Underground Knowledge — A discussion group discussion

Rosalie wrote: "Ex., Michael Jordan's brain is fused. He didn't linearly assess what went on on the court and step by step plan his moves. He saw the whole configuration of the court, and automatically responded..."

Yep, Jordan's a good example of brain hemispheric synchronization. He obviously had great genetics and worked hard (physically) to become the best, but what's less known is he also did a lot of rare brain enhancing techniques during his career. For example, Jordan was hypnotized (by a professional hypnotist) before every game he played for the Chicago Bulls. He did a lot of other unusual techniques to further whatever he was given genetically. It seems this guy not only got his body in the ultimate shape for performance, but also his brain. Tiger Woods is exactly the same and has been working with a mind coach and neuroscientists doing NLP, hypnosis and brain boosting methods since he was 13.

Rosalie wrote: "Artists have always more easily accessed the intuitive through the right side of the brain. Now, the left and right sides of our brains are bridging together. Not to mention that our DNA is evolv..."

Do you think our DNA evolving is to do with our Junk DNA? Or is it something else with the Helix perhaps?

Rosalie wrote: "James wrote: "Catherine wrote: "that was a bit long-winded....but I also would like to add....it also makes a big differnce at what age you begin learning.....for some reason a younger brain learns..."

well..but isn't that true about everyone? the saying "if you don't use it, you lose it" rings true for everyone, no? even geniuses?

James wrote: "Rosalie wrote: "Ex., Michael Jordan's brain is fused. He didn't linearly assess what went on on the court and step by step plan his moves. He saw the whole configuration of the court, and automat..."

Yes, that's all true. A thought I had yesterday was that working on accessing levels of mind, which is what the brain does, as a transmitter/receiver, will help intelligence more than anything.

I don't know that you'd use that innate intelligence, but you'd lose things you've learned, like my foreign language usage.

Have you ever noticed the light in the eyes of smart babies and small kids? They have brought more of the mind and spirit into their body. I don't yet have straight what makes a soul able to do that.

But speaking about innate abilities and spirit, I forgot why I opened the computer. I have two blog posts planned. One is about Innate (noun) and why quantum healing works. The other is about who we are; who we are at or highest self.

I figured I'd add my 2 cents.

The issue with so-called polyglots is that there's no standard definition of the word. Most attempts at definition I've seen refer to "mastery" of other languages. Something many of the pseudo-polyglots don't have and therefore aren't polyglots.

I recently got tested by my therapists and it was concluded I have an immeasurable IQ. It is immeasurable because I score highly gifted to genius on some tests while average on another. I understand 7 languages. 5 at C2, rest at B1-2,C1. Hoping to add Turkish as an 8th.

I have met people who claim to know 10 or more languages and found that they tend to be full of shit. For example, there's this TED talk about this kid who supposedly speaks a large amount of languages and he gives some examples. The jibberish he utters is worse than a 2 year old's attempt at saying "dada". To people who are true polyglots this becomes immediately apparent. To those who only know -of- their native language it sounds as if this person does know these languages.

If this person or any of the other pseudo-polyglots were to apply for a job in central western Europe where polyglots are a dime a dozen, they'd have to show certificates that prove their skill levels. Someone who supposedly speaks for example 17 languages but has to show proof, then suddenly drops down to one or two. Where did the other 15 go?

Knowing a few words in a different language does not make someone a polyglot. Having the equivalent skill level of someone who trained 1000-2000 hours in a language and having this in multiple languages, that's what makes a polyglot. With this I mean getting at least a C1 rating.

So my point is that there are a lot of pseudo-polyglots who use their knowledge of a few words and sentences as a way to impress people on first impression but they don't survive the scrutiny of actual sceptical, critically thinking polyglots like myself.

Now how did I become a polyglot? I spoke 4 languages by the age of 6 while everyone else barely spoke one. I thought something was wrong with the other kids. I never went to kindergarten. I was pretty much in a constant state of terror. I have an ACE score of 10, resilience 1, for those who have heard of the adverse childhood experiences studies...

Basically I learned from watching tv in different languages and being exposed to music in those languages. Other kids had access to those things too but somehow nothing stuck. I suspect I learned more rapidly due to the fact that I was in a constant state of stress and just learning stuff may have meant survival.

Later on I learned how to read and write and subsequently learned how to read and write these languages. I added more languages over time.

If you know of only your native language, it is very hard to learn other languages. You may have noticed I say "knowing of" because people who only know one language tend to be very very bad at their native language.

It supposedly takes 1400 hours of instruction to reach C2 in a language. (This is for the easy category of languages.) Once you know a few languages already, the number of hours goes down. Many languages share grammatical rules. They share word origins. So this means that once you've passed the first few hurdles, learning other languages becomes easier, which explains real polyglots.

For example, Spanish and German share words or parts of words, especially if you look into local slang and dialects.

I forgot to mention the other category of pseudo-polyglots who have a purely academic knowledge of other languages. They learn these languages in school but after thousands of hours of instruction they still only reach B1 or so because the instruction is so bad and/or they're not particularly interested. They won't know any actual day to day casual speech and will have a harder time linking German to Spanish or Dutch to Spanish which are odd links to make at first glance but make sense when you look at history.

So in short: Most polyglots I've met and seen, were full of shit. I question the validity of those lists of people who supposedly know this many languages. On the other hand, becoming a polyglot/learning more languages, becomes progressively easier the more languages you know.

So if someone claims to know x amount of languages, they'll need to show me the same number of C2 certificates. If they can't deliver, they're not polyglots. They're just full of shit.

I figured I wouldn't start a new thread but seeing how this thread is 8 months old... Dunno. Sorry if necroing is frowned upon.

This C stuff I keep mentioning might sound foreign to Americans so here's some info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_...

Donner wrote: "I figured I'd add my 2 cents.

The issue with so-called polyglots is ..."

I think the same, generally, Donner, and enjoyed your post.

Polyglotism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polyglo...

"Polyglotism or polyglottism[1] is the ability to master, or the state of having mastered, multiple languages. The word is a synonym of multilingualism, but, in recent usage, polyglot is sometimes used to refer to a person who learns multiple languages as an avocation.[2][3] The term hyperpolyglot was coined in 2008 by linguist Richard Hudson to describe individuals who speak–to some degree–dozens of languages."

Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant by Daniel Tammet



Thinking In Numbers: On Life, Love, Meaning, and Math

Polyglot: How I Learn Languages