Jonah,
Throughout the past years, there has been much evidence supporting that techniques utilized by Learning Strategies and other accelerative learning courses can stimulate brain patterns and improve overall IQ. Win Wenger, author of The Einstein Factor, introduced Image Streaming which uses all areas of the brain to collaborate and improve on the IQ. "Growth of the Mind" by Dr. S Greenspan reinforces Wenger's technique. He wrote that children who answer with creativity and own thoughts tend to be better off than a rote yes or no. "Sparks of Genius" by R and M Root-Bernstein explained that the general people believed that a typical depiction of a genius tended to be an extremely well-educated person who uses complex formulae to express their own intelligence. But Root-Bernstein said that they (Einstein, McClintock, etc.) had attained their theories and insights from creativity and visualization. For example, Einstein started his relativity theories from his imagination.
Other factors can't be disregarded either. Enjoying vast fields of skills such as music, art, and even fixing your hamster's cage will have some effect on your creativity. Not all of the "genius" source lies on one factor. But as you see, even Learning Strategies encourages the use of the subconsciouss, the source of these insights and the whole brain.
But these things do not occur overnight. What separates us from the best and the rest is that some are more efficient and better experienced on the brain. They already have an excellent growth of the brain they started to use as a child. As evidence showed, intelligence is 48% hereditary and the rest from the environment. I hope that answers your question.
But that leads me to another question. Some people exhibit tremendous effort on these tools. I see people doing these things all the time, but why do some people display genius-like aspects but some don't? Thanks.
[This message has been edited by j031p (edited November 09, 2001).]