Western culture tends to denigrate information that comes to us through means other than logic, reason and analysis.

Yet, intuition and instinct can save us from hassle and heartache, lead us to happiness, even save our lives.

Here's a real life example.

A number of years ago I was driving in Manhattan on a Saturday night. The light was green. I was crossing Second Avenue, when out of corner of my eye I saw a car approaching intersection from my left running his red light.

I had about a quarter of a second before impact. There was no time for to think, no time for fear. only time to act.

I gunned gas.

Kaboom!

My car was lifted into air, spinning as I was jerked around as if I were in a crazy carnival ride.

The impact was on left side, driver's side of car. I was in middIe of intersection when I felt impact.

I saw driver's side window dissolve. The impact was so great that when I landed, car was on sidewalk facing into street. Its back was just inches away from traffic light.

My car was totaled but seatbelt held firm. I walked out with nothing more than a few minor scratches.

When I gunned gas, my car advanced just enough so other vehicle hit rear passenger seats and not driver's seat.

That action saved me from, at minimum, serious physical injury.

It was an action of sheer instinct - coming from “right side of brain.”

From time to time we are all called to make snap judgments, we have all gotten a bad feeling about a person, a situation.

We've all uttered phrase, “I can't put my finger on it, but …” And more often than not, later on, our apprehensions are confirmed by events.

That is our intuition talking.

So ... Are you listening?

Some principles are so simple that we often overlook their significance. For instance, success is lack of failure; each failure is due to some mistake; each mis­take in action originates in some mistake in thinking. To change from failure to suc­cess, it is necessary to develop those processes of thought which prevent mis­takes, and which lead to success.

There is a process of success. It is a dual process. The first step is vivid imaging in thinking. It is subject of this chap­ter. The second step is idealized doing. It is subject of next chapter. This dual process-vivid imaging and idealized doing -guarantees success. You have often been told that success comes to man who "uses his brain"- that is, to man who thinks. But mere thinking will not prevent him from making mistakes; neither will purposeful thinking, nor well thought out plans.

Thinking in vivid images is only process which always prevents mistakes.

Even great experts make mistakes when they fail to think in vivid images.

The great Quebec Bridge fell down in process of construction. All factors de­termining its construction had been given careful thought by great engineers. There had been months of exact figuring and cal­culation of stresses and strains. Certainly, engineers and constructors did not in­tend it to collapse, delay their work, injure their reputation as bridge builders, and cause loss of life.

Yet, it did collapse, and hence someone- evidently many engineers - made some serious mistake in thinking, overlooking some important factor. Can such mistakes in examining a plan-no matter what it is -be prevented? Can they always be pre­vented?