Lord Agbetuyi,
Please permit my little ramble.
We are in essential agreement about your paragraph one. There are serious problems with your paragraph two. Toyin as intellectually curious and inquisitive (investigative?) as he is, has every right to discover anew….
Someone cannot claim to be a great teacher and yet cannot claim to have any disciples or a large following. For instance, the simplest way of bringing a schizophrenic or one possessed by an evil spirit/inferiority complex/ superiority complex or what's called "a Messiah complex " , one who actually believes that he is Jesus or the Messiah, the easiest way of bringing him safely down back to earth is to ask him, " OK Mr. Messiah, so you are Jesus but where are your disciples?"
In the case of Sabbatai Zevi of Izmir who had a large following, when he finally got to the court of the Sultan in Istanbul which is in Turkey, the Sultan thus greeted him welcome: " OK Mr Messiah, now that you are finally here, I only have one thing to say to you : Either you accept Islam, or I execute you! "
To the dismay of his disciples, Sabbatai Zevi accepted Islam. It was explained by some of his most faithful disciples that in accordance with some fanciful Kabbalistic doctrine, he has to accept Islam in order to travel to the very depths of hell, to redeem some sparks down there.
More seriously, this is the opening paragraph of Pirkei Avot- Ethics of the Fathers :
"Moses received the Torah from Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua; Joshua to the elders; the elders to the prophets; and the prophets handed it down to the men of the Great Assembly. They said three things: Be deliberate in judgment, raise up many disciples, and make a fence around the Torah."
Rabbi Akiva had many disciples
The exhortation to "raise up many disciples" testifies to the importance of knowledge, or right knowledge and of the teacher. By way of analogy, I daresay that Professor Toyin Falola having raised and still raising "many disciples" and his unofficial appointment of Moses Ochonu as his crown prince is also testimony to his status as a teacher, professor, and a professional dispenser of light.
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju is one of Professor Falola's admirers. We have among many others. Count me in and that makes at least two – and let me hasten to add that I am no historian (by any stretch of the imagination - the sometimes-self- aggrandising imagination), but I am also a humble admirer of his literary output (including Etches On Fresh Waters). Where am I going with all this?
A very long time ago, Job - the proverbially most patient one says in Book of Job 19:25, "But I know that my Redeemer lives, and the last on earth, He will endure"
Today, there are believers who say from their own hearts and not necessarily quoting Job, they say with some confidence, "My Redeemer liveth!" – and by "Redeemer" they mean Jesus, . We cannot disprove their sincerity or their faith in who or what they believe is the source of their sustenance.
Today, there are the genius Nigerian mega pastors who are not holding seminars on how to become a genius, or how to produce mere electricity or how to construct a spacecraft that can transport you all the way to Mars or beyond Mars or how to walk on water, they are going several steps further than that: They are teaching, preaching, holding seminars and workshops on How to go to Heaven!
Not only Nigerian pastors are doing that – in Sweden for example we have someone I have met several times and had lots of cups of coffee and long chats with him, his name is Christer Roshamn – nice guy, very effective in his preaching, even uses music to communicate what he feels….
So – what's wrong if our gifted Brother Oluwtoyin Vincent Adepoju – a student of Oga Falola's research methods etc. wants to spread the light, wants to use his role model Oga Falola or indeed Abiola Irele or William Shakespeare or Spinoza or the Chair of Poetry at Oxford or Vincent Van Gogh or our Brer Kperogi as the illustrious means or vehicle how to get there?
On Tuesday, 5 May 2020 19:06:12 UTC+2, Cornelius Hamelberg wrote:
Great, greater, very great, greatest. Birds of the same feather flock together. True or false? Toyin and Oluwatoyin together, why not?
Both are Nigerians and both are intellectuals, unlike Jesus's disciples Peter and his brother Andrew who were mere fishermen -
until Jesus taught them to be "fishers of men" and indeed they, later on, became great apostles.
Personally, I think that you are being a little too harsh, arrogant and disdainful of the very talented being in our midst as
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju. In like manner the Jews rejected Jesus, they said, "You're not Him!" So what if Professor
Chicken Wings wants to run a course on "Falolaism" and charges $100 for every twenty minutes, can he be legally prevented
from doing so? And what if (and this is a question for the theology department of the new religion) what if Bishop Eagle Feathers
wants to proselytise Oga Falola as the Messiah or as the Mahdi of musicology (Peace be upon him), should the Bishop be
arrested along with all of his apostles and praise singers? In my opinion, apart from performing miracles such as transforming
darkness into light, the geniuses could be working towards this.
Whilst you are busy with your mega-genius I'm still wrestling ( but not in the mud) with this question asked by Einstein:
"A question that sometimes drives me hazy: Am I or are the others crazy?"
On Tuesday, 5 May 2020 15:57:35 UTC+2, ogunlakaiye wrote:On Wednesday, 19 September 2018, Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju, posted on this forum what he titled, Scholarship in a World of Poor Electricity : The Nigerian Example. In view of Adepoju's claim to metaphysical power to make people become geniuses, I hereby reproduce the afore-mentioned post of his in full.
I have been struggling for days in my home in Lagos with trying to meet externally created and self-generated deadlines on a number of essays.But there has been a blackout of electricity in our neighbourhood for days.I have to fall back on prints of essays since access to electronic copies of essays is challenged by poor electricity. How are Nigerian Scholars coping? This situation has not changed for decades. It is horrible. Is it possible to do ones best in such an environment as a Scholar or other creative who requires electricity? May God help Nigeria, Black people and Africa.Toyin
If naked person promises to make clothes for one to wear, is it not appropriate to ask why the person self is naked? An educated genius that cannot generate and distribute electricity is to me a genius in parasitism. Towards the end of April 2020, the power generation in Nigeria, a country of 200 million people, dropped down to 2, 900 Megawatts. https://guardian.ng/news/nigeria-records-electricity- grid-collapse/
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Ämne: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Becoming Genius : Seminar on Cultivating Genius through an Individual/Interpersonal Paradigm of Human Development Inspired by the Work of Omnivorous Scholar Toyin Falola--Becoming Genius
Seminar on Cultivating Genius through an Individual/Interpersonal Paradigm of Human Development
Inspired by the Work of Omnivorous Scholar Toyin Falola
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
Comparative Cognitive Processes and Systems
Exploring Every Corner of the Cosmos in Search of Knowledge
Would you like to be a genius?
Would you like to cultivate a level of achievement that can go a long way to shaping humanity?
Would you like to actualize a degree of creative power that surprises even you?
The origin of the term 'genius' is 'indwelling spirit of a person or a place.'
Everyone embodies such a spirit but it is stifled by conformity to society.
The Yoruba concept of ase and the Igbo ike postulate that each person embodies a unique creative potential.
Would you like to discover yours?
A general view of genius is that it emerges miraculously.
The example of Toyin Falola, a scholar, writer, interpersonal builder and institution creator of unprecedented combination of individual/interpersonal achievement, makes it clear that genius can be cultivated.
We shall examine the intersection between Falola's example and those of other creatives across time and space, from Setilu, described as the founder of the multidisciplinary Yoruba Ifa knowledge system, to the Arab philosopher and doctor Ibn Sina, from Aristotle, founder of the disciplinary organization of Western scholarship, to Leonardo da Vinci, magically unique artist and scientist, from Wole Soyinka, great imaginative and spiritual writer, to Albert Einstein, who reconfigured humanity's understanding of space, time and energy, to such figures of contemporary culture as Tim Berners- Lee, founder of the underlying system of the Web, to Bill Gates, creator of Microsoft, one of the most globally impactful companies in history, Mark Zuckerbeg, founder of Facebook, the world's most successful social media platform, and Elon Musk, founder of Space-X and Tesla Motors, pioneer in space travel, electric cars and other technologies shaping humanity's future.
Falola is what I describe as a systematic genius, a genius whose achievements are reached through the cultivation of a particular lifestyle, a consistent development of orientations and habits that results in genius.
Falola's creative development is centred in the correlative development of self and others.
This seminar will introduce you to the manner in which Falola develops himself and how he develops others and invite you to reflect on how you can apply these observations to yourself.
You will be presented with ideas on how to understand yourself and your environment, and work with this understanding in enhancing personal and interpersonal creativity.
This understanding is crystallized through my study of Toyin Falola, ongoing since 2018, and integrating my decades long explorations of various streams of knowledge.
I have not needed input from Falola nor am I consulting or working with him on this project because the relevant information is in the public domain, only it is inadequately understood by many. Falola is also hyper-sensitive to the possibility of being seen as self celebrating and so might not be completely comfortable with such a project.
The project has to be done anyway, so we may take better advantage of this unique example of creativity.
I have studied Falola's CV and been following his development since I began close study of him in 2018. I have read a cross-section of his work, examined some of the studies of that work and written and published on various aspects of his productivity. I have spoken with him on a number of occasions. I have compared what I have learnt with what I know of other creatives and filtered what I have understood through the intimacy represented by my own efforts at self actualization.
A pattern of orientation and action emerges for me through these engagements. It is that pattern I wish to share with you.
We shall examine how to apply this knowledge in your own life.
All who are interested should contact me using this email address.
I am working on deciding the cost and length of time of the seminar and look forward to exploring these parameters with interested participants.
Some might want to take the seminar as part of a group or in a private one-on-one session, or both, at different times.
Group participation enables sharing ideas with various people.
Some people might find a one-on-one session particularly congenial for closer examination of their individual needs.
The seminar will employ Whatsapp, for smaller groups and one-on-one sessions and Zoom for larger groups.
I am an Independent Scholar part of whose work is centred in the comparative exploration of diverse approaches to knowledge.
My latest project in the development of systems of knowledge is the ongoing construction of a philosophy and spirituality inspired by the Yoruba origin Ogboni esoteric order, accessible through the compilation " My Journey in Developing Universal Ogboni Philosophy and Spirituality, a New School of the Ogboni Esoteric Order."
My work across various disciplines, employing varied expressive forms, may be reached through my central website Compcros.
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