What is Intuition?
We understand intuition to be a given, a capacity of the Mind equal to analytic and
cognitive thought. It can be demonstrable, reliable, informative and inspiring.
This conception of intuition is shared by many authorities, in many cultures,
throughout Time, as you will see from the excerpts given below.
If you wish to learn how to develop your own intuitive gifts and skills, visit our
Sacred Body page.
Some Definitions of Intuition
“Intuition is soul guidance, appearing naturally in man during those instants when his mind is
calm.”
– Paramahansa Yogananda, 20th C Yogic guru
Intuition is “direct and unmediated knowledge,” “immediate or innate apprehension of a complex
group of data.”
-- Horace B. & Ava C. English in
A Comprehensive Dictionary of Psychological and Psychoanalytical Terms
“The word ‘intuition’ comes from the Latin tueor, meaning to gaze, contemplate, or protect. When
we are in an intuitive state, we look carefully at what is going on and gain the kind of knowledge
that doesn’t arise from logic.”
-- Thomas Moore, 20th C American writer
Its Interaction with Conceptual Thinking – The Cognitive Mind
“Intuition and concepts constitute … the elements of all our knowledge, so that neither concepts
without an intuition … corresponding to them, nor intuition without concepts, can yield knowledge.”
– Immanuel Kant, 19th C German philosopher
“An absolute can only be given in an intuition, while all the rest has to do with analysis. We call
intuition here the sympathy by which one is transported into the interior of an object in order to
coincide with what there is unique and consequently inexpressible in it. Analysis, on the contrary,
is the operation which reduces the object to elements already known.”
– Henri Bergson, 20th C French philosopher
“Intuitive cognition of a thing is cognition that enables us to know whether the thing exists or does
not exist … If the thing exists, then the intellect immediately judges … and … knows that it exists,
unless the judgement happens to be impeded through the imperfection of this cognition.”
-- William of Occam, 14th C British philosopher & theologian
“In the East … the perfect and appropriate method of fusing mind and body together so that they
form a unity ... is scarcely to be questioned. This unity creates a psychological disposition which
makes possible intuitions that transcend consciousness.”
-- C.G. Jung, 20th C Swiss psychoanalyst & philosopher