Intuitive Methods in Support of a New Science and its Associated Societal Paradigm

William H. Kautz

Modern science has unquestionably been an immense boon to the expansion of human knowledge, the development of civilization and creation of the current societal paradigm. However, it is now apparent that it suffers from severe shortcomings which are blocking its application to the study of the human mind, mind-related fields generally. and even fundamental physics and biology. The pressure to transcend these limitations is calling for major changes in the way science must be carried out and applied. In this presentation I identify these specific shortcomings and explain which of them which might be circumvented, which disregarded, and which modified to meet the emerging need for a new and more broadly inclusive science.

Primary to this trend is the need for another way of acquiring knowledge besides the traditional methodology of experimentation, deduction, analysis, hypothesizing, and verification. In 1978 to 1993 the author’s Center for Applied Intuition carried out a series of experiments to elicit, from a team of highly skilled intuitive individuals, new and useful information that had not been obtainable scientifically. Employing the method of intuitive consensus—which employs a set of skilled intuitives in a special inquiry mode—three knowledge-bound areas (among others) were explored: earthquake triggering, bipolar (manic) depression, and HIV/AIDS. Abundant new and detailed information was obtained. Later examination (2011) of these intuitive findings revealed that they corresponded very well with results from mainstream research over the intervening years. They showed that intuitive consensus has a significant potential for generating totally new information, ideas, perspectives, and hypotheses in almost any scientific area which is held up by a lack of knowledge. This method and the conditions for conducting future intuitive inquiries successfully, along with the implications for changes to modern science and the current societal paradigm, are described.

Bio: William H. Kautz, Sc.D. M.I.T. ’51, conducted basic and applied research in computer science and geophysics at SRI International (Stanford Research Institute) for thirty-five years, eventually as Staff Scientist. He then founded and directed for fifteen years the Center for Applied Intuition, a research, training, and educational organization in San Francisco. He is the author of seven books and fifty journal and magazine articles, and taught at Stanford University, Technical University of Denmark, and other institutions. He currently lives, writes, and teaches in Tucson and Prague.

Recorded at the 31st annual SSE Conference in 2012 at the Millennium Hotel in Boulder, Colorado, USA.

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Published on November 14, 2018