My Journey Through High IQ Societies and What They Have Done for Me

When I was 6 years old, I took my first IQ test. At the time, I scored 126. Since then, I have taken many IQ tests and scored a maximum of 138. Although I scored above average growing up, I lived with epilepsy until early adulthood, which made the front stage over intelligence.

My second IQ test was when I was 13, and I scored a 132, which is good enough for entrance into Mensa. Three years later, my mom got in touch with the Bowling Green Mensa chapter and asked about me joining. She was trying to get me into activities other than staying at home and programming all of the time. They obliged and said for me to attend the next meeting. I went and was not impressed with the local chapter. For one, they met at Mr. Gatti's pizza in the children's playroom. Second, most of them were stuck up. I never went back to another meeting and dropped, wanting to join that organization.

It would be another 16 years until the thought reoccurred to me about my IQ. It was at this point that I decided to take the International High IQ Society's entrance exam. I passed and joined my first high IQ society. 

It was quite an adventure when I joined. I learned really fast that you need to have very thick skin to survive. It was much like the local Mensa society I had attended the one time. Luckily, I am the type that it takes a LOT to make me mad, and what many people would become infuriated over, I laugh at. First off, there is the issue of emotions being misconstrued in posts by the reader when the author could have completely different feelings behind the post. We see that on Facebook too. That was the case quite often in a discussion I and many others would have there. Second, many people seem to believe that high IQ societies are a think tank of ideas. Sure there are many ideas, but not to the magnitude that is often perceived by the general public. It is more of an elite society where people discuss many of the same topics discussed in other parts of the internet, but with a higher degree of thought, except when it comes to politics. There is also only so much to talk about. It is not like there are new and exciting intellectual topics every day, or even every week. Once those topics have been discussed, what more is there to really discuss when it comes to "intellectual topics"? That is when topics go to politics and the latest news, just like everywhere else on the internet. As far as participation, it was exciting upfront, but after a couple of years, like most things, the excitement wore off. Unlike back in the early 2000s, when these groups were pretty new on the internet, and these communities were very active with new and exciting topics, it is not so much today, and I see new members coming in that are very disappointed. They are expecting lots of discussions, whereas the members that have been there are tired of. The new users get very few responses and then just leave. Sadly, new members can't be segmented off into their own area to experience what we did. That is not possible on Facebook, and Facebook is where most of the participation now takes place. The old forums are no longer very active. 

For the next 5 years, I posted on and off at IHIQS. Facebook came along and diverted much of mine and a lot of other members' attention off of that society. I then joined my next high IQ society and didn't really participate much. It was later in 2013 that I took another entrance exam for another society, Mysterium, and joined it. I have participated in some, but not very much. I have also joined a couple of other societies but have not engaged much. 

It was just the entrance to a society that inspired me to achieve much more in my life than I had ever perceived myself as being capable of. Before joining, I never thought of myself as an over-achiever. There had been a few times that I had thought outside the box, but it was far and few instances. I had been cycling for a few years by this time and was very good at it. Competitive Sports, combined with the physical shape the personal trainer helped me get to, along with now belonging to a high IQ society, made my ego and arrogance rage. It was several years until I was able to get a grasp on it and control this to truly benefit myself.

It was at this point that I really began to excel in my career and life. I started thinking outside the box to come up with new ideas. The memberships to these societies gave me that boost of confidence that I needed to excel. It opened up an entirely new avenue of thought for me. As far as them really guiding or directly helping me, no, they have not done that, though they have encouraged and supported me.

I have met a fair number from IHIQS in person as I travel a lot and post my destinations on Facebook, asking if anyone wants to meetup. I have thoroughly enjoyed the company. We had a meet in New York City in 2010, and it was great.

The general public often puts members of these societies on a pedestal with the expectation of perfection. It is commonly held against you if you make mistakes. A common statement is, "How could you do that belonging to high IQ societies?" Another thing that I have heard people talk about is how some people with extreme IQs achieve nothing in life, such as William James Sidis. From my own observations and experiences, these people have a perception of society that most people never discern. Most people live in bliss throughout their lives and rarely use critical thinking skills on such topics as religion, existence, life, politics, and such. That is why brilliant people sometimes no longer want to use their intelligence to contribute to society. That is a big difference I have noted between the general public and people with high IQs. I have even said that people of average intelligence are sometimes luckier than the gifted because their existence is bliss. They often don't critically think through many of the critical topics, as mentioned above, that gifted people do, accepting what society presents to them. It leaves them with a feeling of completeness because they know no better. 

In conclusion, I have to say that it has been well worth joining high IQ societies. I am just glad I had a very thick skin and was able to make it past those parts to set me in motion to becoming the person I am today. It has changed everything about me. 

Disaster on Mount Massive

In 2012, I had set my goal set to summit Mount Kilimanjaro. I started training at Beaman Park in Nashville, TN, which had very steep inclines that made it a great place to train at. I also trained in the Smoky Mountains in preparation. To make sure I was definitely ready, I decided to fly out to Colorado to make sure I was ready for the high altitudes.

Having never climbed in Colorado before, I called out there in February to see when a good time might be to come to climb. The rangers told me the roads to the trailhead were still completely covered in snow and were impassable by vehicle. They said to wait until late April. I went ahead and got my flight scheduled for the last Friday of April. Yes, I know I did not give myself much time to acclimate as Leadville is already 10,200 feet.

I got into Leadville that Friday night and then took off for the trailhead Saturday morning. When I arrived at the trailhead, two other cars were there. I met three other people, another guy and a couple, to go up the mountain with at around 6:30 am. Unbeknownst to us, we would be the only ones on that mountain the entire day. It was about 23 degrees out with gusts of wind up to 50 mph making the windchill 4 degrees. That had little effect on us, as we were all dressed appropriately.

We started out at the Mount Massive parking area on Half Moon Creek Road.

We continued up the Colorado trail. I have to say that the Colorado trail was, in my opinion, the hardest part of the climb up. After about maybe 1500 feet up, we ran into about 4 feet of snow. We would easily post hole without snowshoes. You can see all of the post holes we did.

When we got to the Mount Massive trail, which you turn to the left on from the Colorado Trail, there were patches of snow all over the place. The trail markers were buried, which was our first mistake. We continued up the mountain and got past the treeline. As we continued on, it started to snow. We got to 13,800 and finally had to turn back. When we headed back down the mountain and back to the treeline, we no longer saw the footsteps that we were depending on. We spread out in a straight line quite a distance across so that everyone could find our way back to each other. No one saw anything that looked familiar. We decided to continue down and still saw nothing familiar. Finally, after about three more hours of spreading out and searching, I heard water to the right side. I assumed it was the water flowing into Willow Creek that you cross on the Colorado Trail on the way up to the Mount Massive trail. I told them that if we followed the creek, we should find the crossing at the Colorado Trail. We all decided to go down that creek. To get to the creek, there is a very steep descent you have to go down to the water for probably about 60 feet. It is one of those that you are on all fours or you will roll down. Just before going down, I got this pic. It was the last picture I got before my iPhone died from the cold weather. The iPhone is horrific in cold weather conditions below 40 degrees.

We got down the hill to the creek. The woman in our group was already freaking out and crying. I tried reassuring her that anywhere water flows, you should be able to find civilization. The conditions of the creek were pretty bad. It is all grown up around it and there was ice and snow. Sometimes we would post hole and sometimes we would go right through the snow and into the creek. Other times where there was ground, it would be so saturated from melting snow that you would immediately sink into the ground. Following the creek is a very slow process. We followed the creek for quite a distance and never found the Colorado Trail crossing. By this time, the woman was really freaking out. She was wanting me to hit my SPOT GPS SOS button to get help. I tried to tell her that if we continued, we would be fine. The husband talked to her and finally calmed her down. I continued to tell her that we were all fine and that I had extra supplies with me, including shelter and fire, if we needed to stay the night. The other guy was cool in following me. We continued and she ended up slipping and spraining her ankle.

By this time, I ended up calling Sawatch Backcountry in Leadville to ask for help on directions. They are your best bet in the area for help. They know the area better than the forest rangers do. She said that we were on the right track and that we should be coming out at a trailhead near the hatchery, but would have a very long walk back to the cars. It was while I was talking to her that my iPhone completely died. At this point, I was feeling very confident and so were the others, except for the woman who we were now trying to help down with a sprained ankle. We continued on until the creek began curving around and around in S formations. We decided to take a long break. We all just laid down on the ground and took a short nap. We were exhausted. It was unknown to us that the next curve was the beginning of civilization. We got up about an hour later and took off again. There it was. A four-wheeler trail was in front of us. We followed it for a while and found the trailhead at the fish hatchery. We were all exhausted and made a huge error. We continued on down from the trailhead, instead of turning right to take us the right to the road. We followed the barbed wire fence and finally came out on a farm that was private property. We followed his dirt driveway to Halfmoon Creek. Out of shock, we were almost near County Road 11, which was a LONG way from the trailhead where our cars were parked, roughly 7 miles. We decided with her sprained ankle, the husband and wife would stay behind while the other guy and I walked back to the vehicles. We left most of our supplies with them and began walking back. I don't know how long it took, but it seemed like we would never make it back. We finally got there a few hours later and drove back to get the other couple.

What did I learn from this?

1. If there are snowy conditions like this, take surveyor flags or tape to mark your way up
2. Take a GPS with you.
3. Bring extra external batteries for your phone.
4. Of course, have the survival gear just in case you can't get off that day.
5. Take a GPS satellite transmitter. If you are out of cell range, you could be screwed.