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 The intellect is the part of the psyche that processes data with
the tool of logic. Many of the following points explain the intellect's value as
a supplement to the intuition
The purpose of the intellect.
 | The intellect gathers data. This data is obtained from sources such
as reading, empirical sensory input, or conversations with analysis oriented
people. |
| The intellect creates data. From its base of information, it uses
methods such as inductive and deductive logic to generate new data. |
| The intellect fills in some gaps in our data. Sometimes intuition
gives exact instructions, in other cases, we detect only a vague feeling or
a fragment of a message. In those instances, we can refer to the intellect
to provide supplementary data. If intuition presents only a general warning
that we need to be more careful with our finances, we turn to our intellect
to study matters such as specific investment options. We can use our
intuition to help us to decide which option is most likely to be fruitful. |
| The intellect processes a particular type of data. This type of data
is that which is reducible to non-ambiguous, measurable units. The intellect
is the appropriate mode when we are balancing our checkbook. |
| The intellect provides data for intuition's processing of data.
Intuition presents data spontaneously. We simply know a new bit of data.
However, intuition builds on previously acquired data. First, we gather
information via the Intellect, then intuition gives us insight into that
information. |
| The intellect verifies data. If we receive a message from any source, that the sun will not rise tomorrow, our logic rightly
disagrees. For our reality check, we can refer to experts, personal
experience, rules of logic, statistics, history, books, etc.. |
|  The intellect formats data for presentation to analysis oriented people.
Some people communicate primarily via facts, other people communicate
primarily via feelings and emotions. We need to format the data into a
logical presentation so that it can be understood and accepted by people who
primarily value logic. |
| The intellect conveys both analytical and, paradoxically, non-analytical
data. Sometimes words that constitute one of the intellect's primary
tools are an effective means by which to relay something that is not
expressible in words themselves. The lyrics of religious hymns may be more
important for the transmission of feelings and emotions and imagery that
they are for the transmission of the concepts that are expressed in them. |
| Intellect contributes a dimension to our understanding of data. The
mind does not know anything. It is like a computer that can present the
word, cat on its monitor, but it does not know what a cat is. In contrast,
we possesses consciousness, that uses the mind as an instrument for
examining design aspects of itself as those aspects exist in the mental
dimension. Consciousness is the entity that knows, through experience. The
intellect examines those experiences, to view them from its own mental
perspective, a perspective that adds a valuable dimension and depth to our
viewpoint and understanding. |
| The intellect provides data that constitutes the thoughts in our designs.
Every situation is based on an interaction between reciprocal designs.
As we interact, we generate thoughts, imagery, energy tones as emotions,
feelings, and actions. These elements influence the energy field that
surrounds each design. When we are devising a response to that design, we
tend to automatically refer to those elements to determine how we usually
respond to this situation. The thoughts that the intellect created during
previous encounters help us to formulate a response in this situation. |
The limitations of the intellect.
| The intellect operates only with consciously known data.
This data is
acquired from external sources such as reading, research, or empirical sensory
input, and internal sources such as the products of logical deductions and
inductions. Intellect is useless in situations in which: 1) Facts are
incomplete or wholly unavailable. 2) The subject matter cannot be crystallized
into facts. In contrast, intuition has access to all data regarding any given
situation, even the data of which we are not consciously aware. |
| The intellect can process only a limited amount of data. We are
restricted by various factors, including the capacity of our memory, and the
time that is required for learning, and our intelligence or our capability for
processing data. In contrast, intuition has an infinite capacity for data
processing even in complex circumstances, it can acquire and consider all
relevant data. When intuition is applied to our experience, the overview
suggests that we are operating from a cumulative awareness of every bit of data
in the universe. |
| The intellect uses a decision making process. It analyses information,
and then it considers the options, and the outcomes of each of those options. In
contrast, intuition does not present alternatives. It gives one answer, and then
our only decision is to comply with that message or not to comply. |
| The intellect is slow. It relies on
laborious fact gathering such as
research and study, and the time consuming process of logical analysis. In
contrast, intuition can provide information instantaneously, however, when
intuition is used in problem solving, it generally provides its data only after
we have acquired facts through the research and study. |
| The intellect relies on generalizations and templates. When the
intellect does not have access to all data regarding each situation, it can
only create generalizations about the situation, and then it formulates its
understanding and response by viewing analogies between this situation and
similar design situations. Each situation is unique, it contains elements
that are unlike those of other situations, and we could discover that those
singular elements render our analogies inaccurate. In contrast, intuition
offers observations and suggestions that are based on an overview of all
factors as they exist in each unique moment. |
| The intellect does not have a reliable self correcting mechanism.
Despite the rules of logic, the intellect cannot adequately judge its own
conclusions. This is because the analytical mind does not know anything. It
merely processes data in the manner of a computer that knows only electrons,
and it does not know the concepts that those electrons are expressing on our
computer monitor. After we have worked on an intellectual project, we may
say, "I followed the instructions, but the answer doesn't feel
right", that feeling is our intuition. When pure logic arrives at a
correct answer, we can credit its success to mere luck, except perhaps in
rare situations that are purely analytical such as simple mathematics, like
2+2=4. |
| The intellect is incapable of understanding some modes of being.
Analysis cannot grasp notions such as love and beauty and morality, as
though those matters are in a different language, a different format, a
different dimension, that is unapproachable from the intellect. We identify
this dichotomy in models such as right hemisphere and left hemisphere or
heart and mind. In an attempt to make sense of these intangibles such as
beauty, the mind creates measurable standards and statistics, but those
things are ultimately unrelated to the aesthetic qualities themselves. |
| It is incapable of understanding ambiguous statements. If a statement
can be interpreted logically in a number of ways, it is our intuition that
tells us which interpretation is most likely to be true. When we are told to
love our enemy, logic alone cannot prevent grave errors in judgment. Logic
may consider the religion's value on faith and brotherhood and self
sacrifice and it could lead us to reduce our defenses, as we would do in the
presence of a beloved friend, and even assist someone who is intent on
harming us. In contrast, intuition, and the valid objections from ego, would
reject those interpretations. It would strive to define both love and enemy
such that we create a safe and productive relationship with an adversary. |
|  The intellect works with dualities rather than wholes. It
perceives facts as absolutes. Whichever philosophical position we take,
there is also some validity in the opposite position. People might
tell us to be open to strangers, while the police tell us to be wary of
strangers. Paradoxically, both perspectives are true: kindness is good, and
so is self protection. In contrast to the intellect, intuition fully
recognizes the legitimacy of all elements in a situation, and it knows that
they are all part of the synergistic dynamic. |
| The intellect works within a closed system.
Unless we make a
deliberate effort to learn, and to gather additional information, the
intellect uses only its present base of data, that it processes in a
habitual routine. In contrast, it is our intuition that gives us the feeling
that "I need more information on this subject.". The intellect
deals with a closed system, it can imagine itself to be an expert or a
scholar, whereas an intuitive person always has a fresh approach, even when
considering familiar material. After the intuition discerns a need for more
data, it can suggest a source for that data. |
| The intellect can minimize the importance of intuition.
Sometimes
intuition's accurate message contradicts experts' opinions, conventional
knowledge, statistics, and other forms of non-intuitive guidance. If we are
uncertain of the legitimacy of intuition as a means of guidance, we might
discard it altogether when its messages differ from those of respected
authorities. |
| The intellect allows for the existence of meaningless scholarship.
Certainly,
some fields of study require extensive knowledge, but the accumulation of
facts has value only to the extent that the particular information is useful
to our experience of life. We do not need to know how many angels can dance
on the head of a pin. Mere intellectual scholarship is often confused with
wisdom, that is a blend of intellectual knowledge, personal experience, and
an intuitive perception into the meaning and application of the data.
Intellectual scholarship frequently generates vain pride, such that we are
unwilling to accept valid ideas that contradict the theories upon which we
have built our reputation. We begin to rationalize our faulty beliefs, and
we terminate our process of learning. In contrast, intuition imparts only
the information that we need. It does not burden us with irrelevant details
that would distract us from important matters. |
| The intellect's concepts can be solidified into dogma. Regardless of
the teacher, the teachings are only viewpoints, opinions, theories, and
personal interpretations and sometimes they are intended only for a specific
person, group, culture, or time period. Those teachings probably arose from
one person's intuition, but the ideas can become institutionalized as dogma
such that we become unwilling or even afraid to seek our own intuition. |
| The intellect's words are a limited form of expression.
 | Words have different meanings to different people. One mother may believe
that love means that she should discipline a child, while another parent
believes that it means that she should the let child run free. |
| Words' meanings change. As a society evolves, its words acquire new
meanings and connotations. The word sex has different connotations today
than it did during the sexually repressive Victorian era. Even for
ourselves, words have different meanings depending upon our mood or our
stage of life. The concept of freedom is probably not the same to a 50 year
old person as it was during that person's adolescence. |
| Words cannot express the inexpressible. Energy, being the ground of all
things, cannot be fully explained verbally because words imply opposites and
contrasts and limited contexts. Any law of energy is an ironic contradiction
of the very nature of energy. |
| The intellect is incapable of consistently generating accurate
predictions. This fault occurs because the intellect works only on the basis
of linear projections from identifiable trends. In contrast, intuition can
perceive the nature and movement of phenomena that are not known to the
conscious mind. |
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Next topic: Intuition |
