Crazy, paranoid, demented... Cast the first stone for the woman who has never been attributed at least one of these affable adjectives - but throw it vigorously, and preferably at the man who uttered it. We may be cyclical, we are naturally hormonal, but our sixth sense... Ah, no one can take that away from us.
Crazy, paranoid, demented... Cast the first stone for the woman who has never been attributed at least one of these affable adjectives - but throw it vigorously, and preferably at the man who uttered it. We may be cyclical, we are naturally hormonal, but our sixth sense... Ah, no one can take that away from us.

That's more or less how, by trial and error, we came to recognize it. The sensation it generates may sound a bit bizarre to us, but after a certain point, it became only too familiar. And even then, there were more than a few times when we chose to brush it off. In Wealth of Words, author Amit Kalantri dubbed it "the nose of the heart." But other terms exist (other than for lack of vocabulary) to refer to the so-called - and so familiar to so many of us - "intuition." Feeling, gut feeling, inner voice, presentiment, suspicion, omen, foresight, premonition... It would not look good if we left out of the spectrum the illustrious "sixth sense", even though the expression indicates, first of all, a sixth way of feeling something and which, therefore, adds to the other five senses - sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. After all, is said and done, we can give intuition whatever designation we like; what we cannot do, in any case, is to claim that intuition, with all its immense nomenclatures, has not paid us at least once in our lives with one of its visits. In its guardian angel outfits, it does not present itself to us gradually. The alert reverberates within us in the most profuse ways: be it in the form of mental rumination, indecision, a feeling of insecurity, or damned insomnia. And, because the physical body also has a deep voice, the intuition may even be masked by stomach pain, nausea, or even a lack of appetite (or too much of it). In short, the "feeling" is there: crazy, hysterical, screaming as if there were no tomorrow, indignant at our lack of zeal, and trying, at all costs, to prevent us from doing what we are mistakenly prepared to do. Or rather, insisting that we follow a certain course when our brattiness stubbornly does the exact opposite, disregarding it completely. Then we have nothing else and, between one whistle to the side and another, bam: there we press the red button that screams danger and the door bursts in, the same one that carries an impossible-to-pass-unnoticed sign that warns, at all costs, "no entry."
The so-called gut feeling "is a feeling, a sensation that cannot be explained, something momentary that is not generated by any conscious process at the brain level," clarifies Marta Martins Leite, a psychologist. She also states that, on a biological level, there are no scientific studies that prove a correlation between any biological data and the so-called presentiments, but psychology does have something to say on the matter: "Psychology understands the presentiment as a sensation that is much more linked to emotion than to reason and is directly linked to intuition. If each person carefully evaluates each of his or her feelings, they will certainly find a relationship between that feeling and some aspect of his or her life. All people are intuitive, however, the overwhelming majority prefer to rationalize all thoughts and feelings, making their decisions based on what is considered right and wrong, leaving their feelings aside." Or else, considering what we are most comfortable doing at any given moment, is the thought that plagues me in the face of the above explanation. How many times have we thrown ourselves headlong into a situation that we know is going to cost us an arm and a leg, one where the red flags are blaring, and yet, in a sudden act of insanity, mixed with impulsiveness and a taste for the abyss, we jump in, like an Olympic jumper? If we see things according to the rules of rational and reason, aren't there situations in which intuition tells us to follow reason and not the heart? What makes us feel at that very specific moment? In which all that is feelings and emotions should be turned off and put aside, but far away from us? I insist on believing so, although, as the old and illustrious expression would advocate, "do as I say, don't do as I do."
Let's try to simplify: "The sixth sense is a capacity of the brain that involves the crossing of information from both hemispheres. The left, which is the rational, and the right, where the emotional resides," clarifies the psychologist. And she mentions David Eagleman, American neuroscientist, author, and professor at Stanford University: "Eagleman suggests testing intuition or hunches through a game called heads or tails, with a coin. The idea is to assign a decision to each side of the coin. Depending on whether it comes out heads or tails, the person should reflect on how they feel, not about the choices, but about the outcome that might come from those choices. If you feel relieved, that is the right decision for you. If, on the other hand, you feel discomfort, disappointment, or irritation, then perhaps that is not the right choice or the best decision to make." Nawal Mustafa, a neuropsychologist known on Instagram as The Brain Coach, claims that there is a lot of science behind intuition, so it is crucial to listen to the hints and warnings of our gut feeling. "Visceral feelings do not arise randomly," assures Mustafa. "The brain and the gut (in English, gut) are connected so that we make the best decisions based on various factors." He maintains his clarification by indicating that about 95% of our body's serotonin is produced in the gut, thus influencing emotions and mood: "Gut signals are then transmitted to the brain through the release of serotonin," he writes in a post on his Instagram account. When an external factor, as would be the case with a new environment, causes the body to produce high levels of serotonin, the response can make us feel safe or in danger, depending on the context. It is then likely that the feeling of insecurity caused by an unfamiliar area, or the instant "click" we feel when we meet someone new, are such neurotransmitters at work. That gut feeling, the so-called intuition. It would not be out of place now to question the fact that a woman is a voice behind this explanation. Mere coincidence or not, I put the following question to Marta Martins Leite: after all, women do or do not have a keener sixth sense? Because in this geography in which we cohabit called Planet Earth, it is common to attribute to the female sex a greater ability to perceive when something is not "right." Some people think we are crazy, crazy, paranoid o,r even manic. But isn't it, instead of all that (and not discounting some behaviors that are the result of the hormonal cycle we are biologically subject to and that get us out of control), just an intuition worthy of a professional detective of the highest caliber?
The suspicions are confirmed: "Women have, in fact, a keener intuition than men," says the psychologist. She continues: "This is due to a part of the brain called the 'corpus callosum'. It is scientifically proven that the connection between the two hemispheres of the brain is made by this part, and in women, the frequency of impulses in this brain region is higher." In this regard, the poet Rudyard Kipling wrote that "the silliest of women can manipulate a clever man, but it would take a woman to be very skillful to manipulate an imbecile." For the British author, "a woman's sixth sense is more accurate than a man's certainty." With different emotional characteristics from men, women also have higher IQ values for interpersonal intelligence, language, and multitasking. In parallel, and as already mentioned by Marta Martins Leite, many scientists from various countries have discovered that, in women, the traffic of nerve impulses through the so-called "corpus callosum", the so-called channel between the two hemispheres of the brain, is greater. Perhaps, because of these and other reasons, women have, little by little, been conquering more and more space in the labor market. However, let's not get ahead of ourselves. This text has no feminist pretensions, nor does it have any ambition to fight another carnal battle in the infinite war of the sexes. Here there is only one very small issue to be established, which we will now decipher: from now on, before you judge us women as insane, psychopathic, crazy, and all the adjectives that may serve us when we are presumably being "paranoid," make sure that it is not our keen sixth sense talking. The same one that, as proven by the thousands of characters inscribed above, is rarely wrong. It's not mania, it's science.
Translated from the original on The Good Luck Issue, published march 2023.Full stories and credits on the print issue.
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