Hmmmm. Where do you get the data on which you base your statement that "those that [believe in their own intuition] have a very high success rate," and how is the "success rate" defined?

Think for yourself, question everything, research everything, never accept what you are told as being 100% correct until you've checked it out for yourself, then make up your own mind.

I used to be a contrarian arsehole. Now I'm just an arsehole.
I tend not to follow my intuition, because my intuition tells me to do things like jam pencils into the necks of people who annoy me in work meetings.

Following another's way to success never worked for me as my personality was different and I applied different traits to win success.

A little of both for me. I will follow to a point. The point that I become bored, disappointed or realize that it is not for me, but mostly I am off doing my own thing.

Never good at following. I went to one Boy Scout meeting. That was enough. Even in the Army l worked it so l was on my own 80 to 90 percent of my day. One reason l liked being a full time musician was no adult supervision.

I am a freethinker, an individualist, an independent and I neither follow nor lead.

Definitely not a follower of any dogma.

I have to forge my own path, I do use other peoples ideas to see if I can expand my train of thought. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
I do follow my gut though, if it feels bad then nope no way.

I go with gut instinct and it serves me well.

I don't particularly trust the intelligence or motives of other people. Especially in large groups. Even if they are smart there is no guarantee we share the same goals.
So I try to figure things out for myself. It's a bumpy ride but it's always interesting to meet people who have drawn similar conclusions by their individual reasoning, regardless of culture, gender, age, etc.

Less so when you meet people who take their cues from a leader or book, whose thoughts are what they have been told their thoughts ought be.

I catch myself defending stupid ideas all the time. I strive to be a freethinker but fall short more than not.

To be a freethinker is to understand how seductive it is to defend a position or belief.

Making the claim that you are a freethinker that does not follow is significant evidence that you are NOT a freethinker and that you ARE a follower.

I totally agree. To sharpen ones intuition is difficult and requires a willingness to fail and learn.

I've been told I march to the beat of my own drummer since I was a .

I prefer to think I'm a "participant" in the freethought movement, using a humanistic approach to problems and creating solutions. I think to be a "follower" there has to be a leader one is following, either blindly or cautiously, and so I believe that in a movement that is fairly new, many of us are forging our on way, making the best of what we've learned and continue to learn.

If we are a congregation of freethinkers, for example, then we are all learning from each other, not following what a leader is dictating for us to think.

You say that most people follow others, yet you tell us that following your own intuition leads to success. Wouldn't that then be following you? So following your own intuition is following what you say? You also give no evidence for your statement. Very confusing.

Are we true ‘free thinkers’ or more free thinking followers? Think about it......

I consider myself a free thinker. A non conformist. That's probably because I used to do live my life the way other people wanted me to when I was much younger. Those people were my parents, some religious leaders, etc. They made me feel like I wasn't good enough if I didnt comply with their rules and didn't adopt their system of values. Eventually I got tired of living like that and I paused and asked myself what I truly want from life and started to pursue that. I generally trust my own judgement, my "gut feeling" (if I can put it that way) instead of following other peoples (unsolicited) advice.

I listen to a lot of podcasts, but they have a lot of different opinions on a lot of subjects. I admire those who are good speakers, but I can't say I follow anyone. I would say I'm definitely a freethinker. The people who are in the business I'm in are probably 90 something percent right leaning, and I am definitely not. I tend to agree more with the left, I'm not in agreement with a lot of the left either though, and I can't stomach Trump at all.

I do not think it is a question you can answer, since I do not think you can ever know where the dividing line is.

First is your Religion

You collected as much information as possible about various religions before you made your own decision to join one of them or not.

You were born into a religious family but you collected and analyzed a lot of information after graduating from high school and eventually chose to become an atheist, an agnostic, or religious unaffiliated.