Yoga sutra 1.49
śruta-anumāna-prajñābhyām-anya-viṣayā viśeṣa-arthatvāt
Because of its extraordinary nature, the wisdom of special intuition is different from the experience of knowledge
Patanjali describes here various ways to reach special kinds of intuition. Higher states of spiritual knowledge can be gained through proper listening as a method of learning scared texts and meditative logical thinking.
The mastery of nirvicāra (mediation on a subtle object without thoughts or form or ideas) referred to in the previous sutras, is the superior level of intuition.
At the same time, the sutra also proves how direct experience is the prefeed method in the practice of yoga.
Damian Cadman-Jones is an authorised teacher of Prana Vashya Yoga™