While defining giftedness, we encounter numerous challenges. What is giftedness, how to test it, and what is the ultimate border between being gifted and not being gifted? Why doesn’t just testing IQ work? Because people with high IQ are regularly saying that they are not gifted. The inner feeling of having a high IQ and experiencing the feeling of giftedness are not alike. The ultimate feeling of those connected to their gifts in full and who have brought their giftedness into awareness does not match the intellectual presentation of giftedness.
In my years of practice, I have rarely met a client who immediately said from a deep inner awareness that he/she is gifted. The most they could admit is that they have some talents or scored a high IQ. My client, a master champion in chess, who skipped classes and has been tested as profoundly gifted, said he is not gifted, no way at all. Furthermore, he believes we are all equal and refuses to be called gifted, although the test showed he is just that.
Does IQ bring power?
In this modern world, where the social system pushes us into a ‘we are all equal’ social box, giftedness is not exactly … a gift. A high IQ counts the most in the intellect-dominated culture due to the presumption that it will eventually bring power. But, how many times has this presumption been correct? And even if IQ has brought power to a gifted person, was this person truly happy, and did they live a fulfilled life?
To bring more awareness and a more holistic perception of giftedness, I decided to interview several people who have connected to their inner gifts and asked them how it feels to live with already acknowledged giftedness. I talked to comics, artists, scientists, and athletes… almost all declared that giftedness is something far more than measured IQ. Giftedness is spirit. It is a creative flow. It is a state where spiritual and material meet in a person, allowing a flow to be experienced by the world. And the opposite, where the flow is experiencing the world. Mostly they don’t want to talk publicly about it as energy, spirit, or consciousness… but while encouraging them and validating their experience, they felt connected to their giftedness even more. Bringing the movement of consciousness into awareness and validating it as giftedness made them feel empowered and more alive and humble and grateful towards something greater than themselves.
All the ancient civilizations believed in something beyond human intelligence, far wiser and more intelligent than human beings. In some communities, the gifts in a child were recognized almost immediately at birth or later at the initiation. This was essential for developing gifts in a child and the community’s well-being. The child lived a fulfilling life; their gifts were valuable and in service to the community. Giftedness activated, managed, and served the community. It survived through early recognition, acceptance, and admiring the gifts of each individual.
Looking back in time, we can see the intellect ruling world has enormous gaps, and it is just unable to handle life and its challenges. The reason is straightforward. Intellect functions only with data that already exists: what we have read, heard, studied… our inputs, our memories. If there is no data, it will not function. Intellect analyses, collects, and scrutinizes, but does not stretch beyond and find new ways of solutions; it doesn’t invent, create or discover something new. Nikola Tesla, a great inventor, one of the most intelligent men ever born, whose inventions and other contributions prepared the progress of modern technology, said that his brain was only the receiver of something far more intelligent than he was.
“My brain is only a receiver, in the Universe, there is a core from which we obtain knowledge, strength, and inspiration. I have not penetrated the secrets of this core, but I know that it exists.” ― Nikola Tesla
Leonardo da Vinci, a genius, said the same: “It is by logic we prove, but by intuition we discover.”
Giftedness in its full flow delivers new ideas, new insights, new arts, and new inventions, and it lies beyond intellect, beyond IQ. The true power lies in the flow.
Push and pull
By observing clients, I realized the system that is always present in the state of giftedness and the creative process in the gifted individual. Here are a few simple steps that I observed:
the first step is to realize that giftedness works as pull and push, managed by the creative energy of each individual who transforms it in his/her unique way. People connected to this flow are most likely very creative and sensitive to the inner state.
The second step is to feel the inner ‘mechanism’ while in the creative flow. Some of my clients see it / feel it as a structure, organic mass, or energy field… it is receiving the information from the environment, from consciousness, grinding it, pushing it, and realizing it to create, invent, write, dance, grow, teach, heal…
The third step is to harvest the energy by pulling and receiving it from the creation itself. This action is essential because the gifted person needs feedback to prevent burnout, receive the energy for new creations, and experience joy in others’ reactions.
The further steps are more subtle yet are fundamentals. They involve a deep connection to consciousness, belief in our genius, and the ability to receive and accept guidance for it. The loop of giftedness cannot be in full creative flow if the later part of the exchange is not confirmed and acknowledged.
And here, we encounter many obstacles that usually kill the giftedness. Assumptions that genius, consciousness, and the higher intelligence does not exist is the biggest one.
Abstraction
In my interviews with people, who have already awakened their giftedness, they describe giftedness as something abstract. These descriptions are strange for those who didn’t find their connections to giftedness yet, and therefore they could reject them. The more abstract they are, the more difficult they are to pin down and understand, and the more potential they hide.
The giftedness must not be sealed by our current understanding but needs to expand its definition by all of its possibilities. The more space it gets, the more nuances, solutions, and innovations giftedness will provide.
I discovered that expressive art therapy works wonders when discovering and developing giftedness. Giftedness in art always shows up as sparkles, white or light colors of yellow, blue, or pink in soft forms such as clouds, stars, sun, or sprinkles. No matter if it is a female or male client. Clients feel that it is always something wiser, more powerful, and more intelligent than they are. Therefore, the term higher intelligence that I use always sounds correct.
Noah’s way
We live in a world of too much comfort and surrounding ourselves with people that are saying yes to us, where the only real challenge is left in the digital world. We are getting lost in too much stimulus and leaving no space for true information; therefore, we will not progress as individuals and as a society. We need challenges, big Noe’s, to wake up and follow our inner voice.
Can you imagine having an inner push and pull as Noah had? What would you do? Let the challenge go or embrace it?
Many Noahs, Teslas, and da Vincis are walking around unrecognized as gifted and having unique capabilities in transforming the world. They are lost in their world of denial and hiding inner potentials. As a result, the progress of humanity is slower because they were not recognized as gifted.
Awakening and healing
We need to address awakening and healing giftedness in children and adults in a holistic way.
The first step in the healing process starts while recognizing the connection to a unique inner genius and embracing all its possibilities. Without this threat, we are all lost in the sea of a meaningless life.
The second step is how to maintain the creative flow. Most gifted people don’t know how to harvest back the energy from their creations. Therefore, they are never satisfied. The heart that is open to flow and the mind that steps back are the simple yet most profound ways to achieve harmony and balance in mind, body, and soul.
The third step is to express the giftedness in all its possibilities that bring a gifted person on the true path towards authenticity and fully developed potential.
Everything in life serves one purpose. To help us all activate and manifest our gifts. Likewise, gifts have just one purpose. To serve others. By finding and living our giftedness, we have a meaningful life.
We need to address giftedness in an all-inclusive way so that all humanity will benefit.