Dialog 1 – About Third Order Intelligence
This is a relaxed informal dialog with M. about Third Order Intelligence
Dialog 1 - About Third Order Intelligence
M. - You have coined the term - Third Order Intelligence.- Is this really a different type or kind of intelligence or is it perhaps a form of therapy or a new belief system?
Dr. Gui - That looks like three questions bundled up into one. I call it Third Order Intelligence because it is the third of three levels of intelligence in the evolution of our brain. First Order Intelligence is genetic hard wired intelligence. Second Order Intelligence is culturally programmed intelligence. I see Third Order Intelligence as the next step in our conscious evolution. Third Order Intelligence offers us freedom from the cultural programming of Second Order Intelligence in the same way that cultural programming offered us freedom from the biological hard wiring of First Order Intelligence. When our species was thriving in First Order Intelligence yet needed to adapt it took generations of genetic alterations guided by natural selection for change to take place. With Second Order Intelligence a person could be programmed to change within the span of a lifetime and not only once, but as many times as the culture deemed appropriate. With Second Order Intelligence humans gained great freedom from their genetic hard wiring by shifting the seat of behavioral control from the hard wired limbic system to the programmable neo-cortex. While the programming of our neo-cortex by culture gives us freedom from our hard wiring, culture also enslaves us to its views and judgments. Third Order Intelligence provides us the freedom to see the world through our own eyes instead of the programmed eyes of culture. One will not learn to access Third Order Intelligence via their culture. It is the job of culture to maintain its particular version of Second Order Intelligence. That is why for example, the generations following the Renaissance reverted back to beliefs and programming, losing the freedom and creativity that marked the Renaissance. Unless one has a rebirth, unless one has a personal renaissance, unless one is born again - one remains trapped by an external vantage point. A clear model for psychological therapy is physical therapy. Just as physical therapy is useful for helping a physical injury to heal to its pre-injury state - psychological therapy is useful for helping an emotional injury heal to its pre-injury state. Except for those people suffering from emotional injury or trauma, most people do not need psychological therapy. What people do need is to mature. People need to grow up and learn to use their entire brain in an integrated way. People need to learn true integrity. They need to take responsibility for themselves as adults and learn to empower themselves. The world at large will not empower people - that is something people need to do for themselves. Beliefs are for children, not empowered adults. Children are led to believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny - and then they outgrow these beliefs by replacing them with reality based experience. I don't advocate holding beliefs. Third Order Intelligence is something that people apply and experience - not something that people believe in. People use Third Order Intelligence to live their lives with clarity, integrity, passion and purpose. There is nothing to believe in, only to experience. Let me say it differently - Third Order Intelligence is not something to believe in; Third Order Intelligence is something to live - to experience and apply.
M. - OK, so Third Order Intelligence is not therapy and it is not a system of beliefs you are saying it is an empowered way of using our brains.
M. – “OK – so Third Order Intelligence is not therapy and it is not a system of beliefs – you are saying it is an empowered way of using our brains.”
G. - “Exactly – Third Order Intelligence is an empowered way of using our brains in a conscious integrated manner. Third Order Intelligence offers us clear perception and choices not available to those blinded by the hypnotic spell cast by the beliefs of culture - any culture.”
M. – “Does that mean you are opposed to culture?”
G. – “Not at all – enculturation is a necessary step in our conscious evolution. But it is only a step, and not to be confused with maturation. When it is time for a baby to be weaned of its mother’s breast, we do not say that breast feeding is wrong or bad, or that we are opposed to breast feeding – we simply point out that it is time for baby to learn some new behaviors that will make baby more self-reliant and more independent of its mother. Enculturation is but a step in our human development – a step toward becoming fully human. While culture frees us from the grip of genetic hard wiring, it also enslaves us to its worldview – a worldview framed by Second Order Intelligence. When a person has learned the tools and skills that culture has to teach - is that the end of the learning process? Or might that be the beginning of self-empowered learning?"
M. – "What is the heart of the difference then between Second and Third Order Intelligence?"
M. – "What is the heart of the difference then between Second and Third Order Intelligence?"
G. - "Second Order Intelligence trains us in what to experience, what that experience means, what to think of that experience, and what to feel about that experience. Contrast this with Third Order Intelligence which teaches us how to fully experience, how to clearly see meaning through our own eyes, how to think objectively, and how to fully feel our emotions and turn them into self-empowered action. Second Order Intelligence dictates who and what we are by dictating our roles, what is and is not appropriate, what we should do and what we should not do. Third Order Intelligence has no shoulds to dictate or define us - it invites us to be fully human through the self-empowerment of using an integrated brain and the intelligence that emerges from using such a brain."
M. - "So Second Order Intelligence is about what to see, imagine, think and feel. Third Order Intelligence is about how to see, imagine, think, and feel?"
G. - "Exactly! It is about 'how' not 'what,' and add to that - in an integrated manner."
M. - "Can you give an example of what you mean by integrated manner?"
G. - "Yes, imagine Second Order Intelligence as the string section of an orchestra with backup from the percussion section. The woodwind and horn sections mostly just get to watch, and only get to play a bit now and again. The leader is the chief violinist. Now contrast this with an orchestra in which the string, percussion, woodwind and horn sections are equally balanced and there is a conductor leading the harmony. This is Third Order Intelligence, which plays in an integrated manner compared to the string dominated example, which plays in a fragmented manner."
M. - "You mention a conductor in Third Order Intelligence that is not present in Second Order Intelligence."
M. - "You mention a conductor in Third Order Intelligence that is not present in Second Order Intelligence."
G. - "Yes - just as abstract consciousness emerges from the concrete neo-cortex of Second Order Intelligence - a more abstract organizing consciousness (the conductor) emerges from integrated full brain functioning. I see the emergence of this new form of consciousness as a next step in our (for the first time) conscious evolution - thus Third Order Intelligence."
M. - "I wonder how many people learning about this will assume that they already possess Third Order Intelligence, but who are really functioning from Second Order Intelligence?"
G. - "Well, a very common response from people who begin to understand Third Order Intelligence is that they appreciate it and think the world needs Third Order Intelligence - but that somehow they are already functioning at Third Order Intelligence."
M. - "So this is an example of what I have heard you say is the difference between "knowing about something", for example knowing about swimming; and actually "knowing something," for example, actually knowing how to swim?"
G. - "Exactly!"