First Blog

  Int uition. It is sort of like a back stage brain, working on problems you’ve left pending. It shoots ideas up to you of the sort “What if this? Or What if that?   Most of the time it’s unimportant, but sometimes it scores big. That is why intuition is so important, for suggesting ideas that haven’t fallen naturally as you’ve worked on the problem.  Sometimes, after working long and hard, you hear it offering up an idea as if to say, “Try this, stupid.” Intuition - I Is that patient caretaker in your mind, Helping you with problems big and small, Guiding you with family and friends, Giving insights when needed most, and Warning you off the wrong path. As a trusted friend, Intuition is not always right, but It pays to listen, if not to obey, Intuition II Intuition is something like a powerful App. With access to all your data, Memories, acuity, biases, beliefs, knowledge, Some hidden from conscious access. Intuitions contain all of these, but Insights hopef...

It's that gifting time of the year. So, I thought to take a closer look at the gifts I have already. Not just the kids, car, house, and health, but the real gifts, as in those I was born with. They are many, so many it is troubling why I have them. Among them is the gift of problem-solving. Another is the gift of curiosity. This article  is about them all, with a closer look at faith.  December 20, 2022 Gifts to Humankind by G Donald Allen Upon us now is the season of giving. Just as important is to inventory those gifts we have been given. And they are many. At Thanksgiving, we count our blessings. Today we travel well beyond counting to those wondrous gifts given to us at birth. These gifts co-mingle, coalesce, contravene, and entangle to make us what we have become. Not material, nor theoretical, and without position or location, they are undeniable. They are within the domains of psychology, chemistry, and sociology, forming our very human foundations. Evolution or d...

  Your Bicameral Brain by Don Allen Have you ever gone to another room to get something, but when you got there you forgot what you were after? Have you ever experienced a flash of insight, but when you went to look it up online, you couldn’t even remember the keyword? You think you forgot it completely. How can it happen so fast? You worry your memory is failing. Are you merely absent-minded? You try to be amused. But maybe you didn’t forget.   Just maybe that flash of insight, clear and present for an instant, was never given in the verbal form, but another type of intelligence you possess, that you use, and that communicates only to you. We are trained to live in a verbal world, where words matter most. Aside from emotions, we are unable to conjure up other, nonverbal, forms of intelligence we primitively, pre-verbally, possess but don’t know how to use. Alas, we live in a world of words, stewing in the alphabet, sleeping under pages of paragraphs, almost ignorin...

  How to recognize intuition in others – even ourselves. People with great intuition seem to see a solution without an apparent train of thought. It may appear effortless, but usually, the understanding has much previous preparation. Intuition is one of about eight problem-solving techniques we use in all phases of life. Great advances depend on them. Great parents have intuition, often without knowing it. That excellent mechanic or craftsman we wished we hired has it. They know because they see deep patterns beyond treatises on procedure. The intuitive teacher knows from the slightest facial expression or words if the student is having trouble. Your intuition is best about subjects you know best. In geometry, they may see how the parts fit together; in literature, they may write just the right expression or turn of phrase. In personal relations, they may know just what to do without excitement or apparent revelation. In diplomacy, they may have an instinctive understanding ...

 Geniuses are Remarkable There is an aspect of these geniuses which is rarely discussed. It is certain they all have marvelous minds, capable of a depth of thought unknown to us all. They have remarkable memories and a profound intuition and knowledge of what they do. There is more, beyond knowing all the literature, all the techniques, and all the skills. It is  concentration . In fact, Isaac Newton said, "I keep the subject constantly before me and wait till the first drawstrings open slowly, little and little, into a full and clear light." What all these geniuses could do is exactly that. They could focus their brains upon a problem for weeks, months, even years until it was resolved. This requires phenomenal energy which few have. But this concentration takes the mind into unknown realms and depths, and it changes them forever. When they emerge, they are different. And it can take time to catch up with themselves. Some never do. Others, fewer in number, can plow t...

A memory is an event or object stored in your brain.   Memories are neither perceptive nor conceptive as these are more-or-less contemporary events.   Objects of the memory are therefore objects of the past.    The principle two types of memory are the acts of remembering and of recollection.   Recollection can be regarded as imperfect memory that singles out similarities with perhaps a large group of memories each having some commonality to the presence of event at hand.     In this note, we expand the idea of memory beyond remembering and recalling.   These are the more subtle memories we need and which allow us to survive and thrive. Instincts.   First, consider a new approach to instinct .   It is differentiated from the hard-wired instincts (discussed below).   It is discussed here as a aspect of possible forgotten memory.   It forms a type of memory in the sense that when an event occurs, there can result an “i...

Seven Ways You Figure Things Out and Solve Problems The human brain is a marvelous organ.   It is designed for but one thing: survival of the body.   And survival means solving a non ending stream of problems. Ever thought about how you figure things out? Your marvelous brain has it covered. Indeed, you use six separate systems to make conclusions, resolve questions, problem solve, and just about everything else. Using the acronym BRAIPIE, we describe them in this order. The order and priority a person uses one or another of these systems varies from person to person, from religion to religion, from fine arts to science. Beliefs/Faith - You have a set of beliefs and a state of faith, both of which which function as guideposts on how to view problems and resolve difficulties. These are your strongest system, and can override all other considerations. The two overlap so much, it isn't really possible to distinguish them. The first is the second, and the secon...