Tuning Up Intuitive Powers

Can intuition be boosted? Some experts believe it can, although they disagree on the best way to tune it in and tune it up. Here are some suggestions:

* Quiet the background noise of life. “Meditation is a good way to get in touch with your intuition,” said Stephen Nachmanovitch, a violist who wrote “Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art” (Jeremy P. Tarcher, $16.95). “Intuition is bubbling up all the time, but there is so much noise we don’t always notice it.”

* Stand by a bank of elevators, suggested Laurie Nadel, author of “Sixth Sense: The Whole-Brain Book of Intuition, Hunches, Gut Feelings and Their Place in Your Everyday Life” (Prentice Hall Press, $18.95). Try to guess which one will come next. Her other suggestions: Flip a coin and predict the result. At the mall, try to guess if you’ll find a parking spot on the next level of the garage. Some scoff at these suggestions, but Nadel insists they work. “You’re shifting your attention over to the right hemisphere and asking it for information,” Nadel said.

* Adopt a “free-floating” approach to life, recommended Susan Taylor of Los Angeles, who produces workshops for intuitive people. “The more you engage in life as a creative rather than a coping process, the more likely you are to be using other guidance that you cannot measure,” said Taylor. “Intuition,” she concluded, “is a trusting of yourself, rather than a knowing of what will come.”