Principle 53

The Principle of Intelligence

Many of my readers see me as a fairly intelligent person but I did not show any sign of being above average in my youth.

I was born prematurely to parents who both drank and smoked to excess and this may have given me a slow start. My mother told me that she wondered if I was ever going to learn to talk as I didn’t do much more than grunt until I was three or four. Then after I did learn to speak I never pronounced my sounds correctly and everyone wondered if I was from another country. Up until I went to college I often was asked which country I was from because many thought I had a strange accent.

In the fifth grade I went to a speech therapist that helped considerably.

Until the fifth grade I got the equivalent of a C in everything. I never got a D, F, A or B, but only C’s. I figured I must the most average person in the universe.

It wasn’t until the middle of the fifth grade that I received my first B.

That year we moved from Boise to the farm city of Letha, Idaho. It had 50 people in the actual metropolis and I used to brag that I made up 2 percent of the population. I was warned about the teacher I was going to have. Her name was Mrs. Burke and she was indeed a hard taskmaster and it was supposed to be difficult to get anything above a C with her. Then to top things off I found out that in most categories Letha was a year ahead of Boise.

Catching up seemed a challenge to me and I did so in about a month and on top of that received A’s and B’s for the first time in my life. I was quite proud of myself.

But then after the fifth grade I went back to getting C’s again. My grade point in high school and college was just a little over 2.0 – around 2.2.

All the data said I was as average but I didn’t feel average. For one thing I studied a lot of things on my own initiative and had knowledge of many things that were not taught in school. I also felt I had many insights that went over the heads of average people.

Then in 1964 at the age of 19 I went on a two-year mission to England for the LDS [Mormon] church. This was my first opportunity to actually use various forms of intelligence in practical application.

We had six one hour lessons that we had to memorize word for word. Even though in school I couldn’t seem to memorize anything for a test I was the first in my group to memorize the lessons. Maybe I wasn’t so average after all I thought.

Then when confronting people of all kinds of beliefs I found that none could get the best of me with an argument or jousting with the scriptures. I could hold my own with Jehovah Witnesses who had assiduously studied the Bible for 40 years.

Maybe I wasn’t so average after all.

Then something happened that really made me rethink intelligence. On a mission you are given a “companion” that you live and work with 24 hours a day. We were assigned new companions every couple months. On one occasion I was assigned a new companion and one of the first things he told me was he had a 4.0 grade point, which, as you know, is a perfect record of nothing but A’s.

Then I told him that the first thing we had to do work wise was to teach lesson three that evening. He said that he would pull out his lesson manual and review it. I didn’t say anything, but I was astounded. When I gave any of the lessons I just gave them with no additional preparation because I had them memorized and rarely reviewed them. But this guy with a grade point average twice mine had to review his.

Then I found out as we worked together that he had to review every lesson before we gave one and I never had to. Not only that but when he gave the lessons he could not give them word for word the way that I could. In addition his delivery was not smooth and he had difficulty in answering questions. I had to carry the ball when working with him.

In addition we were sometimes given auxiliary lessons not to memorize but to study and give to new members. I could read one over once and give a lesson, but my 4.0 companion had great difficulty in giving any of these even after intense study.

It was funny, I thought to myself. If he hadn’t told me of his grade average I would have considered that he had a learning problem and was a little slow.

It was about this time that I began to seriously ask myself what true intelligence was. It was obvious that the school system which proclaimed my companion as far superior to me had something missing from its assessment.

Here is what I came up with. The system we are in grades intelligence based on the equipment we have. Our brains are really sophisticated computers and some of us have upgraded ones with lots of RAM and speed whereas others are working with older slower models.

BUT…

The real intelligence comes not from the computer but the person operating it. A savvy person can do much more with an older slower model than a novice can do with a supercomputer.

I concluded that the equipment I was given at birth was not that great for learning in public schools but that my intelligence that was operating my brain could make better use of it than — say a person who gets a 4.0 but isn’t aware how to make the best out of what he has.

There’s another thing I discovered and that is we are not stuck with outdated equipment indefinitely. When effort is made the brain upgrades itself so with effort those who get off to a rough start with backward equipment can improve on what they have.

In addition to intelligence manifested through the brain there are other types of intelligence that is now being recognized. Some time ago someone coined the term “emotional intelligence” and wrote a book about it. He pointed out that often people who did not get very good grades still succeed in life through intelligent use of emotion and interrelationships.

I would submit the list does not end there. I would also say there is a thing called political intelligence. Intelligence is also applied to physical coordination. Common sense could be another category as well as the field of philosophy itself.

If I had to sum up intelligence in a nutshell I would say it goes back to the principle of who we are which is Decision. The intelligent person is capable of making a higher percentage of correct decisions than the one of lesser intelligence. He then follows through until the decision is manifest.

Even more basic than this is the intelligent person is capable of making decisions, even the difficult ones. Think back to The Parable of Decision in Book I of The Immortal. Those two who made decisions to move ahead on the path were more intelligent than the other two who were unable to decide.

As we contemplate this we can express the Principle of Intelligence as follows:

It is revealed in that decision or action which follows the line of highest order and usefulness. That which proceeds toward greater order is intelligence. To proceed toward greater order there must be a recognition of order and disorder, or what could be called good and evil. The truth of what is must be seen for intelligence to manifest.

A simple example would be this:   Two men are given blocks. One throws them randomly aside and the other experiments and creates shapes out of them. Which one is manifesting intelligence?

Even more basic is this: Two men are given blocks. One sees no use in them but the other sees a number of possibilities for organizing them. Which one is manifesting intelligence?

The second person sees as if a light is illuminating his mind. The first sees nothing. Obviously, the second is displaying intelligence and the first is not.

The foundation of intelligence then is found in the statement, “Let there be light.” When light is shined upon a situation consciousness can then use intelligence. Indeed, intelligence is the “light of truth.”

In the beginning of any creation the first manifestation of intelligence is through light that reveals what is. That which is God, or an extension of God, then sees what is, what was and what can be. He then begins to create and organize energy and form into beauty and usefulness. Organization which is useful is kept, but that which is not is discarded.

Around this principle the scripture makes an interesting statement: “Whatever principle of intelligence we attain unto in this life, it will rise with us in the resurrection.” D&C 130:18

As I have pointed out in my writings, the resurrection of KRISIS (mistranslated damnation) is really reincarnation. This being true, then, when we rise again in a new birth we take with us the accumulated intelligence that we had in our last life. It is true we may lose our memories, but not our intelligence.

When a person is 21 he hasn’t gone through all the life lessons of his past lives. This would be impossible as he has too many experiences in his past to condense in such a short period. Instead, what he does accomplish is a retrieval of the basic level of intelligence that he ascended to in his last life. He will repeat his long evolution of intelligence in miniature.

I can see that in my life that my basic intelligence grew quite quickly until the age of 21 and then the growth was very slow. I have also noticed this in the lives of many people I have observed.

Now some may point to what they believe to be a great transformation at another age such as 25, 30, 40 etc, but this has little to do with intelligence.

I had a great transformation around the age of 28, but my basic intelligence was not much different then than when I was 21.

Intelligence has more to do with taking advantage of the highest vision you have in the present time.

The highest intelligence that the mind of man can imagine is God. In relation to God and intelligence we often hear these statements:

• The Mind of God.
• Universal Intelligence.
• Infinite Intelligence.
• The Thoughts of God.
• The wisdom of Nature.

All but a few hardened ideological atheists acknowledge that some great intelligence is at work in the universe. Some think that Einstein did not believe in God because he thought the idea of God sitting on a throne did not make sense, but he often acknowledged God in his musings. He definitely saw an intelligence at work that was much greater than his own. He indeed acknowledged the mind of God when he said: “I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.”

Basically his whole life, as he saw it, was the discovery of the mind – or the thoughts – or the intelligence of God.

Another great scientist Sir Isaac Newton was a big believer in God, not because of blind faith but because his own intelligence led him in that direction. Many do not realize he had a passion for the Bible and even wrote a commentary on the Book of Daniel and Revelations. Much of his life was spent in discovering the intelligence of God.

Great minds look at the universe around us and recognize a great intelligence, but exactly what is it they are seeing? Let us make a list.

• Beauty.
• Non random organization.
• Laws that govern.
• Extreme complexity in life.
• The vastness of creation.

Who can look upon these five things and deny there is intelligence at work? No one who uses his own intelligence. Any thoughtful person has to acknowledge the truth of the scripture:

“The glory of God is intelligence.” (D&C 93:36)

Every one who is seriously engaged in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that the laws of nature manifest the existence of a spirit vastly superior to that of men, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble. The pursuit of science leads therefore to a religious feeling of a special kind, which differs essentially from the religiosity of more naive people.

Albert Einsten

Copyright by J J Dewey 2015

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