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What we currently call “critical thinking” is limited and inaccurate. It considers only one layer of intelligence. The cognitive, dissection-based process that breaks ideas into parts, checks logic, and evaluates claims. This definition misses the body’s connection-based intelligence’s incredible value in critical thinking. Which asks how our current focus connects with reality.

The salience network is important in this discussion because it explains how a person decides what matters. In a domesticated system, salience is trained toward external authority: grades, diagnoses, instructions, metrics, approval, productivity, and correct answers. Education conditions the mind to treat system-defined signals as important and not to trust their own experiential knowledge. Before domestication of intelligence the salience network included the environment and lived reality in critical thinking.

Schooling, medicine, mental health systems, workplace discipline, and now AI all participate in salience rerouting. They train people away from connection-based intelligence and toward externally managed interpretation. The result is a professional class that has often lost access to self-direction, threat calibration, desire, environmental awareness, macro-pattern recognition, and natural sociability, then mistakes that loss for authority. Because their own salience has been narrowed to binary judgment. The can only see the outcome as correct or incorrect, compliant or noncompliant, normal or disordered. They cannot recognize intelligence that exceeds the cognitive-based system. The impact on our children, particularly the the most sensitive children, negatively. They are punished, labeled and shamed when they externalize the higher intelligence capacities domestication has stolen from everyone else. The system is not discovering deficiency in these children; it is projecting an inversion of the capacities it has lost. The very traits it labels as deficits are the traits humanity needs to adapt to the change ahead.

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In this episode of The Gifted Creative Podcast, I offer a forward-looking perspective on how we will come to understand the intelligence of the body.

Our current view of the body’s non-linear, connection-based intelligence often limits it to relationship intelligence—a narrow lens. However, emerging science in embodied cognition and research from Caltech on the body’s billion-bit processing capacity suggest that our somatic intelligence is far more expansive.

Through personal stories and six years of research, I explore why I believe body-based intelligence is the foundation for everything we need to navigate the future.

Looking to be Cultivated Instead of Dissected?

• Join our free Creative Collective. www.CreativeIntelligenceInstitute.ca or www.CreativeIntelligenceInstitute.eu
• Consider taking the Gifted ND holistic intelligence test to assess how much of your somatic and creative intelligence you’ve preserved. Its free and the results will surprise you. www.GiftedND.com

Further Exploration:

1. Embodied Cognition:
   • Look into the work of Alva Noë (Out of Our Heads) or Andy Clark (Supersizing the Mind), who argue that cognition is deeply tied to the body and environment.
   • Explore Varela, Thompson, and Rosch’s The Embodied Mind for a foundational take on embodied cognition.
2. Caltech’s Research on Body vs. Mind Processing or Caltech’s work on interoception and the body’s role in decision-making.
3. Somatic Marker Theory (Antonio Damasio)

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What is Creative Intelligence?

Creative Intelligence is the ability to understand the whole picture—enabling you to create, navigate, or adapt what is needed. It is the integrated intelligence of mind and body, a concept that was erased when philosophy embraced Cartesian Dualism.

Creatives require greater depth and breadth to grasp what others accept without question. We don’t settle for understanding until a certain threshold of clarity is met. This approach feels healthy and normal, yet our systems discourage and pathologize it.

Creatives don’t struggle to understand our systems; their dysfunction is clear. The impasse we face is that we cannot fix these systems because we overvalue narrow, detail-focused perspectives. These perspectives cannot address big-picture fractures. Meanwhile, the voices that could offer solutions are pushed to the margins, where they lack the power to be heard.

Whole picture seeing creatives are not valued in our systems despite the system's clear messages they need them. So myself and other creatives have joined up to create a place where they are valued and that value is understood and cultivated.

That place is called the Creative Intelligence Institute of Canada. www.CreativeIntelligenceInstitute.ca

A place where we are researching, cultivating and creating a new understanding about what our native intelligence really is. If you are a creative consider joining our creative collective. It's free to join and connect with other creatives.

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In this episode of the Gifted Creative Podcast, we delve into the timeless relevance of Plato's allegory of the Cave and analyze its implications on modern education, power, and media, arguing that the story illustrates how societal systems fragment holistic intelligence and enforce a superficial understanding of knowledge. The podcast compares the cave to today’s classroom settings, where students are taught to memorize and regurgitate information rather than develop a comprehensive understanding. It emphasizes the need for education systems to foster holistic learning, integrating cognitive, somatic, and creative intelligences. Additionally, they critique how societal structures, established since ancient dualistic philosophies, systematically devalue and constrain human intelligence. Ultimately, the host calls for a transformation in how we perceive and cultivate intelligence, advocating for a re-connection with our holistic cognitive capacities.

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Welcome to The Gifted Neurodivergent Podcast, where we explore the extraordinary minds of those who see the world differently. Host Lillian Skinner talks with independent researcher Allan, a fascinating individual who has carved his own path in life. Allan, who has dyspraxia, joins us to shed light on this often-misunderstood neurotype and its surprising connections to conditions like Ehlers-Danlos syndrome.

Together, they challenge traditional notions of intelligence, discussing how creative, holistic thinking and a strong connection between the body and mind are not just valuable—they're essential for thriving in a rapidly changing world. Allan’s journey from a childhood of feeling misunderstood to embracing his unique neurodivergence as a source of genius offers profound insight and hope for anyone who has ever felt like an outlier.

Tune in as they discuss:

• The connection between dyspraxia and hypermobility.
• How physical and creative pursuits can unlock deeper levels of intelligence.
• The societal pressures to conform to "average" and the high cost of doing so.
• The importance of embracing a multi-dimensional way of thinking to navigate the future.

This episode is a celebration of what it means to be truly intelligent—not by society's narrow definition, but by the power of our integrated minds and bodies. Join us to learn how embracing our authentic selves can be our greatest strength.

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In this episode of the Gifted Creative Podcast we explore the destructive nature of perfectionism in society and its negative impact on creativity, human intelligence, and holistic growth. The episode delves into historical examples, such as 16th century Japan's tea master Sen No Rikyu, to illustrate how an obsession with perfection is unhealthy. The podcast emphasizes that true beauty and intelligence come from imperfections and integrated thinking, not from artificial perfection. It critiques the current educational system for fragmenting children's natural holistic intelligence, which stifles creative genius and leads to various mental and physical health issues. It calls for a shift away from rigid, perfectionist thinking towards embracing multidimensional intelligence, which it argues is essential for personal and societal survival in times of profound change.

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This episode of the Gifted Creative Podcast delves deeply into Aesop's fable of the City Mouse and the Country Mouse. It unpacks the metaphorical significance of the story, interpreting the city mouse as individuals who live in perpetual stimulation and under control, while the country mouse represents creatives who thrive in slower natural environments that offer freedom and simplicity. It questions the design of urban environments, much like the city mouse's luxurious but perilous surroundings. The podcast reviews historical manipulation of societal values to favor urban living, that suppress holistic creative intelligence. The podcast covers how cities rise and fall. Finally it examines where not to live for those who want to develop their full scope of creative intelligence.

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In this episode of the Gifted Neurodivergent Child Podcast, the host provides a deep analysis and personal perspective on 'The Little Prince.' The discussion covers themes of holistic versus fragmented intelligence, and how children's stories encapsulate profound wisdom often missed in adult narratives. The host recounts their own childhood interactions with the story and critiques traditional adult behaviors reflected in the archetypes of the story. The episode emphasizes the importance of maintaining holistic intelligence and emotional connection, both in personal relationships and as a broader societal critique.

00:00 Introduction to the Podcast

00:14 Summary and Personal Reflections on The Little Prince

00:56 Childhood Memories and Changing Perspectives

01:17 The Holistic vs. Fragmented Intelligence

03:33 The Little Prince's Journey and Characters

06:46 Lessons from The Little Prince

12:01 The Fox and the Concept of Taming

13:32 The Snake and the Red Pill Moment

14:49 Final Reflections and Conclusion

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