Triple Nine Society
Paul Jensen, Lynn McLeod, Merrick Walton, Thorsten Heitzmann, Ed Schreiber, Eric Zimmermann, Jens Wiechers, Kevin Langdon
The Triple Nine Society ( TNS ) is an international gifted association. It was founded in 1979 by former members of the International Society for Philosophical Enquiry.
Conditions of accession
The Triple Nine Society accepts people who achieve in a laboratory recognized by psychologists IQ test an intelligence value that is higher than 99.9 % of the general population (corresponding to an IQ of 146 on the standard scale in Germany ). For comparison, Mensa International, the largest and most famous gifted association allows members who are smarter than 98 % of the population (IQ of 130 ). The Triple Nine Society is so twenty times more selective than Mensa.
Members and Membership
End of 2009, the Triple Nine Society had 954 members from 30 countries; most members ( approximately 820) from the USA.
TNS publishes its own magazine called Vidya in which items appear by members on various topics. The members communicate with each other primarily via e -mail lists, regular weekly chats and organized meetings; the European members have organized themselves into a group in the online network XING.
The Triple Nine Society is based on democratic principles and encourages the free expression of their members. The preamble to the TNS Statutes states:
" The Triple Nine Society is committed to friendship, communication, the adventure of intellectual exploration, and A Greater realization of individual potentials. It neither sanctions the imposition of one person 's philosophy on another nor subscribes to any Particular philosophy for its members. It will strive to avoid the insularity of mere exclusiveness. The guiding principle of the Society is democratic and collegial rather than hierarchical. The Society Will Remain open to innovation and evolution. "
" The Triple Nine Society is committed to the friendship, communication, the adventure of intellectual exploration and better realization of individual potential. It does not support the imposition of their own philosophies on other people, nor they support their own belief of its members. It seeks to avoid narrow-mindedness by exclusivity. The underlying principle of the Triple Nine Society is democratic and cooperative, non-hierarchical. The Triple Nine Society will always be ready for innovation and development. "