Gut Instinct - is our 'sixth sense'.
Past generations relied on their sixth sense to survive. When you could get your throat cut for the rags on your back and travelling even a mile up the road to the neighbouring village could be fraught with danger, you had to be on high alert all the time, and that meant using all your senses.
It's about going beyond relying on the evidence of what you see, hear, touch and so on to ascertain threat or danger, to 'sensing' it - intuition, gut instinct, hinky meter, sixth sense, gut feeling, 'feeling in your bones' intuition, vibes .... these are all alternative terms for the sixth sense.
Our sixth sense is there to protect us ... but nowadays most of us just don't utilise it in the way our ancestors did. When we get that 'feeling' we tend to dismiss it, or ignore it - we tell ourselves not to be daft.
Ever met someone who you immediately dislike? A friend of yours introduces you to a new friend/acquaintance/colleague of theirs you have never met before and in that first second - your sixth sense starts screaming at you - this person is BAD news. There's nothing obvious in how they look or speak, they can be perfectly pleasant and friendly .... but your gut feeling is telling you otherwise.
So you ask friend about the person - and are reassured 'oh she's great' get a bit of background info - all seems genuine and legit and clearly your friend likes and trusts the person so it must be ok. But you still can't shake the feeling. You may try to, you try to set it to one side, you may always be friendly to the person when you meet them again, and you just suppress or ignore that first instinct.
But then further down the line this person does something terrible to your friend or turns out to have some dark aspect to their character that comes to light - and it's 'I bloody knew it'. Your first instinct was right.
Ever walked into a building or place, or gone for a job interview ... and you've just got that bad 'vibe' immediately? Nothing tangible. Nothing you can see, hear or touch, but you can just sense it? That's your sixth sense trying to protect you. Get out of there and don't look back.
Our sixth sense is constantly trying to alert us to things that we cannot see, hear, touch or taste - but are there nonetheless and it is always things that aren't good for us - that are a threat to our well being and that includes betrayal. When our sixth sense is activated it is for a reason. We are well advised to listen to what it is trying to tell us. It is rarely wrong.