• You are currently viewing our forum as a guest, which gives you limited access to view most discussions and access our other features. By joining our free community, you will have access to additional post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), view blogs, respond to polls, upload content, and access many other special features. Registration is fast, simple and absolutely free, so please join our community today! Just click here to register. You should turn your Ad Blocker off for this site or certain features may not work properly. If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us by clicking here.

About Intuition

Thalassa

Permabanned
Joined
May 3, 2009
Messages
25,183
MBTI Type
ISFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx
It's amazing how different Si and Se can behave actually. I go for long walks almost every day, and almost always the same route. I pass the same buildings, same bus stops, pass the same boats in the harbor... But I don't really see them at all. The past 4 days in a row, I've walked right into the same tree branch hanging over a sidewalk. 4 straight days! Last week, this guy walking into an apartment building said hello to me, and commented that he sees me out there all the time. I didn't recognize him at all.

I am 100% in my head, usually daydreaming, but many times working through some new idea or theory I've been toying with. I never start imagining random possibilities, like what I would do if I was hit by a car, or anything like that.

Mostly, it's like I work out movie scenes in my mind - with long-standing characters and plots I've imagined over time (I'm never a character in these stories). Then I pick a set of songs on my iPod that would best score those scenes, and I just zone out. I never write the stuff down. It just serves as a nice escape for an hour or so. It's my own entertainment. The scenes are always very grounded in the possible. The characters are realistic, the settings are places I'm familiar with, and the time is always the present or the past. Sometimes, I'll realize that something in my daydream would be logistically impossible, or is inconsistent with something I'd already established. Rather than being able to let that slip, I'll have to go back and re-work in my mind how it would be possible.

Sometimes, I'll be so into my daydreams that I'll realize I'm making expressions that go along with the "scene." I'm always worried people passing by will notice and wonder what the hell is wrong with me!

You know, I am obsessed with the past and historical fiction, and I wonder if this is Si.

NFPs have Si (INFP tertiary, ENFP inferior) and I think mine must be awfully developed because in the "forest" scenario the Si description resonated most with me.

However, Ne seems to be "what I do" or what I'm good at. Si is more like a comfort zone...it relaxes me. When I'm walking I love to look at old houses. Old buildings and certain kinds of architecture (usually 18th, 19th, and early 20th century) just thrill and inspire me.

I just wonder how much all of this has to do with Si, if anything at all.

I'm also one of those people who is really "into" my early childhood: I love anything that reminds me of the time period before I was about six years old. Very big on nostalgia as a sort of personal comfort.
 

Charmed Justice

Nickle Iron Silicone
Joined
Jul 22, 2009
Messages
2,805
MBTI Type
INFJ
You know, I am obsessed with the past and historical fiction, and I wonder if this is Si.

NFPs have Si (INFP tertiary, ENFP inferior) and I think mine must be awfully developed because in the "forest" scenario the Si description resonated most with me.

However, Ne seems to be "what I do" or what I'm good at. Si is more like a comfort zone...it relaxes me. When I'm walking I love to look at old houses. Old buildings and certain kinds of architecture (usually 18th, 19th, and early 20th century) just thrill and inspire me.

I just wonder how much all of this has to do with Si, if anything at all.

I'm also one of those people who is really "into" my early childhood: I love anything that reminds me of the time period before I was about six years old. Very big on nostalgia as a sort of personal comfort.
This for me as well.

I used to love going in old abandoned farm houses for the thrill and inspiration.
 

compulsiverambler

New member
Joined
Sep 15, 2009
Messages
446
Enneagram
5w6
Instinctual Variant
sp/so
It's funny, Ruthie. I do that too with the storylines, but I use new characters but the setting can be in the past, present or future. I have no preference usually, it just depends on my mood. I definitely score my daydreams, too. And everytime I hear that playlist, I remember the scenario I was thinking about at the time (plus or minus a few details). Maybe in those moments, you are just using Ne (or I'm using Si?) I mean, everybody uses N and S to some extent. But if something is not possible, I change the storyline to adapt, I don't go back and rework what I have "written" in my mind.
Me too, except the music isn't really used as a score and I don't remember it later. I'm not particularly aware of it, it's just background noise to help me stay focused and to help the daydream go in a straight line, which is the same reason I pace around furiously as I daydream (probably because of ADHD, not type - I also need more generic background noise to fall asleep and reduce physical restlessness, as like movement it increases dopamine levels in the area of the brain in which they're low). The tempo should be fairly consistent with the daydream but that's all that matters, and not always even that.

Ruthie, I'm glad to read that you make facial expressions as well, I thought I might be the only person to do that. I make small noises too and when people notice they think I'm talking to myself, it must look a little crazy. :D

In addition to the time designated to getting lost in them, these storylines and scenes come and go all day as almost everything interesting I experience, learn or think of gets woven into them there and then as my principle method of exploring ideas and information, and this process accounts for much of my visible 'dreaminess' and absentmindedness. Often, I don't think about things in my own thought voice, I for some reason (perhaps because it stimulates relevant areas of the brain?) find it much more effective to wonder what these characters would make of the subject, and do you know what, they're much smarter and more poetic than I am. My poetry, sentiments and insights are better when I imagine them experiencing or reflecting on something than they are when I do so myself, and I know I'm not the only person like that.
 

Ruthie

New member
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Messages
436
MBTI Type
?
It's funny, Ruthie. I do that too with the storylines, but I use new characters but the setting can be in the past, present or future. I have no preference usually, it just depends on my mood. I definitely score my daydreams, too. And everytime I hear that playlist, I remember the scenario I was thinking about at the time (plus or minus a few details).

Yeah, I do that too with the playlist. :)

Maybe in those moments, you are just using Ne (or I'm using Si?) I mean, everybody uses N and S to some extent.

I imagine daydreaming isn't exclusive to N or S - but I would guess between Ne and Si, it would be Si, just because I would assume it's an introverted perception.

But if something is not possible, I change the storyline to adapt, I don't go back and rework what I have "written" in my mind.

I think that's what I mean about re-working. If I realize that a timeline doesn't fit for example, I'll have to change either the details or the storyline to make it fit. The inconsistency bothers me too much to just move on with it.

Can you wander around daydreaming all day, or is it just for that hour or two?

I can daydream a lot, but I'm not at all a "daydreamy" person, if that makes sense - it's like there's an on/off switch that I'm usually in control of. Motion puts me in daydream mode, so car rides (especially if I'm the driver), train rides, even amusement park rides usually trigger it. How about you?
 

Ruthie

New member
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Messages
436
MBTI Type
?
You know, I am obsessed with the past and historical fiction, and I wonder if this is Si.

I don't think it has to be Si, but it is something that I think is common to Si. For me, Si feels like there's something constantly anchoring me and pulling me "home" (I was the stereotypical homesick kid in the college dorm, for example). The people I know who use Ne as a dominant function seem to view the past as something to break free from rather than something to find comfort in. I'm also obsessed with the past and with historical fiction (well, historical anything) and I do see this as a result of Si. But that alone probably wouldn't be evidence of Si.

NFPs have Si (INFP tertiary, ENFP inferior) and I think mine must be awfully developed because in the "forest" scenario the Si description resonated most with me.

However, Ne seems to be "what I do" or what I'm good at. Si is more like a comfort zone...it relaxes me. When I'm walking I love to look at old houses. Old buildings and certain kinds of architecture (usually 18th, 19th, and early 20th century) just thrill and inspire me.

I just wonder how much all of this has to do with Si, if anything at all.

Probably quite a lot. Your post over on the Southerners tribute thread really showed a lot of evidence of Si. There was an incredible nostalgia to it and an amazing use of detail to set the scene and really give the reader a sense of time and place. Plus, in a really subtle and sophisticated way, it used the kind of stereotyping I always notice as common to Si. Rather than fight against the Southern stereotype (as ByMySword had done), you just spun the stereotype in a positive way. The readers could smell the honeysuckle...

I'm also one of those people who is really "into" my early childhood: I love anything that reminds me of the time period before I was about six years old. Very big on nostalgia as a sort of personal comfort.

Yeah, me too. This could be Si, or it could be related to the NF temperament. I think with Si, the past holds a privileged place of comfort and idealization, whereas with NFs, the past might just be one of many things that is idealized. I'm pretty realistic about the present, and I'm not that comfortable with change. Get me talking about either of those things, and you'd probably notice a bit of an edge with me - a flippant, sarcastic side that borders at times on cynicism. But nostalgia is my soft spot. I love seeing cars on the road with Christmas trees tied to the roof, because that evokes nostalgia, family, warmth, comfort, continuity, and all those things that naturally grab me.
 
B

brainheart

Guest
My grandfather's wife would insult me and verbally abuse me for thinking about things that served no practical purpose to her . She told me when I was being creative that I was wasting time on "stupid shit."

That's terrible. I hope you don't think that I feel that way as well. Believe me, my life consists almost exclusively of wasting time on unimportant shit. This is not an S vs N issue. It's people who think that their way is the only correct way.

The 'stoke', Jenocyde, I would imagine comes from Fi, and I think that's what both marmalade and enfpfer relate to. It's this feeling of connection to other living things (not that it has to be a living thing, I can have a similar feeling for a rock) and how happy they make me/ how happy I am to share the world with them/ how much I value them. This feeling is the main reason why I love the world so much. It makes me happy to be here, enjoying it.


Marmalade Sunrise:
I actually relate the most to Si, and Ne next, but not while I'm actually *in* the forest...it would be Ne later in a different context.
That settles it. I'm really an ISFJ.

Interesting. Are you positive you're an ENFP, not an INFP? It sounds like you're doing the very typical INFP thing of hanging out in Fi+Si. But like I know. (And enfpfer said she does the same thing.) I don't understand ENFP all that well. I don't understand extroversion well at all, point in fact... I guess it's just that you're in a sensory situation so you're going to use the sensory perception you feel most comfortable with?

I mean, it's not like I don't do the Si thing, too. I love old houses, etc, but usually Si just makes me sad and then I do things like toss out all of my old journals because why focus on the past when there is now that needs to be lived? I love nothing more than letting go of the past and focusing on the present. The present feels like an equalizer to me, an opportunity to wipe the slate clean where none of anyone's mistakes of the past matter. I think that's why it's impossible for me to hold a grudge. I've tried, and I just can't do it.

It's cool. I think this thread has developed quite nicely. Everyone seems to be sharing and learning, I think especially due to jenocyde's moderation. I love your non-judgmental attitude!
 

Ruthie

New member
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Messages
436
MBTI Type
?
It's cool. I think this thread has developed quite nicely. Everyone seems to be sharing and learning, I think especially due to jenocyde's moderation. I love your non-judgmental attitude!

I agree.
 
B

brainheart

Guest
Oh, ps, Ruthie- It's funny because what you say reminds me so much of my ISTJ dad. He can seem so 'out of it' a lot of the time, like he is not in touch with the present moment at all. But the past is very rich to him. Our connecting moments are walking around looking at old houses. I imagine for him it evokes feelings of the past for him, while I admire the architecture, the aesthetics of it.
 

Ruthie

New member
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Messages
436
MBTI Type
?
Oh, ps, Ruthie- It's funny because what you say reminds me so much of my ISTJ dad. He can seem so 'out of it' a lot of the time, like he is not in touch with the present moment at all. But the past is very rich to him. Our connecting moments are walking around looking at old houses. I imagine for him it evokes feelings of the past for him, while I admire the architecture, the aesthetics of it.

That's cool that you can both get something out of the same experience. There's probably a lot the two of you can learn from each other out of something like that.
 

Ruthie

New member
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Messages
436
MBTI Type
?
It's funny, Ruthie. I do that too with the storylines, but I use new characters but the setting can be in the past, present or future. I have no preference usually, it just depends on my mood. I definitely score my daydreams, too. And everytime I hear that playlist, I remember the scenario I was thinking about at the time (plus or minus a few details). Maybe in those moments, you are just using Ne (or I'm using Si?) I mean, everybody uses N and S to some extent. But if something is not possible, I change the storyline to adapt, I don't go back and rework what I have "written" in my mind.

When I am working, I am in super-Te mode, which I find is thrilling and fun - but only for a finite amount of time. I am more comfortable in Ti. Can you wander around daydreaming all day, or is it just for that hour or two?

By the way, do you really create fresh characters for each daydream?
 

Thalassa

Permabanned
Joined
May 3, 2009
Messages
25,183
MBTI Type
ISFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx
Interesting. Are you positive you're an ENFP, not an INFP? It sounds like you're doing the very typical INFP thing of hanging out in Fi+Si. But like I know. (And enfpfer said she does the same thing.) I don't understand ENFP all that well. I don't understand extroversion well at all, point in fact... I guess it's just that you're in a sensory situation so you're going to use the sensory perception you feel most comfortable with?

Whether I am INFP or ENFP has been a source of debate within myself and amongst others. I do relate to the Fi/Si loop. However, I am extremely talkative "thinking out loud" and much of my lifestyle and behavior, especially in my teens and early twenties, seems to point to Ne dom rather than Fi dom.
 

Thalassa

Permabanned
Joined
May 3, 2009
Messages
25,183
MBTI Type
ISFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx
I don't think it has to be Si, but it is something that I think is common to Si. For me, Si feels like there's something constantly anchoring me and pulling me "home" (I was the stereotypical homesick kid in the college dorm, for example). The people I know who use Ne as a dominant function seem to view the past as something to break free from rather than something to find comfort in. I'm also obsessed with the past and with historical fiction (well, historical anything) and I do see this as a result of Si. But that alone probably wouldn't be evidence of Si.

Yeah, I love historical everything too. I have always loved history, and even as a child wanted to live in eras in the past - which is part of what I used my imagination for. I would like to own a historical property when I buy a house. That's one of my secret life-long dreams.

I think that I cannot be Si dom, though, because I put forth a great deal of effort in my teens and twenties to break away from my past and experience new things and create my own reality. I've always loved history, but I think I only began to get "homesick" and want to touch base with my own past in the last couple of years, which is part of the reason why I returned to West Virginia, among other things. This could be tertiary (INFP) or inferior (ENFP) function Si developing more strongly in me as I grow older. From what I understand those "lesser" functions balance more with the dominant and auxillary function as one ages and matures.



Probably quite a lot. Your post over on the Southerners tribute thread really showed a lot of evidence of Si. There was an incredible nostalgia to it and an amazing use of detail to set the scene and really give the reader a sense of time and place. Plus, in a really subtle and sophisticated way, it used the kind of stereotyping I always notice as common to Si. Rather than fight against the Southern stereotype (as ByMySword had done), you just spun the stereotype in a positive way. The readers could smell the honeysuckle...

:)


But nostalgia is my soft spot. I love seeing cars on the road with Christmas trees tied to the roof, because that evokes nostalgia, family, warmth, comfort, continuity, and all those things that naturally grab me.


I relate to this, as well.
 
B

brainheart

Guest
This whole Si feeling is very interesting me, because I can kind of relate but at the same time... I don't. Like holidays, birthdays, traditions, etc, I'm just kind of meh, I could take it or leave it. It's a good thing we go to grandparents for the major holidays, otherwise my kids would have a sad childhood...

However, I am very diligent about the Tooth Fairy. She even writes letters to the kids, explaining the whole tooth supply/demand process.
 

Ruthie

New member
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Messages
436
MBTI Type
?
I think that I cannot be Si dom, though, because I put forth a great deal of effort in my teens and twenties to break away from my past and experience new things and create my own reality. I've always loved history, but I think I only began to get "homesick" and want to touch base with my own past in the last couple of years, which is part of the reason why I returned to West Virginia, among other things. This could be tertiary (INFP) or inferior (ENFP) function Si developing more strongly in me as I grow older. From what I understand those "lesser" functions balance more with the dominant and auxillary function as one ages and matures.

I think that's common of anyone in their teens and 20s, even us SJs. I had so many plans, so many grand visions of the future. Between the ages of 20 and 25, I lived in Maryland, Boston, Virginia, DC, Indiana, New Mexico, and finally back home to Maryland. I think the difference to me is that all those exciting things are only great in theory. Once I actually jumped in and made the change, I'd start thinking of all the things I'd left behind.

I remember the first week I lived in New Mexico. I ducked out of the office and pretended I was going to get something from my car. Instead, I just sat in the passenger's seat crying for 15 minutes (and I very rarely cry). I suddenly couldn't remember any of the things I was so excited about and all I wanted to do was go home. I cleaned myself up, went back into the office, never talked to anyone about how I felt, and tried to stick it out and get used to the place. I made it less than 6 months.

That's what makes me confident I'm Si-dom. I don't fit very many of the SJ descriptions in terms of how I behave or how I come across to others. But there's this persistent little internal voice that constantly reminds me You have a home. You belong somewhere. Enjoy the comforting little things that everyone else overlooks.

If you didn't have that nagging voice throughout your teen/20s adventures, then you're probably right - Si is something you've developed as you've matured.
 

Ruthie

New member
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Messages
436
MBTI Type
?
However, I am very diligent about the Tooth Fairy. She even writes letters to the kids, explaining the whole tooth supply/demand process.

:DThat's awesome. I might have to steal that when I have kids.
 

Ruthie

New member
Joined
Jun 3, 2009
Messages
436
MBTI Type
?
Just got back from my walk, and managed to narrowly avoid a 5th straight day of running into that damn tree branch. Success is mine.
 

Thalassa

Permabanned
Joined
May 3, 2009
Messages
25,183
MBTI Type
ISFP
Enneagram
6w7
Instinctual Variant
sx
I think that's common of anyone in their teens and 20s, even us SJs. I had so many plans, so many grand visions of the future. Between the ages of 20 and 25, I lived in Maryland, Boston, Virginia, DC, Indiana, New Mexico, and finally back home to Maryland. I think the difference to me is that all those exciting things are only great in theory. Once I actually jumped in and made the change, I'd start thinking of all the things I'd left behind.

I remember the first week I lived in New Mexico. I ducked out of the office and pretended I was going to get something from my car. Instead, I just sat in the passenger's seat crying for 15 minutes (and I very rarely cry). I suddenly couldn't remember any of the things I was so excited about and all I wanted to do was go home. I cleaned myself up, went back into the office, never talked to anyone about how I felt, and tried to stick it out and get used to the place. I made it less than 6 months.

That's what makes me confident I'm Si-dom. I don't fit very many of the SJ descriptions in terms of how I behave or how I come across to others. But there's this persistent little internal voice that constantly reminds me You have a home. You belong somewhere. Enjoy the comforting little things that everyone else overlooks.

If you didn't have that nagging voice throughout your teen/20s adventures, then you're probably right - Si is something you've developed as you've matured.

Yeah, no, I kept moving for like seven years, moving around, doing new things, crazy things, just to have the experience or to see what it was like. For the longest time I thought I'd never go home, but there was only so far I could push forward when I had to face reality: that there are limits to my visions, and that my creativity must take a more structured, safer form. For me, this was a later realization. I would say that some of my early behavior was borderline SP - as in "damn the man" and "try everything once", except for the fact that I've always been so driven by imagination and "what if?" and deeply drawn to theories and intellectualism. This to me is where Se and Ne seem to intersect, yet somehow differ in some crucial way.

I'm much more attached to home, now, though. I've become more and more nostalgic and home loving as I've gotten through my mid-twenties. However, at no point have I ever thought that going back to traditional ways or my parent's ways would be the final way for me. Mentally I think I'm still very Ne/Fi and that Si has just been strongly developed as I've grown older. Te, in me, often expresses itself when I am working, or when I am stressed out: I am an absolute master of taking control of a chaotic situation and dealing with it directly when it comes down to it. But it would be stressful if I lived in Te all of the time. It's like my hidden super-secret power. I know for a fact that my Te is something that my sisters and even my mother have a love/hate relationship with.
 
Top