A recently formed nonprofit, The Giftedness Institute, based in Indianapolis, has announced a new study about the controversial findings of Arthur F. Miller. These findings are also published in a new book by Miller entitled Designed for Life (from Life(n) Media in Charlotte, NC).
Designed for Life (see excerpts at www.afarbetterworld.com) presents the results of nearly 50 years of investigation. The findings represent ground-breaking phenomenological research into the nature and behavior of people, analyzed one-at-a-time about their pursuit of activities of unsurpassed personal value. Based on an idiographic paradigm, Miller claims to have discovered an absolute consistency in the structure, type of contents and dynamics of individual nature and behavior. He initially characterized this individual blueprint as a "Motivated Abilities Pattern" (or "MAP"), but now refers to it as a "Motivational Pattern of Giftedness®."
Miller and the biographers from People Management International (www.peoplemanagement.org) refer to the Pattern elements as 'giftedness' because, as Miller claims, "it clearly represents an endowment -- rather than the result of personal effort." This data, collected from more than 55,000 individuals, has profound implications for the debate about intelligent design.
"Perhaps the most embarrassing paradox of the controversy over 'intelligent design' is the fact that no scientist or scholar on either side of the dispute has ever made a study of the nature and behavior of individual persons, as such, to determine whether the claims of Neo-Darwinism can be applied to the person," Miller contends.
"These discoveries paved the way for establishing a 'science of persons', which is predictive and comprehends and explains innate human nature and behavior," said Paul M. Brooks, Chairman of The Giftedness Institute.
Miller refers to the mountain of evidence which undermines theories of Darwinian evolution when it comes to the person in several key respects, including: natural selection, adaptation, the emergence of the new, malleability of human nature, absence of internal drivers, non-sexual purposefulness and inheritability of the phenotype.
Reduced to its essentials, Miller's research shows that every person interviewed followed a unique, complex pattern of behavior when seeking to accomplish a certain consummation of unrivaled personal worth. Each one demonstrates a certain pattern of motivated abilities, demonstrated from childhood on. This pattern includes a focus on certain subjects or objects, and requires certain conditions or circumstances. It also requires certain relationship(s) with others, and doggedly seeks one particular outcome or purpose.
The report concludes that each person's Motivational Pattern of Giftedness® appears to be a birthright in that it is hard-wired, empowered and purposed. The process represents a "science of persons" because it satisfies the critical requirements of science. It comprehends, explains and predicts how the person will always try to perform or behave in any job or role. However, the Pattern is amoral and can be used for good or for evil. Although we cannot predict which path will be followed, or the essence of the person's integrity, morals, ethics, habituations or neurosis, we can predict with certainty that the Pattern will be followed whether the person is defrauding widows or raising money for a charity.
"Considering what we have learned, it is apparent, replicable, testable and most revealing that every person is born possessing an innate, unique, complex, systemic pattern of certain competencies which irrepressibly seeks to achieve a particular outcome," said Jim Van Eerden, Executive Director of The Giftedness Institute. "This research makes a profound proposition in direct contradiction to the idea that we are created as 'blank slates', which is fundamental to Darwinian theory. It substantiates the shared human experience that we feel designed with a built-in sense of purpose, which serves us as a sort of 'homing device.'"
The Giftedness Institute has been formed with a seed funding grant from The Helixx Group (www.helixxgroup.com), to help individuals and organizations apply the implications of this ground-breaking research.
ABOUT ARTHUR F. MILLER
Kidded by his associates as a 'Johnny Appleseed', Art has co-written four books on innate giftedness and has given seminars in many countries. He has written articles for AMA's International Digest and International Forum, Institute of Personnel Management (UK), American Society of Training and Development, College Placement Council, Alban Institute and The Conference Board, among others. He is best known for a near half-a-century odyssey researching and promoting the phenomenon of giftedness as innate in human nature. Based on his rigorous phenomenological research, and the absolute consistency of their findings, he developed a System for Identifying Motivated Abilities (SIMA®) as the centerpiece of his lifework.
ABOUT THE GIFTEDNESS INSTITUTE
Co-founded by Art Miller, Paul Brooks and Jim Van Eerden, The Giftedness Institute is a non-profit 501(c)3 organization that was created to extend the study of individual giftedness to result in a "science of persons" that accurately reflects the unique design of each of us. The Institute does this by organizing web resources, issuing publications and managing special convenings.
ABOUT THE HELIXX GROUP, LLC
The Helixx Group, based in Indianapolis, specializes in providing agency and merchant banking services for high impact business and social entrepreneurs. Helixx provides both lifework planning services and investment banking services that are based around the gifting and the lifework calling of the individual person.