Throughout history, the world has been graced by the presence of highly creative individuals who with their vision propel the world forward. We know them as geniuses. They have a unique way of seeing the world. A way that is inaccessible to the mere mortal. A genius sees things from a much wider perspective. They make associations and connections where the normal person sees none, like in what appear to be polar opposites. They don’t just consider one approach, but instead come up with many alternatives and conjectures. It is this ability that allows them to generate idea after idea. And, geniuses have more permission to make mistakes. They do not perceive a mistake as a failure, but rather as a learning experience. Creative geniuses think differently. That is how they change the world.

But along with this ability, comes weird behavior. So, is there a link between genius and crazy? Science seems to think so. See below.

THE GENIUS, THE CRAZY, THE UNHYGIENIC, AND THE FASTIDIOUS
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Here are some examples of the weird behavior of some of history’s greatest thinkers:

Steve Jobs: American businessman, designer, and inventor. He is best known as the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple, Inc. Jobs embraced extreme diets which included purges, fasts, or eating only one or two foods, such as carrots and apples, for weeks. Jobs at times turned orange from eating too many carrots. In 1977, Jobs ate only fruit and bathed only once a week. Jobs was a compulsive perfectionist. He was known to send his food back three times or to have a piano repositioned at 10:00 p.m. Jobs was obsessed with aesthetics. He once pulled off a face mask because it was too ugly and ordered to have five different options brought to him. He once spent two weeks talking to his family at dinner about the design of a washing machine.

Nikola Tesla: Serbian-American inventor, physicist, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, and futurist. He was an important contributor to the use of commercial electricity and developed the modern alternating current (AC) electrical supply system. In addition to his native language, Tesla spoke Czech, English, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Latin. Tesla needed little sleep; once the worked for a period of 84 hours without sleep or rest. He did things in threes and refused to stay in a hotel room whose number was not divisible by three. He was physically revolted by jewelry, especially pearl earrings. He was fastidious about hygiene and cleanliness. Tesla was celibate and claimed that it was very helpful to his scientific abilities.

Pythagoras: father of the Pythagorean Theorem (the square of the hypotenuse of a right angel is equal to the sum of the square of the other two sides). Pythagoras believed that beans (edible beans) re evil, one should not step over a crossbar, not walk on highways, do not stir a fire without iron, and to not let swallows nest under the roof.

Michelangelo: creator of God Creates Adam on the Sistine Chapel had an aversion for person hyegine. He often slept fully clothed and rarely changed them. His assistant stated, “He has sometimes gone so long without taking off (his shoes) that then the skin came away, like a snake’s, with the boots.”

Howard Hughes: American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director and once the richest man on earth, Hughes was obsessed with the size of peas and used a special fork to sort them. He once stayed in a film studio screening movies for four months never leaving. He lived on chocolate bars, chicken, and milk and relieved himself in the empty bottles and containers. He wrote memos to his aides on yellow pads with instructions not to look at him. They could respond to him when spoken to, but otherwise they were not to speak to him. Hughes also was a germaphobe; he used tissues to insulate himself when picking up objects, if he noticed dust or stains on people’s clothing, he would insist that they take care of it.

Albert Einstein: German theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics. Einstein is generally considered the most influential physicist of the 20th century. While best known for his mass–energy equivalence formula E=mc2 (which has been dubbed "the world's most famous equation"), he received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to theoretical physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect." Einstein picked up discarded cigarette butts off the street in order to circumvent his doctor's ban on buying tobacco for his pipe, piloted his sailboat on windless days ("for the challenge"), and lectured his 8-year-old nephew on physics (including a 2-hour exposition on the Newtonian properties of soap bubbles).

SCIENTIFIC LINK BETWEEN GENIUS AND CRAZY

So, is there a link between genius and crazy? Researchers at Karolinska Institutet seem to think so. Their research shows a link between genius and schizophrenia. They have managed to show that the dopamine system in healthy, highly creative people is similar in some respects to that in schizophrenics. Specifically, “the study shows that the dopamine system of healthy highly creative people is similar to that found in people with schizophrenia,” says associate professor Fredrik Ullén from Karolinska Institutet’s Department of Women’s and Children’s Health and co-author of the study that appears in the journal PloS ONE. Other research has shown a link between high creative skills and mental illness in the family and creativity bipolar disorder.

The Karolinska Institutet shows that highly creative people who did well on divergent psychological tests (task was to find as many solutions to a problem) a lower density of D2 receptors in the thalamus than less creative people. Schizophrenics also present with low D2 density in the thalamus. The thalamus is like a relay center which filters information before it reaches areas of the cortex which is responsible for cognition and reasoning – among other things. According to Dr. Ullén, “fewer D2 receptors in the thalamus probably means a lower degree of signal filtering and thus a higher flow of information from the thalamus.” This, he states, could be a possible reason why highly creative people see numerous uncommon connections in problem-solving situations and account for the bizarre associations that schizophrenics make.

It's clear what the evil association Pythagoras saw in beans, but what did Howard Hughes see in peas? What did Tesla see in the the number three? Care to think like a genius? 

According to Dr. Ullén, “Thinking outside the box might be facilitated by having a somewhat less intact box.” It appears that some of our greatest thinkers were just a tad schizo…

Creativity is the ability to originate or invent something new thing (a product, solution, artwork, literary work, joke, scientific innovation, etc.) that has value. Creativity (or the ability to create not just in an artistic sense but in general) is the ability to transform energy into matter or to transform an idea into physical reality. As human beings, we all are creative. It is our nature. Within each of us exists the entire range of creative abilities, attributes, and qualities. The higher creative abilities (known in some traditions as “divine”) are beyond the reach of perception of the average person. Throughout history, however, there have been a few capable of accessing the full spectrum of our creative abilities and manifest their creative potentials in the physical body. We call them geniuses. 

Creative geniuses are those rare individuals who have unlocked their inherent genius to bend history and transform human evolution. Creative geniuses display exceptional intellectual ability, creativity, and originality and with their gifts and discipline transform their idea into reality with unprecedented insight and achievement. They have large visions which chart a new path for the rest to follow. 

Creative geniuses are born with a strong desire (will) or drive to create. This inner drive is what motivates them to transform their ideas into reality in spite of obstacles and even danger to themselves. Second, they possess a strong ability to plan out how they will realize their vision. third, they are driven to take action in order to implement the plan and make it happen no matter what. Being a creative genius is not just about generating ideas. It is about making things happen. Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Edison, Nikola Tesla, and Steve Jobs are examples of creative geniuses. 

Because creative geniuses are masters of the creative process, we can learn a lot from them in order to boost our own creativity – ability to create - and increase our genius quotient. Geniuses inherently know that the creative process is a two-sided proposition: Energy and Physical. It must be worked at both levels. 

At any energy level, geniuses operate in a larger creative field than the rest of us. They have access to a wider range of the creative process not accessible to the average person. We all originated from the same all-creative energy source and we each possess the same creative attributes of the creator, but geniuses are much farther along on the evolutionary path. They are able to access the full range of their creative power (the storehouse of which is Spirit or their inherent genius) in the physical body. There is little disconnect between their higher selves and their lower selves. They operate not just from their physical abilities, but also from their spiritual abilities (higher creative abilities such as pragmatic and abstract intuition, clairvoyance, and knowingness. With their clairvoyance (the ability to generate and see pictures), they are able to SEE a lot more and thus have highly active imaginations and ability to visualize. With their intuition (the ability to arrive at a solution without going through external conscious reasoning), they are able to access information fairly quickly, and with their knowingness (the ability to know something of the top of your head), they access the full range of their creative information. They have mastered the ability to create as spirit in the physical body. 

This is the body, mind, spirit connection. When body, mind, and spirit are connected or in alignment, creation happens. This space is known as “the zone,” the “flow,” “zen,” etc. All these expressions refer to the space in which a human being is accessing his/her full creative abilities (which reside in spirit) in the physical body. This is a magical and transcendent space in which life changing things happen. Although attaining this space in its purest form is rare for most people, it really represents our true nature and state of being. We know this as nirvana or enlightenment. And, it is something which is attainable to us all. To attain, this space we need to acknowledge the fact that we are energy expressed in three forms: body, mind, and spirit. As spirit, we are pure energy. We not are no confined by time or space. We can be anywhere any time. We call this being out of the body or spacing out. to create in the material plane, we must be in present time. The only place in which spirit can be in present time is the physical body. The physical body because it is made of matter only can be in one place at one time. Present time. So, to affect our physical environment spirit must be in the physical body. There 7 points of consciousness in the body. The sixth or MIND (located in the center of your head is the control center of the body and point from which we can be the most aware and neutral) is the point from which we generate and see pictures - as spirit we create with pictures). 

At a physical level, geniuses have mastered the three-part process: idea, plan, implement. Geniuses think (imagine, envision, see), plan (research, think, problem-solve, find solutions), and implement (focus, persevere, fight on) their plan of actions diligently until they succeed. By identifying the idea generating, planning, and action strategies of geniuses, we can apply them in our own lives and increase our genius factor both professionally and personally.

Within each exists our inherent genius. There are things that we can do to unlock it in order to bend history and transform human evolution. 

First, own the fact that you are a powerful creator. Within you exists a storehouse of gifts, talents, and attributes. You are omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent. Your destiny is to express this creative power in the body. Enroll in a meditation class in which you will be taught to operate your body as an energy phenomenon, deprogram limits and obstacles, and reclaim your creative energy. 

Second, take inventory of your gifts and talents. Literally, make a list of words that describe you. Don’t be shy, but be honest. In which areas do you excel? Which areas need improvement? 

Third, take a look at why you are here. We each have a purpose. What is yours? What are you here to accomplish? Formulate a mission statement for yourself. How can you contribute to the larger whole? What is the legacy that you want to leave behind? If you died tomorrow, how would you feel about your life? 

Forth, create a plan of action. How are you going to realize your mission? What do you have to do step by step to make it happen? What steps do you need to take to stay on track? It’s easy to come up with an idea. It’s not that easy to execute it to completion. Are you willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen? Are you willing to give your life for it? If not, reevaluate what you are doing. For you to create something, the reason behind why you are doing it has to big and it has to be for the benefit of the larger whole. 

Above all, remember that you are unique. There is no one else like you in the universe. You have a special role to play here so playing it small not only robs you of an opportunity to express it, it robs the world of the opportunity to experience it. It is up to you to step up and unlock your inherent genius. The world awaits.