Do You Trust Your Gut Feelings?

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Folks,

Been thinking this one over and wanted to get some opinions.

Throughout my life, I've noticed that my "gut feelings" have been a good indicator of what to do/not do. Whenever my "gut" told me not do do something, but which I ignored, something bad has happened. This has been true with people, purchases, investments, life choices, etc. Oftentimes, I will make myself ignore the warning signs because I want to believe I am doing the right thing -and usually this is when I fall the hardest.

Luckily I am listening more to my "guts" and will decline great-sounding offers, choose to take another route, leave an establishment if things just do not feel right. I have had occurrences of something telling me "don't go down that street..." which I listen to, and of course I'll never know if I did miss anything bad, but that's OK.

There may be other words for this like "instincts", but I believe that it falls into the same category of listening to your inner self. This may also become better developed over time, or just may be me be willing to pay more attention as I get older...any thoughts?
 
Sixth sense, gut feeling, instincts, women's intuition, hairs on the back of your neck, etc. There is definately something to it. If you want to get a better understanding, read "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin de Becker. He discusses the cues we get from other people that give us a our gut feelings. Sometimes we don't realize we are picking up on them. Have you ever had the feeling that the driver in front of you was about to change lanes without signaling? It's possible that you picked up on him checking his mirrors or blind spot and interpreted those cues without realizing it.

I've been told that de Becker is an anti-gun guy, but he has a good understanding on threat perception and threat assessment. Gut feelings are for avoiding bad situations, but I would rely on more concrete indicators before escalating a bad situation.
 
I recently read "The Gift of Fear". It's a good read on this very topic. I recommend it.
 
Yes, he believes guns are the exclussive realm of police, this does not mean his other thoughts are invalid. I have read his book a number of times and have bought at least 4 copies for female friends.
 
I've always trusted my gut. Numerous times an odd feeling has saved my bacon. Other times, it may well have and I just never found out for sure.

Also a big +1 on Gavin DeBecker's gift of fear. He might be gun foolish, but he's also very street wise.
 
I don't always trust my gut feelings but I NEVER ignore them. In other words, when I get a feeling that something's wrong I don't just dismiss it, but neither do I simply take a hunch and treat it as if it's fact without more information.

I see those things as alerts that tell you to look a little closer, dig a little deeper, pay a little more attention, look around to see what's going on around you, etc. I definitely take notice of them but I don't simply drop everything and follow a hunch/gut feeling in the absence of evidence to confirm it.
 
What I loved the most out of Gift of Fear was the Johnny Carson example where the persistent letter writer (stalker) was given a segment where he got to say the "heres Johnny"

Great read, many good examples of what happens if you fail to deescalate a situation, and how to avoid dangerous situations. If your gut tells you something is wrong, listen to it. Also learned that restraining orders arn't worth the cost of the ink to print it, nothing but a legal formality, and PITA when used wrongly ie. Divorce.
 
De Becker's book is great.

Except, his gut tells him nobody but the .gov and his personal goon squad, I mean security service, deserves guns...my gut disagrees though.
 
Thanks for the book rec', just bought it used online for .75 (plus shipping).

I never believe any info 100%, but I expect to learn something that will contribute towards my personal philosophy, -although I'd be shocked if a single book would convince me to sell my guns...
 
Trust your 'gut'. When it keeps you out of trouble, GREAT. When you go with your 'gut' and it doesn't mean anything, no harm, no foul.
 
most of my gut feelings involve mexican food smothered with jalapenos. i trust them
 
I don't always trust my gut feelings but I NEVER ignore them. In other words, when I get a feeling that something's wrong I don't just dismiss it, but neither do I simply take a hunch and treat it as if it's fact without more information.

I see those things as alerts that tell you to look a little closer, dig a little deeper, pay a little more attention, look around to see what's going on around you, etc. I definitely take notice of them but I don't simply drop everything and follow a hunch/gut feeling in the absence of evidence to confirm it.
Click to expand...

Ditto. If my spidey sense goes off I am code orange looking for evidence to support code red.

I should always be in code yellow and never in code white:)

~Norinco
 
There is actually a multi page thread way back in the strat & tac forum thats several pages long that has a number of situations when people experienced 'sixth sense', 'gut feelings', and the like. Its a good read, Ill see if i can find it.

Always go with your instincts. Like the people above have said, it will usually save your bacon and you can never be to carefull.
 
The book is about 1/2 "meat," with great anecdotes that keep building on the thesis that you should ALWAYS trust your gut (and, for lack of a better term, feed it with updated info and allow it to do its thing).

The other half probably won't apply to most people. It consists of some complicated ways of figuring out, using (I'm not kidding) a scoring system to figure out whether your employees are going to kill you at work and other similar worries. I think it's mostly for the purpose of illustration, because the author does this kind of assessment for a living and makes good money at it. Which brings me to the major downside of the book: the author is a chest-thumper, plain and simple, and wants you to know that there are VIPs out there that deserve the best protection the world has to offer, which comes from him.
 
"Gift of Fear" is a good primer on the topic. And yes, I try to trust my instincts. Nowadays, so many are trained to be paranoid about being 'PC' that they convince themselves that it's nothing.

What's fascinated me was, a few times after I've hustled my wife out of a place before she was necessarily done, it turned out she had had the same 'vibe' I had...I just wonder if she'd have done anything about it if I hadn't prodded her along.
 
Funny thing, those people with the most accurate gut feelings are often those people with the best abilities for situational comprehension or awareness. In other words, the gut feelings are not extra-sensory, but just the person picking up on more subtle factors in one's environment.

I call it my "gut" as well, but the reality of it is that the voices tell me what to do. Apparently, their survival depends on me surviving.
 
I've looked at my partner before and said something is going down he agreed. What ever it is lucky, guess, or what where is the harm in increasing your awarness.

Jm
 
The biggest obstacles seem to be our modern tendency to self-analyze AS something's happening rather than listen to our intuition, as well as (as others have said) wishing the feelings away - "No, he's a nice guy...he wears such nice clothes...my daughter will be fine."
 
Sympathetic nervous system & Parasympathetic nervous system AKA:
"Fight or flight, feed or breed"

I believe that unless one is not: Paranoid skitzofrenic (mentally imbalanced), intoxicated or otherwise mentally-emotionally impaired this is an excellent judgement tool in many circumstances. Some, not all of course.

This is an inherent, thousands of years old human reaction that we can do little to change.

Having been overseas with the military, and working as Firefighter-EMT, etc. I experience this on regular basis - and many times, the proverbial 'gut feeling' holds true for me, personally.

Granted - when I am ordered into a village full of angry native, who possibly own more AKs and RPGs than I could fathom or nowadays when Chief orders me into a burning building I have to surpress the reactions :what:.

Hence why I say I rely on the old 'gut feeling' in many, not all circumstances. And oddly, despite all the training, drilling and experience I have I can not surpress the reactions.

Although - it is nice, being humans we can think rationally, make snap decisions and adapt: that is why WE are the top of the food chain. Speaking of which, cant wait for pheasant season... Coming soon.... ha ha
 
I always trust my gut and its saved me a few times as well. I also don't ignore my gut feelings because someone doesn't "look the part" so to speak. I don't care how attractive,polite or well dressed someone is,if my gut tells me they are trouble I go with that.

After all just because a guy is wearing a Canali suit and a gold Rolex doesn't mean hes not a scum bag,I think a lot of people go by appearances and this disarms their defensiveness they think "oh hes handsome and well dressed so he not a threat. I say the that think Ted Bundy he was a very well spoken,well educated,handsome man,he didn't fit the stereo typical "look" of a serial killer.
 
I'm with JohnKSa on this one. Gut feelings are like a red flag, they give me a warning to open my eyes and sus out the situation. Sometimes they are right, sometimes not. I figure gut feelings is you picking up on stuff you didn't consciously notice so you gotta pay at least some attention to them. (Sometimes it's like esp or voodoo) Gut feelings need to be calibrated tho, and you need to be careful of plain old fear.
I once walked into a small store in Mexico and saw this guy buying something and the alarm bells went off so loud it was like a symphony (or maybe heavy metal), that time I walked right out. Glad I did. Don't even know if something happened. Don't care.
 
Look for the why behind your gut feeling. The major shortcoming in Gift of Fear is that he never goes beyond the intuition label. We're not psychic, there is no intuition, only little clues that you're not consciously picking up on. When you get that feeling search for the why behind it. Once you understand the why you'll be able to make a valid call.

If, as Readyrod experienced, your gut starts sceaming at you just get out, but pay attention to your surroundings as well. Just because you left "That Guy" doesn't mean his buddy "That Other Guy" isn't around the corner plotting your demise as well.
 
Some good points in the discussion here.

What I've been thinking about since early along in this thread is a quote I've hear attributed to various figures from Andy Jackson to George Patton- "Do not take counsel of your fears."

There is a difference between our subliminal level of awareness, and fear. We need to recognize that, and not attribute the niggling of 'spidey senses' to fear when such is not actually the case.

If we are to be genuinely self-aware individuals, we have to come to terms with fear. Fear in humans is real, and it too is instinctive, inborn, a not-learned behavior. The innate nature of fear in humans is demonstrated by such things as 'visual cliff' experiments with human infants ( http://www.wadsworth.com/psychology_d/templates/student_resources/0155060678_rathus/ps/ps05.html for one example).

We have to come to terms with fear. We do that by seeking to understand those things which make us afraid. Fear can be rational, but it can also be completely irrational. For example, some people really are afraid of guns. I'd say that people who are afraid of guns (which are after all, inanimate objects) are really afraid of several other things even more than they are afraid of guns ( http://www.nationalreview.com/kopel/kopel011701.shtml ). This sort of fear is best referred to as morbid fear ( http://www.gunlaws.com/GunHate.htm ).

To understand the thing you fear is to go a long way toward overcoming that fear. Fear is a topic for study as much as any other subject. I frequently remember the discussion of fear among the Spartans, featured in Steven Pressfield's novel Gates of Fire. Of what good is a work of fiction to us in the here and now, you might well ask? Michael Yon might have an answer for you- http://www.michaelyon-online.com/gates-of-fire.htm .

It's good to think about fear. It's good to discuss it and help each other understand it. By doing so we go a long way toward eliminating its debilitating effect on us.

hth,

lpl
 
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