Research On Intuition
HAVE YOU EVER HAD THE FEELING THAT YOU KNOW SOMETHING, BUT YOU DON'T KNOW HOW YOU KNOW IT? SOME AMERICANS CALL IT A GUT FEELING. OTHERS CALL IT A HUNCH OR "SIXTH" SENSE, INNER VOICE, AND INTUITION OR E-S-P, SHORT FOR EXTRA SENSORY PERCEPTION. MODERN SCIENCE HAS GENERALLY TREATED EXPERIENCES LIKE THESE AS WORKS OF THE SUBCONSCIOUS MIND, BASED ON OUR REAL LIFE EXPERIENCES, OR AS MERE GUESSING. BUT NOW, SOME SCIENTISTS, CURIOUS WHY SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE "HUNCHES" THAT PROVE TO BE RIGHT IN REALITY, HAVE BEGUN CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS IN THE FIELD OF INTUITION.FOR YEARS, DEBATES ABOUT PSYCHIC PHENOMENA HAVE BEEN MET EITHER WITH DEVOUT BELIEVERS OR FIRM SKEPTICS. DR. HANS HOLZER, FORMER PROFESSOR OF PARAPSYCHOLOGY AT THE NEW YORK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND AUTHOR OF 120 BOOKS ON THE PARANORMAL, IS ONE OF THE BELIEVERS. HE IS CONVINCED THAT PEOPLE RECEIVE INTUITIVE INFORMATION FROM BEINGS IN ANOTHER WORLD.
"BASED ON HARD FACTS AND YEARS AND YEARS OF EXPERIMENTATION, I AM TOTALLY CONVINCED THAT THERE IS A WORLD (THAT I CALL) 'THE OTHER SIDE.' AND THIS IS A WORLD WHICH IS NEITHER HEAVEN NOR HELL, BUT A WORLD THAT IS ALL AROUND US AT A DIFFERENT LEVEL -- DIFFERENT LEVEL OF VIBRATION, DIFFERENT LEVEL OF EXISTENCE. AND IN IT ARE PEOPLE WHO HAVE PASSED FROM THIS STATE OF EXISTENCE TO THE NEXT ONE IN WHICH THEY ARE PUT TO WORK, IN SOME WAYS INTER-RELATING WITH THOSE HERE. AND THEIR WAY OF GUIDING US, HELPING US, WARNING US -- WHATEVER -- GOES THROUGH THE INNER VOICE, INTUITION."
ALTHOUGH HANS HOLZER IS NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO BELIEVES IN THE EXISTENCE OF ANOTHER WORLD, SCIENTISTS HAVE BEEN VERY SKEPTICAL ABOUT IT. BUT NOW, THERE IS A NEW, MIDDLE GROUND -- A GROUP OF SCIENTISTS FROM FIRST RATE INSTITUTIONS LIKE PRINCETON, CORNELL, STANFORD AND OTHER UNIVERSITIES, ARE USING SCIENTIFIC METHODS TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF SOME FREQUENTLY REPORTED PSYCHIC EXPERIENCES. FOR EXAMPLE, PSYCHOLOGIST DEAN RADIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA IN LAS VEGAS IS CONDUCTING RESEARCH INTO PEOPLE'S ABILITY TO FORESEE THE FUTURE.
"I'VE BEEN INTERESTED IN STORIES LIKE: SOMEBODY MAY GO TO WORK EVERY DAY TAKING THE SAME ROUTE. LET'S SAY THEY ARE DRIVING THEIR CAR AND THEY ALWAYS GO THE SAME WAY, THE SAME ROUTE, AND THEY'VE DONE IT A THOUSAND TIMES BEFORE. AND ONE MORNING, THEY WAKE UP AND THEY HAVE A BAD FEELING ABOUT A CERTAIN SECTION OF THE ROAD THAT THEY KNOW THEY ARE GOING TO DRIVE ON. AND THEY DON'T KNOW WHAT THIS FEELING MEANS, THEY JUST HAVE IT. AND THEN IT TURNS OUT LATER IN THE DAY WHEN THEY ARE RIDING TO WORK THAT ON THAT PARTICULAR SECTION OF THE ROAD THERE WAS AN ACCIDENT."
IN DEAN RADIN'S EXPERIMENT, A GROUP OF PEOPLE SITS IN FRONT OF A COMPUTER SCREEN. THE COMPUTER SHOWS DIFFERENT PICTURES EVERY 20 SECONDS OR SO. SOME OF THE IMAGES ARE PLEASANT AND REPRESENT A CALM EVENT. OTHERS ARE MORE DISTURBING -- THEY SHOW EROTIC OR VIOLENT SCENES -- AND REPRESENT AN UNPLEASANT EVENT. EACH PICTURE IS PRECEDED BY A BLANK SCREEN DURING WHICH A VIEWER'S INTUITION PRESUMABLY TRIES TO PREDICT WHAT KIND OF PICTURE IS COMING NEXT. DR. RADIN SAYS THE PICTURES ARE RANDOMLY CHOSEN BY THE COMPUTER SO NOT EVEN THE SCIENTISTS KNOW WHETHER A PLEASANT OR A DISTURBING PICTURE IS COMING UP.
"AND WE DON'T ASK PEOPLE TO CONSCIOUSLY SAY WHAT THEY THINK IS GOING TO SHOW UP. WE SIMPLY MONITOR THEIR HEART RATE, THE AMOUNT OF SWEAT ON THEIR PALMS AND THEIR BLOOD PRESSURE TO SEE WHETHER OR NOT THEIR BODY IS UNCONSCIOUSLY PREPARING FOR EITHER THE CALM PICTURES OR FOR THE EMOTIONAL PICTURES. THIS, AGAIN, WOULD REPRESENT THE KIND OF BODILY REACTIONS THAT PEOPLE TALK ABOUT IN INTUITIVE HUNCHES."
DR. RADIN SAYS OF 75 RANDOMLY SELECTED PEOPLE WHO PARTICIPATED IN HIS EXPERIMENT, ONE IN TEN HAD VERY STRONG REACTIONS BEFORE THE VIOLENT AND EMOTIONAL IMAGES AND ONE IN TEN HAD NO REACTION AT ALL. EIGHTY PERCENT HAD VARIOUS DEGREES OF REACTIONS. HE COMPARES THE RESULTING CURVE TO THE CURVE SHOWING PEOPLE'S TALENT IN ART -- SOME ARE VERY TALENTED, SOME HAVE NO TALENT AT ALL, AND THE MAJORITY ARE TALENTED AT LEAST TO A SMALL DEGREE. HE SAYS HIS EXPERIMENT SHOWS THAT MOST PEOPLE HAVE SOME ABILITY TO SENSE AN UPCOMING EVENT. AND THAT ABILITY INCREASES WHEN PEOPLE ARE RELAXED AND WHEN ALL THE DISTRACTIONS ARE REMOVED -- FOR EXAMPLE, WHEN THEY SIT IN THE DARK.
"THE RESULTS OF THESE EXPERIMENTS VERY CLEARLY SHOW THAT WITHOUT ANY FORM OF SENSORY INFORMATION AT ALL ABOUT THE FUTURE TARGET, PEOPLE IN GENERAL WILL BEGAN TO REACT DIFFERENTLY BEFORE AN EMOTIONAL FUTURE THAN THEY DO BEFORE A CALM FUTURE. SO, WE CAN SAY NOW WITH VERY HIGH DEGREES OF CERTAINTY, EVEN FROM A SCIENTIFIC PERSPECTIVE, THAT IN SOME CASES INTUITIVE HUNCHES PROBABLY INVOLVE INFORMATION FROM THE FUTURE."
DEAN RADIN OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA IN LAS VEGAS SAYS ONE OF HIS COLLEAGUES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM IN THE NETHERLANDS HAS REPLICATED HIS EXPERIMENT WITH VERY SIMILAR RESULTS. DR. RADIN SAYS HE HOPES MORE RESEARCH WILL BE DEVOTED TO THE WORKINGS OF THE UNCONSCIOUS MIND. THUS, HE SAYS, SCIENCE MIGHT DISCOVER A WHOLE NEW EXTRA-SENSORY WORLD MOST OF US KNOW NOTHING ABOUT.
11-May-98
Source: Voice of America
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