Janine Morrison
In 1988, Keith Raniere took a take-home IQ test. Ever since, he has proclaimed himself to be one of the “top three problem solvers” in the world and boasts having one of the highest IQs.
Raniere’s bio stated: “Keith Raniere was honored in 1989 by the Guinness Book of World Records in the category of highest IQ.”
The IQ test Raniere took was called The Mega Test. Getting a high score on the self-administered, untimed test gives you admission into the Mega Society, supposedly the most restrictive group of high-thinkers, with only one person in a million being eligible for membership.
The Mega Society was founded in 1982 by a blind librarian named Ronald K. Hoeflin.
Omni Science Fiction magazine published the Mega Test in 1985, presumably the test that Raniere took, leading to his name being mentioned in the Guinness Book of Records in the now retired category of highest IQ. In fact, the category was done away with only months after Raniere’s high IQ was published.
The test is described as “the hardest IQ test ever.” You are allowed to consult books, but no computers, and no talking to other people. It’s the honor system, since you simply send in your answers to be evaluated for a nominal fee of $5, which should have been no problem for the most ethical man in the world.
Test Instructions:
-
- ANSWER SHEET. Print or type all of your answers on a single 81/2 by 11 inch sheet of paper. At the top, giver you name, address, age, and sex, plus—optionally—scores from any previous I.Q. or aptitude tests you might have taken.
- TIME LIMIT. There is no enforceable time limit, but it is suggested that you limit yourself to no more than one month.
- ASSISTANCE. You are encouraged to use such reference aids as dictionaries, thesauri, and pocket calculators. A slide rule is discouraged since all numerical answers must be exact. Any assistance from other persons is prohibited.
- GUESSING. There is no penalty for wrong answers or guesses, so it is to your advantage to guess whenever you are unsure of an answer. ou will receive a scoresheet listing the number
- FEE. For a basic $5 scoring fee, you will receive a scoresheet listing the number of questions you answered correctly (broken down into raw scores within each of the subtests), your corresponding I.Q. score, and its estimated percentile in the general population. For an additional $5 ($10 total), you will receive a ten-page statistical report. “The Meaning of the Mega Test Scores,” which shows how scores on the Mega test relate to scores on other recognized high-I.Q. tests, the procedures for applying for membership in other high-I.Q. societies, and their addresses.
- SCORESHEETS. Send to Omni-Mega Test, Box 7430, New York, NY 10116. Allow eight weeks for processing.
The Mega Test Has Three Categories of Questions:
- Verbal Analogies
- Spatial Problems
- Numerical Problems
Raniere Describes Taking the Mega Test
When I took the Mega Test, I did so because some of the problems looked interesting. At first glance, I thought 42 of the problems were trivial, the other six required a little work.
I solved 43 of the problems in about two straight hours; the other 5 problems and proofs of some of my assertions took me about eight more hours, spread out over the next 4 days.
I handed in my result sheet and found shortly thereafter I had copied one of my answers incorrectly (one of the easier problems on the test!).
I called Ron [Hoeflin] who had missed my mistake.
I scored 46 out of 48 on the mega test.
I thought 10 hours was inappropriately long (I thought I was really bending the “untimed” nature of the test), I later learned that was considered a short time.
So my quick time was likely luck of the draw and my emotional obsessive-compulsive problem solving nature made me the perfect candidate to score high on such an exam…
VERY, few people from the non-problem-solver realm stand a chance against me on [IQ tests]– they do not have the experience, they do not have the drive, they are like not “primed” to solve problems.
Raniere calculated his IQ was over 240. This has never been independently verified.
Janine Morrison is a writer, editor, and gardening enthusiast.
Please leave a comment: Your opinion is important to us!
I happen to know a bit about this test, as I took it while in the army in 1985. I will not divulge my score here, but lead with this simple motivation to tell you and your audience it was quite impossible to score anything over 190, that being set at 16 points per standard deviation from the mean of 100. Even if converted to another common measure, that being 24 points per sd, still, it would equate to 230. This test (keep in mind it was 1985, no internet, etc.) was simply something for the readers of Omni magazine at the time to toy with, to, like a crossword puzzle, pass the time; never meant, at least as far as I was concerned, as a “serious” assessment of one’s IQ which is at best, a wobbly subject. It should come as no surprise, given KR’s history, that he would inflate, conflate, etc. his abilities, as is such common practice these days as to go virtually unnoticed, to “sale” himself to a then, as now, gullible public…
He is no smarter than me. I still have a hankering for Toni Natalie. She fell for Keith because his brains is big. So is nine.
https://youtu.be/FQgjpnr5e2s
Kieth could have been president!!
Frank, Janine and K.R. Claviger-
Any updates on Vanguard’s prison life?
I wonder how hot it is in his cell. The lion’s mane Vanguard has from the top his chest to his ankles doesn’t help.
I’m guessing his federal BOP air-conditioning unit sucks or is nonexistent.
***
I did a little investigating. Most Federal prisons in hot states lack air-conditioning.
https://www.prisonlegalnews.org/news/2018/jun/29/litigation-heats-over-extreme-temperatures-prisons-jails/
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2022/03/19/debate-over-air-conditioning-in-american-prisons-will-heat-up
Months of 100F days with no air-conditioning in a prison cell must be a living hell.
The 13th Amendment can be so brutal. Right Claviger?
Hope all is well Claviger!
I miss your articles!
Nce Guy – I second that! We need a Squarefoot prison update. 🎻
Pyriel-
Thank you!
***
Frank-
Listen to the OGs!!!!
Get that update posted ASAP!!!!
“Don’t make me put’a cap in ur ass.”
(Eazy-E circa 1992)
I think we need a monthly documentary, The squarefoot spotting saga! which will look at incidental squarefoot sightings throughout the US prison system!
Alex-
LMAO!!!
Good one!
Agreed
Bangkok die doing what he does best…..
https://www.instagram.com/reel/CvAZZ_xgOyqrVNdwY1X7gqRfqfoXX6Y1b1pcE00/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Being a retard.
It’s air conditioned.
I know this because if it weren’t he’d be suing the BoP over it.
NiceGuy, yea, Vanturd must be miserable.
OMG! WTF! The more I read about this guy, the more I wonder how these people who joined were so clueless? Yes, there is some techniques KR used to manipulate, but these people still had their own minds. I guess the young naive just out of college ones who joined I can see getting hooked , but what about the people who were a little older, and supppoed to be a little wiser (?). When you hear the first seminar, run for the hills!!! Wow!
Can we all agree, Hector was #1 dipshit in the nxivm ethos?
Teenage girls should be in school, learning, making friends, engaging in extra curricular activities, etc. Soccer, field hockey, cross country running, chess club, math club, language society, etc. All important.
Bonding with their girlfriends is important. They listen to music, talk about boys, put on make up, etc. Even hiking, skiing, surfing, rock climbing are great for budding teens. Of course studying and being a great student are probably most important. Even swiping a few cigarettes from a parent or trying a nip of booze is a life experience for many teens. Not a good one, but its part of growing up.
Hector believed all that was for the birds. He knew best when he ripped his children out of school, away from their friends and home and moved to Albany to enroll the family in Executive Success Programs. He placed his teenage daughters under the “mentorship” of Kieth “Vanturd” Raniere. A man an in his 40’s, who groomed them and eventually impregnated all three. Raping and producing child pornography with one when she was 15. He had one confined to a room for two years.
Hector, you dumb fucking asshole. You fucked up your entire family pursuing ESP courses. Your daughters would have probably graduated from college with honors and had wonderful careers and families. Instead, you sent them into a lions den.
As far as the others who watched and facilitated it: fuck you as well. You know who you are.
Mark Elliot
Mark Vicente
Sarah Edmonson
Nicki Clyne
Allison Pimp Mack
Damon Brink
Clare Horseface Bronfman
Etc.
Eat a dick!
– Pilgrim
Yes. The parents seem like big jerks.
Pilgrim-
Hadn’t thought of Hector. You make a good point.
How’s he getting punishment? That’s the problem.
Unless you want to go
Charles Bronson…..
***
Damon Brink has been punished. He’ll have to live with telling his wife not to get cancer treatments.
Damon doesn’t understand he’s responsible for his problems and poor life decisions. The fool blames Frank which is hysterical.
10:14, Damon Brink is Damon Brinks own worst enemy. He is a buffoon, a fool, an asshole. The guy encouraged his wife to die, so her money could be given to his
Vanguard.
If Sally was my sister, I’d knock Demons fat fucking ass out cold.
He has paid a price though. His family hates him, he cannot get hired anywhere. For good reasons. I would not let him anywhere near my children.
The damage Hector did cannot be undone. I do not believe atonement exists for Hector. He needs regular reminders of what he did.
I would love to see Frank Report do a comprehensive follow up with the whole family.
I wonder if Cami is still into the BDSM and other kinky sex stuff?
Did Dani ever recover from her two year imprisonment? They used to have Lauren “Groomer” Saltzman “counsel”her?
Everyone in NXIVM was fucked in the head. Many more should have ended up in jail. They destroyed people’s lives. Lauren should have done at least five years in prison.
Pilgrim-
Hector definitely needs a day of reckoning. He needs a major ass kicking and 4 weeks in Guantánamo Bay.
I agree with it all except Cami. Cami was a innocent child.
Lauren got off easy. However she was a witness like:
Sami the Bull, he killed 19 people and received a 5 year sentence for his testimony. One of his victims was a an innocent 16 year old kid. The kid, who was simply walking witnessed a street hit – Sammy never left witnesses.
Shadow, are you okay?
Al-
I’ve been scratching my head asking the same thing….
A lot had to do with Nancy’s speciality in verbal hypnosis I think. I watched the vow for the 2nd time in the last few days and they way he was talking about women made my blood boil.
A take home test
Bahahahaha
That the Vanguard didn’t cheat on!
LMAFAO
Ya right
What else hasn’t Keith Raniere lied about?
Who believes his BS
Has anyone seen a copy of this so called book he was in other than one he could of had printed for himself?
Why the Australian edition?
WTF people
He barley made it through college
Some guy punch him in prison because he wasn’t a judo champion either
Raniere opens his mouth and lies Fly out
2:57,
You mean this toilet paper?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61666702-the-sphinx-thelxiepeia
Or
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35685763-odin-the-sphinx
To my knowledge, these books contain collections of articles, IVY NAVARES wrote, not fuck-face Kieth. So, why is his name on them?
Also, Ivy seems very proud of her work at ESP and The Knife. Also, she mentions these two books. Why has she not scrubbed this from her About section?
http://ivynevares.com/about
Frank, any thoughts?
Also, did Ivy have a sexual relationship with Vanturd?
Yes, she did. For several years. She thought she was his one and only. From 2:00 am till 2:03am.Then he’d head on over back to Moneybags for a nap, then go jizz in K’s throat, then go to Nancy’s for breakfast, then take a 15 yr old to the library, then over to Lauren’s for a munch and lunch, then sleep all afternoon, then pick from his roster of horny, desperate slaves to see who would feed him his dinner, then lie on the couch and get a bj from the winner, then after a nap, a walk with the runner up who didn’t get him for dinner, and a quick hump behind the trash bins. Then back to Moneybags for a nap, then wake up all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 3 in the afternoon, and start his marathon all over again, eventually rotating through his dozen or so devoted slaves.
Poor Vanturd, now you know why he was lying down all the time.
The highest my IQ has ever been was 159 at university. After I had my first child I tested again, and to my horror it had dropped to 156. That was fifteen years later though.
There’s quite a lot of quiz show watching in our household. Not my choice. Personally I find it weird to know random facts, about random subjects, that’s aren’t practically useful in life.
In the past five years I’ve developed a growing interest in quantum physics. I was always more a languages, literature type of person. But the universe is starting to exert a real pull on me at the moment, not in a spiritual manner. I did the whole guru search in my early twenties. The Cosmos, now that’s something I’d like to explore, without having to blow someone, or starve, to understand. Anyone know anyone?
Good grief, Sen! That is a very high score. Way higher than mine. May I ask your opinion? You’d have to read all the questions.
I’d like to know if you think it’s humanly plausible to solve all 48 (or even 45) in 10 hours without some advanced knowledge of the test?
Mensa tests, which we do here in the U.K. Well the ones I did back then, I don’t know about now, were pretty much all about pattern recognition in some form or another. Numerical, alphabetical, grid patterns, triangles, people placement in questions about ages, or if someone has so much cash, and they have double what Mary has etc. Everything about recognising a pattern.
No questions about the capital cities of anywhere, or algebraic equations.
It’s always a mistake to tell people you are a member of Mensa. It puts you at an advantage if they don’t know.
Pattern recognition can be applied to people. People are a mixture of linguistic, emotional, and physical patterns, and easily worked out. Well, most of the time.
Sen, that’s what I remember, too! In canada, the weschler is most popular. I almost never talk about it, I just feel anonymous here. Plus, don’t believe attaining a high score is anything too special. There are still tons of other people in the world equally as capable.
My question was more to do with these puzzles. Some don’t look too hard, but others do and some appear like they possibly involve some kind of advanced maths (the cheese and the butter problems, especially). I guess I was just wondering if you thought the same and with your intellect and whether 10 hours would be enough time to work through all the problems? I mean, it would be an average of 13 mins per question which doesn’t seem like enough time to even put pencil to paper unless you already had a clue greater than what the question was suggesting.
Anyway, I did a little more research and learned that I’m probably right! Here’s the title of a great post from a redditor that explains:
The Mega Test and bullshit–Christopher Langan, Marilyn Vos Savant, and the Mega Society.
I also learned the biggest weakness, even admitted by Hoeflin himself, was that people cheated. A lot. Using pseudonyms to make multiple entries and teams of multiple people to compete. Hoeflin claims he was able to detect many of these by similarity in the quality of responses. The biggest killer, though? Was the introduction of the internet in 1990’s. People were apparently using search engines and sharing answers on chat boards. This is why these tests are now considered to be corrupted.
https://www.usiassociation.org/post/an-interview-with-dr-ronald-k-hoeflin-on-theories-of-intelligence-sex-differences-and-issues-of
At any rate, I also found an article in which some longstanding members of the mega society discuss Keith Raniere. Interestingly? They don’t seem to criticize his reported score. But? They also sure don’t seem to think too highly of him!
https://in-sightpublishing.com/2022/04/01/debunking-2/
I don’t know why I find this topic so interesting except that I’ve always been curious why Keith was never a member of Mensa and only, instead, accepted to Mega? Like, shouldn’t mega at least require you to be a card carrying member of Mensa as a prerequisite? Something like this should make sense to everyone. Why are prior scores just self reported, mega?
Kinda makes me feel bad for Keith. So many people enabled that guy in his delusions of grandeur. Claiming to love, revere and adore him. And just look what happened? I’m not sure that guy has ever had a real friend in his whole entire life. It’s pretty sad. Also telling that he wasn’t able to heal Toni Fly. Was the NXIVM tech really that good? Or was he just surrounded by a bunch of irresponsible people?
I think I’ll rest my thoughts and leave it at that.
Mensa membership is almost useless in a deeply corrupt society, Sen. One needs other attributes to compensate for that.
Nobody cares how (allegedly) smart you are, especially when you don’t comment on the article, you just start rambling about your IQ test scores.
“Oh I’m now asking the big cosmic questions of the universe, can anyone relate?”
lol what a dork
Hey, “I’m so smart”? I can relate to Sen. Maybe it’s dorky. But I enjoyed their post.
Maybe unless you’ve had the lived experience of being an anomaly among your peers, it might be hard to understand. As Sen has suggested, there’s some kind of rule that we’re never supposed to talk about this. But sometimes it just feels nice to talk.
Wish you could soften your heart. Life is hard. Everyone has problems. We’re all equal here. And Sen has done nothing wrong. No need to be unkind.
“Lived experience,” haha.
I have scored quite high on IQ tests in my lifetime, right in the ballpark of Sen’s alleged score.
Unfortunately for me, my parents told me my score as a child. Many child development experts strongly advise against this, and for good reason. I mean, look at what happened to little Vanguard when his parents told him he was a genius. I grew up thinking that I was different, that most people couldn’t relate to me because I was so brilliant, and that I was simply smarter than the vast majority of people I encountered every day.
If you move through life convinced that your high IQ makes you “smarter” or “different” compared to others, then you are wildly overestimating your own “specialness,” which isn’t good for one’s mental health and development at ALL.
A high IQ means one thing and one thing only: you’re better than average at logic puzzles. That’s it. It’s just one skill. In the broad scheme of things, it’s not really meaningful.
I mean, look at Sen’s original post…literally NOTHING about the article. Not a single syllable about it. Just lots of humblebragging about their supposed intellectual prowess.
Everybody wants to feel special and important. Being really good at logic puzzles isn’t special. And bragging about it makes you look pathetic.
Oh, and your plea for kindness is fuckin’ corny and reeks of dishonesty. If someone rolls into the comments immediately bragging about their incredibly high IQ, they’re being a douchebag and deserve more than a little mockery.
I care how smart 2cents and Sen are – think their efforts and scores are impressive!
I’ve never sat an IQ test except for the 11+ (Sen you’ll know what that is) I grew very bored after the second question and wrote a poem which I illustrated.
This turned out not to be the most stupid thing i ever did in life.
Can anyone confirm where Raniere is? Is he back in general population in AZ facility?
Raniere is now the smartest inmate in his ward.
Lol. Classic, El Ciclon.
Hmm. This is interesting! I don’t know why I never googled this before, but I’ve found this research paper in which they renormed the test.
Assuming Keith was the individual who scored the highest (45/48), this would suggest an IQ of 170, not 240 as is claimed.
I kinda wanna try it myself! I wonder if anybody is still scoring it? Not to boast but I’ve been formally asessed as having an IQ in the top fraction of a percent. That’s around the point where these tests start tapping out and when these type of “high IQ” tests are useful.
I wonder if I could actually beat “the world’s smartest man”? Of the total 3258 testees, only 2% scored 40 or above. I’m not sure I’m that smart. But? I’m also pretty sure I’m smarter than Keith Raniere!
https://www.researchgate.net/figure/The-frequency-of-raw-scores-on-the-Mega-Test-among-Omni-readers_tbl1_341032783
Oh. My. Fucking. God.
Is this REALLY what NXIVN’s look to as Vanturd being the “Smartest Man in the World”? Seriously? What the actual FUCK!?
I literally almost fell of my chair laughing. What a fucking JOKE!!
Allison, Nicki, India, Toni, Lauren, etc. all gave it up for this douche-canoe pretending to be one of the top three problem-solvers?
Ladies, I banged out three crossword puzzles, two sudoku’s and a Rubik’s cube last month. Wanna give me a group blowjob? Maybe brand my initials into your ass-cheeks? Wadda ya say?
All gave it up? Aren’t women allowed to have sexual gratification and / or pleasure from time to time?
One never knows unless they try.
5:16, which Dimwit of Satan is this?
LOL
Alex are you like me? LOL
My LOL means a very painful Friday night.
I’ll explain:
I’ve got an L tattooed on each leg!
When I bend over it’s LOL. Get it?
It’s L-O-L.
“O” is for orifice on Friday nights. Teehee!
I’m in the Guinness Book for [redacted]. Yummy in my tummy! Mmmh!
It’s a L tattoo on each butt cheek and he bends over and gets LOL
To Amway Johnson,
I could never anticipate this discussion would drool down that path…