Instinct Maybe More Reliable Than Logic

"I TRY to use my guts. As I get older, I learn to trust my guts even more, even if it doesn't make sense. I try to listen to that little voice in my head that tells me what to do. We all know what the right thing is, but somehow we don't follow our instinct, and that's when things mess up."That piece of insight on how the human mind works did not come from a neuroscientist or psychologist but from Academy Award-winning Hollywood actress Halle Berry ("Die Another Day," "X-Men 2," "Monster's Ball" and "Gothika"), during a recent interview with Inquirer's Los Angeles correspondent Janet Susan Napales (PDI, 03/01/04).

I was struck by Ms Berry's remark because, as a long time teacher of Inner Mind Development and Intuition, I had been teaching people precisely how to trust the right side of their brains, the seat of instinct, intuition and gut feel, "even if it doesn't make sense."

Dr. Roger Sperry, a biologist, discovered that the two hemispheres of the human brain did not perform the same function. The left half of the brain was primarily concerned with logic, with verbal and analytical thinking; whereas the right half was concerned with nonverbal thinking, such as gut feel, intuition or instinct. It was also concerned with synthesis, depth and perspective.

Different functionsWhen we are analyzing something or making mental calculation, we are using primarily our left brain. When we are drawing or having mental visions or images, we are engaging primarily our right brain. Of course, both sides are always at work and there's no such thing as a purely left- or purely right-brain person.The left brain thinks in terms of logic and verbal reasoning. It proceeds from major premise, minor premise and conclusion in a systematic, orderly manner.

Not so with the right brain. It thinks in terms of images and pictures and not in abstract generalities. It grasps the truth of a statement or an event at once, spontaneously and without ratiocination or logical analysis.And one thing more, whereas the left, analytical brain can make mistakes in its conclusion, the right brain is seldom, if ever, wrong.

It knows or grasps things at once, intuitively, spontaneously, often to the consternation of the left, analytical brain.Unlike the left brain, the right intuitive brain can arrive at correct conclusions, even without inputs from our sensory faculties.

It does so spontaneously, instinctively. When we learn to develop and trust our right brain, our gut feel and instincts, we can make better decisions.Too lateSince the conclusions made by the right brain are often non-logical and don't make sense, the more dominant left analytical brain tends to ignore them. Many times it's already too late when we realize we should have followed our gut feel or instinct.

For his pioneering discovery of the different functions of the left and right hemispheres of the human brain, Dr. Roger Sperry won the Nobel Prize for Medicine, although he was not a doctor.More and more people in business organizations and educational institutions are beginning to realize the value of training our right brain faculties.

There are now courses in business schools on intuitive management and creativity. Thinking out-of-the-box has become respectable, instead of condemnable.Now business educators and management consultants talk in terms of whole brain thinking rather than purely rational thinking. Training in intuition has become as critical as other management skills. This is as it should be.

http://www.inq7.net/lif/2004/mar/16/lif_22-1.htm