Women's intuition: Is it the real thing? / LJWorld.com

Archive for Monday, January 19, 2009

Marlene Rockwell has a knack for knowing what to look for as a private investigator. When she is not outside or out of town tracking down clues, she works in her Lawrence home office.

By Marlo Angell - Special to the Journal-World

January 19, 2009

Photo by Kevin Anderson

Marlene Rockwell uses a combination of reason and intuition for her private investigation business.

When Bickell Lund works on a missing person case, she checks the facts, talks to loved ones and follows leads.

But there’s often one tool of the trade that helps her piece everything together — her intuition.

“There was a case where we looked at the missing person and their habits, and I kept coming back to their love of wilderness and the outdoors,” says Lund, of Peace of Mind Investigations in Eudora. “Sure enough, we ended up finding that person in the woods.”

Lund, who has been a private investigator for 12 years, believes that intuition and reason have a parallel relationship.

“As an investigator, you want to use all your senses,” she says. “You wouldn’t want to just use intuition, or just reason either. It would be like searching around in the dark. Why just use two fingers, if you have 10?”

A feminine mystique

Harriet Lerner, a Lawrence-based clinical psychologist and author, says women may indeed have a biological edge when it comes to an empathic attunement to emotions. But rather than a magical gift carried in the X chromosome, she believes women’s intuition is ultimately a result of environment, not just biology.

“In relationships between dominant and subordinate groups, the subordinate group members always possess a far greater understanding of dominant group members and their culture than vice versa,” Lerner says. “Historically speaking, intuitive skills for women have been nothing short of tools for survival in a world where access to economic security and social status has depended on an ability to please men and ‘read’ them accurately.”

While Lund’s intuitive skills may give her an edge in a male-dominated field, she is careful not to take them for granted.

“As with any other side of the brain, it needs to be exercised,” Lund says. “It’s so easy to get caught up in the facts that sometimes I like to take a break and put it all in the back of my mind. In 15 minutes or so, I come back to it and see what work my subconscious has done.”

Marlene Rockwell, of Rockwell Investigations in Lawrence, agrees.

“When I’m doing a case and lose track of someone, I close my eyes and listen to my first impressions,” she says. “About 75 percent of time that instinct turns out to be right.”

A former Army officer, Rockwell believes women are particularly adept at picking up on body language and unspoken clues.

“You listen to your gut, and if you feel something’s not right, most of the time it’s not and then you can figure out who really committed the crime,” she says.

Intuition in art

Denise Low of Lawrence, the Kansas poet laureate, believes that poetry uses intuition by working with subconscious rather than rational capacities.

“Like dreams do in a sleeping state, I think poetry and good language knit together the conscious and subconscious in a waking state,” she says.

And while Low believes women may be particularly in tune to their subconscious side, she doesn’t think that men are inherently any less intuitive.

“Coming out of some experiences and traditions where gender roles aren’t sorted in that way, I think we all have this capacity,” she says. “It just depends on how it is socialized. I raised two sons, and one was particularly intuitive. But I found that social structures around us do not encourage that for boys.”

Low, whose stepdaughter and husband are American Indian, believes native heritage may provide more language and tools for dealing with those intuitions.

“In my husband’s tribe, it was the man’s role to be the dreamer, to reveal things from another place,” she says.

Low seeks to infuse her writing with these influences and invoke the whole range of mental, intuitive and even spiritual responses in her readers.

The handwriting on the wall

For Debra Dunlap, a forensic document examiner from Ottawa, intuitive writing has an entirely different meaning. She says people who are more intuitive tend to break words after syllables or in two- or three-letter sections.

“Some people don’t have the intuitive trait show up in their writing at all,” Dunlap says.

When it comes to analysis, she finds that intuition is a valuable tool when combined with methodology and past experience to determine the validity of handwriting on wills and other documents.

For Rockwell, intuition is just another tool of the trade.

“For the past several years I have been working on a missing person’s case in Oklahoma,” she says. “For the longest time there were never any leads.

“However, I spent years trying to investigate the finances of the missing man on a hunch something was not right. This hunch led me to a confession that financial documents had been forged, which led to other evidence, which eventually led to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations reopening the case last year.”

Discussion

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19 January 2009
at 4:13 a.m.

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Logan72 (Alia Ahmed) says…

Marlo,Very interesting article. Of course, I had a feeling I was going to like it. :~) I've actually come to trust my intuition and think there are ways we know things without really understanding where the knowledge comes from.Deepak Chopra makes some interesting observations about “gut feelings” and asserts we have some of the same cells in our stomach as in our brain. http://spirituality.indiatimes.com/ar…
19 January 2009
at 9:35 a.m.

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number3of5 (Anonymous) says…

I don't know if it is intuition or premonition, but my son had a dream about a member of the family we had not heard from or seen for over ten years. We found a way to contact him by using the internet and to our dismay, my son's dream is true, he is dying. So sometimes this can bring good news or bad news.
19 January 2009
at 9:49 a.m.

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bizarre (Anonymous) says…

I am gay and sometimes more woman and sometimes more man. So I have the ultimate intuition!
19 January 2009
at 10:54 a.m.

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Boeing (Anonymous) says…

I've yet to meet a woman who does not think she has “intuition” and yet to meet a man who does not think his wife is crazy.
19 January 2009
at 2:17 p.m.

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alm77 (Anonymous) says…

Boeing, I'm a woman who will admit I have no “intuition”. I have “anti-intuition”! I always believe the best in everyone and it's come back to bite me more than once. My husband, on the other hand, can practically tell you someone's entire life story within moment of meeting them. I've learned to trust his intuition because he's been found to be right so many, many times. Any yes, he still thinks I'm crazy. ;)
19 January 2009
at 2:36 p.m.

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Irish (Irish Swearingen) says…

Bollux! All of it total bollux! As a woman I have never felt the need to understand or please men and I don't think that historically women have. This just goes to prove that the more you learn from books, the less you know about life.
19 January 2009
at 2:53 p.m.

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jengaman (Anonymous) says…

Intuition…what is it good for? I always got a kick out of the women who “followed their gut” only to fall flat on their face. Gut feelings can only get you so far. Logic and brainpower must come into the equation at some point. When my gut tells me to do something I usually do the exact opposite just because.alm77, actually I think they call that “anti-intuition” being naive. Sorry.

19 January 2009
at 3 p.m.

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Notinterested (Anonymous) says…

My mom has had some crazy intuitions and many have come true. I used to just write them off but now I actually listen to her - lol I remember her predicting Barbaro would hurt his leg - now that one blew my mind.
19 January 2009
at 3:18 p.m.

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Informed (Anonymous) says…

Women's institution? Of course it's real. In fact, I think there's one in Lansing.
19 January 2009
at 3:32 p.m.

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jumpin_catfish (Anonymous) says…

I feel a disturbance in the force. Wrong, it was just…..gas.
19 January 2009
at 3:44 p.m.

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CeeCee (Anonymous) says…

tempting_butnothanks… Usted está siendo demasiado alto.
19 January 2009
at 3:48 p.m.

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Sigmund (Anonymous) says…

“Women’s intuition: Is it the real thing?” I guess so. Next in the series, “Sanitarians: Freedom loving straightforward extroverts?” But I have a hunch that if you need a P.I., Bickell Lund is the last one you should hire. I keep getting the name “Kevin.” Does that mean something to you?
19 January 2009
at 3:55 p.m.

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alm77 (Anonymous) says…

jenga, pretty much. Yeah. It's not always a bad thing, though.
19 January 2009
at 4:06 p.m.

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spankyandcranky (Anonymous) says…

How interesting! This article expanded on some theories I'd developed about intuition myself. I'd never considered that a culture's view of who should be more dominant or submissive could affect who will BE more intuitive. I'm a woman, and I've always felt I could read people better than most, but was not sure if that was just one of my natural strengths, or a trait that was brought out by certain circumstances in my life. I'd like to see more articles like this in the future. It's nice to see other people's views on topics that effect everyone — especially when they have some expertise in that area.
19 January 2009
at 4:09 p.m.

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CeeCee (Anonymous) says…

“There was a case where we looked at the missing person and their habits, and I kept coming back to their love of wilderness and the outdoors,” says Lund, of Peace of Mind Investigations in Eudora. “Sure enough, we ended up finding that person in the woods.”Twelve years and this your crowning glory?? Sorry, I'd rather hire Inspector Clouseau.

19 January 2009
at 4:30 p.m.

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RETICENT_IRREVERENT (Anonymous) says…

Women’s intuition: Is it the real thing?Lets ask Eve, cause all the trouble in the world started with just one apple.Damn bunch of rib thieves.
19 January 2009
at 4:36 p.m.

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misplacedcheesehead (Anonymous) says…

I think women often are more intuitive then men, because we are allowed to “develop” it more.I have three kids, the youngest of whom scares me silly sometimes with how on-target he can be.Just one example. When he was three, we were pulling into our driveway. Out of the blue, he says, “I want to call my Grandpa in Mn”. I said something like we will, sweetie. Then I forgot about it, until I got a phone call three days later from a police officer in Mn, stating my dad had been found dead in his home.It was the coroner's opinion that dad had died three days before being discovered….
19 January 2009
at 4:37 p.m.

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CeeCee (Anonymous) says…

I use to have an intuition, but it wasn't as good as the commercial on TV made it out to be, so I threw it away.
19 January 2009
at 4:46 p.m.

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tangential_reasoners_anonymous (Anonymous) says…

Coca-Cola… It's the real thing.
19 January 2009
at 5:12 p.m.

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kmat (Anonymous) says…

“tempting_butnothanks (Anonymous) says… womens intuition is simply another thing to help women feel like they are actually superior to men.”We don't need anything to help us feel like we're superior to men. We know we are superior!
19 January 2009
at 5:15 p.m.

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justbegintowrite (Ronda Miller) says…

Intuition…the more you use it, believe in it, listen to it the more you will have. Well written article, Marlo…and an interesting topic. As a Life Coach, I have been trained to listen intuitively to clients…most of us do this “intuitive” thing on a daily basis, but either take it for granted or ignore it. I was closed to a lot of things/possibilities until recently; the more open minded we become the more comes to us…Like attracts like…believe people…just believe.
19 January 2009
at 6:16 p.m.

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tennesseerader (Anonymous) says…

Most engineers and inventors are men because their brains are logical. Females excel at intuitive tasks because they use their feelings.
19 January 2009
at 6:56 p.m.

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Sigmund (Anonymous) says…

tennesseerader (Anonymous) says… “Most engineers and inventors are men because their brains are logical. Females excel at intuitive tasks because they use their feelings.”Well at least you don't believe that Blacks are shiftless, the Irish are drunks, and Jews are the reason for every economic problem. Good for you!

19 January 2009
at 7:11 p.m.

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Irish (Irish Swearingen) says…

Sigmund, I agree with you.I don't believe there was a time when women as a group were submissive to men. That's an urban myth. Some were, some were not.That would make dogs very intuitive and cats not, as dogs want to please people more.
19 January 2009
at 7:20 p.m.

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tangential_reasoners_anonymous (Anonymous) says…

Men and women, alike, are submissive to lesser things than women and men. Intuition holds the potential of liberating insight.
19 January 2009
at 7:24 p.m.

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bndairdundat (Anonymous) says…

Mrs. bndair tells me that women are multi-taskers as far back as caveman days. This because they had to keep the cave cleaned, the kids fed and well and learned in caveman ways.They had to take care of the injured and elderly. The men could only focus on one thing at a time. Hunting or eating or protecting the family or sleeping or……
19 January 2009
at 7:27 p.m.

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Multidisciplinary (Anonymous) says…

So, Mrs bndair reads a lot of Jean Auel does she?
19 January 2009
at 9:27 p.m.

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bndairdundat (Anonymous) says…

Yeah Multi, she reads, fixes a meal, talks on the phone, vacuums the cave, walks the dog and watches KU BB all at the same. All while I nap in the recliner :0
19 January 2009
at 9:36 p.m.

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rickdad2005 (Anonymous) says…

i think that a women's intuition is about as real as frog with wings
19 January 2009
at 9:38 p.m.

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rickdad2005 (Anonymous) says…

my wife seen this and said then how come i know you?
19 January 2009
at 9:40 p.m.

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bndairdundat (Anonymous) says…

Yep, her copy of Clan of the Cave Bear has been sitting in the book shelves since the babies were tiny (early 80's)and she is Cro-magnon Ayla to me the neanderthal

19 January 2009
at 10:05 p.m.

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justfornow (Anonymous) says…

When it comes to driving or doing two things at once…..NO
19 January 2009
at 10:40 p.m.

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Multidisciplinary (Anonymous) says…

lol.You should get her the rest of the series. My old neighbor used to call me Ayla, because I knew all the plants, etc. The day I whistled some birds (using their song, which I have done since a child) up to the nearby telephone wire, she named me that, lol.
20 January 2009
at 11:17 a.m.

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sashalaguapa (Anonymous) says…

Sigmund (Anonymous) says… “Women’s intuition: Is it the real thing?” I guess so. Next in the series, “Sanitarians: Freedom loving straightforward extroverts?”But I have a hunch that if you need a P.I., Bickell Lund is the last one you should hire. I keep getting the name “Kevin.” Does that mean something to you?”No, it doesn't. Care to explain further? I have dealt personally with Bickell Lund and I can say that she has proven herself to be one of the best investigators in the nation. She has won numerous awards, including one national female investigator of the year. She takes the cases that other mediocre investigators cannot do and turns them out in record time. In addition to her genuinely amazing skills, she boasts an incredible personal success story. She is a single mother raising two children who manages to own and operate her very successful business.
15 February 2009
at 1:24 a.m.

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EyeSpy (Anonymous) says…

Intuition is something everyone has. It is a feeling, a knowing from deep within..”I know that I know” kind of thing. This is a “feeling” universe! I think it is often referred to as “women's intuition because women feel and men do and reason. It's a part of our higher-self (or whatever label you use). It's just that most of us are running around with a cell phone at our ear, drinking a Z's coffee (Mark I need a free coffee for that plug) and trying to get to work so that we buy some idiotic thing that will just end up in a landfill! It's an energy (our energy) that connects us to everything and everyone. It is the same kind of wierd thing that happens when you start thinking about friend, the phone rings and it is that friend.

Oh and by the way…..Bickell is one of the best investigators that I have ever worked with or known. My intution tells me that the person that attempted to slam her has no idea of what he/she is talking about.