I had a long conversation with a friend at a party who thinks she has “intuitive" powers. I answered every “belief in the supernatural" question she had, everything was gracious, then she said, “everything you said is fine, but it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it". We’ve had that discussion before and she’s never explained what that “how" is. Two other people were in this conversation, as well as a house full. No one saw any anger, any animosity. So, really, she was saying, “I’m out of logical arguments, so I’m going to attack your personality". I did not take the bait because the only thing for me to do would have been hurtful to her.
She makes statements about her “way of knowing" being superior, in particular to my logical epistemology. I have told her before that any statement of superiority, with no explanation of why, is insulting to others. There is little else I could have said to her except that she has walled herself from the rest of us. She has set up a barrier that we can’t challenge without it being a personal insult to her.
Fortunately we agree on conclusions, like being nice. When her friends praise her astrological predictions or dream interpretations, they are praising her positive outlook on life. But that praise feeds her belief in her special powers, which is why I challenge her. If ever her statements turned negative, or she heard a voice that told her to start cutting herself to make the world better, they would start questioning her epistemology tout de suite. But by then, it would be much more difficult to undo not only the negative imagery she was having but also the poor system she had for sorting it out.
“It’s how you say it” is common enough that if people hear it, they assume that the person saying it is true. Less common is people understanding Bayesian analysis that says if you don’t have all the background information, your claim that it’s true is worthless. But at the time, my choices were, hurt her feelings and prove that “how I say it” is the problem, or accept that crazy people are more likable than logical ones.
I had a long conversation with a friend at a party who thinks she has “intuitive" powers. I answered every “belief in the supernatural" question she had, everything was gracious, then she said, “everything you said is fine, but it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it". We’ve had that discussion before and she’s never explained what that “how" is. Two other people were in this conversation, as well as a house full. No one saw any anger, any animosity. So, really, she was saying, “I’m out of logical arguments, so I’m going to attack your personality". I did not take the bait because the only thing for me to do would have been hurtful to her. She makes statements about her “way of knowing" being superior, in particular to my logical epistemology. I have told her before that any statement of superiority, with no explanation of why, is insulting to others. There is little else I could have said to her except that she has walled herself from the rest of us. She has set up a barrier that we can’t challenge without it being a personal insult to her. Fortunately we agree on conclusions, like being nice. When her friends praise her astrological predictions or dream interpretations, they are praising her positive outlook on life. But that praise feeds her belief in her special powers, which is why I challenge her. If ever her statements turned negative, or she heard a voice that told her to start cutting herself to make the world better, they would start questioning her epistemology tout de suite. But by then, it would be much more difficult to undo not only the negative imagery she was having but also the poor system she had for sorting it out. "It's how you say it" is common enough that if people hear it, they assume that the person saying it is true. Less common is people understanding Bayesian analysis that says if you don't have all the background information, your claim that it's true is worthless. But at the time, my choices were, hurt her feelings and prove that "how I say it" is the problem, or accept that crazy people are more likable than logical ones.I 'd stay away from anyone who claims to have intuitive powers if I were you. It can only mean trouble. Run. Don"t even try to figure her out. Lois
I think that some people are “intuitive”. But it is not a mystical power. They have simply figured out (on a relatively consistent basis) the likelihood of something happening, but they have done so, subconsciously, without awareness of the input, and/or problem solving, that lead them to that conclusion. Of course, there are some people who think that they are “intuitive” when they really aren’t (i.e, if they really kept track of all of their “intuited” conclusions, they would not consistently bear out.) For your friend to determine which she is, she could immediately write down each “intuitive” thought that she has (along with time and date) and then compare to whether a very high percentage of her “intuitions”, bear out.