Defined: immediate apprehension or cognition; the power or faculty of attaining to direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference.

As we can see from the definition, intuition has something to do with recognizing the existence or meaning of something. It is an act or process of knowing something immediately without having to involve the rational part of the brain. Intuition happens faster than the time it usually takes a person to reason the situation through.

One may ask how this process happens. For many people intuition may be an educated guess about a situation, which relies on one’s past experience and judgment. In this case one may neither have nor take the time to do the proper research about the situation nor reason it through. If one is in a real hurry one can just assume something about the situation without even heeding one’s past experience and judgment.

For others intuition may be having an awareness of something without knowing how one is aware of it. We can call this form of intuition a “sudden intuition.”

With a sudden intuition there may not even be a situation that one is currently involved in that has anything to do with the intuition. For example, on a day and at a certain time of the day when you are not expecting a call, you may know the phone is about to ring and who will be calling. Or, a mother suddenly senses danger to her child when the child is not within normal (meaning the typical five senses of hearing, seeing, touching, tasting, and smelling) sensory range.

It appears then that the sudden intuitive awareness may be a form of what some term psi, which is a neutral term for all ESP (extrasensory perception) and psychokinetic phenomena. Much of intuition can be seen as coming from “out of the blue,” giving the receiver timely and useful information.

At other times, the intuition may be a form of precognition. Precognition means information perceived about future events, where information could not be inferred by the ordinary five senses.

One may ask if intuition is real. Most people probably have had at least one intuitive moment in their lives which is proof in itself.

Many may not consider intuition to be a form of ESP. As we can see above, it may not be ESP when making an educated guess. While striving to eliminate the guess work, there is still an estimated 65 million Americans who have claimed to experience ESP.

Sudden intuitions which are received while awake make up around 30 percent of reported ESP awareness, ranking second to messages received while in the dream state.

It seems that there is ample evidence of people receiving information without resorting to guessing. And, there is enough experimental evidence to show that some forms of precognition do indeed exist.

Okay, so a form of ESP intuition exists but how accurate is it? Sudden intuitions usually deliver accurate and factual information which can be verified later. However, many of intuitions may not provide enough information on which to act upon. Many may not see how accurate an intuition is until it has actually taken place. It would be interesting to compare the accuracy rates between people’s assumptions, educated guesses, careful reasoning, and sudden intuition. I suggest that sudden intuition is far more accurate than one assuming something.

What are sudden intuitions usually about? While we may receive information in response to some problem we have been working on, many sudden intuitions seem to be in relation to an impending accident or death.

How does one recognize a sudden intuition? Unlike the ordinary educated guesses, sudden intuitions come with a certainty that the receiver does not question. For those that have not developed their sense of intuition, most sudden intuitions nearly always make us feel that something must be acted upon immediately. The receiver may even be filled with emotional panic. Many are compelled to take action automatically without much thought about it.

It is interesting to see that even when it would be desirable to act on sudden intuitions in order to prevent something negative from happening, or even to reach a pleasurable outcome, it has been estimated that about two-thirds never take action at all. It is no wonder that many of these sudden intuitions compel the receiver to action because if it was anything less for most people, nothing would be acted upon at all!

Even for those that do act upon their intuitions, especially to prevent something negative from happening, the person they are trying to help may not cooperate. And for those trying to prevent a major tragedy, authorities will rarely listen without some verifiable evidence. As stated before, intuitions often lack enough details necessary to act.

While many sudden intuitions may not be acted upon due to a lack of details, they may still provide enough warning to remedy a negative situation. For instance, one may have a feeling that something is physically wrong with oneself or another person which may lead to getting examined by a doctor. Through the examination a problem is found preventing possible death.

Can being aware of one’s intuition be developed? The evidence suggests that it can be. Many subtle messages through the form of intuition are not noticed in the daily lives of most people due to too much internal and external “noise.” If one can learn to relax and focus inwardly without distraction this increases one’s ability to pick up on the subtle messages.

I suggest that if one can listen more attentively to intuition then one can use it in making optimum choices in life. When we make optimum choices in our lives then we are able to live life to the fullest, which in turn helps us to be happy and loving.