Karl R. Wolfe

Intelligence and Intellect

It is important to note that our much-vaunted intellect, though important, is only a small part of our whole being.

The intellect is only one function of the greater whole. The intellect is not intelligence. Intellect is of the mind; it depends on memory, it functions through borrowed knowledge. All educational systems in the world are rooted in intellectual development; hence they all depend on memory.

The examinations in our schools, colleges, universities, are not measures of intelligence. Memory is mechanical. A computer can have a better memory than a man of genius, but the computer has no intelligence.

Intellect is the faculty of knowledge. Intelligence is the faculty of knowing (intuition), of living in the "infinite wisdom" of the present moment. In our culture there is a continual conflict between intelligence and intellect.

The person of intellect thinks that they are intelligent because they know so much. They have accumulated a great reserve of knowledge; they are burdened with all kinds of information which they cannot get rid of, there is intellect and yet no intelligence. There is no street smarts, intuition or common sense. Those bound to intellect are bound to fear and worry. They lack self-trust. They are bound in a survival strategy constantly gathering more data and trying to figure everything out. Often there is little ability to lay down the burden of intellect, to stop the fears of the past, the worries of the future, the inherited thinking and behavioral habits, the life programming (conditioning) developed by their reactions to parents and society.