Intellectual Faculties

For 3000 years, philosophers, scientists and theologians taught us that you become what you think about. Are we truly masters of our own destiny, or controlled by forces outside ourselves? What separates humans from lower animals that are controlled by their environment – if anything? Is the only input to our mind our five senses?

I believe that humans have six intellectual faculties that allow us to determine our destiny and to rise above our environment. Active use of these faculties is what separates humans from lower animals.

The intellectual faculties are imagination, reason, intuition, perception, memory and will. You can use them to build a powerful conscious mind, conceive beautiful new futures and even change your self-image.

With these intellectual faculties you can control what you think.

Imagination

Imagination is the intellectual faculty used to fantasize and create your dream life. It is the part of the mind that Thomas Edison referred to as the land of possibilities. Carl Benz fantasized about a horseless carriage; Edison fantasized about the movie projector and incandescent light bulb, the Wright brothers fantasized about flight. Each brought their fantasy into existence. In fact, every invention started in someone’s imagination.

Even inventions discovered by serendipity, such as vulcanizing rubber or the glue used on Post-it notes, required someone’s imagination to apply the discovery.

There are two types of imagination: adaptive and creative.

Adaptive imagination is the type we use most often. We use adaptive imagination when we put two or more existing ideas together and come up with a new idea, or when we have a problem and modify an existing idea to develop a better solution. You can develop your adaptive imagination reading, brainstorming and in-depth studying of problems you wish to solve. Adaptive imagination usually produces evolutionary advancement.

Creative imagination is the type that develops an original idea. You can develop your creative imagination by relaxing your mind and taking notes of your thoughts. Creative imagination usually produces revolutionary advancement.

Young children have very active imaginations. An empty box could be a castle, car or an airplane. Early in school, they are taught that such fantasies were for little kids and it is time to grow up. So the greatest force in the history of the world, imagination, goes dormant.

Re-activate and develop your imagination. It is people who develop their imaginations that come up with unique solutions to problems. It is the person with an active imagination that makes the great artist, inventor or author.

Imagine a better life. Ignore any logic or reasonableness. If you want greater income, imagine making your annual income your monthly income. Rather than a promotion at work, imagine being president. An active imagination will take us beyond the limits created in our self-image.

Just before going to sleep and just upon awaking, visualize yourself already having reached your goal. Feel the happiness and satisfaction. The sub-conscious does not evaluate input. It accepts anything input to it.

It does not matter that you do not know how to reach the goal; that information will come to you. It is important that you see yourself having reached that goal, and that you believe you can reach it.

Reason

Reason is the opposite of imagination. Reason is the logical part of the mind and does the thinking and planning. It is the faculty most people in the western world develop in school. This provides the ability to choose by filtering the inputs from the senses or intellectual faculties.

Examples of reasoning faculty are: your plans to achieve a goal, your well thought out decision to follow route A rather than B, and your argument to convince someone join your group.

There are two types of reason: deductive reasoning and inductive reasoning.

Deductive reasoning is a process of applying logical principles to given premises or general facts to derive a specific fact. If the logical principles are applied correctly and the starting premises are accepted as true; the mind has no ability to reject the result. The teaching of geometry and philosophy in high school and college are examples of deductive reasoning.

Your starting premises (self-image) about you are developed at an early age, before the inductive mind has developed. In a positive environment, you benefit from the positive ideas; in a negative environment the negative energy enters your thinking and you become a product of that environment. In other words, if you were told at a young age that you are a good person, as you grow older you accept evidence that supports that and reject evidence that refutes your belief. If you were told that you are a bad kid, you will accept evidence that supports that and reject evidence to the contrary. Your self-image, either good or bad will become stronger.

Inductive reasoning is a process of deriving general principles from particular facts or instances. This is the critical intellectual faculty and begins to develop in some people at the age of six. The inductive reasoning faculty questions every thought or impression entering your conscious mind and accepts what it deems is good for you and rejects what it deems as bad. If you do not use this, you become like animals; you become a servant of your environment.

You can develop this faculty by playing logic games, solving Sudoku puzzles, studying philosophy or mathematics, reading good books or having discussions with thinking individuals.

Intuition

Intuition is the faculty of knowing or sensing without the use of rational processes; it is an impression of something not evident or deducible. Intuition is that little voice you hear that tells you to do this, or don’t do that. It is that flash of light – that great idea supposedly from out of nowhere.

When you set your goal, you may not know how to reach it. The solution will come to you from the universe and probably in a manner that you could not have planned or thought of yourself. Study the problem diligently, then relax and the answer will come to you.

Always carry a note pad and pen. When a flash occurs write it down immediately or you may lose it.

Learn to trust and follow your intuition. To hear that voice, you must quiet your mind. Go to a quite place and relax, both physically and mentally. Do not think of anything and let the universe guide you. Relaxation or meditation music can help.

Some people say that prayer is you talking to God and intuition is God is talking to you.

You can develop you intuition by listening to it. Free your mind or all thoughts and turn off your inductive reasoning. Listen to the universe and write down what flashes of genius you receive. Intuition is what gives us the ideas for our creative imagination.

Carl Jung said, \”Intuition is perception via the unconscious.\”

Perception

Perception is your view of events or facts. Events and facts are neutral. Your perception of those is your point of view and determines your attitude. It is possible to shift your point of view.

Some examples: If a man brings flowers to his wife for the first time after being married for five years, he may see it as showing affection; she may see it as seeking forgiveness for something he has done wrong.

If you get laid off, you may see it as a bad thing because you lost your income, or a good thing because now you are free to move to a better job.

When you see a situation that at first appears bad, stop, clear your mind, and see it as neutral. Then change your point of view to find the good.

Memory

Memory is the faculty of retaining and recalling past experience. Oscar Wilde defined memory as the diary that we all carry with us.

Our memory tells us where we live, gives us pictures of our spouse and children and lets us know why we want to go home. It helps us remember where we work, what we do there and why.

It also reminds us of what happened the last time we tried something new and did not have success – and creates self-limiting beliefs.

If you give energy to your past failures (we all have had them) you will continue to fail; if you give energy to your past successes (we all have had them) you will continue to succeed. When you get a flash of a past failure or indiscretion, admit it and replace it with a good thought. It may be a good idea to choose that replacement thought now so that when you remember something bad, you already have the replacement

Scientific studies show we all have perfect memories. We can develop our recall ability by games such as Trivial Pursuit, memorizing songs or poems, or acting in a play.

Will

Will is the ability to give yourself a command and follow through on it; your ability to concentrate. Will encompasses will power and self-discipline

Will power is the inner strength to make a decision, take action, and handle and execute any aim or task until it is accomplished, regardless of inner and outer resistance, discomfort or difficulties.

Self-discipline is the rejection of instant gratification in favor of something better. It is the giving up of instant pleasure and satisfaction for a higher and better goal. Self-discipline is forgoing that extra piece of delicious cake for the higher goal of better health.

Summary

Imagination is the faculty used to create the mental picture of your dream life. Reason gives you the ability to plan for it. Intuition gives you that flash that shows you the way and helps you solve the problems. Perception is the faculty that allows you to see the obstacles and problems as necessary steps to reaching your dream rather than road blocks. Memory is where you keep track of your dream and plans. Will keeps you focused on this dream.

All of the intellectual faculties are neutral – they do not understand good or bad, right or wrong. So, if you imagine yourself as physically fit or wealthy, it will happen; if you imagine yourself as fat or broke, it will happen. You reap what you sow. If you plant corn seeds you get a corn crop. If you plant limited ideas you get limited results. If you plant abundance thinking, you get abundance in life.

These inner powers are not reserved for a few special people, we all have all of them. The intellectual faculties are mental muscles and, like other muscles, need to be used or they will atrophy. We can develop them and use them to give us a fuller, more abundant life.

You become what you think about. Control your thoughts to become anything you want to be. It is within your power.

Tags: Growth, Leadership, Personal Development