Phantom pregnancy: What's your experience?

Sandra Morgan2 said:Of course it sounds ridiculous to you! That's because you clearly don't understand what intuition actually is. To you, some vague gut feeling must be tied to astrology or something. Since intuition is actually a legitimate field of psychological study—and since you seem interested in it—maybe try doing some actual research before jumping to conclusions. Otherwise, you're just being as silly as you think I am.

Cheryl, intuition isn't just knowing something out of thin air without any stimulus. By definition, intuition is perception filtered through the subconscious. Just because something happens subconsciously doesn't mean there wasn't a stimulus; it doesn't mean you're pulling facts out of a vacuum. If something is unconscious, it doesn't mean the trigger didn't exist.

For example, you notice something suspicious, but then you immediately forget about it. But that "cut" hasn't disappeared. It stays in your subconscious. Then, when you encounter a situation later on (one that relates back to what you saw), you get an immediate sense that something is off. Your mind remembers that suspicious detail, even if you can't consciously access the memory itself.

The astrology and magic comment was a bit clumsy. I wasn't being serious.

Claiming you know you're pregnant two minutes after sex is just a lucky guess. Even your subconscious wouldn't know that, so it can't be intuition if we're defining intuition as perception via the subconscious. Your subconscious has to receive a stimulus first, even if you aren't aware of it or don't remember it.

To have an intuitive realization about being pregnant, a stimulus has to occur. That usually happens a week after sex during implantation. For heaven's sake, fertilization can happen while you're sitting at your desk at work, a few hours after intercourse.

For it to count as intuition, there has to be a stimulus, regardless of whether the person remembers it or feels it.

Can someone else please jump into this debate? This is getting exhausting.

Alex Thomas27 said:Cheryl, intuition isn't just knowing something out of thin air without any stimulus. By definition, intuition is perception filtered through the subconscious. Just because something happens subconsciously doesn't mean there wasn't a stimulus; it doesn't mean you're pulling facts out of a vacuum. If something is unconscious, it doesn't mean the trigger didn't exist.

For example, you notice something suspicious, but then you immediately forget about it. But that "cut" hasn't disappeared. It stays in your subconscious. Then, when you encounter a situation later on (one that relates back to what you saw), you get an immediate sense that something is off. Your mind remembers that suspicious detail, even if you can't consciously access the memory itself.

The astrology and magic comment was a bit clumsy. I wasn't being serious.

Claiming you know you're pregnant two minutes after sex is just a lucky guess. Even your subconscious wouldn't know that, so it can't be intuition if we're defining intuition as perception via the subconscious. Your subconscious has to receive a stimulus first, even if you aren't aware of it or don't remember it.

To have an intuitive realization about being pregnant, a stimulus has to occur. That usually happens a week after sex during implantation. For heaven's sake, fertilization can happen while you're sitting at your desk at work, a few hours after intercourse.

For it to count as intuition, there has to be a stimulus, regardless of whether the person remembers it or feels it.

Can someone else please jump into this debate? This is getting exhausting.

Look, honey, I told you exactly that! You just aren't reading closely enough.

Sandra Morgan2 said:1. No hard feelings, Alex Thomas27 🙂. While feeling symptoms as early as 6 or 7 days is definitely rare, it does happen to some women.

2. To be clear, my friend didn't feel anything physical. The meeting of the sperm and the egg isn't instantaneous; those swimmers have to make their way up to the fallopian tubes first, which can take hours or even a couple of days. She just knew on a completely different level that *that* specific moment was the one that would lead to a baby... it was this instant, intuitive flash of what was coming next. And intuition, by its very nature, is knowing something 100% without having any clue how you know it.

Since this has become such an uphill battle, there’s really no point in me trying to break down all the science and theory behind intuitive insight. I could go on about how the subconscious doesn't grasp linear time, how it isn't bound by our physical space, its specific syntax, or even the "language" our inner selves use to communicate—not to mention how recent studies suggest the universe is holographic, which offers a pretty solid explanation for intuition itself. I already gave you a full response regarding hysterical pregnancy and the psychological profile behind it in one of my previous posts. You didn't even comment on it, even though you wanted to discuss it! At this point, I'm out of things to say. Best of luck!👋

How does it unconsciously fail to grasp linear time? How is it not bound by the physical limits of our own bodies? What’s its syntax, really? In what language is our inner self actually communicating? And then there's the whole idea that recent studies suggest our universe is holographic in nature, which might offer some sort of explanation for those intuitive flashes and...

Whatever. A spark has to fly eventually. And it's definitely tethered to reality.