Intuition
Intuition is a form of knowledge gained without the operation of reasoning or the presence of objective proof. There are different levels of intuitive knowledge. The reliability of the information thus gained depends on the source of this knowledge and the ability to perceive it correctly by our conscious mind. In Theosophical literature there is emphasis on the "spiritual intuition," which is a cognition that comes from the sixth Principle, buddhi.
General concept
The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word "intuition" as follows:
1: immediate apprehension or cognition without reasoning or inferring.
2: knowledge or conviction gained by intuition.
3: the power or faculty of gaining direct knowledge or cognition without evident rational thought and inference.
Levels
The word intuition has being used in different ways by Western thinkers. For example, for Immanuel Kant, intuition is the basic sensory information we get through our sense-organs, equivalent to what we understand as perception. For Carl Jung, intuition is an "irrational function", a "perception via the unconscious" that brings forth ideas, images, possibilities, ways out of a blocked situation, by a process that is mostly unconscious.
The word is also used for the gut feeling one may have based on once's experience, or for feelings and thoughts that may be perceived by psychic means.
The kind of intuition that is frequently found in Theosophy is the spiritual knowledge that has its source in buddhi, the spiritual soul.
Spiritual intuition
When the nature of buddhi expresses through manas there is a phenomena of direct perception, beyond rational thinking, which is sometimes called spiritual intuition:
The Spiritual ego reflects no varying states of consciousness; is independent of all sensation (experience); it does not think—it KNOWS, by an intuitive process only faintly conceivable by the average man.[1]
In some of Mme. Blavatsky's writings there are some references to this principle forming a body:
In the normal or natural state, the sensations are transmitted from the lowest physical to the highest spiritual body, i.e., from the first to the 6th principle (the 7th being no organized or conditioned body, but an infinite, hence unconditioned principle or state).[2]