Healing and Hypnotherapy Volume 4 Issue 7, 1 January 2020 | Page 15

Intuition is very cerebral – it is a calm and clear sense of “knowing.” On the
other hand, gut instinct is very visceral and physical – you feel it in your body.
Intuition can be expressed through the body, and the gut instinct can be
expressed through intuitive knowing. But generally, both are clearly
discernible and strikingly different in their experience.
Also, gut instinct is much more emotional and reactive (as it is wired in the
primal brain), whereas intuition is more neutral and calm.
Examples of Gut Instinct
Some call it a “hunch,” others an “inkling,” but in this article, we’ll refer to it as
the gut instinct. Here are some examples that are  taken from the animal
kingdom and human (animal) behaviour of gut instinct:
• A herd of zebra sense danger while grazing. They cannot see the lions
lurking in the surrounding savannah, but something is distinctly “off.”
One zebra whinnies and the herd begins galloping away vigorously.
• A herd of elephants meander through the deserts in search of water.
Instinctively they know what direction to move in to find their
sustenance.
• A cat sits on the edge of a three-story house and wants to find a way
down. She slinks over to the edge and stares at the ground apparently
about to jump – but then changes her mind. She climbs down to the first
story roof and then makes the jump, apparently aware on an instinctual
level that jumping from any higher distance would injure her.
• A person approaches you at a bar wanting to flirt with you. You start
reciprocating, but something feels wrong. You sense a predatory quality
about this person. You don’t trust them. You excuse yourself and leave.
• Two hikers get lost on a trail within the mountains. Without a compass
or any way to determine a direction back to camp, they sit silently and
tune into the surrounding trees. Suddenly one of them points to the
West, “I have a feeling that is the way back!” An hour later they have
made it back to home base.
• You’re driving down a highway at night. Suddenly, the impulse
overtakes you to change lanes immediately. You obey the impulse, and
a couple of seconds later miss a large spike of glass that could have
punctured your tire and rendered you stranded on the side of the road.