Intuition and the body

Your body is an exquisite information network. Right now you have hundreds, if not thousands, of information exchanges going on in your cells, nerves, bones, blood stream, and organs. Most of these ‘conversations’ take place without your conscious attention, but some times your body wants you to be fully aware. For example, if you are hungry, your body let’s you know. If you are tired, you get signals from your body.

The body also reports to you on more subtle facts. Your emotions or feelings also register in the body. It is hard to touch elation or excitement, but you know how your body feels when you are elated or excited. When you are depressed, you may feel sluggish and not very engaged in activities. As subtle as emotions are, researchers have discovered that chemical changes in your body often accompany or maybe even trigger changes in your emotions. In other words, even though you cannot touch them, emotions are real and have a basis in the body.

Intuition is also a subtle phenomenon. Because intuitive experiences are hard to explain, people often describe them by referring to the body. For example, Anne told a friend, “I saw my future husband the day before we met,” or Mozart reported that he heard orchestral pieces completely before he wrote them. We know that Anne and Mozart are not seeing or hearing with their physical eyes or physical ears. They are using their senses to explain the subtle sensations that communicate intuitive information to them. When people intuit something, they report an experience science cannot yet explain.

Today scientists are researching possible explanations for why people say, “My gut told me the truth,” or “I knew in my heart.” Intuition, like emotions, probably has body-based correlations. This will, hopefully remain true, even when researchers explore intuitive phenomena like clear, accurate visions of the future or the capacity for people to know simultaneously what a loved one is experiencing even though they are thousands of miles away. If so, we will continue to be amazed by our bodies’ ability to communicate information in ways that have not been previously understood.

The Intuition and Your Body section addresses your Intuitive Body. Articles about research and other topics relevant to the body will be posted here.