CHESMAYNE

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IQ

Intelligence Quotient

01 Vocabulary is commonly regarded as the best single test of IQ.   An educated native speaker of English knows at least 50,000+ words, some 20,000 more than Shakespeare used in his many plays.   Children use 500+ words by the age of five which rises to 20,000+ by age 13.   A university student will have 50,000+ words at his/her command.   A word is an intersection point at which numerous strands meet.   These strands include synonyms, antonyms, words that sound alike and a powerful sense of which words should go with other words. 

 “I care not whether a wo/man is good or evil; all that I care is whether s/he is a wise wo/man or a fool.   Go!   Put off holiness and put on intellect” (Jerusalem). 

02 Tests were invented in France by Alfred Binet, 1857-1911.   He devised tests that are based on a person’s intellectual aptitude ie, judgement, reasoning and comprehension and produced a list of questions that could be solved regardless of belief-system, previous school record or social class. 

03 A normal IQ is considered to be 100.   IQ is calculated by the ratio of mental age over the chronological age.   What this means is that a five-year old child may have a mental age of seven!   Many wo/men with high IQs (genius) are often failures in their academic, personal and professional life. 

Above: Chess table

 “An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself”. 

04 Shakespeare used a vocabulary of 25,000 words in his writing.   Vocabulary and the ability to envisage relationships between different words is a major factor in measuring IQ.   See computer section for further details.   The technique of speed reading was invented in the 1930s by Evelyn Wood.   She found that her students were able to achieve better results if they were able to read faster than average.   So she taught them to achieve rates of 1,000 words per minute (equivalent to reading a novel in under an hour).   President Kennedy sent many of his White House staff on her courses.   President Carter takes pride in his rapid reading.   One student claimed to be able to read ‘Animal Farm’ in 25 minutes!   Another could read a 300-page novel in 40 minutes.   Introductory paragraphs in documents are often verbiage.   However, the jewels are often hidden away in the stuff that looks like verbiage.   Some have concluded that quality declines with speed reading.   A good book is like a fine meal.   You savour the main taste if you bolt it down, but you will not get all the finer flavours! 

05 Head: the heart was considered the seat of intellect, intelligence, conscience and memory (‘lift up your heart’) - the head, the seat of life.   Air (along with Earth, Water and Fire): thought to be lively, active and masculine and related to breadth and wind.   Symbol of spirit, invisible to the human eye but noticeable in its effects.   In Alchemy ‘Air’ is represented by an upward pointing triangle with a line near its top parallel to the base. 

“Intelligence is quickness to apprehend as distinct from ability, which is capacity to act wisely on the thing apprehended”. 

06 IQ can include dexterity of speech (verbal alacrity) and visual awareness (spatial capacity).  From Aristotle to B.F. Skinner, via Erasmus and Nietzsche, philosophers and behavioural psychologists have argued about the nature of intelligence and attempted to define its origins. 

07 The neocortex, or the ‘thinking brain’ sited at the base of the brainstem, is the area where all incoming signals are processed.   Most medical experts would argue that every human reaction is determined by this crucial part of the brain and that it cannot be by-passed. 

08 EQ = Emotional Intelligence.   SQ = Spiritual quotient. 

09 CIA/NSA: American Intelligence Services (among others!). 

09B FSB: Russian Intelligence Service (successor to the KGB). 

09C MI5/MI6/GCHQ: British Intelligence Services.  GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters).  Presently having 6,000+ employees.  Its main function is eavesdropping on overseas telecommunications and other electronic signals to provide defence and foreign intelligence, principally in support of military operations.   It has a budget of ST 500 million pounds.  A rationalization process has begun with the ending of the Cold (icy - frigid) War.   Sir John Adye and David Omand have been past directors. 

09D Shin Bet/Mossad: Israeli Intelligence Service. 

09F Cesid: Spanish Intelligence Service.  

10 Sophomania: delusional state in which the sufferer believes that s/he is a person of exceptional intelligence. 

11 Bat (Far East): bat and luck (fu) are homonyms.  Sure orientation in darkness and seen as a symbol of intelligence and a symbol of envy because it flies under the cover of darkness.   In alchemy it is a symbol of ambiguities. 

12 Compass: symbol of creative power and mental activity, truth, justice, moderation and prudence.  Personified as geometry, astronomy, architecture and geography.  It is sometimes shown with the T-Square.