Why can't it be a combination of both? You may be trying to draw a line where no line exists.

First, a very experienced person (in anything) will assimilate a lot of information, some of which he/she doesn't even realize.

And I just looked up the word 'hunch'. One of the definitions: 'a guess or feeling not based on known facts'.

Several (or more) years ago, I was reading that a 'hunch' or what is often called 'intuition' is really your subconscious putting two and two together, based on all your prior knowledge, experience, and faint messages that your senses are picking up. Your subconscious is always processing information, much of which the conscious tends to ignore.

You walk into your house (supposed to be empty), and six feet inside the front door, you get the 'feeling' that someone else is in the house. ESP? Luck? Or did your ears hear a small sound that didn't belong? Did your nose pick up a bit of unfamiliar scent? Did your eyes see something out of place that your conscious didn't? Did you feel a faint air movement in this supposedly closed house?

'Civilized' Man has lost a lot of basic survival instincts over time. Recent Man has lost even more. But our subconscious is still the same, working 24 hours a day. It's just that now we mostly ignore it. But what if we don't?

Sue