Measures of Intelligence
There is a well-defined age limit for the (biological) growth and maturity of physical body. In normal case, one becomes an adult in biological sense around the age of twenty years. The bodies of men and women in the age group of 22 to 25 years reach completely grown-up state. The age around mid-forties is considered as the middle age after which the trend of biological growth and strengthening begins to reverse. However, no such general measure is defined for mental age.
Many adults behave in naive manner in many respects even after crossing the middle age. Their sense of responsibility, level of thoughts or wisdom does not show any sign of maturity. Many others, on the contrary, are matured enough to adeptly tackle complicated problems at an early age. Talents, intelligence, finer capabilities of management, decision-making, foresightedness, etc. do not seem to have any correlation with age.
Intelligence Quotient (IQ) is commonly used as a measure of one's intelligence — computed as the ratio of the mental age and biological age multiplied by 100. Statistical analysis of surveys conducted by several psychologists shows that, in general, only 2% of the population has IQ of the highest level. Those having IQ greater than 200 are regarded as exceptionally intelligent.
Although IQ is a popular measure of testing one's normal mental potentials, it is certainly not absolute or error-free. Super genius of the modern age, Albert Einstein could never score a good IQ in his student life. He was even debarred from a school once because he was not able to answer any questions from the lessons taught in the class. The reason was he used to go so deep into the subject that his mind would become practically absent from the class. The whole world witnessed his genius because of his unparalleled contributions including the general and special theories of relativity, which laid the foundations of Modern Physics.
Arthur Linda writes in her book 'Intelligence Can Be Taught' that many students with weak IQ are found to do excellent in intellectual fields at later ages, whereas those regarded as talented and bright on the basis of their high IQ were failures at higher levels.
Charles and George were twin brothers born in Letchworth, New York in 1939. Born pre-matured by three months, their IQ was found to be in the low range of 60 to 70. Yet Dr. William Horvitz of the New York State Psychiatric Institute discovered that both Charles and George were able to mentally find the complete dates of any day — hundreds of thousands years in the past or in future — almost instantly. Surprisingly, they did not know the detailed rules of any calendar, nor were they able to solve simple one or two digit summations. Dr. Horvitz concluded: "Human brain is endowed with latent sources of immense intelligence which are yet unknown to the modern science and psychology."
J. Barcon of England also possessed supernormal talents though he was found to be so dull in studies that his parents preferred not sending him to any school. Without any exposure to elementary Mathematics, he had started solving complicated arithmetical problems few years later. Barcon had terrific memory — once watching a drama in a theater, after an hour's show, he could correctly tell how many words the artists uttered in different dialogues. He used to multiply pairs of numbers as huge as 365,365,365,365,365 in a minute's time.
John Von Neumann, a distinguished mathematician, is recognized as the father of Computer Science. He was able to solve hard problems in Algebra and Logic without the help of any calculator or arithmetical operations.
J.H. Pullen was honored as 'Genius of Erlsewood Assinum'. This great engineer had amazed the world in early 19th century by his 10 ft. high three-dimensional model of a huge complicated structure of a ship, designed after 3 years of hard work. He had also fabricated a machine to manufacture about a billion wooden pins required for the structure.
Prof. David S. Viscount had tested the supernatural musical talents of Harriet in Boston (c.1970). This lady was able to reproduce the musical compositions of great musicians like Mozart, Beethoven, Schwartz, Debuchi, Prokophiyeva, Bardy, etc., in their original styles — yet she had never undergone any training in music and was unaware of formal knowledge of musical notes. She was also able to tell the exact period when and where any musical composition was originated and describe the details associated with its creation.
Justice Charles Evan Hughes, former Chief Justice of America, is recognized as a wizard of numbers like Shakuntala Devi of India. Once he dictated a speech to his stenographer for about two hours and was able to repeat the same speech as it is after some time.
The ancient scientists and scholars of spirituality consider the sanskāras — intrinsic impressions assimilated during the endless journey of the soul in the extrasensory cores (the chitta in Vedic texts) of the unconscious mind — as the source of inspiration for shaping one's natural tendencies, intellectual potentials, talents and conscious, subconscious and unconscious faculties. Awakening of spiritually evolved sanskāras from this accumulation may elevate one's mental powers up to supernormal levels.
"Yogasya Prathama Dvaram Vak-nirodha — The main entrance to the Yoga Empire is through 'Silence'."
"Trividham Narakasyetam Dvaram Nashanam Atmana — There are three gates which lead to the hell called 'Atma Nasham' — They are Kama, Krodha and Lobha (Lust, anger and greed)."
"Fear is the greatest cause of misery in the world. It is the greatest of all superstitions. The moment you fear, you are nobody."