INTUITION 



and the bath are probably due to complete freedom from dis- 

 traction and to the fact that all the circumstances are conducive 

 to reverie. Others attest to the value of leisure or of relaxing 

 light occupations such as walking in the country or pottering in 

 the garden. Hughlings Jackson used to advise his students to sit 

 in a comfortable chair after the day's work was over and allow 

 their thoughts to wander around things which had interested 

 them during the day and write down the ideas that came. 



It is evident that to get bright ideas the scientist needs time 

 for meditation. The favourable effect of temporary abandonment 

 may be to escape from unprofitable conditioned thinking. Intense 

 concentration on a problem too long continued may produce a 

 state of mental blockade such as may occur when you try too 

 hard to recall something that has slipped from your mind. 



According to Wallas^ ^ intuitions always appear at the fringe of 

 consciousness, not at the focus. He considers that an effort should 

 be made to grasp them and that a watch should be kept for 

 valuable ideas in the eddies and backwashes rather than in the 

 main current of thought. 



It is said that certain people get some kind of warning preced- 

 ing an intuition. They become aware that something of that 

 nature is imminent without knowing exactly what it will be. 

 Wallas calls this " intimation ". This curious phenomenon does 

 not seem to be at all general. 



My colleague, F. M. Burnet, finds that intuitions come to him 

 mainly when he is writing and, unlike most people, rarely when 

 he is relaxing. My own experience is that when I have been con- 

 centrating on a subject for several days, it keeps coming back 

 into my mind after I have stopped deliberately working on it. 

 During a lecture, social evening, concert or cinema my thoughts 

 will frequently revert to it and then sometimes after a few 

 moments of conscious thought a new idea will occur. Occasionally 

 the idea springs into the consciousness with Uttle or perhaps no 

 preliminary conscious thinking. The brief preliminary conscious 

 thinking may be similar to Wallas' "intimation", and can easily 

 be missed or forgotten. A number of people have commented 

 on the favourable influence of music but there is by no means 

 universal agreement on this point. I find some, but not all, 

 forms of music conducive to intuitions, both when I am attending 



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