Trust Your Instinct, It Is Scientifically There For A Reason

April 14, 2023,

You can feel it.

You can sense it.

The hairs on the back of your neck are sticking up.

Can you prove it?

Not yet.

Still, you feel it is right to proceed with caution. Good idea.

Listen to your instinct.

One day it could save your life.

Instinct is the way people or animals naturally react or behave, without having to think or learn about it. Sometimes it ignites without any previous experience but something about your current situation raises a red flag.

Sometimes it is called your gut feeling.

That almost sounds unscientific, but actually, a lot of science may be involved.

The team at psychologytoday.com educates, “Given that gut reactions occur as they do and reflect emotions, does the brain get involved in any of these reactions? Yes, it does. The brain and gut communicate and inform one another. The vagus nerve connects the brain to the gastrointestinal tract (as well as other organs) sending and receiving signals from the body. This communication informs how the brain and other organs respond.”

Let’s go to the movies and see it at work.

Watcher is a 2022 psychological thriller film written and directed by Chloe Okuno in her feature film directorial and screenwriting debut, based on an original screenplay by Zack Ford.

The film stars Maika Monroe, Karl Glusman, and Burn Gorman.

Watcher had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2022, and was released in the United States on June 3, 2022, by IFC Midnight and Shudder.

Here is the storyline.

American couple Julia and Francis relocate to Bucharest, moving into an apartment building with a large picture window.

Julia notices a man looming in a window from the building across the street. While Francis works long hours, Julia grows unnerved by the man in the window, who watches her on a daily basis.

At this point, we wondered, don’t they have curtains in Bucharest?

Julia’s fear heightens when she learns of a serial killer, dubbed “the Spider” by local media, who is decapitating young women.

Talk about your instincts starting to kick in.

While walking through the city one day, she senses a man is following her. She manages to flee from a nearby market but when Francis and Julia visit the market to review the security footage, it proves inconclusive.

At some point, Julia begins to take matters into her own hands. Once she finds out who she believes him to be, she does something odd.

She begins to follow him.

Sometimes in, around or through dark places. Subway tunnels, alleys and dark buildings.

She is certain he is off, but she can’t prove it.

Others, including her husband, are starting to believe that, due to being alone a lot, Julia’s imagination is starting to get the best of her.

Is it?

You have to watch the film, but in terms of instinct, this is a very good one.

One more. A true classic.

Basic Instinct is a 1992 neo-noir erotic thriller film directed by Paul Verhoeven and written by Joe Eszterhas.

The film follows San Francisco police detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) as he investigates the brutal murder of a wealthy rock star. During the course of the investigation, Curran becomes entangled in a passionate and intense relationship with Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), an enigmatic writer and the prime suspect.

His instincts tell him that she is the killer. She is extremely clever at hiding it, if she is.

The cat and mouse game that ensures between the two, who are potential lethal enemies, and yet have an incredible attraction to one another keeps you on the edge of your seat.

This film slowly reels you in as they go back and forth with one another, right until the end.

Although the film received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the performances of the cast, original score, and editing, but criticized its writing and character development, and despite public protest, Basic Instinct was a commercial success, grossing $352 million worldwide.

It was the fourth-highest-grossing film of 1992, behind Disney’s Aladdin, The Bodyguard, and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.

The question swirled throughout.

Is she, or is she not? Our suggestion?

Listen to your instinct.

Now to the book store.

The Study Of Instinct Paperback – November 30, 1991

By Niko Tinbergen (Author)

“Behavioural ecologists and evolutionary biologists have long recognised Professor Tinbergen’s great prescience in placing the study of animal behaviour firmly in an ecological and evolutionary context nearly fifty years ago. This is a reprint of the 1969 edition of The Study of Instinct (originally published in 1951).

The first six chapters cover behaviour as a response to stimuli, the neurophysiological bases of innate behaviour as then understood, and the development of behavioural patterns in individuals. The final two chapters are devoted to the adaptativeness of behaviour and evolutionary aspects of behaviour.

These last two chapters have particularly withstood the test of time. ‘More than the other parts,’ the author wrote in 1969, ‘they show the potential of studying animals in their natural environment, i.e. in the environment that exerts the pressures which each animal species has to meet…I feel very strongly that an. . . intense effort ought to be made to understand the effects of behaviour; of the ways in which it influences the survival of the species; and that we should try much harder to understand the state of adaptedness and the process of evolutionary adaptation.’ Tinbergen’s insights undoubtedly paved the way for significant observational, experimental, and theoretical advances in behavioural ecology and evolution over the past two decades.

This book is reissued to make it available to a new generation of researchers and students.”

Sounds very scientific.

In our experience, listening to your instinct is extremely important. It is there for a reason.

Should you cross the street in certain situations? We almost always do.

Should you not enter certain places? We almost always don’t.

Your instinct is there for reason.

In certain circumstances, it can be the difference between life or something far more dreadful.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instinct

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/instinct

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/emotional-nourishment/202205/paying-attention-your-gut-feelings

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watcher_(film)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Instinct