THE NATURAL POWER OF INTUITION: EXPLORING THE FORMATIVE DIMENSIONS OF INTUITION IN THE PRACTICES OF THREE VISUAL ARTISTS AND THREE BUSINESS EXECUTIVES by Jessica Jagtiani Dissertation Committee: Professor Judith Burton, Sponsor Professor Mary Hafeli Approved by the Committee on the Degree of Doctor of Education Date 16 May 2018 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education in Teachers College, Columbia University 2018 ABSTRACT THE NATURAL POWER OF INTUITION: EXPLORING THE FORMATIVE DIMENSIONS OF INTUITION IN THE PRACTICES OF THREE VISUAL ARTISTS AND THREE BUSINESS EXECUTIVES Jessica Jagtiani Both artists and business executives state the importance of intuition in their professional practice. Current research suggests that intuition plays a significant role in cognition, decision-making, and creativity. Intuitive perception is beneficial to management, entrepreneurship, learning, medical diagnosis, healing, spiritual growth, and overall well-being, and is furthermore, more accurate than deliberative thought under complex conditions. Accordingly, acquiring intuitive faculties seems indispensable amid present day’s fast-paced multifaceted society and growing complexity. Today, there is an overall rising interest in intuition and an existing pool of research on intuition in management, but interestingly an absence of research on intuition in the field of art. This qualitative-phenomenological study explores the experience of intuition in both professional practices in order to show comparability and extend the base of intuition, while at the same time revealing what is unique about its emergence in art practice. Data gathered from semi-structured interviews and online-journals provided the participants’ experience of intuition and are presented through individual portraits, including an introduction to their work, their worldview, and the experiences of intuition in their lives and professional practice. Framing outcomes through concepts of psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, theology, noetic sciences, quantum physics, metaphysics, and art theory, resulted in the emergence of five themes that offered perspectives on the purpose of intuition, optimum conditions for intuiting, spiritual aspects of intuition, conduits for intuitive knowledge, and suggested connections between art and intuition. The findings of the study suggest that the artists experienced heightened levels of intuition that the business executives did not. Data indicate that experiences of intuition are enhanced through methods of quieting the mind, which can be found in Eastern practices and that show similarities to processes in art practice, such as transcendence, focus, non-attachment, visualization, a body-mind-spirit connection, and intention. The findings suggest that distinct qualities of art practice allow for alternative knowledge- making methods that can create preferable conditions for intuition to flourish in art education, such as generating inclusive dialog, increasing self-awareness, processing emotions, developing focus, refining the senses, and fostering ethicality, all of which may awaken and strengthen abilities of intuition. © Copyright Jessica Jagtiani 2018 All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my mother who continuously encourages me to chase my dreams in life, and always supports me in doing so—no matter how challenging they are. Thank you Mamutschka! iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS First, I would like to thank my advisor Dr. Judith Burton, who has supported me throughout the last six years with her wisdom, intellect, emotional intelligence, resourcefulness, and friendship. Her inquiries kept me critical and her encouragement kept me focused on my work and confident in myself. Dr. Burton’s intelligence, curiosity, kindness, open-mindedness, and dedication will always inspire me. Thank you also to the six participants of this study, who voluntarily shared their time, expertise, and experience in honest testimonies, which provided the substance for this research. Without their generous contributions this study would not have been possible. A deep thank you to my family, my mother for pretty much everything, my brother Robert for the emotional and intellectual support and our deep friendship, and my brother Thomas for the financial support. Additionally, I would like to thank the rock in my life, Fred Ata, who has stood by me and supported me through these six years in the best possible way. A warm thank you to my wonderful colleagues, Dr. Sean Justice, Dr. Erol Gündüz, and Jerry Vezusso, who provided me with encouragement, support, feedback, exchange, and friendship. Thank you, Brian Bulfer, for continuously leaving books in my mailbox that I never requested but that were so critical to my research. Thank you to my second reader, Dr. Mary Hafeli, for the support and advisement, and to my third reader Dr. Lyle Yorks for the guidance and interest in my work and me. Thank you, Dr. Victoria Marsick, for the much-appreciated advice developing the methodology. Thank you, Lisa Jo Sagolla, for teaching me to become a decent writer and for editing this paper. Thank you, Rocky Schwarz, for all the enjoyable chats and the formatting of this dissertation. iv Special thanks go to my dear friends Valeria Lopez and Lisa Nelson, to whom I randomly assigned time-crunched editing tasks at arbitrary times for nothing in return but a hug. Thank you to Mike Zippel and Oskar Hallig for all the love. Thank you also to all my other friends who have stayed close and supported me throughout this time, you know who you are. Big thanks also to the Thorndike basement crew that kept me smiling and alive in the five years of working in a space without natural light. J. J. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Chapter I - INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 1 Introduction to the Problem ......................................................................................... 2 The Experience of Intuition ............................................................................... 4 Arriving at Intuition Research ............................................................................ 5 Background to the Problem ......................................................................................... 7 Ancient Knowledge ........................................................................................... 8 Classic Eastern Philosophies .............................................................................. 9 Energy and Vibration....................................................................................... 11 The Illusion of a Mechanical Universe ............................................................. 12 Complexity in the 21st Century ....................................................................... 14 The Mind Only Notion .................................................................................... 15 The Intuitive Mind ........................................................................................... 17 Problem Statement .................................................................................................... 18 Research Questions ................................................................................................... 18 Educational Significance ........................................................................................... 19 Assumptions .............................................................................................................. 19 Justification of Research ............................................................................................ 21 Limitations ................................................................................................................ 21 Main Influences ......................................................................................................... 22 Summary ................................................................................................................... 24 Chapter II - RELATIONSHIP TO THE FIELD OF KNOWLEDGE ............................. 25 Aspects of Intuition ................................................................................................... 26 Processing Systems: Experiential and Deliberate ............................................. 27 Processing Styles: Assosiative, Matching, Constructive, Creative .................... 28 The associative style ................................................................................ 28 The matching style ................................................................................... 28 The constructive style ............................................................................... 28 The creative style ..................................................................................... 29 Processing Types: Inferential and Holistic ....................................................... 30 Location: Local and Nonlocal Intuition ............................................................ 32 Type, Time and Location of Retrieved Information ......................................... 33 Type of information ................................................................................. 33 Time information was aquired ................................ .................................. 33 Location of information............................................................................. 34 Intuition and Affect