How can you "know from the heart?"?

People say it because it is a colloquialism. How'd it get that way? I do not know; that is a linguistics question.

That the heart has no thought processing ability, is not established. The cardioneurological research at the HeartMath Institute in Boulder Creek, CA has discovered that there exist more neural pathways from the heart to the brain, than from the brain to the heart. It has furthermore discovered that the "extra" pathways from the heart to the brain are active during emotionally laden states of affairs. And what is more, they have discovered that the information going from the heart to the brain during negatively emotionally laden states of affairs corresponds with two other states of affairs, 1) negative thoughts, and 2) an inconsistent heart rate. The negative feelings, negative thoughts, and the inconsistent heart rate can be easily controlled by focusing on the heart, pretending to breathe in through it, and instantiating a feeling of gratitude (at first by recalling any situation in which you felt gratitude). The thoughts and feelings then polarize, and the heart rate becomes consistent. It's as though the heart organ literally is saying "if you leave me out of the picture, things are gonna get ugly." That the physical heart plays no role in thinking, might not be true.

But, if x is an act, and people say they know from the heart that x is a right act, they mean that they have an intuitive understanding. This is the extent of what they mean in most cases, I think. However, there might be a deeper root to it. Insofar as the above, HeartMath Institute's discoveries involve a clear distinction between positive and negative thoughts/feelings toward others, it is not a far stretch to say that personal understanding of a right act might have roots in the heart-thinking-feeling connection.

With respect to instinct without knowledge to back it up, who established that instinct not a form of knowledge? Besides, if it isn't a form of knowledge, who says that instinct needs knowledge to back it up? The better question would be, if there is knowledge what good is instinct? Or might they play distinct roles that combine to contribute someqhat equally to the success of an endeavor? How would a cat answer that?

Your question has two answers.

When a person says they know from the heart, or similar, they say that the know in an emotional level. Much depends on the context of the situation, and I will not elaborate here, because it is not related to philosophy.

The philosophical answer is that we humans have intuition, a reasoning process we cannot always explain. Colloquially, it has also been called gut-feeling, instinct, among other names. Such intuition yields true knowledge, even if the person cannot easily articulate the logic. In general, philosophy mistrust statements justified by intuition alone, as it may mark a slopy judgment. Still, that does not mean there is no legitimate article.

..Great minds think alike..

Check out my similar question .. http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=Ar... ..........we are both very very similar in thought! Frightening! But matter of fact, we're both wrong!

However since, I have done further research and discovered a new point of view.

"Recent HeartMath studies define a critical link between the heart and brain. The heart is in a constant two-way dialogue with the brain — our emotions change the signals the brain sends to the heart and the heart responds in complex ways. However, we now know that the heart sends more information to the brain than the brain sends to the heart. And the brain responds to the heart in many important ways. This research explains how the heart responds to emotional and mental reactions and why certain emotions stress the body and drain our energy. As we experience feelings like anger, frustration, anxiety and insecurity, our heart rhythm patterns become more erratic. These erratic patterns are sent to the emotional centers in the brain, which it recognizes as negative or stressful feelings. These signals create the actual feelings we experience in the heart area and the body. The erratic heart rhythms also block our ability to think clearly.

Many studies have found that the risk of developing heart disease is significantly increased for people who often experience stressful emotions such as irritation, anger or frustration. These emotions create a chain reaction in the body — stress hormone levels increase, blood vessels constrict, blood pressure rises, and the immune system is weakened. If we consistently experience these emotions, it can put a strain on the heart and other organs, and eventually lead to serious health problems.

Conversely,the research shows that when we experience heart-felt emotions like love, care, appreciation and compassion, the heart produces a very different rhythm. In this case it is a smooth pattern that looks like gently rolling hills. Harmonious heart rhythms, which reflect positive emotions, are considered to be indicators of cardiovascular efficiency and nervous system balance. This lets the brain know that the heart feels good and often creates a gentle warm feeling in the area of the heart"

Hope this helps you gain further understanding, because this information really helped me.

Take Care,

Best Wishes!

You can have a knowledge about having an intuition. The intuition is just the voice of your spirit. So we are not only mind and body but we indeed are spirit. As I realize that this might be difficult for you to understand as you will take the thoughts in your mind to understand it, but spiritual things can only be understood with your own spiritual aspects.

If a person sais he/she feels it in their heart it is as the spirit can transmit intuitions through the solar plexus to the human mind. So a person gets a message in the solar plexus area and this spreads most often to the heart region, therefore the saying I feel it in my heart.

Some things cannot be explained with only using your mind (brain). For example inner warnings people receive although there is nothing dangerous to see, to hear or to feel on their body. Nevertheless can the spirit in us receive warnings and intuitions going above space and time and this happened to me often. I even escaped major physical harm in being internally warned and implored to hide, although there was indeed no indication of danger using only my physical senses.

Good question.

Do you seriously think that all the mind is capable of producing is rational, logical, verbal thoughts. What does a baby 'think'?

Actually, your nervous system extends throughout your body and behaves like a network. There might even be more to your existence than the purely physical?

When you feel hungry is that just a thought?

What about love, hate? What about feeling cold or hot?

These are just words that point to an inner experience. An organismic and spontaneous experience, not some 'knowledge' or 'thought' that gives rise to intuition. It is a direct, felt experience.

You are so much more than just a brain calculator, mounted on top of a two legged transportation unit.

To "know from the heart" is to know what you want in your life that definitely feels so right. Life is too precious and beautiful to be wasted away. It needs to be embraced with integrity, loyalty, decency, intelligence, beauty, warmth, strength, and most of all, love.

its an expression for a 'gut feeling' which is another expression for intuition. intuition is a natural defense mechanism we have rooted deeply in our animal brains.

uhhhhhhhhh its an expression!

maybe you should take a break from science

and take a lesson in language arts or romantics lol

like they say "i love you with all my heart!"

ever heard of that? well they don't actually mean

the organ the're just speaking meaphorically...

Because they believe in it with more than just the mind. Don't take it literally.

Easy. They don't seriously mean "I knew it from the heart." They mean that they know it's so right, that they can just feel it from inside- like it's natural. It's just like saying "I felt it from my gut".