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Complementary Corner

Understanding intelligence

Jefferson Breland

(7/2025) Last month I introduced a different angle on the idea of "Natural Intelligence" in relationship to the "Artificial Intelligence" fad thing.

To summarize last month’s column:

I wrote about some differences between "Artificial Intelligence (AI)" and "Natural Intelligence. (NI)."

The primary distinctions I wanted to point out are that AI is external and mechanical while NI is internal and biological.

NI helped our ancestors survive for many thousand’s of years, It is the wisdom we have inherited from our ancestors. NI exists in all aspects of our being. When our body and/or mind is out of balance, NI is expressed as physical and/or mental symptoms.

The more we can learn to recognize symptoms as our body’s wisdom, the less we will have to rely on someone else or a technology to tell us what our bodies already know.

Natural intelligence is simply waking up and paying attention to what we experience in our bodies. When we do this, we can address minor health concerns before they become more serious ones.

What I didn’t share was the generally accepted ideas and definitions of "Natural Intelligence (NI)."

Also called Naturalistic Intelligence, the various definitions range broadly from the "act of observing nature, knowing the names of plants, animals, nature events, bird song, etc" to being a gardener, a farmer, natural scientist, or conservationist.

The suggested paths to cultivating Naturalistic Intelligence include the indirect route of studying the various components of nature in books, films, television, internet sources, etc, and the direct approach by gardening and the like or by getting out into nature to observe it. The direct interaction with the great outdoors is considered "practical experience." You learn by doing nature; practicing nature, if you will.

The indirect method is helpful to gain information, however, it lacks the experience of our senses. You can’t really learn what the natural world smells like, or sounds like, tastes like, feels like, or actually looks like from an intermediary source like a book or video.

The direct method of being in nature affords us the opportunity to smell, hear, taste, touch, and see it, giving us a better opportunity to more fully understand the natural world around us.

Direct methods of observation allow us to "know" nature as intimately as possible by observing the interaction of all the aspects of our environment. Indirect methods only allow us to "know about" nature.

Earlier I mentioned "practical experience" is learning by doing. One may then say that learning by reading or simply watching information about a subject is… wait for it… hold… yes, it is impractical.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) defines "impractical" as:

adjective- 1. (of an object or course of action) not adapted for use or action; not sensible or realistic. 2. North American; impossible to do; impracticable.

By inference, studying information in books is not practical. Okay, okay, okay, while literally true, I am just having a laugh here.

In my wandering thoughts and subsequent wandering research, I began to think about intelligence in general. I then began to think about the consequences of not recognizing the different kinds of intelligence and how we learn differently based on them.

In last month’s Complementary Corner, I wrote, "Intelligence simply refers to our ability to understand. We all understand things slightly differently in our own unique way."

In his 1983 book, "Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences," Howard Gardner describes nine different types of intelligence. These are logical-mathematical, musical, linguistic, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, visual-spacial, existential, and naturalist.

If this information peaks your interest, please look it up on line. There is a vast amount of information on this topic.

Gardner’s definitions of intelligence describes a mental process to know about something outside of us (with the exception of intrapersonal intelligence). He shows his hand in the title of the book, "Frames of Mind…."

All of Gardner’s types of intelligence refer to an unconscious capacity to connect to the world in a specific way. Once identified, this ability can be cultivated.

The failure to recognize that we all have a different relationship to understanding information, that we may have a different "intelligence" points to one of the challenges of standardized education wherein everyone is expected to learn the same material in the same way.

Early in the educational process, students are sorted by their ability to participate successfully in the standardized learning environment. Students are labeled as smart, average, not smart, overachiever, underachiever, and so on.

Students are then separated into groups based on these distinctions. These distinctions can affect every aspect of a student’s life including relationships, their ability to learn, and future decisions.

Often students carry the stories that their teachers and peers told about them for the rest of their lives. Not only that the teachers and peers carry the same stories about those students, too.

At my 40th reunion, a teacher who taught many of my classes rolled his eyes when I told him that I knew I wasn’t a good student in high school. He was caught off-guard when I told him how well I did as a student after high school. He did not know what to say to me because my later experiences contradicted his 40-year-old beliefs about me.

Over those 40 years, I was fortunate to learn "how I learn."

I learned that I remember lectures better when I scribble copious handwritten notes. The physical action of writing seems to help the ideas stick in my brain.

I learned that, generally speaking, I remember better when I see words, like someone’s name, or when I read books and write notes in the margins. If I watch a video or listen to a talk without taking notes, I remember general ideas but I am fuzzy on details.

I remember information better when I walk around while I am memorizing it.

I learned I am pretty good at learning dances and other types of movement just by watching a demonstration of it.

I mention my ways of learning not to toot my own horn, but because they connect to a number of different types of intelligence as described by Gardner. Many of us have more than one way of understanding our world.

Many of us have a variety of ways of relating to and understanding the world around us. Some of us don’t and that doesn’t mean there is something wrong with us.

According to Kendra Cherry in her verywellmind.com article on Gardner published this past January, some of the criticism of Gardner over the ensuing decades claim that he offers too broad a definition of intelligence. The criticism states that he is simply defining abilities or personality traits. Other criticisms cited the lack of evidence-based studies.

I disagree with these complaints. I offer that generally-accepted ideas on intelligence are too narrow. If we look to nature and its amazing diversity (which is necessary for the healthy function of every ecosystem ), why wouldn’t humans reflect that same diversity.

While humans have many similarities, it is our diversity of interests and ways of understanding that help societies function effectively and make life more interesting.

This is similar to the innate Natural Intelligence our bodies have. We need the intelligence of each of our body’s systems to help us be healthy. The feedback or messages that we receive from these systems allows us to make changes to improve our health.

If we think of our symptoms only as pathology and not as our body’s Natural Intelligence, we miss the opportunity to experience the miracle of our natural healing ability.

Jefferson Breland is a board-certified acupuncturists licensed in Pennsylvania and Maryland with offices in Gettysburg and Towson, respectively.
He can be reached at 410-336-5876.

Read past editions of Complementy Corner

Read other articles on well being by Jefferson Breland