I'm inclined to think that Susan and MostlyHarmless may have something there. I don't know anything about tracking, but I do know that practicing a highly specialized discipline often gives one "intuition" in that particular area. Instead of having to reason out everything and carefully weigh the various possible solutions, your brain has been so conditioned that you can cut straight to the one that is probably right. Imagine seeing a set of situations repeatedly, over years and years, and eventually you catch on: if I see x, y, and z, then a, b, and c are very likely to happen. When the discipline is complicated enough, there may be too many factors to enumerate mechanically as I just did. To outsiders, intuition acquired over many years of training suddenly appears divinely inspired.

Such intuition allows us to be more efficient at the activity, and can really save us when there is no time to spare for detailed, scientific analysis. In old society as today, this can come in very handy.

Again, I don't know whether this is the case with Tom Brown. I suspect such "technical intuition" may be found up, and even possibly inseparable from the spiritual practices he engages in. No, I don't necessarily mean that his deities are "scientifically efficacious." But if one practices, say, tracking, in conjunction with certain religious rituals, then the brain might just connect the two when developing intuition.

Alright, let me get off my soap box. Anyone out there knows anything about psychological research into intuition???

Da Bing