Gifted people of the world. What is talent and genius in psychology
By virtue of their individual features gifted children are much more difficult to adapt to the world around them. If there is such a child in the family, this is not only a reason for pride, but also the greatest responsibility. Both parents and teachers should take into account the peculiarities of teaching and educating gifted children in order to prevent a situation where a child with his unique abilities is "overboard" of the children's team, which, as a rule, has a negative attitude towards "white crows in a gray flock".
Types of giftedness of children and their features
Psychologists and educators distinguish several types of giftedness in children:
- intellectual;
- creative;
- leadership;
- artistic;
- practical;
- academic;
- psychomotor.
A child with intellectual gifts is observant, learns easily, knows how to apply his knowledge in practice, remembers quickly, and perfectly solves certain types of problems.
gifted children with type creativity can be engaged in the same business for a long time, looking for unusual approaches, has a penchant for inventive activity.
A child with leadership talent is able to take on responsibilities that are inappropriate for his age. Easily communicates with both his peers and adults.
A child with artistic talent has a good visual memory, spends a lot of time drawing and sculpting, or is passionate about music. Features of the development of such gifted children - the conscious construction of the composition. Often the works of children with artistic talent are distinguished by individuality and originality.
A child with practical gifts learns averagely, but he has the ability to attract and organize people to do what he himself cannot do or does poorly.
A child with academic talent is more selective. He can be well versed in some subjects, but poorly know others. There are often problems with such a child, because he cannot study equally well in all subjects.
A child with psychomotor talent shows interest in those activities that require precise coordinated motor skills. Such a child is physically more developed than his peers.
Do children with this or that type of giftedness really have the listed traits, or do they have something else? One thing is known for sure: the personality of a gifted child cannot be adjusted to a single standard, and it is not necessary.
Examples of famous gifted children
If a child is gifted, this does not mean that he is all right with his studies. The peculiarities of the education of gifted children are known firsthand. D. I. Mendeleev, for example, was not very "friends" with chemistry, and A. Einstein - with physics. The teachers of N.V. Gogol generally defined him as follows: “In learning, he is stupid, in diligence he is weak, in behavior he is frisky.”
The life, mental health and personality development of a gifted child is at constant risk. Nature, generously endowing them with intelligence, often forgets to give such children the ability to maintain a balance between intense mental activity and the lack of skills to adapt to the real world. In the event of a clear violation of this balance, a gifted, sensitive person falls ill. The life expectancy of artists, writers, musicians, artists is on average 10-15 years less than ordinary people. The higher the talent, the higher the risk.
What explains such psychological features gifted children, the discrepancy between talents in the field of mental, intellectual activity on the one hand, and a complete inability to adapt to everyday life on the other?
The answer to this question lies in the fact that high giftedness, genius is always a deviation in the structure of the brain, in mental development. It will fall out to about one in 1000, it is formed to the right degree in one in a million, and one in 10 million people really becomes a genius. cases early manifestation giftedness proves the role of heredity in the existence of any human abilities. Examples of gifted children abound: for example, A. S. Griboyedov entered Moscow University at the age of 11, composed brilliant poetry, music, knew many languages.
The outstanding physicist L. D. Landau became a student at the age of 13. Mikhail Lermontov, Konstantin Batyushkov and Andrey Voznesensky can be ranked among the creative type geeks. A few more facts from the biography of famous gifted children: Fedor Tyutchev entered the university at the age of 15 and graduated in 2 years, Robertino Loretti, an Italian singer, became world famous at the age of 14.
The so-called normal giftedness is the most favorable option, in which the child is endowed with everything necessary: both high academic abilities, and good adaptability to the environment, and sociability, and physical health, and reasonable parents capable of giving the child an adequate upbringing.
Individual features of personality development of gifted children
The personality traits of a gifted child are becoming the subject of close study by many psychologists and educators. To date, science has a deep and accurate description of this phenomenon. Both individual features of children's giftedness and the structure and dynamics of the development of children's giftedness as a whole are studied.
Stages emotional development, which the child goes through during the first years of life, reflect the sequence of formation of the main mechanisms for organizing his reaction to the world, testify to the well-being of his affective development. A delay in the development of one or another of these mechanisms, the difficulty of including it in the developing system of emotional regulation of behavior, a stop at the stages of using them mainly for the purpose of self-irritation without further transformation into the necessary method of adaptation lead to inevitable violations of emotional development of varying severity.
It is no secret for scientists that outstanding abilities in certain areas (as a rule, either in the arts or in the exact sciences) are often accompanied by problems in the development of gifted children, deviations from generally accepted norms. So, according to statistics, the percentage of geniuses (that is, people whose abilities are significantly higher than average) among people with affective developmental disorders is at least 20%. “If my child is a genius, then he will be the best in school,” - if not all, then a significant part of the parents of gifted children think so. This is not entirely true, the features in the education of gifted children can be traced very clearly.
A child with a high level of intelligence, of course, will be ahead of his peers in school, here he will have no problems. But gifted children are expected psychological problems associated with age development. The heightened interest in learning can cause anxiety among teachers. The child reads, decides, constructs... In the opinion of an ordinary person, this is too much. What to teach a child who knows more than the teacher? Naturally, such a child has nothing to do in an ordinary secondary school. Of course, there are gifted children in ordinary schools as well. However, when teaching gifted children there are problems, and there is no escape from this.
The problem of working with gifted children: features of education and development
A gifted child completes all tasks faster than his classmates, which means that the teacher needs to find him an activity of increased complexity. Not all teachers are ready to accommodate such a child. One of the problems in teaching gifted children is the use of compulsory individual approach and teachers simply do not have time for this. After all, there are at least 20 people in the class who need to be given knowledge.
Some teachers, of course, introduce complicated elements into their lessons. This may be interesting to the child, but only for a while, because it does not solve the problem as a whole. It is also difficult to evaluate such children.
It is difficult for a gifted child to study in a regular school. He will understand that school program, on which he is engaged, is not suitable for him, it is too simple. Gradually, difficulties will arise in relationships with teachers and peers. IN best case a gifted child will cause bewilderment and misunderstanding, at worst - ridicule from classmates. Therefore, parents of a gifted child need to remember that when sending him to a regular school, pursuing the goal “there he will be the best”, you need to be prepared for the fact that this step will bring many problems, especially to the child. In such a situation, the only way out is to send the child to a school where there are at least specialized classes. For older adolescence, a characteristic manifestation of giftedness is self-expression in poetic and literary creativity. In adolescence, children's talent in special scientific fields is also revealed.
One of the main specific problems in the education of gifted children, one of the developmental features emotional sphere such a child, most researchers consider increased vulnerability. Its cause is hypersensitivity, dictated by the peculiarities of the intellectual development of gifted children. This vulnerability is especially pronounced during adolescence. The ability to analyze and synthesize, combined with the intense power of perception of surrounding phenomena and events, causes a particularly deep and subtle understanding of them. Gifted children see and feel on a different scale, they are able to observe several phenomena at once, sensitively noticing their similarities and differences. The ability to notice what others have not seen, combined with the egocentrism characteristic of gifted children, determines the fact that they take everything personally. Therefore, outwardly mundane remarks, remarks or actions can have a strong negative impact on a gifted child, while his normal peers will not pay any attention to them. Such a reaction of a gifted child may someday lead to psychological trauma or even psychiatric illness. Given this feature of gifted children, when raising such kids, they must be treated very carefully.
Gifted children are characterized by a strong concentration of attention, which is expressed by a high degree of immersion in the task. Increased emotional sensitivity is due to a higher level of development of research abilities. It creates certain problems when working with gifted children. But in the context of the personal growth of gifted children, another feature is much more important - the ability to enjoy the creative process itself.
One of the features of working with gifted children at school, psychologists call the difficulties in the behavior and activities of such students due to violations of the functional organization of mental processes. This is manifested by a lag in learning, as well as problems in the communication process. Often, children with pronounced signs of giftedness in the field of special abilities or accelerated intellectual development do not adapt well to the school team, are emotionally unstable and infantile. This may indicate impaired affective development and, in certain circumstances, lead to mental illness. At the same time, gifted children practically do not tolerate physical and intellectual stress. This speaks to the problem of gifted children in self-regulation, since they are able to engage in only a single kind of activity, which is the essence of their giftedness. These children have an excellent memory and easily learn almost any material, but only in a certain area of knowledge. It can be mathematics, biology, physics, chemistry and other sciences.
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FEDERAL AGENCY FOR EDUCATION
State educational institution of higher professional education
"Altai State University"
Faculty of Geography
Extramural
Brilliant and gifted people (development of abilities or natural inclinations)
Prepared by student 981-z gr.:
Borisenko I.N.
Checked by: Cherepanova O.V.
Barnaul 2009
Introduction
Among the many problems of the mystery of the mind that have not yet been solved, there is one as important as the problem of genius. Where does it come from, and what is it, what are the reasons for its exceptional rarity? Is this really a gift from the gods? And if this is so, then why are such gifts given to one, while stupidity, or even idiocy, is the destiny of another? There is the question whether genius is a supernormal faculty of the mind, which develops and grows stronger, or of the physical brain, that is, its bearer, which, by some mysterious process, becomes more and more adapted to the perception and manifestation of the inner and divine nature of the over-soul of man.
A Great Genius, if he is a true and inborn genius, and not just the result of a pathological expansion of our human intellect, never copies someone, never descends to imitation, he will always be original, in his creative impulses and their implementation. To use a popular expression, it can be said that innate genius, like murder, sooner or later is revealed, and the more it is oppressed and opposed, the greater will be the flood of light caused by its sudden manifestation.
genius is a rare event. Lavater calculated that the ratio of the number of geniuses (in general) to ordinary people is about one in a million; but the same applies to a genius without tyranny, without pretensions, who judges the weak impartially, who rules humanely, and both in justice, there are one in ten million
Even genius is the only sovereign power, man-owned, before which you can kneel without blushing - even many psychiatrists put it on the same level with a propensity to crime, even in it they see only one of the teratological (ugly) forms of the human mind, one of the varieties of insanity. And note that such profanity, such blasphemy is allowed not only by doctors, and not exclusively only in our skeptical time.
Even Aristotle, that great ancestor and teacher of all philosophers, noticed that under the influence of rushes of blood to the head, many individuals become poets, prophets or soothsayers, and that Mark of Syracuse wrote pretty good poetry while he was a maniac, but, having recovered, completely lost this ability.
He says elsewhere: It is noted that famous poets, politicians and artists were partly melancholy and mad, partly misanthropes, like Bellerophon. Even at the present time we see the same thing in Socrates, Empedocles, Plato and others, and most strongly in the poets. People with cold, abundant blood (lit. bile) are timid and limited, and people with hot blood are mobile, witty and talkative.
Plato argues that delirium is not a disease at all, but, on the contrary, the greatest of the blessings bestowed on us by the gods; under the influence of delirium, the Delphic and Dodonic soothsayers rendered thousands of services to the citizens of Greece, while in their ordinary state they brought little or no use at all.
Felix Plater claims that he knew many people who, while distinguished by remarkable talent in various arts, were at the same time mad. Their insanity was expressed by an absurd passion for praise, as well as strange and indecent acts.
giftedness
According to experts, children who demonstrate a high level of achievement in one or more areas of activity can be called gifted: intellectual, academic achievements, creative thinking, artistic activity, sports success. Separately, they distinguish giftedness in the field of communication, leadership and leadership.
Therefore, not all parents perceive the discovery of the giftedness of their baby with enthusiasm: "I do not want him to be a genius. Let him be a normal, happy, adapted to life child." But what does normal mean in relation to a gifted child? It is quite normal for such a baby to be inquisitive, energetic, sensitive, quick-witted, remember everything, speak well and be very independent.
In America, there is a rather coherent system of services and agencies responsible for the search and selection of gifted and talented children. A single nationwide and a number of regional programs. An individual child development program is compiled by a gifted specialist who tracks the child's progress and growth over time. Parents and psychologists are directly involved in this work, supporting the young genius. Children with an IQ above 140 are under the most careful supervision not only of pedagogical structures. In England, in 1950, the MENSA society was created, uniting people with high IQ. Russia is the most powerful supplier of children's talents for countries where they are really appreciated.
Genius
“Genius is the highest degree that human ability can reach. In the thought born of the inspiration of a genius, there is something exorbitant, extraordinary - this is what distinguishes his creations. But when he is not obsessed with inspiration, he can only be more or less intelligent, more or less educated." Serge Voronoff, From Cretin to Genius, St. Petersburg, European House, 2008, p. 20.
At present, the phenomenon of genius has not yet been studied in detail. It has been established that genius children are much more common among boys than among girls. Medical authorities believe that hyper-gift is the result of high levels of hormones in certain glands, including the pituitary and adrenal glands. Geeks are brilliant because, the researchers of this phenomenon believe, their nervous system reaches its highest development long before the whole organism develops. There are different points of view:
According to Plato, genius is the fruit of divine inspiration;
Cesare Lombroso postulated a link between genius and mental disorders;
In psychoanalysis, genius is defined as the innate ability to sublimate one's deepest sexual complexes;
Behaviorism defines genius in terms of behavior: a genius notices, perceives, contemplates, feels, thinks, speaks, acts, creates, composes, expresses, creates, compares, separates, connects, reasons, guesses, communicates, thinks as if it were all for him. dictates or inspires a certain spirit, an invisible being of a higher kind; if he does all this as if he himself were a being of a higher kind, then he is a genius;
Gestalt psychology defines genius as the ability to see the general in the particular;
Cognitive psychology is closely intertwined with the humanistic direction and defines genius as the ability to have a stable goal with a very wide choice of ways to achieve it. Humanists introduce the concept of "I-concept" and put self-actualization as the central subject of study;
From the point of view of fashionable "quantum psychology", a genius is one who, as a result of some internal process managed to break through to the seventh neurological circuit (called by the vague term "intuition") and return back to the third already with the ability to draw a new semantic map - to build a new model of reality;
Analytical psychology, led by Carl Jung, defends the opinion that "... a work of art arises in conditions similar to the conditions for the emergence of a neurosis ...".
According to the Oxford Dictionary, genius is "a natural intellectual force of an unusually high type, an exceptional capacity for creativity requiring expression, original thinking, invention or discovery."
In the third edition of the Great Soviet Encyclopedia, genius is defined as "the highest degree of manifestation of a person's creative powers." The term "genius" is used both to denote a person's ability to be creative, and to evaluate the results of his activity, suggesting an innate ability for productive activity in a particular area. Genius, unlike talent, is not just the highest degree of giftedness, but is associated with the creation of qualitatively new creations. The activity of a genius is realized in a certain historical context of the life of human society, from which the genius draws material for his creativity.
In all definitions, the most important, as clearly distinguishing between genius and talent, is a statement of what can be expressed by the formula: "Genius does what it must; talent does what it can." This formula implies the subordination of a genius to the task that his inner essence. This formula implies the fatal doom of a genius, his hopelessness in subordinating his creativity, the inevitability of exerting all his strength to achieve his goal, to solve a certain problem.
This formula unites Alexander the Great, despite the revolts of his exhausted soldiers, rushing east and south from the Indus, which he crossed, defeating King Por; Napoleon going to Moscow; Mozart, on the eve of the day of his death, playing the Requiem, which, as he thinks, means his end; Beethoven, who wrote most of all his greatest creations, being deaf. This formula unites many other brilliant people who became fanatics of their creativity. If Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin did not have an obsession, a fantastic sense of purpose, then they, with all their abilities, being “wunderkinds”, would have remained so. But Beethoven wrote in his will that he could not leave this life without having accomplished everything for which he was intended.
Studying the biographies of geniuses of all times and peoples leads to the conclusion: geniuses are born. However, only a negligible fraction of potential geniuses born - in geniuses develops. And of the genuine, undoubted geniuses, only a tiny fraction is realized. Consideration of the mechanisms of genius, the emergence of a potential genius is primarily a biological, even genetic problem. The development of genius is a biosocial problem. The realization of genius is a sociobiological problem.
At first glance, this leads to pessimistic conclusions. Since there is no potential genius, there is nothing to do, there will be no great. But there is also the other side of the coin, which consists in the fact that not genetic, but biosocial and sociobiological brakes lead to the fact that only one genius out of tens of thousands of potential ones is realized. If only those who are almost unanimously recognized as geniuses in Europe and North America are recognized as geniuses, then total number geniuses for the entire time of the existence of our civilization will hardly exceed 400-500 . Approximately to such figures leads the selection of celebrities who are given the maximum place in the encyclopedias of different countries of Europe and the USA, if we subtract from these celebrities those who got into history because of nobility or other random merit.
The diversity of the nature of genius
Geniuses are inexhaustibly diverse and often represent completely opposite types of personalities. Let's give some examples.
M. Faraday at the age of 40, after his epoch-making discovery of the phenomenon of electromagnetic induction, having resisted the temptation to go into industry for the sake of large earnings, he is content with five pounds sterling a week and remains a laboratory researcher, doing pure science.
William Thomson(Lord Kelvin) has amazing creative energy, and even on his deathbed continues to work on the completion of the latest scientific article. He became President of the Royal Society, a Peer of England, his fortune at death was estimated at 162 thousand pounds sterling, but he worked incessantly. His creative activity never stopped, he always worked - even surrounded by children, at a party.
The main feature of a genius really always turns out to be the ability for incredible work, absolute obsession and striving for absolute perfection.
Statement of thoughts Gauguin(I. Stone): “Hard work to coordinate the six primary colors, the deepest concentration, subtle calculation, the ability to solve a thousand questions in just half an hour - yes, the most healthy mind is needed here! And, moreover, absolutely sober... When I paint the sun, I want the audience to feel that it rotates with terrifying speed, radiates light and hot waves of colossal power! When I paint a field of wheat, I want people to feel how every atom in its ears strives outward, wants to give a new shoot, open up. When I paint an apple, I need the viewer to feel how the juice wanders and knocks under its skin, how the seed wants to break out of its core and find soil for itself.
Laplace once discovered that every time he began a phrase with the word “Obviously”, it turned out that behind this word was hidden the many hours of hard work he had previously done.
It is known that the strongest physicists and mathematicians spent months of labor in order to understand the actions that had to be taken to sequentially derive those eight to ten formulas that Einstein denoted by the words "hence follows ...".
History knows many early ripened musical talents. Chopin made his first public debut at the age of eight. Weber was appointed conductor of the Breslau Opera Orchestra at the age of seventeen. Richard Strauss began composing music at the age of six, as did Haydn with his compositions. Yehudi Menuhin played the violin with ease at the age of three, and at eighteen he was already considered an unsurpassed virtuoso. Landon Ronald started playing the piano before he could speak.
Most of the young mathematicians, when their finest hour passed, faded into obscurity. Great French physicist and mathematician Ampere, after whom the unit of current is named, was a notable exception. He not only achieved universal recognition and fame, but also demonstrated amazing talents in other areas of human knowledge. An avid reader, he devoured every book his father was able to get for him. But nothing gave the boy such pleasure as diving into the encyclopedia. Even many years later, he could almost verbatim retell most of this multi-volume edition. In 1786, when Ampere was eleven years old, he had already advanced so far in the study of mathematics that he began to deal with complex problems in Lagrange's famous work Analytical Mechanics. Throughout his life, Ampère revolutionized mathematics, discovering the fundamental laws of electrodynamics and writing significant works in chemistry, poetry theory, and psychology.
Remained in history Carl Friedrich Gauss, born in 1777 in a poor German family. At the age of twenty-five he published his Studies in Arithmetic, in which he dealt with the fundamentals of number theory, and soon established himself as the first mathematician of the nineteenth century. Gauss began to show promise quite early. Already at the age of two, he corrected his father, who incorrectly calculated the wages of several workers, by making this calculation in his mind. Soon the boy turned into a local celebrity in his hometown of Braunschweig and, thanks to several noble patrons, was able to attend school, quite successfully coping with various and complex tasks. One fine day, the math teacher asked Karl not to bother attending his classes, because he could not teach the boy anything that he did not already know.
One of the famous English prodigies was George Bidder, born in 1805. Known as the "counting boy," Bidder showed his unheard-of mathematical abilities as early as the age of four, although he did not know how to write down numbers and, naturally, did not even understand the meaning of the word "multiple." But at the same time, the boy so impressed everyone who met him that his father decided to take him on a trip to England, and soon noisy crowds everywhere demanded a "counting boy", with surprising ease answering all difficult questions.
boy named Miguel Mantilla, who was born in Mexico, already at the age of two could answer the question: "What year was it if February 4 fell on Friday?" The answer was given in less than 10 seconds.
George Watson, born in Buxted in 1785, was considered almost a complete idiot in everything except counting and memorization. Although he could neither read nor write, in his mind he made the most complex mathematical calculations and could answer without hesitation any questions about what day of the week was during this or that historical event. If it happened that this historical date fell within the years of his life, he could still say where he was at that time and what kind of weather it was then.
Some geeks display truly all-round talents. Christian Heineken, born in 1921 and known as the "child from Lübeck", frightened everyone when, a few hours after birth, he suddenly spoke. Rumor claimed that he was not yet a year old, and he could already reproduce from memory all the main events described in the five books of the Old Testament.
John Stuart Mill, a famous philosopher and economist of the 19th century, could read Greek at the age of three. A little later, when he was ten years old, he easily navigated the writings of Plato and Demosthenes.
Blaise Pascal, a French philosopher and mathematician, was also a comprehensively gifted child as a child. He was not yet twelve years old when he wrote theses on acoustics; At nineteen, Pascal invented the first calculating machine. In the thirtieth year of his life, the scientist wrote several theological studies.
In other words, the main feature of a genius is really the ability to work incredibly hard, absolute obsession and striving for absolute perfection.
The Mystery of the Genius
Isn't there an internal contradiction in the expectation of an increase in the frequency of the appearance of geniuses? If in the entire history of mankind there were only about 450 geniuses, then how can one count on such a miracle as their additional appearance, or 10-100 times more frequent occurrence wonderful talents? Legitimate question.
Therefore, it is immediately necessary to say that there are two gigantic abysses, and they lie on the same path. First, the gap between geniuses (and remarkable talents) potential, born and developing geniuses. Secondly, there is no less deep gulf between the geniuses who have developed and the geniuses who have realized themselves.
As for the frequency of appearance (birth) of geniuses, let's consider one simple calculation. Just as there is not the slightest reason to believe that one race or nation is superior to other races or nations in terms of hereditary gift, there is no reason to believe that any nations in the past, in the Ancient or Middle Ages, were superior to the present in terms of the same hereditary gift. .
We have to pay attention to the fact that geniuses and remarkable talents almost always appeared in flashes, in groups, but precisely in those periods when they were provided with optimal opportunities for development and realization. One of these optimal eras was the age of the famous commander Kimon and the historian Thucydides - the "golden age" of Athens in the era of Pericles. At Pericles, geniuses of world rank gathered at the table: Anaxagoras, Zeno, Protagoras, Sophocles, Socrates, Plato, Phidias - almost all of them were native citizens of Athens, whose free population hardly exceeded 100,000 people. Bertrand Russell, in The History of Western Philosophy, points out that in Athens during its heyday, about 430 BC. BC, there were about 230,000 people, including slaves, and the surrounding area of rural Attica probably had a much smaller number of inhabitants.
If we take into account that the creativity of the musical geniuses of Ancient Greece did not reach us, and that the geniuses of natural science, mathematics and technology could neither develop nor be realized, since only generals, politicians, orators, playwrights, philosophers and sculptors were revered, then it is clear that that even in that era in Athens hardly a tenth of the free-born potential geniuses could develop and realize themselves. The greatest minds of the Hellenic world did not gather in Athens at all. Athenian citizenship was not easy, only natives of the city and children from the marriage of an Athenian to an Athenian woman received this citizenship, children from the marriage of an Athenian to a non-Athenian were not considered citizens of Athens. The geniuses of the “circle of Pericles” were formed on the spot, as a result of social continuity, communication with each other, due to the fact that their work was understood and “demanded” not only among connoisseurs, but also from the people.
No genetic data allow even the thought that the Athenians were hereditarily superior to the surrounding then or modern peoples. The secret of the “outburst of genius” was entirely in the stimulating environment. But if such an “outbreak” happened once, then it is reproducible! Moreover, today flashes of genius would give dozens of times more names, since the range of talents that modern society requires has expanded hundreds of times.
There are many other examples where a very small stratum, which, however, has the possibility of developing and realizing its talents, and often usurping these maximum opportunities in one way or another, singled out a lot of exceptionally gifted people in comparison with other strata. This happened in England during the Elizabethan era, when many talented people quickly emerged, starting with the Cecil dynasty - Burghley and Bacon, ending with Drake, Raleigh, Walsingham, Marlowe and Shakespeare. So it was in France during the period of the Encyclopedists, the revolution and the Napoleonic wars.
The era of the Renaissance became a time of mass aspirations for culture, knowledge, and art. This was the era of mass demand for painting, not only on the part of patrons, but also on the part of the "crowd", the public spectator. In many workshops, gifted students, competing, discussing, criticizing, learning, created that “micronoosphere”, that circulation of ideas, that “critical mass” at which chain reaction creativity. It is simply impossible to give any reasonable idea of the size of those sections of the population from which artists, poets, thinkers, outstanding popes and condottieri came out. It was an era of gigantic social change, breaking down barriers, overcoming the medieval way of life...
But in history, it is probably difficult to find any era of breaking caste, class and other restrictions, which would not be accompanied by the appearance of many talented people in various fields. Although, of course, even in the intervals between such social shifts that free the paths of development and implementation, here and there, “micronoospheres with critical masses” appear.
Charlemagne specially sent people to all parts of his empire to look for gifted young men. The result is the Carolingian Revival.
Capable boys were selected to the Tsarskoye Selo Lyceum, they were given the opportunity to develop with good views to the subsequent implementation - and what we now call the "lyceum effect" arose.
The term "noble period of Russian literature" has long been in official use. But, tracing the fate of the figures of this period, we see that almost all of them were, as they say, if not from childhood, then from youth, “familiar houses”. How this determined the goals, values, direction of efforts, can only be hardly imagined, despite all the work of Pushkinists and other literary historians. The unusually high frequency of remarkable talents and geniuses in those few genera, whose representatives created this period, is, of course, primarily due to the fact that the members of these genera, as a rule, had very good opportunities for self-realization.
It may be premature and inappropriate to introduce a term like “the era of merchant patronage”, but it is perhaps difficult to imagine the development of Russian painting, sculpture, music and theater without Alekseev (Stanislavsky), without Tretyakov, Shchukin, Morozov, without the Abramtsevo circle (around Mamontov Vrubel, Serov, Vasnetsov, Chaliapin, Chekhov, Levitan gather in Abramtsevo). But these "merchants-patrons" were often neighbors, they were also "familiar at home."
The stratum of the highest Russian intelligentsia turned out to be extraordinarily rewarding, forming a self-stimulating, “familiar at home” team, from which many of the brightest representatives of Russian culture and science came out: Blok and Bely came out, the Lyapunov and Beketov dynasties came out, the Struve and Krylovs came out ... Nobody will doubt the fact that heredity alone would not be enough - the most favorable social succession was required.
The frequency of occurrence of potential developed and realized geniuses
So, you can be sure that the frequency of the birth of potential geniuses and remarkable talents is almost the same in all nationalities and peoples. The frequency of origin, based on the implementation in historically foreseeable periods (in optimally developing layers) is determined by a figure of the order of 1:1000. The frequency of would-be geniuses who have evolved enough to make themselves known as potential talents in one way or another is probably in the order of 1 in 100,000. The frequency of geniuses who have realized themselves to the level of recognition of their creations and deeds as brilliant, probably even in the age of almost universal secondary and very often higher education, is estimated at 1:10,000,000, which implies the presence in the middle of the 20th century of about a hundred geniuses per billion inhabitants of civilized and countries not suffering from overwhelming need.
The order of initial values is determined by historical precedents: the frequency of the appearance of genuine geniuses in Athens in the era of Pericles; in the age of Elizabeth - in the aristocratic families of England oriented towards the military-political initiative; in the branches of the Russian aristocracy oriented toward literary and poetic creativity, etc. Naturally, we do not claim that humanity in the third quarter of the 20th century really has a whole hundred recognized realized geniuses. We cannot prove, with figures in hand, how many geniuses born in our time successfully overcome both abysses that lie in their way. Probably, although we do not insist, out of a thousand potential geniuses, 999 are extinguished precisely because of underdevelopment, and out of 1000 developed ones, 999 are extinguished at the implementation stage. Approximate orders of losses are essential for us. It is essential for us that even a small country, for example, with 5 million inhabitants, but which has achieved the development and implementation of 10% of its potential geniuses and talents, will in half a century outstrip any other country, even if 100 times more numerous, which will retain its force existing barriers that prevent full development and the realization of their potentially outstanding people.
But how often a potential genius turns out to be unrealized! How often he is deprived of even the slightest opportunity to translate his creativity into something tangible! In one of the stories of Mark Twain, someone who has fallen into the afterlife asks to be shown to him the greatest commander of all times and peoples. In the person shown to him, he recognizes a shoemaker who lived in the street next to him and died recently. But everything is correct - the shoemaker would really be the greatest commander, he would be a military genius, but he did not even have a chance to command a company ... And the great winners of world history were, “according to the Hamburg score”, compared to this shoemaker, only more or less capable but by no means the greatest.
The significance of the early influences that develop the intellect is clear from the work Bergins(VerginsR., 1971), which shows that 20% of future intelligence is acquired by the end of the 1st year of life, 50% - by 4 years, 80% - by 8 years, 92% - up to 13 years. Obviously, already at this age, a high predictability of the "ceiling" of future achievements can be achieved.
It is extremely significant that this happens quite early (probably, it will happen even earlier), because, for example, the practice of awarding Nobel Prizes has shown that the fundamental discovery that precedes the person being awarded usually occurs at 25-30 years of age. In the work of A. Mestel (Mestel A., 1967) it is shown that the Nobel laureates in natural sciences for 1901-1962. made their discovery, subsequently awarded Nobel Prize, with an average age of 37 years, and this age has hardly changed from decade to decade.
In the course of studying the predictive value of intelligence tests, an extremely important truth was revealed and confirmed: starting with an intelligence coefficient of 110-120, i.e. in the absence of pronounced defects in the set of basic abilities of an individual, subsequent returns in the form of any achievements do not very strongly correlate with further an increase in intelligence quotient. At the forefront is a characterological feature that is not captured by existing tests - the ability to become more and more completely passionate about one's work. This ability is not so rare - selfless, absolute, displacing or pushing away other interests, any side activities, "hobbies". It forces fanatically concentrated, relentlessly engaged in the chosen business, be it the construction of some kind of apparatus, the improvement of an existing device or method, the creation of a picture, literary or piece of music. Of course, this complete self-mobilization can result in genuine creativity only when it is based on an appropriate arsenal of talents, professional knowledge, skills and abilities. But if it is not added to this arsenal, if there is no boundless enthusiasm that makes even the subconscious work for work, then a very high IQ will not lead to great achievements. In other words, from a certain threshold, it is not the level of measurable talents that becomes decisive, but the ability or readiness to maximize the mobilization of the existing, purposefulness sufficient for productive creativity.
But in all cases, genius is, first of all, an extreme strain of individually characteristic talents, it is the greatest, unceasing work for centuries, despite non-recognition, indifference, contempt, poverty ...
Geniuses are characterized by the ability for extreme self-mobilization, exceptional creative purposefulness, which, for many, probably, by the IQ of no less gifted, is spent on obtaining small goods, career achievements, prestige, honors, money, satisfying the instinct of domination, or it is simply dispersed into countless difficulties. and temptations, with which life has always been rich enough.
The social value of a realized genius
Although the products of most geniuses are not marketable, the history of mankind shows that the activities of any of them extremely highly raised, if not the scientific, technical, military or economic potential of the country, then in any case its prestige and authority.
But maybe a genius is not so necessary? How many genuine geniuses did Japan need to rush from the Middle Ages and the science and culture of the 20th century in 30-40 years? Kitazato, Admiral Togo, 10-20 more names... Are geniuses (except political ones) needed in order for the former colonial countries to rise to the level of advanced ones: to eliminate hunger, poverty, overpopulation? “Not so much,” many people probably think. But this is only because there is no need to pave new paths in science and technology, medicine, agriculture. But what if you need to not only adopt ready-made, import and copy, always lagging behind by a dozen years? If it is necessary to participate in a common breakthrough into the unknown and unfamiliar? What to do with the information crisis, when it is easier to rediscover lost knowledge than to find it yourself in the sea of already existing information? Is it possible to get second-hand equipment in an era of rapid development? What to do with interdisciplinary research? With white spots that are located at the junction of not even two, but several scientific disciplines? What to do with ever-complicating technology? With conflicting ideas? We are convinced that all these problems can be solved in only one way - an early search for genuine potential talents and geniuses. The study of the laws of the appearance of geniuses, the study of their internal properties turns out to be relevant and even necessary!
We can't in tons food products or to evaluate in hard currency what Mozart, Beethoven, Shakespeare or Pushkin gave to the world. It is impossible to evaluate in some material units what brilliant composers, playwrights, poets gave. It is also impossible to appreciate the contribution of a major, epoch-making inventor, whether it be Fulton or Diesel.
However, when they begin to count, it turns out that with his discoveries, Louis Pasteur, for example, compensated France for the losses incurred as a result of the military defeat of 1870-1871. These losses (in addition to losses in killed and wounded) are estimated at 10-15 billion francs (only indemnity amounted to 5 billion). During the life of Diesel, the number of working internal combustion engines numbered in the thousands. But his contribution to technology amounts to several tens of billions of dollars.
One can always object that Copernicus, Galilei, Kepler discovered what would have been discovered half a century later without them, that Stephenson had a predecessor Papin, that Newton had a rival Leibniz. However, an analysis of the history of any discovery, invention or major creative act shows that an absolutely extraordinary, titanic work fell to the lot of its recognized author, immediately advancing humanity for decades to come. And if we conditionally accept that humanitarian values, by virtue of their ennobling influence on humanity, by virtue of the unification of the spiritual forces of mankind around common values, by virtue of the creation of ideals, are equivalent in value to natural science values, and these latter are technical, then this will make it possible to move on to a conditional "market" assessment of the contribution of geniuses of very different directions.
Edison's 1,000 or so patents have brought the United States several billion in profits; sulfonamides, antibiotics and vaccines have saved the lives and health of hundreds of millions of people; short-stemmed varieties raised the yield of grain crops by tens of percent. Hardly anyone thinks that human geniuses were less valuable to humanity than genius inventors or genius scientists. And in this case, each realized genius brings billions of values to humanity.
One can, of course, consider that art is not necessary and has no material value, like the humanities; What scientific discoveries, which do not give immediate access to practice, also have no material value, which most of technological progress - the result of collective creativity, that the role of individual geniuses in the past was exaggerated, and now is rapidly falling. But, no matter how skillfully they add up the actual data - like an accordion, in a minimal amount - the geniuses of the recent past still have gigantic merits, and with the increase in the amount of knowledge, skills, abilities, information, only having which you can count on moving forward, the role of giftedness, naturally , should increase.
This is essentially what our work is about. We will try to show what, in our opinion, were the mechanisms for the development of genius, and we will do this in the form of the shortest biographical sketches, focusing on the internal mechanisms that stimulated the activity of a brilliant personality, on the specifics of the pathography of geniuses.
Long before the inexhaustible hereditary heterogeneity of mankind, which is one of the main laws of the formation of the biological species Homosapiens, was shown, the remarkable domestic anthropologist Ya.Ya. Roginsky emphasized that the study of a person's individual psychology should "contribute to the development of various methods of pedagogical assistance in freeing the inner possibilities of his personality from everything that constrains them."
Forty years later, in connection with the advent of the era of the scientific and technological revolution, we can say that we are faced with the task of not only releasing the internal capabilities of a person, but also actively stimulating them.
giftedness genius creative child
Genius and insanity
In 1863, the Italian psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso published his book Genius and Madness (Russian translation by K. Tetyushinova, 1892), in which he draws a parallel between great people and lunatics. Here is what the author himself writes in the preface of the book: “When, many years ago, being, as it were, under the influence of ecstasy, during which the relationship between genius and insanity was clearly presented to me in a mirror, I wrote the first chapters of this book in 12 days. , then, I confess, even to myself it was not clear what serious practical conclusions the theory I created could lead to. ... "
In his work, C. Lombroso writes about the physical similarity of brilliant people with crazy people, about the influence of various phenomena (atmospheric, heredity, etc.) on genius and insanity, gives examples, numerous medical evidence of the presence of a number of writers mental disorders, and also describes the special features of brilliant people who suffered at the same time and insanity.
These features are as follows:
1. Some of these people showed an unnatural, too early development of genius abilities. So, for example, Ampère was already a good mathematician at the age of 13, and Pascal at the age of 10 came up with a theory of acoustics based on the sounds made by cymbals when they are placed on the table.
2. Many of them were extremely abused drugs and alcoholic drinks. So, Haller absorbed a huge amount of opium, and, for example, Rousseau - coffee.
3. Many did not feel the need to work quietly in the quiet of their office, but as if they could not sit in one place and had to constantly travel.
4. They also changed their professions and specialties no less often, as if their powerful genius could not be satisfied with any one science and fully express itself in it.
5. Such strong, captivating minds passionately indulge in science and greedily take on the solution of the most difficult questions, as perhaps the most suitable for their morbidly excited energy. In every science they are able to grasp new outstanding features and, on the basis of them, draw sometimes ridiculous conclusions.
6. All geniuses have their own special style, passionate, tremulous, colorful, which distinguishes them from other healthy writers and is characteristic of them, perhaps precisely because it is developed under the influence of psychosis. This position is confirmed by the own admission of such geniuses that, after the end of ecstasy, all of them are not able not only to compose, but also to think.
7. Almost all of them suffered deeply from religious doubts, which involuntarily presented themselves to their minds, while a timid conscience forced them to regard such doubts as crimes. For example, Haller wrote in his diary: “My God! Send me just one drop of faith; my mind believes in you, but my heart does not share this faith - that is my crime.
8. The main signs of the abnormality of these great people are already expressed in the very structure of their oral and written speech, in non-logical conclusions, in absurd contradictions. Wasn't Socrates, the brilliant thinker who foresaw Christian morality and Jewish monotheism, crazy when he was guided in his actions by the voice and instructions of his imaginary Genius, or even just a sneeze?
9. Almost all geniuses gave great importance to your dreams.
In the conclusion of his book, C. Lombroso, however, says that on the basis of the foregoing it is impossible to conclude that genius in general is nothing but insanity. True, in the turbulent and disturbing life of brilliant people there are moments when these people resemble lunatics, and in mental activity and others have many common features - for example, increased sensitivity, exaltation, replaced by apathy, originality of aesthetic works and the ability to discover, unconsciousness of creativity and strong absent-mindedness, abuse of alcoholic beverages and enormous vanity. Between brilliant people there are lunatics, and between crazy people there are geniuses. But there were and are many brilliant people in whom one cannot find the slightest sign of insanity.
If genius were always accompanied by madness, then how can one explain to oneself that Galileo, Kepler, Columbus, Voltaire, Napoleon, Michelangelo, Cavour, people who are undoubtedly brilliant and, moreover, who were subjected to the most difficult trials during their lives, never showed signs of insanity?
In addition, genius usually manifests itself much earlier than madness, which for the most part reaches its maximum development only after the age of 35, while genius is revealed from childhood, and in young years it already appears with full force: Alexander the Great was at the height of his fame in 20 years old, Charlemagne - at 30 years old, Bonaparte - at 26.
Further, while madness is more often than all other diseases transmitted by inheritance and, moreover, increases with each new generation, so that a brief fit of delirium that happened to an ancestor passes into real madness in a descendant, genius almost always dies with a man of genius, and hereditary brilliant abilities, especially in several generations, are a rare exception. Moreover, it should be noted that they are transmitted more often to the offspring of the male than the female, while insanity recognizes the complete equality of both sexes. Let us suppose that a genius can also err, let us suppose that he is always distinguished by originality; but neither delusion nor originality in him ever reaches the point of complete contradiction with himself or of obvious absurdity, which so often happens with lunatics.
Much more often we notice in them a lack of perseverance, diligence, firmness of character, attention, accuracy, memory - in general, the main qualities of a genius. And for the most part they remain lonely, uncommunicative, indifferent or insensitive to what worries the human race, as if they are surrounded by some special atmosphere that belongs to them alone. Is it possible to compare them with those great geniuses who calmly and with consciousness of their own strengths steadily followed the once chosen path to their own? high purpose without losing heart in adversity and not allowing yourself to be carried away by any passion!
These were: Spinoza, Bacon, Galileo, Dante, Voltaire, Columbus, Machiavelli, Michelangelo. All of them were distinguished by a strong but harmonious development of the skull, which proved the strength of their mental abilities, restrained by a mighty will, but in none of them did love for truth and beauty drown out love for family and fatherland. They never changed their convictions and did not become renegades, they did not deviate from their goal, they did not abandon the work once begun. How much perseverance, energy, tact they showed in carrying out the undertakings they had conceived, and what moderation, what an integral character they distinguished themselves in their lives!
The only, favorite idea, which constituted the goal and happiness of their life, completely took possession of these great minds and, as it were, served as a guiding star for them. To accomplish their task, they spared no effort, did not stop at any obstacles, always remaining clear and calm. Their errors are too few to be worth pointing out, and even they are often of such a nature that in ordinary people they would pass for real discoveries. Between brilliant people there are lunatics and between lunatics - geniuses. But there have been and are many men of genius in whom not the slightest sign of insanity can be found, with the exception of some abnormalities in the sphere of sensitivity.
Conclusion
Giftedness in its essence has two components:
1. Location to a certain area of knowledge or human activity.
2. The ability for continuous self-improvement in this area.
The location can be both congenital and acquired or formed - pseudo-disposition. An example of an innate disposition is that a person from birth shows abilities in one or another type of activity, for example, has the physical inclinations for playing sports. Pseudo-disposition is formed mainly at an early age and depends on the environment in which a person grows up.
Self-improvement can also be divided into two types: self-improvement, which is based on internal motivation and interest, and self-improvement, which is based on external motivation.
Based on the foregoing, we can distinguish (we have identified) four groups:
1. Innate disposition and intrinsic motivation.
2. Innate disposition and external motivation.
3. Pseudo-disposition and intrinsic motivation.
4. Pseudo-disposition and external motivation.
At the same time, it is obvious that the mere presence of hereditary giftedness, even the highest level in no way guarantees the obligatory “output into practice”. We repeat once again that modern population genetics completely excludes the possibility of the existence of significant interethnic, interracial and interclass differences in giftedness. Let us recall once again the presence in history of "territorial" flashes of genius. It is unlikely that anyone will dispute the fact that there are peoples with a century and thousand years of history which did not give humanity a single truly brilliant discovery. No one doubts that potential geniuses in these peoples appeared thousands of times, but they did not have the conditions for development and realization.
The more obvious it becomes the need to find out what are the mechanisms for the development of genius, and this can be determined with a high degree of accuracy by studying the various conditions in which the recognized geniuses of world history and culture developed, thanks to what circumstances and how they realized their genius and how this genius was reflected on the history and development of mankind.
Modern studies also show that genius depends on upbringing and personal work by a maximum of 20-30%. 80% is innate! In other words, it is difficult to give birth to a genius, it is impossible to educate.
And yet, the most complete and holistic view of the origins of genius is the view of esoteric teachings, which assert that the phenomenon of genius has a Divine Beginning, which in genius has found an ideal vehicle for its expression. Here is what Lavater wrote about it:
“Whoever notices, perceives, contemplates, feels, thinks, speaks, acts, creates, composes, expresses, creates, compares, separates, connects, reasons, guesses, transmits, thinks as if all this is dictated to him or inspired by some spirit, an invisible being of a higher kind, he has a genius, but if he does all this as if he himself were a being of a higher kind, then he is a genius. hallmark genius and all his deeds is the appearance; just as a heavenly vision does not come, but appears, does not go away, but disappears, so are the creations and deeds of a genius. What is not learned, not borrowed, inimitable, Divine - is genius, inspiration is genius, is called genius among all peoples, at all times and will be called as long as people think, feel and speak.
Bibliography
1. T. Alpatova. Tragedy of Mozart. Literature, No. 10, 1996
2. Altshuller G.S., Vertkin I.M. How to become a genius. Life strategy of a creative personality, Minsk, Belarus, 1994, 480 p.
3. O. Bogdashkina. Asperger Syndrome (Chapter 6) / Autism: Definition and Diagnosis., 2008
4. V.V. Klimenko How to raise a child prodigy // St. Petersburg, "Crystal", 1996
5. Audiobook Cesare Lombroso "Genius and insanity"
6. V. P. Efroimson. Genius. Genetics of genius // M., 2002.
Incredible memory, the ability to run indefinitely, and control the temperature of your body - superpowers obtained through trauma and evolution.
For most people, talent is the ability to sing, dance, and so on. But some people can do more than that, and most of them can't even control themselves.
1. Orlando Serell
As sad as it is to have brain damage, there is a very small percentage of people who survive it and gain a new and unusual ability. People who gain special abilities after a head injury are diagnosed with acquired savant syndrome. Usually savants have amazing mathematical abilities or can, for example, draw Rome in great detail.
In 1979, Orlando Serell played baseball in primary school when a stray ball flew into his head. However, this did not bother him and he continued to play. For a year Serell suffered from headaches that could last for hours. By the end of that year, he realized that he could do superior calendar calculations, such as knowing how many Mondays there were in 1980. Along with this incredible skill, he could remember every detail of every day, just like in hyperthymesia. In Serell's case, there was no severe form of brain damage, but there was a head injury.
Ordinary people are often jealous of the skills of savants. The reason savants have such good brains is because they take everything literally and notice details we don't pay attention to. This is why savants have great difficulty during various school tests: these tests ask broad questions that do not correspond to the narrow way of thinking of savants.
2. Thai Ngoc
Vietnamese farmer Thai Ngoc suffered from a fever in 1973 that at first did not seem unusual to him. But when the fever passed, he had Hard case insomnia. In the hope that it will pass within a week, Ty did not attach much importance to this. On this moment he had not slept for 40 years since the night he had the fever.
You may think that after 12,000 nights without sleep you will be dead, but after conducting medical examinations, they found only minor problems with the liver. The only thing Ngoc complains about is that he has become a bit irritable after over 30 years without sleep. He tried countless home remedies and even tried to drown his insomnia in alcohol. But nothing seems to have worked. So why does his insomnia last so long?
One explanation can give such a phenomenon as microsleep. Microsleep happens when part of your brain gets tired and decides to take a quick nap for a few seconds. For most of us, it happens when we get tired - our brain temporarily shuts down, and then starts working again. A good example of a microsleep is when a driver falls asleep at the wheel. That's probably why Ngoc doesn't sleep for so long.
3. Most Tibetans
The Sherpas, a Nepalese people, are known for guiding people to Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. Nepalese Sherpas and most Tibetans have a feature that allows them to survive in the mountains at an altitude of about four kilometers above sea level. Just a few years ago, scientists had no idea how they did it. We now know that 87% of Tibetans have a special gene that allows them to consume 40% less oxygen than ordinary people. 
The EPAS1 gene is responsible for the ability of Tibetans to live on high altitudes for a long time. Most people who have risen to a height of three kilometers, the level of hemoglobin rises. Hemoglobin is a substance in our blood that helps carry oxygen throughout the body. The EPAS1 gene keeps the hemoglobin in the blood of Tibetans from rising above a certain level, which prevents heart problems that other people may experience.
According to the researchers, the Tibetans got this ability from the now-extinct Denisovan species. The Denisovan people lived in the area where the Tibetans now live, and the same EPAS1 gene was found in their fossils. It seems that only Tibetans and some Pacific islanders have this gene, as the Denisovans interbred with other human subspecies, creating a reserve of this gene, until they became extinct.
5.CM
Known anonymously as "SM", this woman suffers from an unknown disease that has caused the complete destruction of her cerebellar tonsils (the part of the brain that controls fear). SM, a mother of three, cannot feel fear, no matter how frightening the situation. In a study examining her capacity for fear, SM watched the scariest horror movies and touched a snake's tongue.
However, SM remembers being afraid of the dark as a child, but by the time she reached her early teens, her cerebellar tonsils were already destroyed. She even described meeting a man while walking alone in a park at night. He ran up to her and put a knife to her throat. Instead of being scared half to death, SM calmly said that he would have to go through her guardian angel first, which scared the perpetrator. She now describes the incident simply as "weird."
6. Dean Karnazes
Anyone who has ever run a marathon knows that sometimes you need to take a quick break. As for Dean Karnazes, his muscles allow him to run forever.
Normally, the human body gets its energy from glucose, which also produces lactate. If there is too much lactate, the body begins to produce lactic acid, which destroys its excess. Dean's body does not interfere with the accumulation of lactate, which allows him to never get tired. Dean started running in high school when he joined the track team. While team members could only average 15 laps, he ran 105 until he was told to stop. Since then, he did not stop running until he was 30 years old.
Obviously interested, some scientists in Colorado were testing its endurance. They said the test would take about 15 minutes, but Dean kept walking on the treadmill for an hour. Thanks to his unique ability, he once ran 50 marathons in 50 days.
7. Tibetan monks
Monks from South Asia, especially Tibet, claim to have learned to control body temperature using an ancient form of meditation called Tum-mo. According to Buddhist teachings, our life is not all that exists, there is also some kind of alternative reality. By practicing Tum-mo, the monks supposedly reached this other world. During Tum-mo meditation, they produce a significant amount of heat.
While studying this strange phenomenon, scientists were amazed to find that the temperature of the monks' fingers and toes rose by as much as eight degrees Celsius. Tum-mo is not the only form of meditation practiced by Tibetan monks. Other forms of meditation also allow monks to lower their metabolism. Metabolism controls the rate at which calories are broken down. People with slow metabolisms gain weight faster because their bodies cannot break down calories fast enough. Through meditation, monks can lower their metabolism by approximately 64%. Unlike ordinary people, this allows them to conserve energy. For comparison, the average human metabolism is reduced by 15% during sleep.
8. Chris Robinson
One day Chris Robinson woke up after bright dream, in which two aircraft collided in mid-air. From that day on, he allegedly began to see the future in his dreams. In addition, Robinson can wake up exactly when he wants to and record his dreams in the dream diary he keeps.
Stan Lee himself (with the help of Daniel Browning Smith) conducted an experiment involving Robinson. He told Robinson that they were going to take him to 10 places the next day, and his task was to see these places in his dreams. The next day, Robinson wrote each of the places he dreamed on a separate piece of paper and sealed them in envelopes. When they arrived at a certain place, they opened the envelope, and it turned out that Robinson guessed everything.
Of course, the results look extremely suspicious. Robinson was tested again. This time he had to guess what the organizers put in the box. For 12 days, Robinson guessed once a day what was in the box. He guessed right only two times out of 12, which does not prove the existence of his psychic powers.
9. Eskil Ronningsbakken
Ronningsbakken, a deadly stunt performer, first learned the art of balance when he was five years old. He became interested in this when, at the age of 11, he saw on TV a man who did extraordinary stunts. When Ronningsbakken was 18, he ran away to a circus and performed for 11 years. He knew that the art of balance was what he wanted to do.
Now in his 30s, Ronningsbakken is risking his life by cycling upside down on a tightrope over a canyon and doing handstands on a bar that hangs under a flying balloon. In the video below, he rides his bike backwards on a serpentine road in Norway. Ronningsbakken, however, is not fearless and admits to being very nervous before tricks. He believes that fear is the feeling that makes us human, and if he loses the feeling of fear, he will immediately quit everything, because he is afraid to stop being human.
10. Natalia Demkina
In Saransk, Russia, a girl named Natalia Demkina suddenly began to see through people's bodies. From childhood, people came to Natalia's house so that she looked inside them and said what they were sick with.
Interested in the "X-ray girl", Dr. Ray Hyman invited her to New York for a series of tests. One included six patients with diagnoses ranging from a removed appendix to having a metal plate in their skull from a brain tumour, and one healthy control participant. Natalia correctly named four out of six, which is certainly impressive, even though she claims to be able to see at the cellular level.
However, it is interesting that she confused the patient with the appendix and the patient with a metal plate in the skull - a serious mistake for a person who can see inside other people. In the end, visiting a doctor or someone with x-ray vision is your choice.
Talent is the potential or inherent ability of the individual. IN explanatory dictionaries the meaning of the word talent is defined as a person's special personal predispositions. As they gain experience, they form a habit. In contrast to genius, when a person is considered gifted in everything, and that, it should be noted, only a few cases are known to history when a talented person has high abilities relating to one, two, and less often several areas at once.
The meaning of the word talent is interestingly revealed thanks to the Greek root, which also denotes a measure of weight, monetary calculation in antiquity. Here we recall the parable of the distributed talents, which tells not only about coins, but also teaches how to deal with the skills that nature has endowed us with - not to “bury” them, but to increase them in every possible way.
What is talent?
Talent is above just good result, this is a special, noticeable even to others as out of the ordinary abilities. For example, if a person has a high ability to play chess, then with some effort he shows a good game. However, the talent for the game will show up as if by itself, will be felt through the attraction to chess, and the results will outperform those who simply have good skills. Others will also notice this, considering such a player to be special, as if having superpowers by nature. There is always some kind of thrill in relation to talent. However, talent is not always immediately visible. If a talented person has never had the opportunity to encounter the object of his giftedness, he may not be aware of his ability at all.
This happens in life in unsuitable conditions for the development of this sphere. More than one film has been shot about people from the lower economic strata of the population or poor countries, who, when they get into a new life, become brilliant boxers, dancers, even scientists, with at least a little training.
The difficulty of identifying talent is also related to other special conditions, not only economic - there are cases when a child was considered mentally retarded at school, but with special training he not only achieved high rates in the field of his giftedness, but also made discoveries, was a pioneer in a new field. It also matters the freshness of the look, the lack of blurry knowledge, as it is right, which is typical of ordinary people who do not try to look at the subject of study or training from a different angle, but, as if according to a template, perform the necessary actions.
A talented person will be able to achieve super results both by the usual method of development, and even often without it, or he will try to make a personal contribution to it. In what a talented person does, her special handwriting is always visible.
Without developing his gift from nature, a person often remains simply fond of, for example, singing, pleases himself and his friends with this hobby. But once in the right conditions - at a talent show, and having received the basics of preparation, he can dramatically change his life. However, a pronounced talent often does not allow its carrier to live in peace, forgetting about it. He seems to be rushing out, the power of talent sometimes even rules a person, captivating him and demanding that the aspiration find a way out - as if strong plant breaks through the asphalt.
There are stories when a person was forbidden to follow his attraction by parents, mentors, society. Then a serious flare-up between the unconscious powerful desire to do what you love and the prohibitions on it flared up in the personality. This was especially characteristic of earlier, more despotic times. And here you can even partly understand those who imposed the ban. For example, hereditary doctors could guarantee a decent and prosperous future for their child by teaching him medicine, transferring their clients and famous name. However, a particularly gifted, naturally talented son or daughter could not always submit to this course of events, feeling that they had no right to follow this faceless, empty and unhappy path for them. If, in addition to talent, a person possessed at least some pronounced volitional qualities, then he could resist the pressure of the environment and defend his gift, sometimes receiving recognition only after death. But what a confession!
Not one truly great person was unrecognized in his own country and time. Often - this environment does not want, is not able to perceive something new, different from the usual, opposes the new trend or even aggressively defends itself from it. Some talents were so contrary to socially recognized activities that the carrier himself could not explain to himself that he possessed him, and tried to fight and eradicate attraction to talent. However, neither external nor internal struggle with true talent brings the desired results, the strength of talent only grows from the struggle. Many outstanding, sharp talented works, usually artistic ones, were created just under the influence of this conflict, as if at a break, they trace the spiritual hesitation and even suffering of the creator. But, as in the case of their creator, later they captured the minds and hearts of their viewers, and often even laid the foundation for a new, revolutionary direction, later becoming a classic.
By itself, without development, trials, training, sometimes even painful hours spent on it, without its manifestation, talent has no power, is not interesting to others. Like a precious stone, it requires filigree processing from its master in order to turn from an unhewn piece of stone into a shining jewel. The time and work spent towards the development of one's talent is the next necessary step in order for the inherent ability to be transformed into something more, to find its manifestation.
In order to be useful and recognized, one must not only know that I am talented, but also determine in what form the world can perceive my talent today, and then put in the effort and time. Working, based on his talent, its owner needs to catch up with those who, through hard work in this direction, are now getting the best results.
Today, talent often has a practical application, is a source of income and the dream of many people is to work in the area of their interests. Therefore, understanding the market as a receiver of the results of talented work is very important today.
Types of talent
Back in 1980, Gardner in his book divided abilities and identified types of talent. They still well illustrate the main groups of talents, although after Gardner more than 30 types were identified.
Verbal-linguistic talent is the ability to clearly formulate one's thoughts and express them beautifully, sharpness of mind and words. This talent is inherent in outstanding journalists, orators, and writers.
Digital talent is the ability to deal with numbers and various kinds of exact symbols. It is typical for mathematicians, programmers and economists who perceive the world through exact expressions and are able to quickly carry out calculations. Clearly digitally gifted people seem to live in a world of abstraction and, without the development of social skills, may even look strange to other people.
The spatial type of talent is nothing more than the ability to navigate in space and creatively transform it, which is found in designers and artists. Often they have their own special view of reality, and they express it in art objects. However, there are those who are talented precisely in the transfer of a realistic world, they can recreate the view exactly, as if on a photograph.
Physical talent is characteristic of people who have excellent control over their body and sensory organs. Here is the widest range of activities from outstanding manual workers to skilled dancers. People of this type, in terms of style of perception, are opposite to people of a mathematical warehouse, therefore, training for physically gifted people should be in practice, through physicality.
Personal or emotional talent is responsible for the ability to recognize one's own and feelings, to live a deep inner life. This kind of talent is akin to watching one's own mental life and opposite. It can be seen, for example, in the work of the outstanding writer Dostoevsky.
Interpersonal talent helps in communicating with other people and is needed by teachers, politicians, actors and public figures.
IN separate group Gardner also identifies such a type as the talent of the environment. This ability to harmoniously fit into nature, the surrounding world and correspond to it, it is characteristic of born farmers and animal trainers.
These types of talent can be combined with each other. For example, a person gifted with spatial and digital types of talent can become a good architect. And emotionally and interpersonally gifted - a good psychologist.
How to find your talent?
Recognizing talent is like finding your strengths, but finding your talents and abilities is more than that.
How to discover talent in yourself, your children, recognize it in other people, help in its disclosure? To do this, you should analyze previous achievements or facts, answering which of these results are outstanding.
At small child talent can be recognized by tasting it in different types activities: offering to sing, dance, design. And it may turn out that the child sang beautifully, with, without special training, better than other children. Often even children themselves are drawn to what their talent lies in. A child talented in singing does not need to be forced to sing, he will surely sing often, with pleasure, and his parents will easily notice his love and ability to sing. And here it is already important to properly dispose of the talent given by nature - to give him the opportunity further development, provide conditions like soil, watering, light and fertilizer for a flower.
How do you find your talents and abilities? Below is a methodology, thanks to the successive steps of which you can determine your talents.
Step 1. What is your dream? Remember your dreams from childhood up to the present moment, write them out.
Step 2. Divide them into categories: have and be. The first category concerns desires for the possession of certain things. Whereas the second is the desire to be someone, to become the person you dreamed of. In further work on the methodology, we take only dreams from the second category.
Step 3. Write down the professions that resonate with you. Remember those people in whose place you wished to be.
Step 4. What do you enjoy doing? Add to the list those activities that bring you true satisfaction, those that do not require coercion for you, but, on the contrary, delight.
Step 5. Combine all the dreams, favorite activities and professions that you have written out, and check which ones evoke positive emotions in you. For the greatest accuracy, imagine yourself in each role as detailed as possible, visualize it as if it is your reality now. Rate your body sensations and emotions on a scale of 10.
Step 6. Cross out from the list those areas that received low marks - these are desires that can be easily abandoned.
Step 7. Group the resulting list of your inclinations if some of them have a connection. For example, in one desire you want to sing, and in another - to gain recognition and fame, then they are logically combined into the desire to become a famous singer.
Step 8. Name each group with some kind of talent, for example, as in the previous example - the talent of singing.
Step 9. Look for a connection between the formed groups. In practical life, your tendencies necessarily support each other or conflict, but in the end they form a unique individual combination.
Step 10. What use can you find for your abilities? Consider each group of inclinations that are grouped together as a talent, and the connections between them, to find ways in which you can realize these abilities. For each profession or field of activity, rate again on a scale of 10 points and highlight the most promising.
Step 11. From specific activities, choose the one that is closest to you, likes and has a high chance of bringing you success. This will be your talent.
Incredible memory, the ability to run indefinitely, and control the temperature of your body - superpowers obtained through trauma and evolution
For most people, talent is the ability to sing, dance, and so on. But some people can do more than that, and most of them can't even control themselves.
1. Orlando Serell
As sad as it is to have brain damage, there is a very small percentage of people who survive it and gain a new and unusual ability. People who gain special abilities after a head injury are diagnosed with acquired savant syndrome. Usually savants have amazing mathematical abilities or can, for example, draw Rome in great detail.
In 1979, Orlando Serell was playing baseball in elementary school when a stray ball hit him in the head. However, this did not bother him and he continued to play. For a year Serell suffered from headaches that could last for hours. By the end of that year, he realized that he could do superior calendar calculations, such as knowing how many Mondays there were in 1980. Along with this incredible skill, he could remember every detail of every day, just like in hyperthymesia. In Serell's case, there was no severe form of brain damage, but there was a head injury.
Ordinary people are often jealous of the skills of savants. The reason savants have such good brains is because they take everything literally and notice details we don't pay attention to. This is why savants have great difficulty during various school tests: these tests ask broad questions that do not correspond to the narrow way of thinking of savants.
2. Thai Ngoc
Vietnamese farmer Thai Ngoc suffered from a fever in 1973 that at first did not seem unusual to him. But when the fever passed, he had a severe case of insomnia. In the hope that it will pass within a week, Ty did not attach much importance to this. At the moment, he has not slept for 40 years since the night he suffered a fever.
You may think that after 12,000 nights without sleep you will be dead, but after conducting medical examinations, they found only minor problems with the liver. The only thing Ngoc complains about is that he has become a bit irritable after over 30 years without sleep. He tried countless home remedies and even tried to drown his insomnia in alcohol. But nothing seems to have worked. So why does his insomnia last so long?
One explanation can give such a phenomenon as microsleep. Microsleep happens when part of your brain gets tired and decides to take a quick nap for a few seconds. For most of us, this happens when we get tired - our brain temporarily shuts down, and then starts working again. A good example of a microsleep is when a driver falls asleep at the wheel. That's probably why Ngoc doesn't sleep for so long.
3. Most Tibetans
The Sherpas, a Nepalese people, are known for guiding people to Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the world. Nepalese Sherpas and most Tibetans have a feature that allows them to survive in the mountains at an altitude of about four kilometers above sea level. Just a few years ago, scientists had no idea how they did it. We now know that 87% of Tibetans have a special gene that allows them to consume 40% less oxygen than ordinary people.
The EPAS1 gene is responsible for the ability of Tibetans to live at high altitudes for long periods of time. Most people who have risen to a height of three kilometers, the level of hemoglobin rises. Hemoglobin is a substance in our blood that helps carry oxygen throughout the body. The EPAS1 gene keeps the hemoglobin in the blood of Tibetans from rising above a certain level, which prevents heart problems that other people may experience.
According to the researchers, the Tibetans got this ability from the now-extinct Denisovan species. The Denisovan people lived in the area where the Tibetans now live, and the same EPAS1 gene was found in their fossils. It seems that only Tibetans and some Pacific islanders have this gene, as the Denisovans interbred with other human subspecies, creating a reserve of this gene, until they became extinct.
4. Elizabeth Sulser
In modern times, most people have heard of synesthesia, a condition in which certain senses of perception are mixed together. For example, when people with synesthesia eat the red candy Skittles, they can taste cherry even though it actually tastes different, and some people can taste the color with their eyes closed.
Fortunately, Elizabeth is a musician, so her unusual ability greatly helps her, allowing her to create symphonies and melodies from flowers. Remaining largely a mysterious condition, synesthesia does not seem to have given Sulsera any adverse effects, especially since she began to see only music, and not all sounds at all.
5.CM
Known anonymously as "SM", this woman suffers from an unknown disease that has caused the complete destruction of her cerebellar tonsils (the part of the brain that controls fear). SM, a mother of three, cannot feel fear, no matter how frightening the situation. In a study examining her capacity for fear, SM watched the scariest horror movies and touched a snake's tongue.
However, SM remembers being afraid of the dark as a child, but by the time she reached her early teens, her cerebellar tonsils were already destroyed. She even described meeting a man while walking alone in a park at night. He ran up to her and put a knife to her throat. Instead of being scared half to death, SM calmly said that he would have to go through her guardian angel first, which scared the perpetrator. She now describes the incident simply as "weird."
6. Dean Karnazes
Anyone who has ever run a marathon knows that sometimes you need to take a quick break. As for Dean Karnazes, his muscles allow him to run forever.
Normally, the human body gets its energy from glucose, which also produces lactate. If there is too much lactate, the body begins to produce lactic acid, which destroys its excess. Dean's body does not interfere with the accumulation of lactate, which allows him to never get tired. Dean started running in high school when he joined the track team. While team members could only average 15 laps, he ran 105 until he was told to stop. Since then, he did not stop running until he was 30 years old.
Obviously interested, some scientists in Colorado were testing its endurance. They said the test would take about 15 minutes, but Dean kept walking on the treadmill for an hour. Thanks to his unique ability, he once ran 50 marathons in 50 days.
7. Tibetan monks
Monks from South Asia, especially Tibet, claim to have learned to control body temperature using an ancient form of meditation called Tum-mo. According to Buddhist teachings, our life is not everything that exists, there is also some kind of alternative reality. By practicing Tum-mo, the monks supposedly reached this other world. During Tum-mo meditation, they produce a significant amount of heat.
While studying this strange phenomenon, scientists were amazed to find that the temperature of the monks' fingers and toes rose by as much as eight degrees Celsius. Tum-mo is not the only form of meditation practiced by Tibetan monks. Other forms of meditation also allow monks to lower their metabolism. Metabolism controls the rate at which calories are broken down. People with slow metabolisms gain weight faster because their bodies cannot break down calories fast enough. Through meditation, monks can lower their metabolism by approximately 64%. Unlike ordinary people, this allows them to conserve energy. For comparison, the average human metabolism is reduced by 15% during sleep.
8. Chris Robinson
One day, Chris Robinson woke up from a vivid dream in which two planes collided in mid-air. From that day on, he allegedly began to see the future in his dreams. In addition, Robinson can wake up exactly when he wants to and record his dreams in the dream diary he keeps.
Stan Lee himself (with the help of Daniel Browning Smith) conducted an experiment involving Robinson. He told Robinson that they were going to take him to 10 places the next day, and his task was to see these places in his dreams. The next day, Robinson wrote each of the places he dreamed on a separate piece of paper and sealed them in envelopes. When they arrived at a certain place, they opened the envelope, and it turned out that Robinson guessed everything.
Of course, the results look extremely suspicious. Robinson was tested again. This time he had to guess what the organizers put in the box. For 12 days, Robinson guessed once a day what was in the box. He guessed right only two times out of 12, which does not prove the existence of his psychic powers.
9. Eskil Ronningsbakken
Ronningsbakken, a deadly stunt performer, first learned the art of balance when he was five years old. He became interested in this when, at the age of 11, he saw on TV a man who did extraordinary stunts. When Ronningsbakken was 18, he ran away to a circus and performed for 11 years. He knew that the art of balance was what he wanted to do.
Now in his 30s, Ronningsbakken is risking his life by cycling upside down on a tightrope over a canyon and doing handstands on a bar that hangs under a flying balloon. In the video below, he rides his bike backwards on a serpentine road in Norway. Ronningsbakken, however, is not fearless and admits to being very nervous before tricks. He believes that fear is the feeling that makes us human, and if he loses the feeling of fear, he will immediately quit everything, because he is afraid to stop being human.
10. Natalia Demkina
In Saransk, Russia, a girl named Natalia Demkina suddenly began to see through people's bodies. From childhood, people came to Natalia's house so that she looked inside them and said what they were sick with.
Interested in the "X-ray girl", Dr. Ray Hyman invited her to New York for a series of tests. One included six patients with diagnoses ranging from a removed appendix to having a metal plate in their skull from a brain tumour, and one healthy control participant. Natalia correctly named four out of six, which is certainly impressive, even though she claims to be able to see at the cellular level.
However, it is interesting that she confused the patient with the appendix and the patient with a metal plate in the skull - a serious mistake for a person who can see inside other people. In the end, visiting a doctor or someone with x-ray vision is your choice.
