Natasha - The Artist

Einstein, Young, Freud, Da Vinci, Socrates … to name a few. How did they do it? How did they manage to discover life changing theories?  Because they had high IQs? What is a high IQ? 

IQ: Intelligent Quotient
noun
a measure of a person’s intelligence as indicated by an intelligence test; the ratio of a person’s mental age to their chronological age (multiplied by 100)

So why does someone have a high IQ?

Something interesting I found: many of the greats have very similar personality traits in common, such as being introvert and lean more towards thinking rather than feeling. Take a look at this list of famous people by Myers-Briggs type. If you scroll down to the last type – INTP – the list contains, to name a few: Socrates, René Descartes, Sir Isaac Newton, Carl G. Yung, and Albert Einstein.

INTP types can be described as being known for their quest for logical purity, which motivates them to examine universal truths and principles. They are constantly asking themselves and others the questions ‘Why?’ and ‘Why not?’ Clear and quick thinkers, they are able to focus with great intensity on their interests. They appreciate elegance and efficiency in thought processes and require them, even more so, in their own communications. They may be seen as unwilling to accept what everyone else regards as truth. While often low key in outward appearance and approach, the INTP is ‘hard as nails’ when challenging a truth. INTPs do not like to deal with the obvious. They are at their best in building conceptual models and developing unusual and complex ideas.

It makes perfect sense that the Greats have the same personality traits. But where do they get the answers to their questions?

I’ve been noticing that since I started opening up my heart and my mind to “bigger things” — divine things, I have been getting answers to questions I have been asking myself all my life. I wondered if the “Greats” were open to receiving answers from a Divine source. Could that be how they were so great? Were their minds open to a higher source of information? I started doing a little research to see if there are common characteristics among the Greats that make them highly intelligent. Here are some things I found:

Plato’s dialogues feature Socrates: “… as a man of reason who obeys a divine voice in his head”.

Einstein responsed to a telegrammed question of New York’s Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein in 1929: “Do you believe in God? Stop. Answer paid 50 words.”  – ”I believe in Spinoza’s God, Who reveals Himself in the lawful harmony of the world, not in a God Who concerns Himself with the fate and the doings of mankind.”

René Descartes: “I entirely abandoned the study of letters. Resolving to seek no knowledge other than that which could be found in myself or else in the great book of the world…”

Sir Isaac Newton refashioned the world governed by an interventionist God into a world crafted by a God that designs along rational and universal principles. These principles were available for all people to discover, allowed man to pursue his own aims fruitfully in this life, not the next, and to perfect himself with his own rational powers.

Leonardo da Vinci: “O Man, who will discern in this work of mine the wonderful works of Nature, if you think it would be a criminal thing to destroy it, reflect how much more criminal it is to take the life of a man; and if this, his external form, appears to thee marvellously constructed, remember that it is nothing as compared with the soul that dwells in that structure; for that indeed, be it what it may, is a thing divine. Leave it then to dwell in His work at His good will and pleasure, and let not your rage or malice destroy a life— for indeed, he who does not value it, does not himself deserve it.”

I have been finding little tidbits that give me hints that the Greats believed in a higher power that is one with nature. Could that be the answer to my question: How did the Greats do it?