Beautiful Minds is Completely Free (For Now)

More on this personal decision.

Hello dear friends and followers,

This newsletter entry comes from my heart.

First and foremost, I hope everyone is safe and doing well. I know these are tumultuous times. Things are rapidly changing beneath our feet and it’s hard to know what’s up and what’s down, who to support, and what tomorrow will bring.

Second of all, thanks to all of you for supporting this newsletter from the start. I am continually touched and grateful beyond measure for your ongoing support and thoughtful comments. I say all the time that I have the best followers in the world. True transcenders!

For months now, I have had sleepless nights feeling immense guilt that I have paid subscribers and I’m not writing articles with great frequency. I keep telling myself “this week I’ll write an epic piece” but then life gets in my way and I don’t do it. Then I feel guilty again. Because the truth is, I want to offer you all the best value for your money and don’t take it lightly that some of you paid to be a subscriber.

Truth is, I am going through a huge transition in my life right now. I am phasing out of academia completely and am cooking up a few things (some I’ll say here and some I’ll keep secret for now!).

For one, I’m working on a dream magic/mentalism show (that’s right, a magic show!) that combines my passions for psychology, magic, mentalism, and perhaps even Opera (we’ll see about that part!). In recent years, I’ve really gone down the rabbit hole of mentalism and even have a stage name “The Amazing Dr. Scott” (see Big Think article here for my vision of what mentalism could be). I have been trying to figure out a way to create more awe and wonder in people’s lives (a strong value of mine) and have all sorts of ideas entering my head at all times of the day and night of how I could create a truly profound psychological experience for people that leaves people feeling inspired to embrace the mysteries of human existence and also to realize their fuller potential. I am in touch with some potential producers and I am looking for venues in NYC or L.A. to do my show, so if anyone has any ideas of where could be a great place to do this, please let me know!!! I’m all ears!!!

Also, I have also been thinking a lot lately about how I can make a bigger impact on the education system— a long time dream of mine. My book Ungifted: Intelligence Redefined, which came out in 2013, will always be my baby. I know it impacted a lot of people— especially parents and reachers— but it didn’t become a best-seller. Some say it was the title (“too negative”). Some (very kind friends) say I was ahead of my time. All I know is that after a recent re-airing on NPR of my personal story and mission to redefine intelligence (see Hidden Brain episode), I’ve been receiving an outpouring of emails from people from all over the world who have been overlooked because of their neurodiversity or because their unique intelligence doesn’t let them fit into one of the many standardized boxes that society (and educators) like to put on people. I know deep in my soul that I was put on this earth to help the oddballs like me find their special place in this world, and I want to go after that more.

Third, I am really getting into my self-actualization coaching training program. Right now we have another cohort of incredible experienced coaches from all over the world. Big shout-out to Jordana Cole (watch her TEDx talk right now!!) and Sophie Hamisch who are leading the charge on this with me. It already feels like one big family of transcenders who are committed to helping people become all that they can truly become. I’ve long had a dream of bringing self-actualization coaching to entire school districts and have been thinking a lot lately what that could look like and how I could go about making that a reality.

So I decided to make space to go after these dreams while I’m going through this major life transition and I don’t feel comfortable charging people if i’m not writing here consistently. Therefore, I decided to pause all paid subscriptions for now and make this newsletter completely free. I am not in this for the money (although I do have to afford my rent!!!). I genuinely want to help people self-actualize and connect with their most alive, unique, creative center of being.

Don’t worry, you’ll still be hearing from me (lol). I’ll still use this newsletter to make announcements from time to time about upcoming courses I’m doing and I will also still write new articles from time to time.

But for the time being, Beautiful Minds will be free to everyone.

Sincerely,

Scott

p.s.: I’m trying to figure out a way to add an option for people who would like to donate to my dreams if they feel called to do so. I’m in touch with Substack support about how to only have that option instead of subscriber options, so we’ll see if I can do that!