Highly gifted individuals are those with IQ's higher than the 145/150 range, depending on which test is used to measure the IQ. The term, "highly gifted," may also be used to describe individuals who have shown prodigious talent at an early age. Beyond highly gifted (or at the highest end of being highly gifted) are the profoundly gifted, which is generally the term used to describe individuals with IQ's of 180 or above.

The highly gifted individual takes in and processes information more quickly than does the person with an average or slightly higher than average IQ. Those who are highly gifted also tend to have excellent memory, which means they retain more information. As a result of these two traits, alone, the highly gifted individual forms opinions and conclusions based on a larger base of information than most people use to form opinions and conclusions.

Perhaps the best way to describe how the highly gifted individual sees the world is to make the following comparison: Imagine one person standing on a narrow city street that is lined with skyscrapers. Imagine, too, a second person standing on the roof of one of those skyscrapers, equipped with a pair of high-powered binoculars and a gadget that can amplify sound. (For the purposes of this exercise disregard the reality that two people so far away from one another could not have a conversation between them.) Imagine expecting the two individuals to have a conversation about what was going on around them and expecting the two to be "on the same wavelength" during that conversation. Comparing the highly gifted individual to the person on the roof, and the average individual to the person in the street, one can get some idea of how differently the highly gifted person can experience the world.

Not only would the person on the roof of that skyscraper see more of what is going on, but he would experience some sensations more and sooner than the person in the street would, as well. For example, if the wind blew up the person on the roof would feel it more dramatically. He'd feel the heat of the sun more acutely. If it started to rain he'd feel it first and most - and if lightning occurred he'd be more at risk.

In this comparison, if the highly gifted person tried to tell the person in the street that, say, a high-speed chase appeared headed in their direction, the person in the street would be faced with having to decide whether to believe that person on the roof or not. Departing

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