Real Genius Is Extended Thinking

The other night I had to give a presentation and I was thinking about the characteristics of real genius. It’s a much overrated and overused term. Often it is applied to outstanding and amazing human beings but ones who are pretty flawed in some respects, remarkable in others. Some of the cleverest people are actually crazy! In other words, not so clever.

One of the greatest minds of all time, Sir Isaac Newton, was cranky and irascible, paranoid, and obsessed with the idea that Liebnitz had stolen his calculus (Newton invented it first but waited 20 years and Liebnitz published first).

In heat of the moment, a kind of flash, I came up with a better term than genius for my talk: “extended intelligence”. Since I made it up, I get to define it. Ha! Here goes…

A person of outstanding mind and thinking capabilities would show the following traits:

1. Rational, linear and logical.

I keep saying, it isn’t woo or pretty pink thoughts that got us down from the trees, able to watch TV, drive cars and use our computers and cell phones. It was HARD, unforgiving logic.

2. Creative, easily makes mental leaps, parallel thinking, holism and tolerating ambiguity.

That’s your r-brain stuff; the feminine side. Nothing wrong with it. Magical thinking is fine by me but does NOT supplant logic and common sense. It seems to me that imagination and creativity are two outstanding characteristics of clever people. They boldly go where other human minds have never been before! [see #12 for another Star Trek catch phrase!]

3. Thinking backwards in time, even beyond the present life.

Our lives are in a context and this person would be aware of that context, both in terms of racial survival and an individual timeline. History is its own kind of philosophy, pregnant with meaning and information.

This has to be balanced against the negative effect of history: “That’s the way we have always done it”, as the barrier to progress.

I would include past lives here. Anyone who doesn’t know that consciousness cannot be extinguished is no kind of genius to me.

4. Thinking forwards in time, into the future, way beyond the present life.

I have said elsewhere in my writings, that a bold, bright future is almost the definition of sanity. What you see ahead of you partly defines what you are. If you cannot create, as a thinking process, a worthwhile future, you may as well be dead, because you are already halfway there. Extended intelligence is especially extended in terms of a creative future. The genius will see things nobody else is seeing, as a matter of course.

5. R and L-brain integrated.

There is a lot more understanding of the way our brain integrate thinking. Mind is not the brain but there is no question the brain is the access to the mind. That gateway needs working on and improving, by the use of our personal accelerated learning device, for example.

6. Sees the parts in great detail.

Extended thinking is not vague or woolly. It is precise and contains all the parts. Otherwise it would be like having a ton of wires, transistors, capacitors, etc but no radio!

7. Sees the whole, above and beyond any detail.

In the same metaphor, the extended thinker would know that a radio is far more than a bunch of wires etc. You can’t learn what a radio is and does, by merely stripping it down to its parts. You need the bigger picture of radio waves and on-air channels.

8. Extended intelligence easily spots hoaxes, arbitraries, authoritarianism and memes and eliminates them from thinking.

This one is a whole lecture I give! Suffice it to throw in a few quick definitions here:

Hoax is the term I use for those accepted “truths”, which are in fact false. You know, like the-Earth-is-flat things. There are plenty of hoaxes around. Religion seems built on them. The medical profession is loaded with them, as supposed science (fever must be suppressed, for example, whereas the truth is that a fever is the best natural healing you can get).

Arbitraries are facts, which get passed around, with no real structure or support. They just exist. Once you start to examine them, they fall apart as nonsense.

Authoritarianism is another kind of dead knowledge. Professor Blodwit of Bunga Bunga University said it, so it must be true. Kids are forced to learn this garbage to get their grades and certificates. But the true genius has no interest in such phoney knowledge.

Memes, you probably know, are “thought viruses”, a good metaphor for what is happening: one mind infects another with a thought, which then gets passed along to yet another and so on. “Destroy America” is one that’s gaining momentum; “The Bible is the word of God” is another that’s been around a long time and has got a LOT of good people killed.

9. Intensely practical in applications.

The extended thinker/genius is no wishy-washy theorist. He or she knows about carrying knowledge to the real world and using it; Thomas Edison comes to mind, even if he was a genius plagiarist. Math geniuses have this trait: for example Albert Einstein. They connect theory with reality.

10. Very clear sensory perceptions (above average visual acuity, hearing etc.)

We make our estimations of the environment from what we see, hear and feel. Perceptions are notoriously fickle but the extended thinker works within this sensory paradigm, not assuming that everything is as it first seems to be. He or she could probably pick out detail that others were overlooking, precisely because of this trait.

You cannot make accurate estimations of the future, and therefore choose the wisest path, if you cannot estimate your current environment accurately.

11. Very in touch with the environment and aware of current trends and changes.

True extended intelligence is part of the everyday world, not some ivory tower thing. There is a notorious stereotype, the mad genius boffin who can’t boil an egg or find his way home, because he is so “clever” his brain is busy on other things. Nah! I don’t buy it. The guy is nuts. Maybe he has a super IQ but such a person would be dangerous to society. The kind of guy who would develop the H-bomb anyway and not worry about what politicians would do with it. Extended intelligence means the person can work in the context of society, Humankind and the biosphere.

12. Does not use justifications and excuses.

Extended thinking does not allow the luxury of excuses. If you look on foodforthemindandfireforthesoul.com I’m sure I posted a piece entitled “The Supreme Test of History”. Did it happen or didn’t it? Is the acid test. None of this people-oriented stuff. Just did you or didn’t you?

Make it so, is the catch phrase from Star Trek. Just do it! As Nike says.

Excuses and justifications are for wimps; they take you out of the equation. But who wants that? It’s like trying to un-exist, as a way of hiding from responsibility. It gives away all your power.

13. Can solve problems quickly.

Extended intelligence, as you would expect, is fast and smart. Problem solving comes easily. But the smartest of the smart would know that, in many instances, the supposed problem is actually someone’s solution. You have to solve the real problem behind that, to be super-intelligent.

Thing is, we all need some problems. That’s what makes life spicy. It would be very boring if we didn’t have problems to solve. But most people can’t solve their  problems, because they don’t even know what a problem is. I’ve written a lot about this for my mind-development courses. But in a nutshell: a problem is something stuck. There are two parts to it, effort and counter-effort, which exactly balance and so no movement or resolution can happen. For example: I want to go to Joe’s wedding/I have no time.

One of the two halves of the problem contains a falsehood and until the falsehood is located and corrected, the problem hangs up.

14. Courageous.

No question, extended intelligence implies courage. It’s a necessity for meaningful living. It’s no good being smart and not having the guts to act. Indeed, you are in no wise smart, if you can’t bring yourself to do what you know needs doing.

Thing is though, a lot of gurus make mileage out of fear as the reason people don’t act. I disagree. I think most people don’t act because they don’t really know what to do. However bad things are in your life, you would not hesitate to fix them, if you only knew how!

It’s connected with #13. You can’t solve the issues, if you don’t know enough to dismantle them.

You might like to start with the New Thought Horizons, where you can enroll here for a short time (the program is changing immeasurably in the next few weeks and will not be available in such easy terms any longer).

15. Able to master destructive emotions and keep them in check.

It stands to reason that true extended intelligence will keep stupid and destructive emotions of out of the way. It’s the single biggest human curse, to react badly to situations, without understanding why we feel and act as we do.

Wilhelm Reich called it the “emotional plague” and it’s easy to argue that it is far more deadly and killed far more people than any known microbe.

Why is it that the Christians, professing love for all, want to kill people who don’t take the Bible seriously and Muslims, once known (rightly) as the religion of peace, are so sensitive to criticism today, they want to kill anyone who casts doubt on their way of thinking?

The answer is irrational emotions. Rage, anger, hate, murder, torture and wars are all the product of emotional aberration (aberration: straying from true, like error but really bad).

16. Would understand the nature and meaning of ethics, responsibility and compassion.

A real genius and extended thinker would see the larger context in which we all live. This is Spaceship Earth and we are all in it together. The greedy and destructive fools who abound and cause immense damage to our world are the exact opposite of what is meant by rational thinkers. Extended intelligence by definition incorporates my 12 R-zones (zones of responsibility, beginning with self and spreading outwards to encompass all of Creation).

Seeing the Web of the Universe as it really is demands and then creates, intelligence, responsible behavior and true compassion.

I’m not saying there are only 16 traits. That’s just the ones I could think of in a half hour. Comment with some more suggestions, if you think you can contribute!

  • Peter Froehlich says:

    Your comments about Christians wanting to kill people who don’t take the Bible seriously is a very biased statement. No person who has truly been transformed by their faith in Jesus Christ would tolerate such actions. Of course in history that has happened, but those that engaged in such behavior were not following the commands of Jesus. He showed nothing but love and compassion for sinful humankind. (With the exception of the apostate jewish priests).
    As for Islam being a peaceful religion, you have got to be kidding. It is a religion of the sword. The Koran is loaded with ambiguities. ( I know you’ll say the Bible is too). If you follow the historical timing of its composition, you would recognize that it spoke of peace when not in power. Once in power, it was submit, become a second class citizen, or die.
    And finally, there are many very intelligent creative individuals that do believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Isn’t that shocking!

    • RenegadeGuru says:

      Just exactly the prejudiced thinking I am opposed to Peter.
      What you say is nonsense. Christianity has killed 10,000 more people than Islam and glossing over that is simply dishonest and NOT intelligent.
      True that modern Islam is violent and crude but if you look at history (facts, not fiction) the original Islam “armies” were very civilized
      and did NOT fight the Christians. They conspicuously held back from violence, until the Christian invaders attacked.

  • Bertold says:

    Being a virgo I guess makes me a stickler for (conceived) accuracy, and that is why I say Leibnitz, not the phonetic Liebnitz.

    But that is besides the point. Your philosophy shines throughout the whole article. The part I particularly agree with is where you deal with the Bible. What has been perpetrated in the name of religion goes beyond the knowledge of most people. See for example the reasoning of the first commentator. Of course Jesus Christ teaches love, or should I say is Love personified, but then he quickly goes on to talk about tolerance (!) I dare say he and millions of others mistake the words of St. Paul for being those of Jesus. Religion in general has been bending the minds of people for 1000’s of years and not necessarily for the better. It’s control the church wants, to keep the flock in line.

    I love your treatment of point # 15 . Unfortunately it is more often misunderstood as adhering to dogma, rather than realizing how insidious the dumbing down of the general population goes mostly undetected as “advertising” , when in fact bad and unhealthy thoughts are infecting minds like bacteria.

    In fact I think your thoughts about what genius is are genius in themselves. Reincarnation, forward thinking and reaching back for millenia and all of it, simply genius to express it that way !

    • RenegadeGuru says:

      I’ve seen it Leibniz, anyway Bertold, without the ‘t’
      I don’t speak German but I know it’s wysiwyg: leibnitz would be libe-nits
      Is that how Germans say it? I’ve always said leeb-nits but that’s us English 🙂
      Thanks for a healthy and enlightened comment
      K

  • Morrison L. Clark says:

    Keith, I was somewhat impressed by your article but will need to read it another time or two to render a final opinion. Your discussion of religion reveals that you get your knowledge of the subject from secondary sources. History records the spread of Islam by the sword. In Islamic societies other religious viewpoints are not tolerated as evidenced by the number of Jews and Christians allowed to live there and even so as second class citizens. Religion of peace, my elbow. I might wish that you could be a woman under this peaceful system.

    As for Christianity. the founder was Jesus Christ of whom it is written that he went about doing good. No one died or suffered in any way at the hand of Jesus. His instruction to his followers was to go teach and they did without force or violence although violence was often their lot. A leader is not accountable for the thoughts and actions his supposed followers. Read his book. You will find little in it to support Christianity as we practice it either as catholics or protestants.

    • Dr. Brooks (ret.) says:

      Apparently the “god” of the Old Testament was not related to the “Jesus” of the New Testament. In the Old he told his chosen to go and kill everything that breathes, including animals, women, and children. Until the world gives up its religulous delusions, we will not see peace anywhere. It matters not what names religions bear, they’re all delusional, and they make hypocrites out of people, who say things, but don’t live them in real life.
      I hope Prof. Keith Scott-Mumby will find many more geniuses like himself and solve the world’s problems. There’s not much time………..

  • joanie says:

    Thought proceeds thinking.

    I thinketh, therefore I am, that is the physical.
    Before thinking, comes thought. What is thought?

    My desktop dictionary (Merriam) –
    def of “thought” –
    “an idea or opinion produced by thinking or occurring suddenly in the mind”

    Wait, is it produced or occurred suddenly?

    If I thought, I ought. 😉 = thou ought
    I believe thought is a gift manifested within our physical being,
    but where is its origination? Consciousness, all that is. Creation.

    Some definitions aiding the thought-

    ought
    O.E. ahte, pt. of agan “to own, possess, owe”. As a past tense of owe, it shared in that word’s evolution and meant at times in M.E. “possessed” and “under obligation to pay.”
    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ought

    aught1 /ɔːt/ (also ought)
    ▶pronoun archaic anything at all.
    – origin OE āwiht , wight).
    http://www.wordreference.com/definition/ought

    wight
    2 literary a spirit or ghost.
    – origin OE wiht ‘thing, creature’, of Gmc origin.
    http://www.wordreference.com/definition/wight

    wight – My desktop dictionary (Merriam)
    Supernatural being
    Origin Old English wight [thing, creature,] of Germanic origin;
    Related to Dutch wicht ‘little child’ and German Wicht ‘creature.’

    pos·sess
    10. to cause to be dominated or influenced, as by an idea, feeling, etc
    http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/possess

    From definitions – thought = thou ought = aught = wight = spirit

    If thoughts are occurring suddenly in the mind,
    it is the thinking, the monkey mind that gets a body in trouble.
    Me thinks free will is what we do with that gift of thought, which could be unrecognizable in the end, or maybe it was ignored, that is non genius.

    How many times have you not had an answer, desired it, but slept on it, truly sleeping, no thinking allowed and in the morning, the answer arrived.
    Or, thoughts popping into your head, like check the oil in the car, or do this or that
    and yet neglecting the thought, found yourself in deep dodo…shoulda, woulda, coulda… Thought is always showing up, and it is the real genius that takes heed.