A reader points out that one of the most basic claims of NXIVM is that its founder, Keith Raniere, is one of the smartest people in the world.
This claim is based almost entirely on a single, unsupervised test he took in the 1980’s.
It was not a standardized IQ test but a test designed by a librarian Ronald K. Hoeflin and permits the test taker to work from home without a time limit or supervision. Raniere has been quoted in the Albany Times Union claiming that he spent two weeks to complete the test.
A reader writes: Keith Raniere’s autobiography on multiple websites proudly proclaims his hyper-genius status, teaching himself advanced math in a single (long) day, and graduating from prestigious Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a triple major in math, physics and biology.
But most of all, his score on the so-called ‘Mega Test’ of intelligence.
But the Mega Test is done on-line, with no positive identification of the subject, or verification that the answers are even from a single subject not a team, and no time limit. The questions were published in Omni Magazine in 1985.
A true hyper-genius would be able to provide far more convincing proof of his superiority.
The admissions process for RPI, when Raniere was admitted, required the Scholastic Aptitude Test, a standardized test administered by the Educational Testing Service, with strict environmental controls, identification requirements, and time limits.
In the era that Raniere would have taken it, the SAT had a verbal part and a mathematical part. The maximum score on each part was 800, and the test was constructed to ensure that such high scores were very rare.
Anyone who got a double-800 SAT score, who was writing an autobiography claiming high intelligence, would CERTAINLY have mentioned that!! It is notable that Raniere’s autobiographies NEVER make that claim.
If the Vanguard is really the hyper-genius that he claims to be, he would have scored double-800s on the SAT test that he had to take to be admitted to RPI, and gone home early to boot.
So I challenge Keith Raniere: release your SAT scores! The Educational Testing Service still has them. I will even pay the fee for the report (although I’m sure that Clare Bronfman still has enough money left to pay for that!)
Or is the truth that, in a test that you had to do by yourself, with a time limit, maybe you don’t look that smart after all?
My kid brother scored a 1570 on his SAT. He also scored a 42 (out of 45) on his MCAT. He went to magnet schools for both junior high and high school. He’s smart – smarter than me and his score on the SAT was well above mine – but he never considered himself a genius like this Raniere clown.
My guess is Raniere didn’t advertise his score because it wasn’t anything special. It’s easier to BS claims so vague that no one can validate against, e.g. “an East Coast Judo champion” wherever, “tying the state school’s 100 yard dash record” in some random race that occurred during a PE class. It’s just his word against yours. If he claims some fake SAT score, sooner or later someone will attempt to validate it and can catch him in a lie.