# Instinct



## lonecoyote (Dec 11, 2004)

Hello all, I just finished a book called "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin de Becker. One of the central ideas is that we can over analyze and over apply logic to dangerous situations when what we should be doing is reconnecting with our inner voice, intuition, or gut instinct. We are actually processing hundreds of things going on all the time, like when we drive, and this same mechanism is at work to protect us if we listen to it. He tells a story about how a man walked into a convenience store where he was a regular and realized something was terribly wrong, he couldn't put his finger on what it was at the time, but he followed his instinct and walked out, later he learned there was a robbery in progress and a police officer was killed at the scene. He saved his own life by not questioning or rationalizing away his instinct to leave. Has this kind of thing happened to anyone else? What are everyones thoughts on being safer by listening to our inner voice? Is the fact that we have lost touch, somewhat, with our intuition just a normal consequence of modern life?


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## lonecoyote (Dec 11, 2004)

And thank you to still learning for turning me on to the book. I remembered the post when I saw it at the library. I was just wondering what people thought of some of the concepts. Do you think instinct is ever wrong?


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## Miles (Dec 11, 2004)

That is a good book.

Yes, instincts can be wrong, they are just preconceptions based on experience.  If your experience is wrong, or if you process something erroneously, the instinctual response can be wrong.  But, as DeBecker points out that in many cases, you have good reason to have the "spidey-sense" tingling.

It does not have to be a self-defense situation-you may be driving on a freeway and you notice that one or two lanes are slow, so you get off before arriving at the accident scene 2 miles up.  Happens all the time!

Good luck with your training!

Miles


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## Adept (Dec 11, 2004)

Your instincts or your gut feelings are just subconscious decisions being made by your brain based on the information to hand. If the information is incorrect or interpreted incorrectly (as said above) then your intuitions or instincts will be wrong.

 However, the brain is very smart and is usually right in these things.


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## Eldritch Knight (Dec 12, 2004)

I definetely think that today's society has a difficult time accepting their instincts. With so much emphasis placed on empirical proof, hard data, and logic, things like instincts and dreams have been downgraded to mere fantasy and "mind tricks". We can probably learn a lot from cultures that place great value on the content of instinct, dreams, and other mental phenomena moreso than logic.

We actually have a related concept in kendo called zanshin, which basically means "awareness" (don't quote me on that). Its the ability to take in all your surroundings and understand them completely even if you aren't immediately perceiving them. It was tough for my western mind to get used to it, but once I started down that path towards perpetual awareness it started doing great things for my perception.


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## lonecoyote (Dec 14, 2004)

Thanks Miles, Adept, Eldritch Knight, Very interesting replies. Zanshin sounds like an interesting concept. Do you think though, that instinct is counter to logic, or is it just, and this is kind of what I think GdeB was saying, super high speed logic? When the convenience store guy looked back and examined his experience in detail, he was able to pinpoint certain things that made him extremely uneasy (strange behavior of the clerk, suspicious bulge in the overcoat of one of the customers, etc.) He didn't consciously tick these things off in his mind at the time, though.


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## Adept (Dec 14, 2004)

lonecoyote said:
			
		

> Do you think though, that instinct is counter to logic, or is it just, and this is kind of what I think GdeB was saying, super high speed logic?


 It is super-high-speed logic. The only problem with anything done at super-high speeds is that things get left out. While the guy in the story about the hold up made the right decision, it could just as easily have been a newspaper under the guys coat, and the clerk could just as easily have eaten too much curry the night before.

 Now this isn't to say instincts are always wrong or any other such nonsense. What it does mean is that our very first impressions (while often right) can sometimes be wrong. 

 If my instincts tell me something is wrong, but my head is convinced that nothing is wrong, then I proceed very cautiously and try to gather more information.


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## lonecoyote (Dec 14, 2004)

Very well said, Adept, things at super high speed do get left out, hadn't thought of it that way. You're absolutely right about first impressions. I guess one has to somehow strike a balance. Great post. Thanks.


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## still learning (Dec 15, 2004)

I am a strong believer of trusting my instincts when it kicks in. Many times the warnings were right. We all have some form of it and depends on how you use it will determine your experiences. The more you trust it the more it comes to you. The gut feeling for me has been more for positive things like, "Yea I should buy this one." I was looking for a watch for my daughter for chistmas, the cheaper ones was ok, but my gut feelings was the more expensive one ($100.00 more), was the one to get....after I brought it, felt good, and after thinking if I brought the cheaper one,didn't feel as good.

  Always trust you instincts....it will protect you for life....Aloha


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## markulous (Dec 15, 2004)

The subconcious is a very powerful tool.  In my experience 99.9% of the time my "gut feeling" was right on the money.  For instance I was at work the other day and I went to the back(I am the only one that is there) and a little voice in my head said "You should expect someone back here".  And right when I flipped on the lights a guy that works earlier was back there.

I think your subconcious is capable of hearing/seeing/feeling things that your physical-right-minded-logic portion of your brain can't percieve.  So whenever my "gut feeling" goes off I try to always follow it.


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## Bod (Dec 15, 2004)

Gut-feelings often result from pattern recognition in the brain. That is how the brain works.

When you get a gut-instinct that doesn't seem to _add up_ from logic, then the gut-instinct probably came about because something was _subtracted_ from the usual situation.

For example, you see four men walking down the road, wearing party hats and weaving from side to side. Yet they are not laughing, singing, etc. There is something missing. You may not consciously notice something missing, but your subconscious probably will.

You can only consciously see what is there, but your subconscience is trying to match to a pattern, and if there is not a high percent match, your subconscience doesn't say 'partygoers', it says 'trouble'.


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## markulous (Dec 15, 2004)

markulous said:
			
		

> physical-right-minded-logic .



Oops I meant left sided.


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## ghostdog2 (Dec 15, 2004)

" Data! Data! Data! I can't make bicks without clay! " Sherlock Holmes
" Feelings Fool You. " Conventional Wisdom
 " Just give us the facts, ma'am. " Sgt. Joe Friday
 " Beware of learning too much from a lesson. A cat that sits on a hot stove will never sit on a hot stove again. But it will never sit on a cold one, either." Mark Twain.

Instinct is fine, but I'd rather get the facts first and then apply logic and experience. Instinct is what causes a dog to chase cars. An inbred response that may have outlived its purpose and will surely outlive the dog.


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## Miles (Dec 15, 2004)

ghostdog2 said:
			
		

> "Instinct is fine, but I'd rather get the facts first and then apply logic and experience. Instinct is what causes a dog to chase cars. An inbred response that may have outlived its purpose and will surely outlive the dog.


GD2, if you had to "reinvent the wheel" each time you did something, you would not get much accomplished.  Instincts allow you to subconsciously recognize things so that you don't have to consciously (read "take the time to") figure things out.  In a martial arts example, if someone were about to hit you with an overhead strike, you'd react the way you were presumably taught, and not wait til you got hit to recognize what was happening. 

Miles


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## ghostdog2 (Dec 16, 2004)

Miles, I absolutely agree with the point you make: Our training should allow us to internalize certain stimuli and trigger an almost automatic response.
My post was more along the lines of earlier postings which, it seemed to me, wondered whether to trust certain gut feelings about strangers and unusual situations, etc.
You are correct. We should, hopefully, react instinctively when we recognize danger.


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## sgtmac_46 (Dec 20, 2004)

lonecoyote said:
			
		

> Hello all, I just finished a book called "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin de Becker. One of the central ideas is that we can over analyze and over apply logic to dangerous situations when what we should be doing is reconnecting with our inner voice, intuition, or gut instinct. We are actually processing hundreds of things going on all the time, like when we drive, and this same mechanism is at work to protect us if we listen to it. He tells a story about how a man walked into a convenience store where he was a regular and realized something was terribly wrong, he couldn't put his finger on what it was at the time, but he followed his instinct and walked out, later he learned there was a robbery in progress and a police officer was killed at the scene. He saved his own life by not questioning or rationalizing away his instinct to leave. Has this kind of thing happened to anyone else? What are everyones thoughts on being safer by listening to our inner voice? Is the fact that we have lost touch, somewhat, with our intuition just a normal consequence of modern life?


Yes, i've studied this phenomenon. Sometimes aggressive and decisive action will save you where caution will not. History is full of these types of individuals and circumstances. It was said of Wild Bill Hickok "There were a dozen men I know who were faster than Bill and better shots, but Bill made up his mind to kill the other man, before the other man was done thinking." Here we see that kind of instinctive and decisive action devoid of over-analysis.  Sometimes, analysis equals paralysis. If we believe the maxim that Speed, Surprise and Violence of action wins fights, we have to accept that over-analysis of the situation puts us behind the curb. I've known some very aggressive and violent men who rarely came out on the losing side of a violent confrontation, even against extraordinary odds. They all had one thing in common. They made up their mind very quickly about what needed to be done, and then didn't debate it with themselves. They simply acted.

Of course, there is the off chance that jumping in will get you killed. That's the paradox. That's also where there are very few old bad men. Violence is a fickle sport, and fate can turn on you in a minute.


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## greyghost (Dec 21, 2004)

I am a firm believer in gut instinct. i won't go into detail but it has saved my life once, has kept my husband and I from a financial nightmare (even though, on paper, the numbers worked - we found out the true problem much later)... even something smaller, where I had a bad feeling about the truck he bought, turned out to be right. 

 Trust your gut. If there is a small voice telling you "this way, not that way" - listen to it.

 After six years of watching me listen to my intuition/instinct and having it be right every time, my husband is beginning to believe.


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