Hi Weaver,
What EMC is going through is a phase… I went through it for awhile. This phase does change you… You get less interested in a lot of things that seemed so very important at one point. This is also the phase that reduces your ability to multitask and gets you more focused on the job at hand.
Like EMC said… you tend to forget everything … however when you need it… it just comes back "I have found my brain to totally logg out more and more often. I do not have access to memory, logical thinking or capability to process information. It is sometimes terrifying, because I do not know how I will be able to function in this world and especially at work, but somehow it works. "
Its like the mind refuses to be bogged down by useless information that is not required at the current time, however nothing is lost… when you need it… its all there.
I had talked about this here
Ether had said it well:
That’s a very good question, Alvin. Unfortunately, I haven’t taken an IQ test before and after my 20 years of meditation, so I can’t say anything solid. However, my own subjective impression is that there has been an improvement. My work, which is quite challenging in this respect, has become easier, and I have the feeling it isn’t just “experience” in the usual sense.
So, assuming this has happened (which I can’t prove, or even be sure), I can speculate on some of the ingredients of the phenomenon. One is meditation producing the “very deep rest” of ‘samadhi’, and the gradual transition into the deeply-rested state of Yoga. The phrase ‘deep rest’ can be misleading in that it does not suggest a phenomenon that is as rich as the real one; the real “deep rest” is actually a very active (not passive) phenomenon physiologically; it means that the body/mind’s repair and growth mechanisms are getting quite active; they are overcoming the ‘stresses’ and degenerative mechanisms on many levels.
Another ingredient is actual stimulation of the mind. You may have heard of the ‘Flynn effect’; the IQ of the population in most parts of the world is slowly rising. It is not known why this is (improved diet?) but one possible contributing factor is just the greater inevitable mental stimulation: more choices, TV, radio, internet, tax forms, computers etc etc. One thing is for sure; this effect is extremely slow to manifest. However, my particular kind of work (software engineer) does produce this kind of stimulation regularly.
(Assuming the Flynn effect is due to exercise of the mind) it’s possible that deliberate exercise of the mind could stimulate it and strengthen it further. But experience shows that it is very hard to shift the IQ from existing experience alone . However, suppose people are just not using the best (most effective) mind-exercises to produce this effect? I’ve thought about this, and devised some exercises that I feel has helped stimulate my mind and make it sharper. They have worked very well for me, I feel sure of that, but how effective would they be in general? I don’t know. Perhaps they just fill specific gaps in my own mental strength, and people without those specific gaps would not benefit. Perhaps a background of yogic physiology is also required to make them work well.
Thanks, David. I don’t think IQ test is of much concern here, although it’s a objective measurement. The traditional IQ test is so restrictive that it doesn’t reflect the true mental ability of a person. A sense of humor or a taste for peotry, for example, is higher regarded as qualities of clever people, yet testing them objectively would be almost impossible. I do have a good performance in IQ tests, scoring above 150 and thus can be catagorized as genius. Yet I’m weak in other endeavors that I think my “overall intelligence” (resembling the concept of M.I. here) is quite normal. For example, I don’t play well in Chinese Chess which I feel shame and can’t figure out why.
More can be said about whether your improved performance is due to an actual increase in intelligence or experience. If it is due to experience, then only the routine job will be easier. The truly creative parts will not improve that much. Also, what about the mental endeavors other than your job? Those which you dropped many years ago and picked up again is the best indicator of whether your intelligence improved in these years.
You said that actual stimulation of the mind is the reason for the ‘Flynn effect’. I think it is better be explained by a higher quality(rather than quantity) of stimulation available. This is possible with an overall better education, which allows in-depth and thoughtful knowledge to reach the general public.
The actual stimulation is not even nearly as important as the active participation/interpretation/analysis by the persons being stimulated. I propose that the higher amount of stimulation will be useful only if it is the type that will force the individual to analyze.
Secondly, the examinations nowadays at least gives some practice opportunities for the IQ test.
I have more to ask and share on this topic in the near future.
Alvin said:
You said that actual stimulation of the mind is the reason for the ‘Flynn effect’. I think it is better be explained by a higher quality(rather than quantity) of stimulation available. This is possible with an overall better education, which allows in-depth and thoughtful knowledge to reach the general public.
I’m only speculating on (possibly one of) the reason(s) for the Flynn effect, but yes, I agree with you entirely here. Mere “stimulation” means nothing. It’s not just exercise, but the right kind of exercise, quality exercise. Just as working in a slave-galley is unlikely to help you much with ice-skating, while sun-salutation (a superb general-purpose physical exercise) is probably is going to help you a lot. And, by qood-quality stimulation, I did mean it to be participatory, not just passive.
I have had the same effects as EMC describes for quite some time. Just as was pointed out it is just temporary. It comes for some time and then the brain will be up and running on full efficiency again. Based on my own experience I would call it “restructuring” rather than “purification”. I think that when using powerful teqniques and being in a hurry to open up sometimes big chunks of old, stagnated energy, traumas and such dissolve in one go leaving an emty space in the energy body. When this has happened the whole system starts to rearrange itself to fill that empty place and obscuring the access to memories, words and even logical thinking. This is when it gets hard to express oneself in the world.
It seems like this is very individual, the majority seem not to have to cope with this kind of problems. And some get it really bad, as I did. An important factor could be that over the years I have been clearing some heavy stuff from the past.
I would say that when this happens, pretend to understand, be confident that the state will pass and trust spirit. In some miraculous way life seems to work just as fine also when the brain capacity is really low due to this restructuring.
Welcome to the forum Lorf…
I went through this too for awhile… I like the way you have explained it… “I would call it “restructuring” rather than “purification”. I think that when using powerful teqniques and being in a hurry to open up sometimes big chunks of old, stagnated energy, traumas and such dissolve in one go leaving an emty space in the energy body. When this has happened the whole system starts to rearrange itself to fill that empty place and obscuring the access to memories, words and even logical thinking. This is when it gets hard to express oneself in the world.”… “In some miraculous way life seems to work just as fine also when the brain capacity is really low due to this restructuring.”… like that… Thanks for sharing.
Hi,
I am a lecturer …for all modules I make mistakes…by writing things like
prblem…it seems as though I cannot write as fast as I think…and I skip letters
worst case i skip words…
In addition …if I am in training…I get bored really fast especially if I figure out things sooner…
Yes I do make mistakes but then I am human only to err…
On the scientific plane I am definitely more intuitive…
and hopefully more intelligent…
i can tell if someone has an ailment…who’s talking about me at the moment …find someone…communicate with the spirit
etc…
so you see we are not perfect
Alvin raises the key question of this whole thread - what do we imagine intelligence to be? Odds are in our culture it’s almost impossible to think of it apart from IQ.
One of the most brilliant people I’ve ever known, was a junior, and something of a mentor to me when I first went off to college. In high school, he had published two papers in professional mathematical journals, and he could also discuss the writings of Henry Miller and the poetry of Rimbaud with my little angst-ridden, lit-major self.
He died of a heroin overdose before the start of his senior year. Was he intelligent? Yes. Did it do him any good? More harm than good I would say.
I don’t think we can use IQ levels to measure intelligence. The tests are really a measure of our ability to reason and to use our rational mind to solve problems. I remember something that Ram Das said about the rational mind. He said that it is only a subset, of a subset of the whole of our consciousness, and not even an interesting way to know the universe. I have often wondered what intelligence is. I remember when I was at school someone said to me that you need to be very intelligent to become a university professor. Then they added that if someone is really intelligent they would make sure that the last place they ended up working in was a university.
This got me thinking. If someone was really intelligent what would they actually do? What is the real mark of an intelligent person?
Love and light
Christi
Ranger said:
Odds are in our culture it’s almost impossible to think of it apart from IQ.
That’s an unfortunate artifact, partly of language. I find it best to make a distinction between what some scientists call ‘g-factor’ (which is what is measured by IQ tests) and ‘intelligence’ which is quite a bit more broad. But there’s no doubt that g-factor is a very important contributor to intelligence, and it serves in so many ways, not all of them obvious.
It’s normal for discussions on ‘intelligence’ to contain an element of politics (though people don’t recognize immediately or easily that they are actually thinking politically). When thought is political, favorable attributes may appear to be in competition, and people may tend to put one down as if to favor another, when they are in fact complementary parts of a whole. Was Ram Dass being a bit political in this way? Perhaps. One thing is for sure, he’s wrong in that the rational mind is an extremely interesting way to know the universe.
Many people don’t realize why g-factor is so important precisely because they have enough of it themselves. It’s like the middle-class saying that money is useless.
It’s common for an anecdote to come up of people with high IQ going off the rails. Well, you might as well have anecdotes of rich people, or physically beautiful people, or great athletes, or great comedians, or great artists, or great musicians, or… going off the rails, to be topped off with “see what good it did them”!
And indeed, same with people with yogic gifts who go off the rails! See what good it did them!
Yes this sort of happened to me also
I experienced lots of mistakes while writing on the whiteboard
it’s almost as if I think faster than I write so I would misspell words…not that I am a bad speller…most of the times its just a typo…
but multitasking used to be the norm for me …until I realised I started picking up other people’s vibrations and it still affects me so badly…
I cannot concentrate when a negative person or a person with negativity is around me…
sometimes I have to leave the lecture hall and say a prayer
most times when writing I miss out entire words…this never used to happen before…then again it is only human to err
anyway being more aware of things puts a greater pressure on my head
after lots of AYP practice I eventually eased things down a bit…but if I don’t watch myself its easy to return to that state
Definately Ram Das was being political… as I’m sure you know, he was making a case for acid taking and yogic devotional practice, when both were pretty new (and somewhat frowned on) in the west. I imagine he was also talking a bit toung-in-cheek, as he used to be a Harvard professor. Probably it would have been better (less political) if he had said that the rational mind is only one extremely interesting way of knowing the universe.
I was really quoting him a little out of context . Sorry
I know that most people don’t believe in angels, (I don’t know if the same applies to people in this forum) and I hope it doesn’t annoy anyone if I bring them up in this conversation, but one of the things I have noticed about angels, is that they do not seem to have a rational aspect to their minds. I am sure someone here will correct me if I am wrong about this. Angels seem to me to be highly intelligent beings that are capable of communication on an advanced level (through merging their consciousness/ energy body with the being they are communing with), capable of travel almost at the speed of thought, and yet they do not seem to ‘think’, ‘rationalize’, ‘employ critical reasoning’, ‘debate’, or anything else that we would associate with the rational mind. I am not saying that humans do not need rational abilities as part of the functioing of our intelligence, only that perhaps the rational mind is not necessary in order for a being to display intelligence (even at levels more advanced than the human)?.
Love and Light
Christi
Just made an IQ test. I flunked all but one rather simple logical-mathematical task. Also, I could not find the anagrams of words and got a serious headache from watching series of patterns.
I have had top grades in maths and statistics - I’m a former researcher… and I’ve also been a former Scrabble player, playing at elite level, competing.
The test should have been a piece of cake. But it was almost painful to feel how the brain tried to work during the test…
I have more and more trouble finding words when speaking. I hear myself say absolutely ridiculous sentences, using set phrases totally wrong, mixing them up etc. The students fill me in on words nowadays…
If this is a purification phase it’s been going on since 2006 - and getting worse.
Hopefully, I will not need to serve using that kind of cognitive intelligence any more.
Peoples of native cultures find it hard to read if they were not brought up in letters. They see in wide angle vision and focusing in a narrow range is difficult. Meditation is like this wide angle vision. It is okay not to be stuck in a narrow range of thought. There is a cost to being a yogi. The benefits are incalculable.
I have heard that the general IQ of the population is gradually increasing. But IQ may be grossly over-rated. People are using computers more and more. More and more children are dropping out of school in the US, but playing video games more. Computers could score very high on an IQ test. Go figure.
Remember IQ tests are made by people with brains. Who are they to say what intelligence is of value?
I do troubleshooting of complex electrical problems, and I often solve problems that several other people have not been able to. I use more intuition than I do logic. That would not show up on a test.
Thanks for sharing.
. Sorry 