Why and How We Lose Our Innate Intelligence – and Can Regain It
Intelligence is the human superpower
Intelligence has nothing to do with which schools you attended, how long you went to school, or whether you have earned academic degrees. Our education system does not encourage or support intelligence. In fact, it doesn’t even value intelligence. It only values and encourages qualities such as obedience, conformity, memory, diligence, and perseverance. But these traits have nothing to do with intelligence. Quite the opposite.
In the following, I look at what intelligence is, how we are all born highly intelligent, how we lose access to it as we grow up, and how we can regain it.
The word intelligence originates from the Latin words inter and legere. Inter means ‘between,’ legere means ‘to read’ – so ‘intelligent’ stands for ‘reading between the lines.’ An intelligent person reads what has not been written, hears what has not been said, and sees what has not been shown.
Intelligence is the ability to deal with a situation when you don't know what to do – because you have never learned it and have no experience. Intelligence is, therefore, shown above all in dealing with the unknown. That’s why creativity is an essential part of it. If you know how to deal with a situation, this is not an expression of intelligence, but of experience, education, or functioning. Education and functioning are the opposite of intelligence. Intelligence enables you to know or be able to do something without having learned it from someone. Intelligence helps you to deal with unfamiliar situations. It enables you to draw the right conclusions and to see the bigger picture.
You can observe these qualities in children. A child learns to walk without a single practice lesson with a “walking teacher.” It learns a language without lessons in that language. A child does not read instruction manuals, it explores everything itself. Every child is born highly intelligent.
But we lose access to our innate intelligence when we grow up. This is because people, schools, and media program us – and the programs block our intelligence. Education is programming. The more schools and trainings you have attended and the more media you have consumed, the more programs control you. Programs make you function – and functioning is the opposite of intelligence.
Albert Einstein is a good example of how intelligence can collide with the education system. He grew up in the German city of Ulm, where he attended grammar school. When he was 15 years old, his parents moved to Italy to start a business. Albert was supposed to stay in Ulm to finish school. But he could not cope with the German school system. He dropped out of school and traveled to Italy, only to tell his parents that he will go to Switzerland and finish school there. He liked the Swiss school system better. After finishing upper secondary education, he studied to become a math and physics teacher. After graduation, he could not find a job at any university in Europe. This was because he had the reputation for questioning established results and conducting unorthodox research. So Einstein could not find a job because he was highly intelligent and thus very curious. Some well-meaning professors had warned him that his behavior would be bad for his career. But Einstein remained true to himself and performed his research privately. Thanks to fortunate circumstances, his articles were published in a prestigious journal. The rest is history.
One of the greatest science geniuses of all times could not gain a foothold in the scientific establishment and had to conduct his research privately. It was only when the value of his research became obvious that academic circles recognized him.
Every human is born highly intelligent. It depends on the environment how strong the programming becomes that buries a great part of the person’s intelligence.
“I am convinced all of humanity is born with more gifts than we know. Most are born geniuses and just get de-geniused rapidly.”
(Buckminster Fuller)
I have studied the early lives of many people that are considered geniuses. Most of them lost or ended their connection to one or both parents early in life. As a result, they were less programmed by their parents and had to take responsibility for themselves at an early age. The uncomfortable truth is that parents – and teachers – de-geniuse children. However, they don’t do it intentionally. They are simply perpetuating what their parents and teachers had done to them. The underlying mechanism is simple: children copy their environment.
Our school system requires students to listen and learn. When a teacher or a book tells you something, you collect information, not knowledge. Only when you make your own experiences, eventually based on what you have read or heard, you gather knowledge. Knowledge creates insight and leads to an experience of fulfillment. Information creates programs – and only provides short-term, superficial satisfaction. Children strive for knowledge, not information. When they receive answers in the form of information, they continue to ask questions, because information does not fulfill them. Asking questions again and again is a sign of intelligence. Being critical is a sign of intelligence. A very high form of intelligence is to question yourself and your own knowledge.
Most academics, scholars, and experts received a lot of training. They are educated, ie full of information – and thus programs. They rely on what they have learned, function in their area of expertise, but hardly look beyond their own nose. There are exceptions; there are a few who combine education and thus information with intelligence. In my experience, academics are on average less intelligent than non-academics. And I say that as an academic.
I speak of experience. I obtained two academic degrees, received a lot of training in different fields, and read many books. I was functioning. Luckily, I received impulses to think outside the box of what I had learned. My brother was one of these nudges. While I had spent twenty years in primary, secondary, and higher education, he only had the minimal schooling of 9 years. Despite this – or maybe because of this – he became a very successful photographer and filmmaker. I often had and have the feeling that he was and is more intelligent than me.
I began to question myself. I wanted to know what I was – beyond the programs and training I had received throughout my life. I talk about this is in future articles. In the process of freeing myself from my programs, I became a much better scientist. So in my experience, deprogramming puts you back in touch with your innate intelligence.
Intelligence is the human “superpower.” What flying is to birds, and swimming is to fish, intelligence is to humans.
In nature, natural selection is at work. Only the fittest survive. A bird that flies poorly cannot survive; a fish that swims poorly cannot survive. Intelligence helps you to survive. When two people fight each other, the more intelligent one wins by outwitting the other, for example, by building a trap or a weapon.
It is not enough if you orient yourself towards people who you think are intelligent. Firstly, you don't know whether they are actually intelligent. And secondly, you don't know what their goals are and whether they are good or bad for you.
Arm yourself with your own intelligence that is just buried under a plethora of social programs. You do so by freeing yourself from these programs. This will be of significant benefit to you.
Here are some exercises you can start with:
Exercise 1: Review your eating habits. Habits are programs. Why did you choose this particular breakfast today? What would you have chosen if you had grown up in Japan? Compare your eating habits with those of your parents. What similarities do you see?
Exercise 2: Make a list of your habits. For each item on this list, think about how long you have had that habit, where it came from, and why you started it.
Exercise 3: Think about a non-fiction book you have read. Analyze the impact it had on you. Has it changed your view of the world? Be aware that the content is not necessarily the truth, because it is only the author’s perspective.
You can find more exercises in my book “Being Free – Get Out of the Box.”
Further reading:
Article “Why I Socially Isolated Myself for 3.5 Years – and What Came Out of It”
Book “Being Free – Get Out of the Box”
See also:
Article “Why the Question ‘What Am I?’ is Important and Magical”
Article “How to Become What You Truly Are in 7 Steps”
Article “You Were Born a Genius Too”
But isn't intelligence also the ability to understand a concept? We usually consider people intelligent if they are able to understand complex topics like quantum physics and stuff like that..
I can see how intelligence can threaten the ego, which craves clear-cut, predictable answers. Philosophy is often said to be the most challenging yet rewarding field of study because it tackles abstract questions that can’t be seen, heard, or touched. You never know where these questions might lead, or if you’ll ever find a solid answer, and that uncertainty is exactly what makes it so fulfilling.
That was a good read. Thanks!