How Intuition Can Be More Liberating Than Investigation

Imagine you are about to eat an apple. Whether it’s red, green or silver, bite it. Before you consume the rest of the apple and metamorphize its nutrients into your bloodstream, hold the half-bitten fruit in your hand and watch it closely until a few drizzles of molten lava erupt from your salivary gland and ooze out of your 32-pillar cave. If a few minutes have passed, you could observe a colour change. But if you are patient enough like the Himalayan saints, you could see life spurring out of the apple. If you fancy reading the Mahabharata while having the apple, the fruit might eventually turn into crude oil.

From a microcosmic perspective, investigating an apple to the extent of a lab test will bring forth conclusive evidence of its fitness for consumption. There isn’t any limit to how far an apple can be examined. The string theory hypothesis states that we can infinitely dig deeper into a cell beyond its nucleus. Yet, there could be possibilities of discovery which are still unknown as we haven’t understood the minuscule vibrating loops of energy deep inside a cell which light rays cannot reflect.

From a macrocosmic perspective, you could observe a crimson-polished curvy wonder of nature in your hand. If you try to observe the apple far away from immediate visibility, say from level 50 of a building, you might just be able to spot a shiny red dot lying on the ground floor with the help of a Galaxy S23 Ultra. However, Mr Spock from the Vulcan planet might find it difficult or even impossible to spot it.?

There is no limit to how much we can introspect whether or not to eat an apple. Decisiveness is prevalent in all walks of life from eating an apple to building Apple Inc. Former Chrysler Chief Lee Iacocca believed decisiveness to be the chief trait of a visionary. We all have two types of thinking: analytical and intuitive. Like Hindu Gods, intuition has many names such as inner voice, inner calling, instinct, uncanny knowledge, gut feeling, or sixth sense.

An analysis is quintessential for any “quantitative decisions”. Companies do DCF valuations for assessing a takeover, and ore-genesis processes are carried out before greenfield explorations. A purely intuitive decision in such scenarios could potentially be quite adverse. A basic NPV or IRR could help you decide whether to accept or reject an investment decision. However, a deep analysis of interest rates, future inflation rates, political potency and government policies could make a decision appear more gnarly. Most decisions arising from pure emotions such as faith, love, and vision will always tend to give reasons not to pursue them if properly analyzed due to fear, anxiety, doubt, and logic.

Unlike analytical decisions which involve profound thought and reflection, intuition just happens, extemporaneously. Not all intuitions are gold and glory. If you’ve never endeavoured to climb Mt Everest and your intuition propelled you to climb the peak, the journey might take you directly to Mr Edmond Hilary. If at all by hook or by crook you climb the peak, it's mere luck. However, if you are passionate about herbology and you are zealous about breeding, your intuition to set up a perfume enfleurage laboratory might be a calling.

The primary job of ‘the gut’ is biological. ?But when it gets a mind of it’s on, it could turn wise or wicked. Before you decide to trust your gut at all times, behold! If not used with caution, intuition could be an addictive drug which will lure you to perils. Betting and auctions are common scenarios where gut becomes Loki instead of lucky. Experience increases your positive intuitive susceptibility to something, so the more experience you have, the more likely your intuition will turn out to be wise and divine.?

Sometimes we have to look at an apple the way it is and eat it with pure joy. Scrutiny and knowing about a million bacteria present in the apple will not give you the same joy as impulsively consuming an apple. There is no guarantee for the success of intuitive decisions, unlike logical decisions. The journey of an intuitive origin might not make you a nickel but it will be a thriller. Intuition is a powerful gift, and that’s what kindled humans to "think differently" enough to develop a silver-bitten apple. As salvation lies within, so does intuition and the latter, I believe, is easier to discover.