 kilobits/sec between transmitter and receiver. So a mere trickle of new data is all that is required to refresh our sense of reality. That's because most of our reality is constructed from within and what we see hear and feel at the interfaces of our senses are very low level cues for a massive internal process of intuition that constructs a much richer experience of reality. That reality isn't the truth however, for example if you look at the top corner of a room you will see three angles where the two walls and ceiling meet. Those angles are all seen to be larger than 90 degrees, but our abstract brain knows better - they are really 90 degrees!
All most interesting, but as for Meditation, yes, OK, but if it becomes ritualistic, I should be careful. I find a short rest in the afternoon clears my brain and allows, I hope, intuition to rush in and help to solve problems or anxieties. The same is probably true of dropping off to sleep and deep sleep. But just being quiet in a lovely place and thinking positive thoughts is also possible. But, of course, Meditation works for many people, no doubt. Unfortunately, we all have to live in this mad world, but good to try from time to time, to not live in the world and let the brain escape to our consciousness out to the bit we left behind.