There is also the question of do you believe in Luck, related to obtaining money? I like this quote,"The harder you work the luckier you get." Gary Player. No, I'm NOT lucky. No. I don't have a sixth sense or a reliable gut feeling.

I read body language to determine if a person has my best interests at heart. Someone who's "new" at cutting hair will make mistakes, that's common sense. I have a LOT of that. Or....I listen to world news to see what the stock market will do and know volume, time of year & other factors are at play.

I call it my 6th sense. It kicks in with people. Thank goodness it doesn't happens often, because it isn't pleasant. I don't even have to speak to a perfectly normal looking person and I instantly know they are someone to stay away from. It feels like an adrenaline rush when scared. Most unpleasant. And I have learned to trust it, because it is always right.

After all we are basically animals. Wild animals can sense danger before it happens, so why not humans.

I can easily relate to that battle between the logical vs that gut feeling but I too always have regrets when I don’t follow my gut. I’ve like Colleenoz’s explanation, I’ve never thought of it like that before.

I agree with Colleen. Often there are issues in our minds which are not yet articulated, the thought isn’t yet fully formed but it’s there. That’s why it’s good to sleep on things before making a decision.

I believe your haircut could have turned out well, and we must not fear taking chances on relatively minor issues like haircuts.

I too agree with Coleen. The older I get the more confidence I have in my gut feelings. Experience has taught me to trust them.

Yes, I believe in "gut feelings." Especially when it comes to people.

My gut feelings pertaining to situations, are frequently wrong. However, I tend to "read" individuals and am rarely wrong about that. I used to have a boss who would have me sit in on job interviews and ask my opinion about prospective employees.

I was going to say something similar to Mystical Manns. My gut feelings pertaining to situations are often wrong. I think in my case, my "gut feelings" are really just misplaced anxiety sometimes. And I'm not even a generally anxious person either.

But sometimes before boarding an airplane I'll get that "it's going to CRASH!" sense - and of course it never does. Or just before leaving for a trip I'll get an overwhelming sense of anxiety that we shouldn't go. We always go and it's always fine.

I tend to be able to read people just fine. If I get a bad feeling about a particular person, generally that turns out to be accurate. But my gut feelings about situations are usually wrong and so I've trained myself to just push through them.

This is an interesting question and I'm enjoying the responses.

I think you're over-reacting and over-analyzing a bad haircut. Keep it real.

In more pressing situations, I'll use the terms impressions and expectations to replace gut feelings. We all take away impressions from people and incidents and we all have expectations about coming circumstances or events. Both are colored rightly and wrongly by past experiences.

First impressions of people, especially in interview situations, are what they are. The more interviews you've done, the better you get at making spot assessments. Are expectations or concerns that bubble up inside about something accurate? Sure they are, and sometimes they're way off and become a handicap. Consider what you think carefully but for sure don't let such thoughts freeze you out of doing what you must or should do. Be wary but don't be tentative.

Elmer - I think you are underestimating the effects of a bad hair cut. First of all, you are going into a salon and in full view of others you are trusting someone with a very visual part of your personal appearance. You are also allowing someone to touch your head, your shoulders and hoping that they are treating that trust with respect. You are counting on them to be the expert in this situation, you are counting on them to hopefully understand by your non-technical words what you are trying to convey.

Don't belittle the effects of a bad hair cut or a bad experience of something that is actually quite a personal experience.

Trust but verify. Some people give off certain vibes, that makes me leery. It's nothing I can put a finger on, just something is off. Most of the time, my instinct is right.

Very related and a brilliant book is The Gift of Fear by Gavin DeBecker. It deals with the insight and empowerment you receive through understanding your gut feelings.

My DH is always right in his initial assessment of a stranger's *character flaws*. OTOH, he is apt to view ingratiating behavior as sincere friendliness -- missing the profit motivation of, say, a salesman.

It's harder for me to judge my own ability to assess. I've had to fight the 'Be Gracious' instilled in me as a girl.

In full view of others....allowing someone to touch you....counting on them to understand....

Are you serious? You're describing the feelings of someone perhaps lacking self-confidence and with peculiar feelings of their own body.

It's a haircut. Bad ones can sometimes be fixed by another session and failing that, hair grows, it's a temporary and trivial matter.

When you go to someone for some kind of personal service, including medical services but especially things like massages that so many love having, expect to be touched. If you get a haircut, expect that sometimes it won't come out as you'd hoped. Move on.

I'm prone to jumping at shadows so I must go beyond my gut feeling to measuring my fears against the reality of the situation.

However I do listen to my gut feeling when people are involved. A few times I have found out later that I was correct to get out of there.

Like with an ex-boyfriend who turned out to be a wife beater. Unfortunately for the woman after me no alarm bells went off or she didn't listen to them. Everybody was messing around as we were walking and I hip checked my then-boyfriend for fun as everyone was doing and he shoved me to the grassy ground. I was completely unhurt but totally shocked. To me it was not normal to react that way to playfulness. I asked him why he did that and he had no answer. After a night of clamoring warning bells I broke up with him. Something told me I was seeing his true colours beneath his very handsome face. There were smaller more insignificant signs as well that must have added up in my subconscious. It later came out that his father was a wife beater too.

There is an article about a scientific study of gut feelings and whether they are helpful or not. They say they are according to their study.

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gut-feelings-instinct-stop-mistakes-brain-signal-influence-emotions-study-findings-a8270611.html

The Gift of Fear is a really good book. I found it a little too long and it got tedious after awhile, but I agree with his central premise. So many of us got "be a good girl" attitudes drilled into our heads as youngsters and it doesn't always serve us well as adults. I skimmed a lot of it, but I agree it's a good read and it helped me understand when to shed those ingrained good manners.

I saved my son's life one time because of a gut feeling. He was a child fairly newly diagnosed with insulin dependent diabetes. I awoke one morning at 2-3AM, and I got a feeling that I should go right away to his room and check his blood glucose. I had not had this feeling before. I awakened him and checked and it was critically low and I treated it, had I ignored the feeling he might have had serious consequences.

I've read that your subconscious brain will process sights, sounds and smells without you being aware of them. When your brain then determines there is a pattern which is not consistent with safety and well-being it may result in a 'feeling' of unease.

OTOH, it could be your guardian angel at work.

Lucille, it's unexplainable how a mother knows their kid is sick without any symptoms showing yet. It's just a feeling.

The only gut reactions that I get are the ones that say "Feeeed Meee"

Apparently my guardian angel needs anti-anxiety meds.

I am a big time supporter of my gut feelings and always have been. I worked at a job which required making a LOT of judgements about situations and people. In meetings with our staff about situations/clients/potential clients, "Oly's gut" was often the deciding factor on what we would do. I didn't foist that on anyone, the group just would ask what my gut feeling was about something, because it was pretty reliable.

I guess it's also intuition. Many years ago, I learned to listen and I've seldom been sorry. I even self talk when I'm trying to ignore my feelings, "Listen to your gut."

First off, yes - getting a haircut is a trivial thing and yes I got over it and moved on. I went back today and asked for it to be righted and she did. I didn't yell or anything, I was nice about it. I only brought up this incident because it had just happened, not because I was devastated over it and it was fresh on my mind when I started thinking about gut feelings. I started thinking about a bunch of times before where I had a gut feeling to do or not do something, some of the instances were very critical. So that's why I told yesterday's story. Sheesh!

I don't consider myself an overly anxious person, but I do trust my intuition. Not only about people, but situations. I was on my way to Houston one time, for example, going my usual way. I had a feeling of dread, and felt like I should take another route. I continued on, but I couldn't shake the feeling. I turned and took another route. Would things have been okay, if I hadn't? I don't know. I don't usually get feelings like that, that so strongly tell me to turn back, but I felt I should that day, and I did.

I was ten years old, walking home from school. When I got to the edge of our property I thought something was wrong, very wrong. I just started praying silently as I approached the house. Went in and found my mother had tried to kill herself.

Matthias, I'm so sorry. What a horrible experience for a child to have to go through. I can't imagine.

Matthias. I’m sorry that happened to you. To her too. A very heavy burden for a ten year old. I hope both of you had help dealing with things.

Matthias how sad, but what a powerful bond/feeling that you knew something was amiss.

I have to agree with blfenton regarding a bad hair cut, she explained it really well.

When a man gets a hair cut they don’t like they can buzz their hair and still look “normal” while it’s growing back in. With women it’s a completely different story. A gal who I’d been going to for about a year assumed that since short bob’s were all the rage, that I needed a short bob cut too. She lopped off 6 inches without a word to me about it and once she’d cut the first “chunk” I was stuck with it. I prefer a medium length cut and It took months and months to grow it back. In the meantime I had to just live with it. I sure wish my intuition had told me to go somewhere else before I had sat down in her chair.

I have very good instincts and tend to follow them. When I don't, I often regret not having done so.

How scary that must have been for you Matthias, I’m sorry you had to go through that,

Gut feelings are not accurate and often gives you a passing feeling of unease that is unwarranted. When that is the case, the mood passes without consequence. Then, there are rare instances when it is prophetic. For example, last summer a thought crossed my mind and I remarked to my wife, "Maybe for our next trip, we should visit your sister". Her sister lives two states away and our lives rarely cross. We each knew where the other was located and had little interaction. Two days later, we discovered that her sister had died and my wife had not been informed. With the passing of her sister, the family had also lost contact information and those handling details barely knew my wife. So, was that a 'gut feeling' or a premonition?

I think there is a difference between gut feelings and intuition. I am skeptical of my gut feelings but not of my intuition, although both can be wrong at times. My gut feelings can be wrong about 50% of the time, but my intuition has a much higher accuracy, historically. My gut feelings can be reflex reactions, and those can never be trusted, and I do not. When I have an intuitive feeling, I recognize it for what it is and pay attention to it, whether I act upon it or not. I've been in the woods when I could sense that there would be a bear in the near vicinity, and in each case, there was, and I was able to backtrack to avoid the bear instead of facing it head-on. Once I sensed a bear behind me, and it was a good thing that I did.

I've also had premonitions that would strike me instantly, and these turned out to be extremely accurate, even though I did not want to believe them when they struck me. I never wanted to believe them when they happened to me and generally kept them to myself, only to regret later that I did not reveal them to others to warn them.

According to Einstein's unified field theory, there are at least ten dimensions, which you can read about in Michio Kaku's book Hyperspace, in which he discusses string field theory. I also believe that some sort of time travel is possible, to visit probable futures, and that this can be done sometimes while asleep and dreaming but also sometimes while conscious and accessing another dimension. This has happened to me on many occasions, and when I dream of the future just before it happens, it is the most accurate, but if I dream of it very far in advance, the probable future has more opportunities to change. When a dream comes to reality, I feel like I am experiencing déjà vu , but I often realize that it is really just something that I have dreamed previously and not actually experienced before. This happened to me much more frequently when I was much younger. As a child, I also had a lot of dreams that seemed to be of my previous deaths, but I have no way of knowing whether this is the case or not. Fortunately, I do not have these dreams any more.

I tend to have extremely vivid dreams, many of which cause me anxiety and are difficult for me to awake from. While having these dreams, I am generally convinced that I am awake and not dreaming, even though I have identified certain clues to let myself know that I am dreaming and not awake. One that did not work was trying to pinch myself during a dream to confirm that I was asleep, but when I did this, I felt the pain of the pinch, and this only served to convince me that I was awake. Another clue is when I recognize that I am hopelessly lost and will never be able to find my way home on the streetcar or by walking back on the path I have just been on, or that I am in a house or building that keeps morphing as I am walking through it. I then say to myself, this only happens in dreams, and so I must be dreaming, but I am not always convinced, as I do have a tendency to get lost in real life. This might be why I have collected maps.

Wow, Lars! We must be kindred spirits because so much of what you describe has been my experience, too. I'm not going to go into detail but especially in prophetic dreams there have been things that came about that would make the hair stand up all over. They happened when I was younger and I finally just purposefully "turned them off" because they were so upsetting. I don't talk about it too much because people think it's weird. But that dream of being lost and wandering is one of those dreams I have, too and I HATE it.

As Patrice said, 'The Gift of Fear" is an excellent excellent book.

It starts with the premise that our logical, analytical brain is a new development, while our older, perceptive brain is what kept us alive all those years waiting for our analytical brain to develop.

Our perceptive brain warns us before our analytical brain has time to argue with itself.

The author Gavin de Becker, is a consultant for high-profile and powerful people who are targets for kidnappers or assailants, and he also conducts seminars and classes for self defense for women.

The core message that I got from the book is not to argue with that perceptive brain! (Our analytical brains will argue with anybody, they live for arguments, and while we are arguing with ourselves, an assailant finishes us off.)

He tells of an example that he uses in his seminars.

He addresses the women in the audience. He says, paraphrased, "pretend you are working late at the office in a high-rise. It's late, it's dark, there's nobody else around. You get ready to leave, and you push the button for the elevator. The elevator arrives, the door opens, and there is one man standing inside the elevator. What do you do?"

He says that every woman at the seminar says that she would let the elevator go and she would get the next one.

However in real life, the woman makes eye contact with the man & hesitates: she doesn't want him to think that she thinks he might be a bad guy,, so (statistically), she gets on the elevator.

And this is how very very bad things happen to women.

It will be three years since my like has changed dramatically. I always have had very vivid dreams, but I’ve had some doozies since the end of 2016. One I recall had me behind the wheel of an enormous tractor trailer. I’m somewhat afraid of heights and it was getting bigger and higher off the ground. I was going over a bridge and it was out of my control. I woke up. So relieved it was over.

Another had me visiting the home where I grew up. It was becoming more and more unfamiliar. I went outside to the backyard which I always loved, but that too became unfamiliar. I wanted to leave. When I turned around there was nothing as far as I could see and I was terrified. I woke up again relieved

As far as intuition, once in a while I have an immediate aversion to someone. I’ve never been wrong but it doesn’t happen often. Other times I didn’t pick up or didn’t trust myself.

I took gut feelings as meaning the same as intuition but you make a very valid point, Lars, there is a difference.

It's all in what you believe. I consider myself a pretty good judge of people for the most part and it served me well all in all over the years hiring people. Sure, there were some misfires but I also was forced to hire a guy, over my objection since I couldn't put my finger on what was wrong. He claimed a robbery the first night, filed a false police report and went to jail. At least I had the satisfaction that he wacked himself in the head to "prove" he was assaulted and had a good sized lump. I smiled when he was sitting in the squad car. The cop asked me to not be within view of him. Apparently he thought I was going to thump him.

And I broke out laughing when his dad came in the next day asking to pick up his paycheck!

Gut feeling or perceptions? To me, pretty much the same. I believe there is something to it. Can't put my finger on what it is tho!