Oh hey, thanks for joining me. Today we're going to talk about intuition versus
sensing, because I've gotten a couple of comments that have asked, "Frank could you
do a video explaining N versus S, so that's what we're gonna do. And I thought
to myself why don't we do it... why don't I illustrate it in a kind of fun way, so
I'm gonna show you through the music of Lennon and McCartney how these two guys
exemplify intuition versus sensing through their songs. First I want to
point out that I just put out my fifth episode of my podcast, it's called--what
is it called... It's called Identity and illusion, and it's about the question
"Who am I, who are you?" Link is in the description below. So intuition versus
sensing. Intuition and sensing are the two perceiving functions. They are ways
that we take in the world around us. Now everyone has both. Everyone has intuition
and everyone has sensing. You can't have someone who doesn't have one or the
other. So let's break it down into the simplest the simplest stupid person
description that we can get it to because I feel like a lot of times when
we're learning about things like this, the functions and whatever, you get these
long descriptions that are talking about like "a priori ideas" and stuff, and it's
like--how do I make sense of this? So let's break it down to the absolute
simplest thing that I can come up with. Intuition is concerned with the abstract,
and sensing is concerned with the concrete. If I had to break it down into
just one word a piece that's what it would be. And so intuition is about the
abstract world--it's about concepts and ideas, it's about the deeper meaning that
lies below the surface of things; whereas sensing is about the five senses: it's
about the concrete world, it's about physical reality and experience. Of
course you all know that I really love the Beatles, and I thought to myself, "What
better way to demonstrate, to exemplify intuition versus sensing than to show
you two songs, one by John Lennon, one by Paul McCartney-- the
Lennon McCartney songwriting duo, man, the most influential songwriting duo of the
21st--the 20th century--I'm getting my centuries mixed up, that's how
excited I am. I'm so excited to be talking about the Beatles right now you
can't--I can't contain myself, can you tell how I can't contain myself right
now? Later on in the video I'm gonna give you my best guess about what type
exactly I think John Lennon is, what type exactly I think Paul McCartney is, but
suffice it to say let's say that I'm pretty sure John Lennon is an N type and
Paul McCartney is an S type. I'm pretty sure. The best two songs that I think
contrast these two guys and the way that they saw the world in intuition versus
sensing is their 1967 double A-side single which had "Strawberry Fields"
Forever on one side and "Penny Lane" on the other side. "Strawberry Fields" having
been written by John, an intuitive, "Penny Lane" having been written by Paul, a
sensor. What's really interesting about these two songs is that they are both
named after real places in Liverpool, their hometown. You get these two
Liverpudlians and their reminiscences on where they grew up, and you're gonna see
that it's very different between the two of them. So first of all, "Strawberry
Fields" written by John an intuitive. What's the first line of the song? "Let me
take you down, cuz I'm going to Strawberry Fields." Okay, that sounds kind
of like the real world. Next line is, "Nothing is real." Okay so already it's
this big flag that, hey guys, we're not talking about the real world, we're
talking about the abstract. And then the first line of the first verse: "Living is
easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see." This is purely abstract, line
after line of this song. And of course, the line I mentioned before, several
videos ago, "No one I think is in my tree." It's purely symbolic, he's not talking
about a real tree. There's a deeper meaning to it, it's all abstract.
It's all symbols and metaphors probing into what anything means--does anything
mean anything? And then there's all the surreal imagery--this is pure abstract,
this is pure intuition. Meanwhile on the flip side of that record is "Penny Lane"
written by Paul, a sensor. What's the first line of "Penny Lane"? Well...
I'll tell you. "Penny Lane there is a barber showing
photographs of every head he's had the pleasure to know." He's talking about an
actual barber with actual photographs there's no metaphor to be found here.
Where as John was saying nothing is real, Paul could have written a line into this:
"everything is real, everything that I'm writing about in the song is real." Other
lyrics: "Behind the shelter in the middle of a roundabout, a pretty nurse is
selling poppies from a tray." Paul actually saw that happen; he saw a nurse
selling poppies. It's all concrete. Now of course you see this on other songs that
the Beatles have written. It's interesting though, John frequently
writes songs that are just all in the sensory, all concrete stuff, there's
nothing abstract about them but other times he goes way into the abstract. Paul
on the other hand--and unless I'm forgetting something--
Paul rarely if ever in the Beatles and in his long illustrious solo career ever
goes into the abstract. He just doesn't like to go there very often. Think about
like the most famous songs in their solo career. John's most popular song is
"Imagine." "Imagine there's no heaven, it's easy if you try." He's not talking
about the real world and experience, he's talking about these bigger-than-life
concepts. Where as Paul's number one hit single in his solo career was "Silly Love
Songs," which has the lyrics, "You think that people would have had enough of
silly love songs, I look around me and I see it isn't so. He's literally just
talking about love songs: do we have enough? Do we need more?
There's nothing terribly abstract about it. Okay, so what types are the Beatles,
specifically John Lennon and Paul McCartney? I found a really interesting
article on StellarMaze.com that goes really in-depth into this, you all should
check it out, I'll put it in the description. And I pretty much agree with
the article. The article types Paul McCartney as an ISFJ which I totally
see. Paul strikes me as very plausibly someone who has dominant introverted
sensing with really well-developed auxiliary extroverted feeling. Now John
Lennon on the other hand, Blake--the writer at Stellar Maze--
he puts forward that John Lennon is an INTJ, but first of all he talks about how
a lot of people try to type Lennon as an INFP,
and that John Lennon was just too much of a jerk, too much of a butthead, to
really be an INFP. He says that no INFP could ever be as crappy of a person as
John Lennon. And if you know anything about John Lennon, you know that he kind
of just did whatever he wanted and didn't care if he was screwing over
other people. However I think it's letting a bit of a bias in if you don't
think that someone could be could have a certain cognitive stack just because
they're not a nice person. Blake also suggests in the comments of that article
that Lennon actually might be INFJ. And a lot of you in the comments when I've
talked about the Beatles before say, "Oh, yeah, John was an INFJ." I can see maybe
there being dominant introverted intuition there, however I don't really
see John exhibiting any extroverted feeling, so if he is an INFJ he's one of
the INFJs who skips over extroverted feeling and favors introverted thinking.
That's the only way I can make sense of it.
John frequently, if you look at his life, did stuff where he just did what he
wanted to do and didn't care about other people, which to me might suggest, if I might
suggest, an INFP. I don't know. It's inconclusive to me! Read the article,
let me know what you think about those two types of those two guys. I'd be
interested to hear your opinion. Of course it's always difficult to type
celebrities, sometimes I think it's a fruitless endeavor, but it's fun. Also let
me know in the comments if you have any questions about what I've talked about
today about intuition or sensing. Let me know if you can think of any other
examples like this, artistic maybe examples of two contrasting works that
show off the abstract versus the concrete, the intuition versus the
sensing. Let me know what you can come up with. Also definitely make sure if you
haven't heard "Strawberry Fields" and "Penny Lane"
before, checkout those songs, man, you are missing out! Once again don't forget to
check out the new podcast episode, leave a like on this video if you enjoyed it.
Even if you didn't enjoy it go ahead and leave a like and do the Lord's work by
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so much for watching I really appreciate it. I'll see you again on Tuesday.