Blogging… it has made me much more creative, with language, with concept and metaphors, also connectivity between things.

And thanks for the assurance that aging is not necessarily a sign that we are less intelligent.

Great article, Mary!
Robert

These are excellent intelligence boosting tips you have collected here, Mary.

I too agree that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to give up on exploring our minds simply because that’s what society expects of us.

Nothing thrills me more than seeing an older person doing something one wouldn’t imagine… an example is the ever growing number of ’silver surfers’- older people who use the internet.

I admire them greatly.

And, as you suggest, these ways to develop your intelligence are as equally useful to the younger generation as they are to the older.

Creative intelligence is a fascinating concept, Mary.

I like the idea of exercising our creativity even at a time of our life when most people have given up on their imagination.

Let people of all ages dream on!

For a few years I was in a serious rut and I could feel my brain declining. I decided to go back to school and start a few more mentally active activities. I can see where all of the different intelligences come in and how they can interact through various activities.

I saw a Discovery or PBS show awhile back on how fast our technology and culture are moving. The narrator was saying he may not be able to even communicate with his grandkid by the time she is an adult because his vocabulary, tech, and online experiences will be so different. I know when I talk about the internet with my husband, my mother is totally clueless. For her everything about working online gets lumped into the computer, as in, “Did she send you something on the computer?” I can barely keep up with social networks and “the latest” now, how much more savvy will my nieces’ kids be? The only way to keep up is to remain active, learning, and adaptable. The same show said if your tastes (music, food) are unchanged and static by 29, they are pretty much set for life.

Thanks for the list, having spent a 2 years dealing with numbers my recall improved drastically. So with this list I know what else I can do to sharpen all my skills. I will be adding it all to my to do list.

Cheers,

-Tabs

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Thanks for the beautiful article..

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Materialists will always have to play catch up to non-materialists in the area of mental abilities. That’s because materialists are working with a handicap. Thinking that the seat of the mind is the brain is a materialist world view.

One good thing Buddhism gives us is a series of strong and credible rebuttals of the materialist doctrine. It’s too bad most Western Buddhists, especially of the “Zen” variety, are hamstrung with the Western physicalist materialism for a world view.

I can’t say I like any isms or ists very much, but kicking materialism in the rear is really one area Buddhism shines, and it’s a shame to overlook that and to talk about the brain like it was real.

There are two types of intelligence that I see in people.

One is narrowly focused or specialized. People with this sort of intelligence are often quite successful, because their actions are also focused in one direction. They are not sidetracked so they obtain fast results, but their experience of life is limited.

The other type of intelligence is what I like to call “dynamic intelligence.” And it is the sum of all the types you list. This all-encompassing intelligence can be a double edged sword. It requires a greater effort to focus in one direction, because you have so many areas of excellence calling you to various life paths and careers. But if you can manage to prioritize and balance them all out — it is extremely rewarding.

Life becomes rich when you explore and develop all aspects of your intelligence. It is imperative though, that you have a good sense of your main strength and desired direction, then use the other aspects of intelligence to support and deepen your path.

One of the most beautiful aspects of dynamic intelligence, is that all of the aspects can merge into one whole. Musical intelligence sets up rhythms in body intelligence; Body intelligence animates social and spiritual intelligence, emotional intelligence flavors everything, and spiritual intelligence guides the quality and depth of all of them. They all contribute to everything you do.

I really like how you have categorized and described the various areas for development.

John

John Rocheleaus last blog post..A Youthful Advantage

Mary,

Looks like you don’t get my hint at all.

How does materialism hamper intelligence? That’s the question I hint at. To say that intelligence is not mind is to simply avoid the issue I present.

What is intelligence? What do we call intelligent? Those are interesting questions. If you really think about it, I bet you will surprise yourself.

One way to define intelligence is to say that it’s a skill that allows one to know the true limitations of reality while not being fooled by false limitations. This assumes that reality is a set of limitations. For example, gravity, mass, time, space, etc. Those are limitations on experience as perceived by the materialists. Any experience that does not abide by those limitations is automatically discarded as invalid/unreal/useless/fantasy/dream/hallucinations, you name it. So it’s pretty easy to see what makes up conventional intelligence. From that point of view the most intelligent people are the Ph.D.s and people with high IQs and so forth, since they are most attuned to understanding these conventional limitations on experience.

However, since you seem to aim to be a cut above that, you have to ask if there is any higher intelligence than that. For example, what if the limitations are not ultimate and are only local? What if they are mind-made and can be consciously changed by the individual? If that’s a possibility, then it means the conventionally intelligent people are actually pretty dumb. The situations would be like someone who voluntarily carries a heavy iron ball everywhere one goes, believing it’s attached and cannot be dropped. So one is very cleaver knowing everything there is to know about this iron ball, how to best shift it around the body to avoid the bruises and calluses, and how to best avoid the strain and so forth, and all this exceptionally advanced coping behavior is then labeled “intelligence”. While a person without an iron ball might think this other person is an idiot because they misuse their intelligence.

That’s just one way to look at it. But there are others. For example, you can define intelligence as the ability to question, to critically look at experience. The more one can question, the less dogmatic one is, the more intelligent. If we take this as a measure of intelligence, again, materialists come out at the bottom, because they never question the existence of matter.

Now, when you talk about brains, as if brains were mind, or as if brains were in any way whatsoever important, then you are using a strongly to-the-bones materialistic way of looking at mind and its capabilities. From my perspective, if that’s what you are doing (i.e., if it’s not a mistake, but a conscious choice), then you don’t have a leg to stand on to talk about intelligence to spiritual people. You can discuss intelligence with mundane Ph.D.s and so forth. And that’s fine too. But it seems like you have higher ambitions than that with your blog. Why pretend at spirit when you can just as fine study neuroscience and be happy with that?

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Why not look at this sentence:

“If I could enumerate the modes of thinking or the kinds of intelligence, it would enable me to ______”.

What do you think can be used to fill in the blank?

When I think about it, I can’t put anything in that blank at all. This simple thought experiment tells me to abandon that line of thinking. I do this all the time. If I actually followed up on every curiosity I’ve ever felt, I’d never get any real thinking done.

The only catch all reason I *do* accept is having fun. So if you intend to fill in the blank with “have fun”, then by all means, more power to you. Ornaments are wonderful things, but only when they are recognized as purely ornamental, i.e., when you don’t rely on ornaments for anything of substance.

And furthermore, I’ve yet to see a valuable enumeration of any kind. Even enumerating the 8 folds of the path or the 7 factors is completely meaningless and a waste of time, since it doesn’t bring insight at all, but instead dulls the person’s own intellect by making them think they have a list that covers everything, so no need to think about it, just need to follow it. And when people “just follow”, that’s when they get lost. Being in samsara is simply “just following” one’s own experience. So the inability to step back from it, or to look at it critically, the inability to step back from one’s own beliefs (the inner experience), all that is tantamount to being caught in samsara. It’s like being involved in a dream to the point where it’s not seen as a dream, but it is seen as an urgent, visceral and the only possible flavor of experience. The opposite of that is like lucid dreaming, it’s like when you know it’s a dream. You can participate in a dream in a creative way, because you’re not emotionally tied to it as much, because you don’t buy into the dream limitations, and because of the above two, a wide mental space opens up for you since your mind is no longer preoccupied with survival and defensive strategies. When nothing serious is at stake (such as the case in a dream), there is no need for strategic, scheming and plotting kind of thinking. You can just play with the qualities of your mind (experience becomes ornamental or visionary rather than substantial).

Making lists, to my thinking, is strongly linked to the scheming mind. And the scheming, strategical, plotting mind is not the kind of friend it makes itself out to be, since its action is based solely on unflinching faith in limitations and fear.

Mary,

Thanks for this great post. I had not come across Dr Gardner’s Theory. But I have given all of the areas, he has plotted out in the model, a great deal of thought.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Creative Intelligence is included in his Theory. That has been missing from some other models I have explored. And I feel it is too often undervalued in favor of people working or building more practical skills and life areas.

I have looked for and pursure activites as they relate to all of the areas, so it is just too much to write more than that.

However, in what I do and how I do it, I believe there are yet other types of Intelligence that could be added to the model.

For the more traditional, Percetual Intelligence as it relates to the areas of Logical, Emotional and Social Intelligence. Some might choose to call that Perceptual, some Motivational.

And for those who stretch beyond traditional Psychology, and even at times in Spiritual studies, I’d posit breaking to a separate category, Intuitional Intelligence. For some that is part of Spiritual Intelligence, for some it is not or not as much.

Although, I am not sure that the use of the word Intelligence is the least intimidating way to phrase this to people. As in how the scoring of an I.Q. test and how that can make people feel.(?)

Great, great blog, Mary. Thanks for the work you are doing…

When we speak about intelligence and spirituality, words fall short of the mark, but they can point to it. Words can also lead some to become caught up in semantics.

I think it is best to take a person’s words as signposts rather then the sum total of their thinking, or where it can bring your thinking.

This is especially true for speakers or writers who have some spiritual awakening. When you have experienced a conscious merge with existence, in deep meditation for example, there are no words, but there is infinite understanding and silent knowledge. You cannot describe that in speech or the written word. You can only point to it.

It is too easy to become lost in intellectual discussions. This article is a good example of creating basic signposts. It is up to the reader to follow them and explore more, or not.

Just had the urg to say that

John

John Rocheleaus last blog post..A Youthful Advantage

On the contrary, all experience is strictly symbolic. Even clear light. Words are not lower than spiritual experience. The most profound spiritual experience can be conveyed with words.

The problem is that in order to convey it, you have to synchronize with the person you want to convey it to. You have to become intimate with that person’s symbolic map and be comfortable in it, and then you can convey amazing, seemingly wordless things with words.

Words don’t fail. But writers do.

Anyone can put a bunch of sign posts, but not all of them are useful pointers. You can put two sign posts that point to each each, circularly, and then anyone that follows them will simply get tired and frustrated. And then you can be all proud of yourself by saying, “AHA hahaha… Look at that, I exhausted this person’s thinking and made them drop it” or something like that. But that’s pure nonsense. A person who thinks this is even remotely good or desirable has had no authentic awakening yet.

Awakening is not a spiritual experience, it’s a gradual change of who you are and what you stand for. A spiritually awake person has had countless amazing experiences, even clear light, God, or whatever you want to call it (it’s not that important if you just keep the essential meaning in mind and not so much the cultural connotations).

What you will find is that an awake person has a finer sensitivity to meanings and is able to draw deep, insightful and strange connections between any two meanings. This ability is not at all fostered by lists of any kind. In fact, breaking things down into lists can hamper this type of vision.

Great list. I think there is a connection between exercise and brain function. Anyone interested in improving their brain should consider exercising a bit.

jim

http://www.jimestill.com

Great article. This reminds me of a book I read about the 10 intelligences in Tony Buzan’s book Head First.
I think a balanced leaning makes people more interesting too.

Good day!
It is very informative and has a very good quality in it.
I like it…

Self Improvement
Modern Rifle

Thank you very much for your time.