Does the Gifted Subreddit Really Support the Gifted Community? Plus Sci-Fi Fantasy Gifted Characters

When spaces like the r/Gifted subreddit and other gifted support groups and forums exist, they should genuinely offer support, encouragement, and open dialogue

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Hello Visionary, yes that’s you,

For many gifted individuals, finding a safe space where they can express themselves freely is a rare and precious thing. Growing up gifted often means being misunderstood, struggling with existential questions, and feeling isolated from peers. So when spaces like the r/Gifted subreddit and other gifted support groups and forums exist, they should genuinely offer support, encouragement, and open dialogue.

But what happens when those very spaces shut down voices that don’t conform?

Recently, I was banned from r/Gifted for doing nothing more than what gifted people do — thinking deeply, sharing insights, and engaging in meaningful discussion. Nothing inflammatory. Nothing offensive. Or so I thought?

My contributions included:

• Offering support to an individual struggling with late-life gifted identification, sharing insights from authors like Joseph Campbell, Jeff Foster, Ken Wilber, Pema Chödrön on unconditional self-acceptance.

• Introducing myself in another post by sharing my background — tested, identified, and placed in a gifted program in 1996, went on to interdisciplinary studies — and shared an inspiring passage from A Joseph Campbell Companion.
  
  The separateness apparent in the world is secondary.
  Beyond that world of opposites is an unseen, but experienced, unity and identity in us all.
  Today, the planet is the only proper “in group”.
  You must return with the bliss and integrate it.
  The return is seeing the radiance everywhere.

The offending post

Yet, I was silenced and reported. And ironically, this is just what the person struggling with late-life gifted identification wrote into their post—being shunned for expressing themselves.

This isn’t just about one subreddit. It’s about the broader issue of how gifted individuals are often met with resistance when they show up authentically in the world. We are told we are too much, that we are being way too weird, or that our voices need to be moderated. But this suppression only reinforces the very struggles gifted people face — self-doubt, fear of expressing themselves, and feeling out of place even in spaces that are supposed to understand them.

Gatekeeping conversations in a community meant for the gifted is the exact opposite of what should be happening. If we truly want to support gifted individuals, we need to encourage and support open dialogue, not shut it down. When we feel safe to express ourselves and show our true colors, that’s when we really shine. My gifted and talented teachers taught me this.

In the Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab, magic wielders can be accepted as brilliant and powerful as far as other people are comfortable with or find useful. The magic wielding characters vary from having latent discovery of their nature, to knowing their nature and being in service to the crown, being regarded as a rebel outcast, and having lost control and gone mad. I find this to be a fitting way to describe what it is like to be gifted.

The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is either beloved or a nuisance to readers of fantasy fiction. A gifted friend has reread this book multiple times and the reason for it has recently dawned on me after picking it up to have a look for myself. The main character, Kvothe (pronounced like the word “quote”) can be seen as insufferably talented and arrogant for knowing it, or potentially to a gifted person, as someone they can relate to. Both reader and character reactions to Kvothe’s giftedness can make a gifted reader feel seen and validated for what they experience in their own lives.

Another book this gifted friend loves and has recently finished the entire series of, is Enders Game by Orson Scott Card, a science fiction book about a little boy named Ender Wiggins who attends a school for gifted children and is trained for space battle. Which makes me wonder if, like Ender being considered as good as space cannon fodder, we can expect to be accepted by society at large as long as we prove ourselves useful as a means to an end. When we serve corporate interests or do a good job of whatever we are expected to do, perhaps become a famous artist or football player, then we can feel like we belong? Or maybe not even then?

While I’m suspended, I might as well get off of social media and read :)

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About Emma

Just as she graduated from university, Emma Bennett slipped on a spill in the stairwell and her life was forever altered in unimaginable ways. Since then, Emma has leveraged conscious adaptation to heal and create change through neuroplasticity, which changed her mind about what it means to live creatively. Now, Emma writes, speaks, and teaches on how to leverage the hidden powers of their remarkable brains, nervous systems, bodies, and spirits.

Emma brings together the realms of tarot, astrology, positive neuroplasticity, and transpersonal (beyond self, higher consciousness) development. Her approach is psychobiologically-informed, offering a holistic perspective on personal development that goes beyond traditional measures.

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Emma's Education

• B.A. Study of problems of Technological, Cultural, Political, Economic, and Environmental Globalization requiring innovative approaches to understanding of power, exchange, creativity, and social life

• A.A. Behavioral sciences studies encompassing general, cognitive, neurological, physiological, developmental, intercultural, abnormal, personality, and social psychology.

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