What is “intuitive social analysis?” By my candid definition, intuitive social analysis is: the process by which person’s character is determined intuitively by subconscious oriented deductive reasoning, often based off of factors in appearance and mannerisms. Or in other words, it is that dreaded idea of judging another person based purely off of their appearance. But when it comes to intuitive social analysis, or ISA, ISA allows you to determine, in much greater detail, information about other people, even yourself, that you would not normally know based off a premature conscious judgment. The reason so many of us are often so wrong about our interpretations of another’s appearance is because we usually put things together based off our analytical, conscious, and linear reasoning. Few people in the world often know how to interact with the inner mind’s cues and clues that tell you how to perceive a person based on their appearance.

For instance, you might take a look at the following scene. A man is sitting on a street corner is wearing a straggly suit, torn in places, and his shirt is not tucked in all the way. Only a single side of it is tucked in, the other is hanging out. He is not wearing a tie. His face is covered in dirt, or some kind of black, smudgy substance. He is holding a briefcase in his right hand, and he is looking down to the ground, his entire body is slouched over, and he is sitting against a wall.

Now, consciously you’re bound to make certain judgments. Two initial responses you might make consciously about the situation is that perhaps this guy is either homeless, or maybe he just got mugged. In association with that situation, you might also determine because this man is homeless, is probably does ________. Or because this man has just been mugged, he probably does ______. Fill in the blank. YOU are the one who determines what you think the man needs, wants, has just done, or what he might say. But you consciously make that decision under the conscious association of him being homeless or having just been mugged. Your inner mind knows better.

Your inner mind processes over 20,000 bits of information simultaneously, compared to a 5-9 bits of information from your normal, conscious, waking state. You are building associations, and often making assumptions from only those few processes at once. What if you could tap the potential of that subconscious ability? Don’t you think that after that many pieces of information has been processed by another part of your mind, that perhaps you actually know more than you currently know? And ironically, our conscious assumption has a iron-clad tendency to stick with us through thick and thin. Whether we are right or wrong, we often will not break our initial perception until anywhere between 10 to 16 repetitions or more that contradict our perception. This is where the saying “first impressions are everything” comes from.

So when taking this knowledge of how the inner mind processes people into account, you probably will want to form two different goals.

1. To build a better understanding of the other people around you.
2. To create a more dynamic understanding of yourself and how your appearance affects others’ perceptions.

But when it comes down to appearance and the area of ISA, we run into a few obstacles. Number one, the general rules of ISA are inherently different from the rules of the conscious mind. For instance, one key point of advice in any situation is to smile, because smiles convey a pleasant mood and often can be contagious, just like laughing. In the guidelines of ISA, the mind looks at a smile from thousands of different angles. A smile to one person might be a sign of happiness and humor, but to another person it might be the trigger to recall negative associations from their past.

In the video section of DirtyMechanism.com, I have attempted to show, through two different versions of the same video, the differences between what is shown as a normal series of events under a traditional sense of realistic interpretation. To portray more of the abstract forms and features that make up the multiple different layers of understanding that the subconscious mind builds. Below, as well as in the Video section, there are two videos entitled “Night Out” and “Night Out – Perspective B.” The visual style of these two segments attempt to show a difference in visual interpretation.

One element you will notice about Night Out – Perspective B is that much of the visual content is altered, and at some moments certain facial expressions and gestures are emphasized by being duplicated in the frame. Your mind commonly will focus on particular gestures, mannerisms, and key points of physical reference in order to understand others’ personalities. David G. Myers, author of Intuition: Its Powers and Perils, would describe intuition itself as the mind’s total understanding without any emotional interference. Speaking in terms of ISA, it is possible that perhaps the thing that prevents us from correctly judging characteristics and details about others based on appearance is nothing more than our emotions. And what are emotions? Biologically speaking, emotions are chemical signals that flood our cells and it is also a particular kind of activity that takes place in the brain. Another piece of interference would be conscious interference based on preset or preconditioned beliefs. Those who were raised to be either prejudice or stereotypical in their nature often have a terrible time accurately judging others without getting to know them first.

Perhaps one of the most intuitive people I know is Alex K. Viefhaus, the first PhotoReading Instructor of Australia, who works with Learning Strategies Corporation. One night when talking to my friend Alex, she managed to accurately explain a number of astonishing details about my ex-girlfriend Lily just by looking at a simple picture. Within 15 minutes of seeing the picture and of course some typing through the chat window, Alex was able to tell me whether or not Lily was happy(perhaps obvious), the fact that she owned either a dog or cat. After seeing her myself, I was also able to tell her that the last three years of her life were terribly difficult, full of challenges, and at times, lows and depression. Astonished, Lily had asked, “How did you know it was the past three years specifically?” I couldn’t explain how I knew, I just knew.

After the various psychology experiments that went on during the 2nd half of the 1980’s, a lot of people had lost faith in any existence of any kind of parapsychology actually have any sort of basis in reality. Well, the thing is, some would call ISA or similar intuitive processes parapsychology, but I would not. For those who do not know the term parapsychology, it generally refers to things like ESP, or extrasensory perception, beyond the five basic sensations, or other things like telekinesis, or moving objects with your mind without touching them physically. It is important to understand that when it comes to intuition, there is something to it, something that is real, and complex. The brain is performing a deductive reasoning processes that is sorting through perhaps hundreds or even thousands of details to give you accurate information.

One particular fellow who has been talking about some of the wonders of both intuition and subconscious processing is author Malcolm Gladwell, author of books, The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, and Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. Back during my trip to London, England in March of 2006, posters for Blink were all over the subway hallways and tunnels, and it has proceeded to make itself known here in the United States. In one of his stories during the time of his research, Gladwell describes the journey of museums determining the authenticity of certain old artifacts. One of them, was a statue. One inspector came in to take a look, and immediately felt something was wrong, and that the museum should not buy the statue or keep it. When asked what was wrong with it, he simply couldn’t explain. Later, the minute, tiny flaws that proved its fakeness were finally found.

Here is what I would suggest you try if you would like to improve upon your ability to read others. Go to a public place where people are, and start looking at certain people and making judgments about them. Yes, that’s right – make all the judgments you want! Then, after you’ve got some details down in your mind, go over to them, and start talking to them! You can even be as open and honest about it as you’d like, saying something like, “Hi, my name is _______, and to test my intuition, I was wondering if you were by any chance ___ years old?” Or something similar. ISA is like any other method or activity – it can be practiced, and it can be mastered. It will also help to affirm to yourself your purpose for understanding others, as well as your ability to do so.