Russell's comment reminded me of something that happened. I'm one of those highly intuitive individuals (I'm an ENTP if you follow Meyers Briggs at all). Here's my story--no names given so that all will remain innocent.
We had a high-level presentation to do at a prospective client. Interestingly, we were being web-cammed into their mother ship. After our presentation (and our having left the premises), I shook my head incredulously and looked at my boss (our president) and said (to the effect of), "Something doesn't make sense to me. They were too nice to us and overly solicitous." Apparently, I was the only one of my team that thought this behavior odd, but it bothered me the whole exhausting trip home.
We travelled back all day Friday. When I came into the office on Monday, the first thing one of my staff members said to me was, "Have you heard the news?". The "news" was that our prospective client's parent had purchased our parent. That of course explained what I considered odd behavior. I happen to be very sensitive to people's body language and vocalizations, so nothing strange in my intuition there.
I've had some other odd flashes--I'll just tell a couple with the "nee, nee, nee, nee" Twilight Zone music in the background. My son walks up the steps (he's probably 8 or so at the time) and I have this flash that he is going to have gum in his hair. Within 5 minutes he is calling from the bathroom that he has gum in his hair.
I walk to get the mail and walking down the driveway I have this flash that my son's playpen (this is the second child, who was about 2 or so at the time, in the same playpen in the same location as the first child some years before, and he's been in that location for quite a few months) is too close to my china cabinet, and he might be able to reach in and cause some damage. Damn if I did not walk in the door and see shards of glass where my mother's crystal and china and been flung out. Now having the thought is not odd...it was purely logical. But having the thought within less than 5 minutes of it happening (when the opportunity for it to have happened sooner was always there) strikes me as a bit odd.
Our subconscious is very powerful. I know that I value mine to crank through difficult problems. Invariably I'll be doing something mindless (showering, blow drying hair) and then BOOM the answer pops in your head. I need that processing time. I really admire (and am jealous) of folks who do not need that incubation time.
Leisa
3 comments:
I see why these may seem very fascinating but being a skeptic at heart, I wonder of the times when you thought something just might happen in the next couple of minutes and it did not. The mind travels through ideas really fast, especially ideas that have some imprint from the past, and hence it would not surprise me if this happened a few times. I have seen the same argument proffered for astrologers with friends recounting the number of times they have been proven right. My mom loves to visit astrologers to find when I will get married (since she gets no good answer from me) and they inevitably say it will happen within the next 6 months. One of these days, it will come true :)
Stimit, fair comment. I'm a skeptic too--and I recognize all too well the underlying logic--but the way the thought occurred was really like a flashbulb rather than a random thought. I've only had just a handful of these over many many years. So I'm not holding them out to be a common occurrence for me.
Our minds are quite biased, and it is hard to trust them. My guess is that our astrophysicists will explain all of the oddities one day!
I suppose the astrologers are no worse than any other prognosticator--I always laugh when someone refers to an economist who has predicted 10 of the last 5 recessions or a market pundit who has predicted 8 of the last 3 bear markets!
As mother, I cannot imagine having any wondernment about when my daughter (who is almost 19) will get married. If she does, fine; if she doesn't fine.
You might want to look at Paul Ekman (googling "paul ekman emotions" does the trick) and his work on micro-expressions. There is also a whole subfield on how to tell when people are lying (the easy answer is that you cannot).
I actually have Eckman's CD on micro expression training, but have not had the time to do much with it.
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