is insight acquired, or innate?

Question

if you can see behind the shroud
if you can cut right to the chase
if you know not only what but why
then you know who really runs this place.

is insight something you acquire, like knowledge, or something you already have in you, like wisdom? how does one become 'insightful'?

Answer 1

Hi, I think it's probably a bit of both. Insight requires intelligence, perception and a sensitivity that perhaps cannot be learned. Wisdom is the application of accumulated knowledge and experience with common sense and insight. Insight I feel is something slightly deeper and more spiritual. There can be different types of insight: intuitive insight, paranormal insight, emotional insight - being able to sense what someone is thinking or feeling; karmic insight - the accumulated karmic tendencies that we carry from our past lives if you believe in this. How does one become 'insightful'. Perhaps through observation; through constant questionning and lifelong learning; through meditation and spiritual searching and through experience?
Polly

Answer 2

Both.

And in a related issue, knowledge is not strictly external and wisdom is not strictly internal. Dungeons & Dragons rulebooks aside.

Imagine a child who has seen a computer for the first time. That child will not gain the insight that the computer can print things out on paper right away; there is not enough evidence. However, plug a printer into it, let the child see paper go into it and see the ink cartridge, and that child will just barely have enough information to connect computers with the photos lying around the house. That would be insightful. However, if this does not occur to the child until he sees the printer in use, this is not insightful--merely observant.

In this example, we see that insight depends both on the timing of the situation and the level of evidence needed to draw a conclusion. Now that the 'what' of insight is exposed, next up is the 'how.'

We are born with the ability to attach concepts to each other, and then group them and attach the groups together. The fuel that drives this process is emotion; anger, joy, and curiousity are all mechanisms to determine what's important information. The engine is our short-term and long-term memory, and the interactions between them.

Therefore, a child that wonders 'how?' when he sees a printout and 'why?' when he sees a computer/printer is much more likely to get the clue than a child that doesn't care about either. A child that feels happiness (or anger) at seeing a neat photograph is more likely to feel curious about how it was made, and so on. The balance can swing the other way: if a child cares too much about everything, then he is not selective enough to focus on the details that matter.

The next part of the process is, once attention is focused, how much detail gets through--and what kinds of detail. This is part sensory and part mental processing. If the child has bad eyesight, he might not notice the details of the printer and therefore not notice that it has paper that looks like the paper stuff is printed on. If he can see fine, but has short-term memory that's too short, he may shift attention before his mind cycles through all the properties of the printer and connects that to the printouts. If it's too long, then he may never get around to starting because other thoughts are in the way. If his long-term memory is improperly functioning, then once again he either has too much or too little detail to make the connection in that window of time when it's relevant.

This is the raw material of reason, and thus insight.

The good news is that emotions, memory, and reason are all extremely flexible and an intelligent plan to understand your own mental limitations and improve your insight will succeed, if you stick with it. Similarly, through understanding the principles involved, and giving positive and supportive (which does not mean saccharine sweet, but down-to-earth) attention to anyone, child or adult, will eventually lead to mental gains.

Therefore, insight is both innate and learned.

Answer 3

I believe part of insight to be innate. One must be sensitive to the subtleties by which insight is acquired, but there's the rest of the answer. It is acquired by those with the ability and experience so to do. Over time knowledge properly used leads to wisdom, neither of which one starts with; the one acquired by learning, the other by application and experience. Part of the mixed dominance I was born with means using both sides of my brain (when the signals don't get mixed and muddled). This has lead all my life to answering questions before they were finished [or asked], the Cassandra plague. Wisdom acquired with age has moved me both to greater humility and greater finesse. In my younger days I worked in Richard J. Daley's machine and saw the ins and outs of the office, it didn't take long to see that our guys controlled the East Side Republicans. In the sixties I saw many things I really didn't want to like some of my friends in the youth delegation in 1968 who were not allowed back into the Pick Congress Hotel to wipe the blood off from the Billie clubs swung in the park across the way, despite holding Party credentials. Those facts offered many insights. My ROTC training allowed me to see the Army Office of Information films Nixon used to win the White house, neatly staged and choreographed. The same crew I'm sure scripts much of the violence we see on TV today by which the general populace is manipulated.

[I wish I had read others before answering, Polly's is indeed beautiful and insightful. Karmic insight is arguable, although I have known some who would be described as 'old souls', their insight was frequently acquired by repeating some old mistakes and reworking their thinking. There is definitely a difference between knowledge, wisdom, and insight. The 'third eye' may be opened by meditation, but the purpose of meditaion is to meditate. I've done many things with this tool, few I could describe because of it.]

[Steelchords I have experienced what I call 'the pachinko effect' where thoughts and ideas come in such a torrent that ordinary simple thought can be blocked.]

Answer 4

I agree very much with polly.
". Insight requires intelligence, perception and a sensitivity "
I would add that this sensitivity can allow you to " read between the lines " I do not think that you can learn/acquire , it's innate .
I also think that it comes naturally as people with insight feelings are very often very good listeners or readers who can focus on what is being said or written.
I think that sensitivity is the most important of the 3 .
You can be a very intelligent person and possesses perception but if you have no sensitivity , you will not be able to " grasp." a situation or a person.

Answer 5

Insight, in the real world, is when you unconsciously make connections before your conscious mind can catch up. Either that, or you are just correctly guessing.
And you do not have innate wisdom. Wisdom is acquired by living, like knowledge is acquired by reading.

Answer 6

I will say that it is an innate asset.
My experience with people young and old is that it matters not where they came from in the way of environment but that it is something they seem to have inside that was always there. A gift ,if you will. Much the same as the gift of an artist holding a brush that do magical things on a canvas.
Insight.
I am remembering a very young boy who was on television a few years ago. He was dying of cancer and knew he had not a year left. He had more insight than most people I have ever met. He was positive, optimistic and uplifting. He loved life for what it was at the moment.
.......He saw past all the harshness that life can present, even in the face of death.

Answer 7

Insight is a product of wisdom; an acquired quality. Its the ability to see the forest through the trees. Insightful people have universal perspective; a strong grasp of the big picture.

Answer 8

When I think of insight I am reminded of Helen Keller who had the seed and learned the skill. Her biography is full of this kind of material.Also Malcom X, who, while in prison happened upon a book which inspired him. He honed his skill
by reading and memorizing the prison the dictionary and eventually became a prominent activist and "insightful" speaker. I think often insight is grown in the dark . Its beginning just a spark.
Both deprivation, and knowledge can fertilize the enquiring mind. and insight is a bursting blossom enhancing knowledge and wisdom.
Writers and readers, seekers of knowledge and truth, and the desirous have already achieved enough insight to grow into insightful individuals..

Answer 9

There are different levels of insight, & you're correct as you've differentiated knowledge & wisdom from insight. I have never observed, or heard of anyone who "acquired" insight in its full spectrum, although a certain "degree" can be learned by a number of methods. A child can be sensitive & empathic from birth, without any experiential process--two essential components of insight. Would this not be "innate?"
Wisdom & knowledge are quite different. In my opinion, & from my experience, the "full spectrum" of insight is innate.

Edit: Now that I've read the answers~polly's answer is clearly from someone who has "insight," & I couldn't agree with her more. threeicys~I remember that young lad, & your analogy of an artist is also true. Children who have never seen anyone paint, & without any direction can be capable of a "gift"--the ability to see perspective, values & colour & translate this realistically to paper. This is innate.

I do not understand dearly departed. Perspicacious IS having or showing great insight, intensity of perception; it has nothing to do with "learning." Erudition refers to LEARNING. I can't see the connection that would confirm your premise that insight is knowledge....

Answer 10

Insight is a skill and it is acquired. It is acquired by knowledge of people. The most insightful have prolly been abused. There might have been innate knowledge and an initial aversion, unfortunately, the ones who possess this quality get fed, early. Then it becomes insight.