According to Osho, intuition cannot be explained scientifically, because explanation demands causal links within the intellect, and intuition comes from beyond the intellect. It is not a function of the mind but a higher, non-rational penetration that the mind can register yet never produce or analyze. Intuition uses the mind as a vehicle; surrender and receptivity allow it, but intellect cannot reach or dissect it.
Intuition isn’t made by thinking—it’s like a message from beyond your thoughts that you can feel but can’t explain.
From the Discourses
Passages where Osho speaks to this question — each links to the complete discourse.
Question: can intuition be explained scientifically? Is it a phenomenon of the mind?
This is intuition. It is a different realm of happening that is not related to the intellect at all, although it can penetrate the intellect. It must be understood that a higher reality can penetrate a lower reality, but the lower cannot penetrate the higher. So intuition can penetrate intellect because it is higher, but intellect cannot penetrate intuition because it is lower. It is just like your mind can penetrate your body, but your body cannot penetrate the mind. Your being can penetrate the mind, but the mind cannot penetrate the being. That is why, if you are going into the being, you have to separate yourself from body and mind, both. They cannot penetrate a higher phenomenon. As you go into a higher reality, the lower world of happenings has to be dropped. There is no explanation of the higher in the lower, because the very terms of…
Question: OSHO, WHAT IS INTUITION, AND WHAT IS ITS PLACE IN YOUR RELIGION? Instinct and intuition are both independent of you. Instinct is in the power of nature, of unconscious nature, and intuition is in the hands of the superconscious universe, the consciousness that surrounds the whole universe, the oceanic consciousness of which we are just small islands -- or better, icebergs, because we can melt into it and become one with it. In some ways intuition is exactly opposite to instinct. Instinct always leads you to the other; its fulfillment is always dependent on something other than you. Intuition leads you only to yourself. It has no dependence, no need for the other; hence its beauty, its freedom and independence. Intuition is an exalted state needing nothing. It is so full of itself that there is no space for anything else.
Question: THE SUFI MASTER, AJNABI SAID, 'WRITE TO MULLA FIROZ AND TELL HIM THAT I HAVE NO TIME TO ENGAGE HIM IN CORRESPONDENCE, AND THEREFORE HAVE NOTHING TO SAY TO HIS LETTER.' THE DISCIPLE, AMINI, SAID, 'IS IT YOUR INTENTION TO ANNOY HIM WITH THIS LETTER?' AJNABI SAID, 'HE HAS BEEN ANNOYED BY SOME OF MY WRITINGS. THIS ANNOYANCE HAS CAUSED HIM TO WRITE TO ME. MY PURPOSE IN WRITING THE PASSAGE WHICH ANGERS HIM WAS TO ANGER SUCH AS HE.' AMINI SAID, 'AND THIS LETTER WILL ANGER HIM FURTHER?' AJNABI SAID, 'YES. WHEN HE WAS ENRAGED AT WHAT I WROTE, HE DID NOT OBSERVE HIS OWN ANGER, WHICH WAS MY INTENTION. HE THOUGHT THAT HE WAS OBSERVING ME, WHEREAS HE WAS ONLY FEELING ANGRY. NOW I WRITE AGAIN, TO AROUSE HIS ANGER, SO THAT HE WILL SEE THAT HE IS ANGRY.
Beloved Osho, some people do things instinctively. Is instinct the same as intuition? Or is instinct animal-like, and intuition only human? Beloved master, please comment on the difference, if there is a difference.
Just a few months ago one Jaina monk did this kind of suicide. They call it santhara. And I wonder that a government which is against suicide takes no note of these people. They should be prevented. They should be put in jails, with others who attempt suicide ... because what does it matter what kind of means you use for suicide? Whether you die within nine minutes or ninety days does not matter. And if you allow the Jaina monks, then why should you prevent others? And the prevention is also very beautiful. If you are caught committing suicide -- if you have committed, nothing can be done -- but if you are caught committing suicide, then you will be sent to the gallows. Strange punishment! That's what he was doing himself! Now why waste unnecessary years of time in courts, cases, judges, advocates and finally, because he was…
Beloved Osho, please could you talk about the subtle differences between instinct and intuition?
Yogeshwar, your individuality can be divided -- just for the purpose of understanding it; otherwise there is no division. It is one single unity, whole: the head, the heart, and the being. Intellect is the functioning of the head, instinct is the functioning of your body, intuition is the functioning of your heart. And behind these three is your being, whose only quality is witnessing. The head only thinks; hence it never comes to any conclusion. It is verbal, linguistic, logical, but because it has no roots in reality, thousands of years of philosophical thinking have not given us a single conclusion. Philosophy has been the greatest exercise in futility. Intellect is very clever in creating questions and then creating answers, and then out of those answers, more questions and more answers. It can make palaces of words, systems of theories, but they are all just hot air. The body…