What is insight?
What is insight?
Reflection, intuition, sixth sense?
In its literal context it can be interpreted as inner vision or inner sight. Vincent Van Gogh said, “If one is master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time, insight into and understanding of many things.” This literally means that there is no measure to the amount of wisdom a person can gain from any specific circumstance.
By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
In my personal experience insight is easily gained by watching and listening to other people. Most people reveal a lot about their personal experiences and choices they have made. It is then our job to understand and really listen to their experiences because no matter how mundane or frivolous it may seem it could give you the knowledge you need to attain certain insights. That is why the old adage says we were given two ears and one mouth, so we should listen twice as much as we speak. That is great advice!
The dictionary defines insight as a “penetrating mental vision or discernment; faculty of seeing intoinner character or underlying truth.”
Does this mean we have the ability to see the future? In a sense, yes! By connecting the dots, so to speak we can make intuitive leaps based off the finite amount of probable outcomes. Insight is literally our ability to look within ourselves for wisdom and understanding. Every human being has a massive capacity for wisdom and insight. That instance of apprehending the true nature of a concept that can only be rationalized through intuitive understanding It is that instant when you make a realization by use of deductive reasoning when you get that spark of pure understanding. Whenever someone says, ” My light bulb just came on” they are referring to this spark of energy.
What is intuition? Is it just new-age mumbo jumbo? The Institute of Heartmath studied intuition scientifically and found that participants experienced a significantly greater heart-rate deceleration before future emotional stimuli compared to calm stimuli, indicating that their hearts appeared to receive and respond to intuitive information. Evidence from the electroencephalogram (EEG) and electrocardiogram (ECG) show that the heart responded to the stimuli before they were even presented to the participants.
“Overall, we have independently replicated and extended previous research documenting prestimulus responses. It appears that the heart is involved in the processing and decoding of intuitive information. This study presents compelling evidence that the body’s perceptual apparatus is continuously scanning the future.”
Further research demonstrated that the frontal cortex, temporal, occipital, and parietal areas of the brain appear to be involved in the processing of prestimulus information. “Overall, our data suggest that the heart and brain, together, are involved in receiving, processing, and decoding intuitive information. On the basis of these results and those of other research, it would thus appear that intuitive perception is a system-wide process in which both the heart and brain (and possibly other bodily systems) play a critical role.”
So when you think you can FEEL something that hasn’t happened yet, your heart is actually reacting to it prior to it’s happening in a way we can scientifically measure. Don’t forget to feel.
Scientifically our bodies are electrically charged so that piece of wisdom or knowledge was probably literally a spark of electrical current that goes through our bodies. This was a revelation for me when I understood this concept because it means that our bodies can produce completely new energy through concepts and ideas, which is insight!
So, knowledge leads to insight which leads to wisdom. According to ancient philosophy
“Wisdom is power and power is wisdom, one with each other, perfecting the whole.”-Thoth
He also goes on to say to not be proud in your wisdom and to still interact with ignorant people because anyone could have knowledge, so we need to listen and heed because wisdom is everything. Do not be quiet when evil is spoken in place of the truth. Reveal the light of truth and knowledge so that all may be wise. He also ends this passage saying not to fear because fear is bondage, a chain that keeps us in the dark. I don’t know about you but that is pure knowledge into the the insight of wisdom.
“Knowledge without insight is useless, as is wisdom without purpose. For the purpose of wisdom is to be forever sought after, yet never fully attained , for this is its purpose. Wisdom alone will not save you, wisdom alone means nothing. True wisdom is the understanding in your self to relentlessly pursue an infinite universal truth with divine passion. To selflessly, unbiasedly non-maliciously, and fearlessly embark on an endless pursuit to attain and advance one’s self, as well as those around them, heart, mind, and soul for the salvation of mankind. For it has no merit how wisdom is sought, only rather that it is sought. -by Author
Insight is the understanding of a specific cause and effect in a specific context. The term insight can have several related meanings:
- a piece of information
- the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of seeing intuitively in Greek called noesis
- an introspection
- the power of acute observation and deduction, penetration, discernment, perception called intellection or noesis
- an understanding of cause and effect based on identification of relationships and behaviors within a model, context, or scenario (see artificial intelligence)
*Emerald Tablets of Thoth, Tablet III, The key of wisdom, paragraph 2