Itinerant Intelligence

There are many types of intelligence talked about these days……from emotional to spiritual to good old fashioned IQ.

This blog sets out to explore  something rather different to all of these  -  the idea of an intelligence which is born not out of the brain or heart activity of an individual but from a connection between a person’s attitudes, values and actions and an intelligence which  resides outside of the person but which will join them and help them according to what they are attempting to do. 

Is this a new idea  ?  Well, in parts no  …..but in other ways, yes, very much so.  It may well be part of the new evolution of consciousness which is much talked of in the 21st century but actually very little described or explored in depth..

So, where are there seeds of this truth , already partly realized in history ? 

Well, let’s think back in history over a longer period of time and review certain prime times when there seems to have been some major breakthrough in thought, or art or religion.

Lets start 2500 years ago when there was a flurry of new thought across the globe from as far away as India, to China to Greece.  This was the time of around 500BC where within a hundred years, we saw the lives of Gautama Buddha, Lao Tse, Confucius, Socrates, Zoroaster  and perhaps others less well known of this period.    This time saw the birth of Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, the building of the Parthenon, the refinement of the Acropolis and the birth of the Golden Age of  Athens. In other words many of the ideas and philosophical templates which were born in this age, were major influences upon the unfolding of modern man and  are today’s still key  influences in today’s thinking.  Pre 1000 BC, there was far more emphasis on the importance of the collective, than the individual.  For example, tribal law was almost exclusively designed to protect the continuity and well being of the whole tribe. To us it can seem harsh, yet the survival of the whole was always of paramount importance and far succeeded the importance of ‘fairness’ to the individual.

The various thought influences which appeared around 500BC lay the seeds of the rise of the importance of individuality, and all that surrounds that significant shift from the collective to the unique aspect of each one of us.

But let’s pause a moment , return to 500BC and consider the odds against this extraordinary ‘crop’ of great thinkers all happening within a hundred years of each other. The odds against this being coincidental are stacked pretty high. This was not the time of the internet or global communications but a time when travel was by boat, horse and foot. It is an interesting facet of life today that there is a new trend appearing which is to see things from a global or world citizen perspective. ..something which would have been impossible in 500BC.

The proposition that is being put forward is that these great men were all responding to an intelligence and  possibility of their time. Some might call it the Zeitgeist, to use a later term, or the spirit of their age.  Whatever we call it, if there is such an external influence which man responds to, then it is a pretty amazing part of our human history, that has often been ignored! As a student of history at university, there was certainly no reference, outside of men and nations, as being those responsible for events and trends.

Perhaps, there has been an unsung and unseen hero appearing and disappearing on our time line of refinement and progress!

It’s fascinating that 500 years after this extraordinary philosophical appearance, we have the birth of Jesus Christ, and another 500 years later the appearance of Mohamed. With them appear two other hugely influential religious philosophies which have shaped much of our population’s thoughts , ethics and religious beliefs.

Move forward yet another 1000 years, and we see around 1500, the advent of the Reformation and Renaissance where Western thinking went through massive change in understanding, religion, art, architecture and  music. …and again one might ask what prompted this great surge of new learning, overturning of outdated views, inventions like the printing press, and a review of religious authority.  In hindsight, it is easy to say, well it was just the Reformation or the Renaissance but names can often blind us to the hugeness of what was changing in humanity at that time.

Again one might zone in on another aspect of this which was the way that for example, so much music appeared in Germany ..or why there was such a concentration of painters in France…was it just one person inspiring another or could it be that there was an influence which moved people to think, see and hear in new ways…which lead to the new art and music?

It ‘s fascinating that the truly great creative people often talk in terms of ideas dropping into their mind  - almost from left field.  That great Eureka moment when something is thought that has never been thought before. Einstein is quoted as saying “Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”

So where does this new knowledge come from ? Do we just dream it up, or is there perhaps a helping vitamin from elsewhere which stimulated the human mind to new elevations. I sometimes try and imagine what it was like for those creatively involved with new appearance…men like Leonardo Da Vinci, the archetypal ‘Renaissance Man’ What was their ‘Muse’..or  ‘Inspiration’  ?  How driven they must have felt, how energised ..and perhaps how lonely at times? For surely, they must have been surrounded by thousands of other people for whom life was ‘business as usual’ and although living through it, the Renaissance somehow passed them by as they got on with the every day maintenance of living their lives?  How can some people be driven , yet others not notice this new vibrancy and possibility? Indeed, many in the establishment not only ignored the significance of the appearing new learning but were positively threatened by it and persecuted those who were its pioneers as they disturbed the status quo of power, religion and politics.

Ok….so these are some snaps from the past ….but what of today?

Are we in a similar time of upgrade and new energy, which began in the 20th century?  A time of re-evaluation of what is important, of our ethics and values? An opportunity for making a quantum leap in intelligence ?  It becomes increasingly difficult to deny we are in the throws of a major world crisis which is outplaying in so many ways .....more and more people feel and know the reality of this. But there are also a growing web of people who detect this apparent and worrying breakdown,  is an inevitable, though painful, part of something very new and exciting making an appearance.