It may be useful to recapitulate .and set out systematically the conditions which most people find conducive to intuition. The most important prerequisite is prolonged contemplation of the problem and the data until the mind is saturated with it. There must be a great interest in it and desire for its solution. The mind must work consciously on the problem for days in order to get the subconscious mind working on it. Naturally the more relevant data the mind had to work on, the better are the chances of reaching a conclusion.
An important condition is freedom from other problems or interests competing for attention, especially, worry over private affairs. Referring to these two prerequisites Platt and Baker say: "No matter how diligently you apply your conscious thought to your work during office hours, if you are not really wrapped up in your work sufficiently to have your mind unconsciously revert to it at every opportunity, or if you have problems of so much more urgency that they crowd out the scientific problems, then you can expect little in the way of an intuition”.
Another favourable condition is freedom from interruption or even fear of interruption or any diverting influence such as interesting conversation within earshot or sudden and excessively loud noises.
Most people find intuitions are more likely to come during a period of apparent idleness and temporary abandonment of the problem following periods of intensive work. Light occupations requiring no mental effort such as walking in the country, bathing, shaving, travelling to and from work, are said by some to be when intuitions most often appear, probably because under these circumstances there is freedom from distraction or interruption and the conscious mind is not so occupied as to suppress anything interesting arising in the subconscious. Others find lying in bed most favourable and some people deliberately go over the problem before going to sleep and others before rising in the morning. Some find that music has a helpful influence but it is notable that only very few consider that they get any assistance from tobacco, coffee or alcohol. A hopeful attitude of mind may help.
Positive stimulus to mental activity is provided by some form of contact with other minds: (i) discussion with either a colleague or a lay person; (ii) writing a report on the investigation, or giving a talk on it; (iii) reading scientific articles, including those giving views with which one disagrees. When reading articles on topics quite unrelated to the problem, the concept underlying a technique or principle may be absorbed and thrown out again as an intuition relating to one's own work.
Having considered the mental technicalities of deliberately seeking intuitions, there remains one further important practical point. It is a common experience that new ideas often vanish within a minute or so of their appearance if an effort is not made to capture them by focusing attention on them long enough to fix them in the memory. A valuable device which is widely used is to make a habit of carrying pencil and paper and noting down original ideas as they flash into the mind. It is said that Thomas Edison had a habit of jotting down almost every thought that occurred to him, however insignificant it may have appeared at the moment. This technique has also been much used by poets and musicians, and Leonardo da Vinci's notes provide a classical example of its use in the arts. Ideas coming during sleep are likely to be particularly elusive and some psychologists and scientists always leave a pencil and paper nearby; this is also useful for capturing ideas which occur before one goes to sleep or while lying in bed in the morning. Ideas often make their appearance in the fringe of consciousness when one is reading, writing or otherwise engaged mentally on a theme which it is not desirable to interrupt. These ideas should be roughly jotted down as quickly as possible; this not only preserves them but also serves the useful purpose of getting them "off your mind" with the minimum interruption to the main interest. Concentration requires that the mind should not be distracted by retaining ideas on the fringe of consciousness.
Three very important adverse influences have already teen mentioned; interruption, worry and competing interests. It takes time to get your mind “warmed up” and working efficiently on a subject, holding a mass of relevant data on the fringe of consciousness. Interruptions disturb this delicate complex and break the mood. Also mental and physical fatigue, too constant working on the problem (especially under pressure), petty irritations and really distracting types of noise can militate against creative thinking.
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