How to bring intuitive technologies/capacities/skills in conversation with analytic capacities?
Intuitive skills/technologies help us gain a deeper understanding of the world around us and access a deeper level of knowledge. There’s a way to only take the surface level into account, for example only the material aspects of a concept and see all the pieces it is made of or have an understanding of the processing of a system, but the deeper meaning, the interconnectedness is something else. This is where intuitive skills are really good: at connecting, at recognizing patterns, at sensing interconnection, of information and of systems and the ability to apply the principle of the subject at hand in a different context or a different perspective beyond its immediate location. When teaching, it might be hard to make people care about the surface level alone, when you look at a mechanism in question as if it was working in a vacuum. But when you can bring the other aspects that are attached to that concept into the room and give space to see how that mechanism applies elsewhere, that’s when people start paying attention. When people can find similarities, patterns, and parallels that apply to other fields they’re interested in and see how that translates into their world, it is very clear how that matters, not only here with that one subject, but in the world. And suddenly, there is an emotional aspect connected to that insight. This is the deeper meaning of knowledge in practice: Understanding how your subject is interacting with other elements in the world and having an emotional connection to knowledge. Allowing connections to enter the picture and think about how that can be applied in multiple ways, or in multiple different systems. It is about feeling the effects of the subject you are trying to understand, and sensing what impact it makes on humans, non-humans, and the world. In the classroom, it is about integrating these emotional experiences and social aspects of learning and letting them complement our analytical skills. That’s when things get really interesting, that’s when we really get the bigger, deeper picture of interaction. This sense of gaining an insight, a deeper understanding of something, where suddenly your world expands – that’s what we are going for.
Love for science as a method and a practice
We all have these intuitive skills, and we can hone and train them like we do with analytical skills when for instance we practice solving math problems. Equally, we can practice and learn to tune into these systems. This is evident for people who hone certain crafts, like musicians and artists of all kinds know how to tune into different types of information, whether that is sound or colors, and they have a practice of accessing these various sensations.
This is also where love comes into the picture, the love of gaining deeper insight and moving closer to the world. When we are in a state of feeling love, connection, and empathy, it’s easier for us to tap into these moments of insight. With an open heart and an open mind, we can take in more information and have a greater capacity to hold complexity.
