Intuition and Science

Many have been lead to believe that science and intuition are two types of thought that cannot be linked together. One has to do with logic and order, the other to do with the irrational, the inspired, of faith and religious experience. Yet, much scientific advancement occurred only as a result of accidental discoveries, serendipitous occurrences, insights during dreams or a revere state of mind or when the mind was pursuing other questions, or even when a person was hovering between sleep and consciousness. Indeed, much advancement seems to have arisen from the seeming irrational. Irrationality is seen as the foundation of things like religious faith and the unconscious dream world. Yet this quality infuses the best of science.

Many important discoveries have occurred, seemingly by accident. People get locked into a rational set of conditions of a single discipline. This often limits the potential for breakthrough. When it does occur, it is due to the intervention from a discipline outside of their field, seemingly unrelated. Sometimes an event intervenes that breaks the straitjacket of single discipline conformity and linear thinking. Today, many disciplines are complex beyond the ability of the average mind to fully utilize the knowledge set contained therein. Specialization often limits ones ability to discover new insights. Specialization is the bane of real advancement and discovery. Since civilization exists by virtue of the highly specialized, it often stands in the way of insight and discovery.

• Though his professors told him it was impossible to develop a polyphase motor, Nikola Tesla invented it. Remembering a description of the sun’s motion in Goethe’s Faust triggered this. This crossing of disciplines laid the foundation of most of our modern technology.

• Howard Johnston successfully patented what for all the world can be defined as a perpetual motion machine; something considered impossible by scientific thinking. Yet he patented a permanent magnet motor, using nothing more than a clever vector arrangement of permanent magnets. By redefining his concepts, he was able to patent this perpetual motion machine. He was an engineer for General Motors in a field entirely unrelated to electromagnetic engineering.

• The invention of polymer molecular rings was inspired from a dream of a serpent biting it's own tail.

• Einstein intuited the basic concepts of relativity before he developed the mathematics to express the ideas, later proven by observation.

• Penicillin was discovered as a result of a contamination accident in a petri dish containing bacteria. The discovery of this lead to the first true miracle drug.

• The existence of the toy levitron flies in the face of conventional magnetic theory that says it is impossible. Yet they work, exist and are sold routinely to anyone who is interested. The inventor had to intuit the concept and go beyond the limits of magnetic theory. The evidence now exists and stirs up controversy.

• Experiments to produce a plastic glass (Plexiglas) failed, until someone left an experiment overnight as refuse to be cleaned up later, which ended up producing the desired result when it set during everyone’s absence.

These are but a few examples of something that occurs routinely in all fields of experiment and endeavor. Indeed, were it not for these happy accidents and flashes of insight, we would still be in the Stone Age. Given the rigidity and alienation of contemporary civilization, this is not difficult to accept.

Many of the equations that have evolved due to our increasing understanding of the cosmos are unsolvable. This is especially true for the n-bodied type, the non linear equations and ones dealing with relativistic phenomena. So how do we know what they mean? Using a lot of intuitive insight with these expressions is the key to understanding. Computers have helped us somewhat in solving some of the more difficult problems, but even here we are limited.

Evidence is accumulating to suggest that the dynamic electromagnetic cosmos works in a feedback manner. In other words, subtle influences from distant parts of the cosmos shape us on the unconscious level. Conversely, by mass conscious effort, humanity can shape things in the cosmos without the intervention of tools and hands. Experiments using mind-activated computers demonstrate the bidirectionality of the phenomenon. There are rather interesting experiments involving quantum mechanics, which strongly suggest that, we have a profound influence on things just by observation alone. Experiments in these fields are having increasingly interesting results and successes as we come to understand our intimate relationship with nature and the cosmos.