NLP Coaching Works With Conscious Mind And Unconscious Mind For Integration
According to a team led by Professor Gerard Hodgkinson of the Center for Organizational Strategy, Learning and Change at Leeds University Business School, intuition is the result of the way our brains store, process and retrieve information on a subconscious level and so is a real psychological phenomenon which needs further study to help us harness its potential. (source ScienceDaily Mar. 6, 2008)
Through analysis of a wide range of research papers examining the phenomenon, the researchers conclude that intuition is the brain drawing on past experiences and eternal cues to make a decision – but one that happens so fast the reaction is at a non-conscious level. All we-re aware of is a general feeling that something is right or wrong.
“The driver couldn’t explain why he felt he should stop, but the urge was much stronger than his desire to win the race,” explains Professor Hodgkenson. “The driver underwent forensic analysis by psychologists afterwards, where he was shown a video to mentally relive the event. In hindsight he realized that the crowd, which would have normally been cheering him on, wasn’t looking at him coming up to the bend but was looking the other way in a static, frozen way. That was the cue. He didn’t consciously process this, but he knew something was wrong and stopped in time.”
Prof. Hodgkinson believes that all intuitive experiences are based on the instantaneous evaluation of such internal and external cues – but does not speculate on whether intuitive decisions are necessarily the right ones.
“Humans clearly need both conscious and non-conscious thought processes, but it’s likely that neither is intrinsically ‘better’ than the other,” he says. As a Chartered occupational psychologist, Prof. Hodgkinson is particularly interested in the impact of intuition over deliberate analysis when a swift decision is required. “We’d like to identify when business people chooses to switch from one mode to the other any why - and also analyze when their decision is the correct one. By understanding this phenomenon, we could then help organizations to harness and hone intuitive shills in their executives and managers.”
The research is published in the current issue of the British Journal of Psychology. The article comprises a critical review of previously published theory and research within psychology and the wider behavioral sciences..
