Letter 1.7 - Thinking and intuition
Dear Benoit,
How can we pretend to be free if we cannot decide what we are going to think about?
There is something special about human thinking. When we make a mistake in our reasoning, we have to look for a 'thinking mistake' and correct it. Did you notice that we can think about our thinking? Thinking about thinking is something to think about - Isn't it? -)
The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything except our thinking. Thus, we are drifting toward catastrophe beyond conception. We shall require a substantial new manner of thinking if mankind is to survive.
Albert Einstein
“The day science begins to study non-physical phenomena, it will make more progress in one decade than in all the previous centuries of its existence.” – Nikola Tesla.
“If you wish to understand the universe, think of energy, frequency and vibration”
Nikola Tesla
“The time has come to realize that supersensible knowledge has now to arise from the materialistic grave.”
Rudolf Steiner
Thoughts are the shadows of our feelings - always darker, emptier and simpler.
Friedrich Nietzsche
There is nothing good or bad but thinking makes it so.
Shakespeare
Those who don't hear the music think that the dancers are mad.
Instead of being the captain of our ship we may only be trying to master the wind blowing in our sails.
Human thinking is turned toward the material world. We would rather think about what we can see than think about feelings. When we see a new object, we ask: What is it used for? Is it heavy? Who does it belong to? Could I get one? How much is it? Where can I buy one? Our thinking is triggered by our environment. There are things that we would rather not think about but we can’t help it. If we cannot control our thinking - Who does? How can we pretend to be free if we cannot even control what we think about?
Imagine that you live in a society completely dominated by human thinking. All the decisions would be based on logic. If you make decisions that cannot be justified you would be send to a psychiatric hospital run by robots using AI. They would not call it ‘Artificial Intelligence’. They would just call it ‘Intelligence’ and that would be dumb! It would be a society full of gadgets doing many things without any feelings - such as atomic bombs.
It is true that science and human thinking have transformed our environment. We made cars, planes, MRI, cell phones, computers… We went on the moon…. That’s true but most of this progress came from connecting many brains together rather than improving each one separately. We still have the same difficulty answering simple questions such as: “If Mary’s daughter is my son’s mother, what is my relationship with Mary?”
What we learned in the 20th century was only to put together many ideas from many different brains. It is a by-product of two world wars. They did not get us any closer to good feelings. As long as human thinking is in alignment with nature, we are progressing. When it is not, we suffer.
Benoit, when you get to university, you may ask yourself: “What would give me a better chance to be happy in life? Is it to be good at mathematics or to be a good dancer? You will find that thinking can help you pass an exam but as soon as you graduate you will realize that you have a lot more to learn. An education base only on thinking would replace freedom with rules. You would suffocate.
Do we understand why people vote for one politician instead of another? - Why a certain color will sell more than another? - Why a baby is crying? - Why some people make you feel confident and others don’t? - Why you like or don’t like a neighbor, a teacher, a teller….?
Use your thinking, of course, but don't abuse it. Thinking is a marvelous tool but you want to decide the use you make of that tool. Ideas are blind. They need to be guided by feelings.
Thinking
I have mixed feelings about thinking.
Some scientists say that light is made of particles. Others say that it is made of radiations. They both have experiments to prove their beliefs. That makes you doubt of human’s thinking – Doesn’t it? There is something missing somewhere. I can imagine a statue with two different shadows on the floor. These people don’t agree because they are looking at two different shadows.
We pretend to dominate the universe with our intellect. That could be a bad case of the Dunning–Kruger effect. People who know very little think that they are the experts.
Intuition
Intuition is the opposite of thinking. There is no reasoning. There is no need to assemble ideas together to go from A to B. Intuition is direct knowledge. You fly from A to B. You just KNOW that you are in danger or that somebody is not trustworthy. It is through intuition that we relate to our pets, to the forest, to the flowers, to the sunset, to music… It is also the most powerful way to relate to each other.
Intuition seems to be more developed among animals than it is among men. Animals know which food is good for them. Man cannot differentiate between the mushroom that he likes and the one that will kill him. Animals would defend their territory because it is the source of their food. They will share their territory with other animals who eat different foods. We are far from such sophistication.
Not only is our intuition very limited but we discredit it. When your mother wants to justify buying a certain dress she is not going to say “I fell in love with that color”. She knows that she needs an explanation that will be accepted and intuition is not one of them. She would rather say: “I have nothing to wear - It was on sale - It matches the color of… ” Thinking is more readily accepted than intuition.
Imagine how a well-developed intuition could transform our life. Communication with others would be much easier. We would not need a lot of blah blah blah to communicate a feeling. A smile would suffice. Marriage would not be a lottery. We would not understand how people could live without music, paintings, sculpture, dance… Adults could even understand children!
Let’s keep the thinking where it belongs. It is limited to making simple chains of simple ideas. It is well adapted to the material world.
Intuition comes from the level above us. It is an indication that the mind can free itself from the limitations of the body. It is direct knowledge. It does not need reasoning, measurements and scientific proof. You KNOW that this car is going to change lane. You KNOW that something is not safe. This knowledge seems to come from above rather than below.
We search with
the mind
but it is the heart
that finds.
Somebody said (I think it was George Sand) “We search with the mind but it is the heart that finds”. Some civilizations say that it comes from the liver. The truth is that we don’t know. The immaterial world is the most important and we don’t have a clear way to know how it is influencing our life. In a conflict between idea and feelings chances are that the feelings will prevail.
When we like somebody, everything he does is perfect. When we don't like him, nothing he does is good enough.
Sometimes you will have the impression that our thinking is like a wave carried by the tide. Our thinking needs some support. It needs past experiences or moral support.
Beware of any system based on ideas alone. What would you 'think' if the way your parents treat you is limited to ideas without any feeling? You would feel frustrated and rightly so. You need feelings more than ideas.
If some day you find it difficult to choose between feelings and ideas, go for the feelings ..... even if you are not sure why. Feelings come from a level above us. Chances are that they are more in 'alignment' with nature.
Big hug
Pepe