First, I start this with a quote:
Over the centuries, people have placed a wall around such mastery. They have called it genius, and have thought of it as inaccessible. They have seen it as the product of privilege, inborn talent, or just the right alignment of the stars. The have made it seem as if it were as illusive as magic, but that wall is imaginary. This, is the real secret: The brain that we posses is the work of 6 million years of development, and more than anything else, this evolution of the brain is designed to lead us to mastery, the latent power within us all." ~ Robert Green, from his book "Mastery"
VERY GOOD BOOK. Read it especially if you're interested in mastering any sort of skill
Many people are always looking for some way to permanently increase their intelligence. Not even LTP from various substances is permanent. Once off the substance, your brain chemical levels will revert to their normal levels and your brain will function at it's usual efficiency.
Some people might think that all geniuses or super-intelligent people are simply that way because of genetics, or luck. While this is true for a VERY small percentage of cases, it is not the case for them all.
What makes a person intelligent/genius is how their thought patterns/neuronal structures are arranged, and how areas of their brain communicate. THIS IS CHANGEABLE IN ALL PEOPLE. Clearly easier to influence at younger ages because the brain is producing more development juice, but with(or without) the aid of supplements, it can be rewired at any age... Most people don't really think about the structure of their thought processes and patterns. Or when they do they think very broadly about it, as in "I can't figure this out" bla bla bla.
If you were to take cognitively enhancing supplements/nootropics, and just practiced any random ol mental skill, no matter how much you practice it, the nootropic will not make you more efficient at it. The nootropic can however speed up the rate at which you learn, and/or increase the complexity of newly formed patterns. But ultimately what it comes down to, if the "root neuronal system" of that mental skill isn't complex in function, then all of the following steps into that, no matter how complexly structured, won't make you a genius at the skill.
Here's an example. There are memory tournaments around the world, where people will go to compete to see who has the best memory. 99% of them will tell you they are not special, and they are not savants. They did not simply try to remember over and over again making their memory super developed. What they did, was RELEARN a new method of remembering. They don't recall how a normal person would. They have a structured method to doing it. That structured method is the "root" at which they build the rest of their recall. They are not super powered in any way, they have just trained their neuronal structure for recall to function in a very specific way using various tricks to remember.
Some people might think Einstein was some Genius that nobody can compete with. That he was simply genetically gifted at math or visualization. This, again, was not the case. Einstein was a normal person in his youth. The only difference between him, and you, and is that he had this interest in science at a young age. When working at the patent office he mentally practiced doing thought experiments with visualization, and visualizing math at work. He was not gifted at math better than you or I, he simply had a different manner of solving mathematical problems by using a different brain structure.This method of his for solving was highly complex in it's execution, but he built on this, over time he became very good at it.
The brain folks, is like a very powerful computer. If you are running very simple software in it, then you're not going to get anything extravagant out of it. Overclocking that computer with drugs, supplements, and nootropics, will not increase the functioning of that software, this is simple fact. Instead, designing that software to operate in a more complex manner, will allow it to utilize more of the computer at once. Just as a simple piece of software may use 1/16th of the amount of RAM that a complex piece of software uses.
If you want to increase your intelligence, or your mental skills, nootropics will only take you so far. You need to focus on your software. Focus on the thought patterns of whatever it is you're trying to do. Practice tricks to tweak your mental exercises to make them more efficient try to incorporate different parts of your brain into the mix. THERE IS NO FORUMLA FOR THIS The brain has limitless resources so the sheer amount of mental skills that can be developed, or the complexity in functioning of thought-patterns is literally LIMITLESS.
When it comes to new thought patterns, it's like learning any skill. It may be challenging at first, but with enough practice(over a couple weeks), it can be second nature. You might wonder, how can you improve your memory if it just happens spontaneously. The only reason you experience it as happening spontaneously is because you have been doing that certain method your entire life. You can develop a new method of remembering and practice it so it is as easy to do as your current method of remembering, yet only more efficient.
This can be done with anything, and trust me when I say.... YOUR IMAGINATION IS YOUR ONLY LIMIT. Your imagination is the foundation of your mind. If you can imagine some sort of mental-task, your brain can do it, and then it's only a matter of exercising it into reality as a task you can perform in seconds. You are the programmer for your mind.
A TIP: The visual center of the brain is one of the largest and most powerful sections. Therefor it is going to be easiest and most efficient to utilize it in your mental task, over most any other part of the brain. Einstein managed to incorporate his visual center into his math through lots of practice and visualizing various problems when he was working at the patent office in switzerland. He would sit there all day and visualize the various devices he would see, imagining how they would function in his mind. He also did this with physics-thought experiments. He likely wasn't easy or effective at first.... but with PERSISTENCE, he managed to make it so effective that he could visualize devices working as if they were going in front of his eyes. Many other innovators used this trick, including Temple Grandin(albiet she had the autistic advantage), Leonardo Da Vinci(who was no different from you nor I, despite popular belief, he just used different thinking patterns), and Nikola Tesla, to name a few.
Remember... you are the controller, the programmer. You can tell your mind to function in any manner whatsoever. The possibilities are endless. Nootropics can obviously help speed up the rate at which you can learn and develop these new skills..... though without actively trying to change your thought patterns.... no nootropic will permanently increase your intelligence.
I had some really good websites that talked about different tricks you use to reprogram your mind to become more creative, have a better memory, etc... but I lost the links xD.... If I find them, I will post them and update this topic... so be on the look up.
Edit:
Here is one of the sites that talks about various mental tricks you can do to think more creatively, more hilarious, and many other things, etc. It's linked to a particular article having to do with mathematics. There are many other sub-sections in the drop-down menus at the top.
http://enchantedmind...tics_part1.html
Edited by Siro, 29 January 2013 - 04:48 AM.
