The Power of Spiritual Intelligence: 10 ways to tap into your spiritual genius

This, however, was soon to turn to dust. When the pair left, the lady looked up at me with a fractured face, her expression one of failure, disillusionment, loss, pleading and an almost unbearable pain. As I closed the door on her forever, those same feelings surged through me.

What had I done?

This gentle lady had spent several weeks of her life preparing for and meeting me, with the sole purpose of helping to save my soul. And what had I done to express my thanks and gratitude for this totally unselfish gesture on my behalf? Beaten her with the truncheons of logic and words; humiliated and demeaned those she loved and respected in front of her; attempted to destroy the foundations of a newly structured, innocent and loving life; and after gloating at my ‘triumphs’, had turned her out into the snow. I sat down, stunned at the horror of what I had just done. Logic and words suddenly seemed irrelevant, and my whole being was overwhelmed with sorrow and remorse.

Without knowing it, my Angel of Mercy had more than accomplished her task and, in the final analysis, had won her argument hands down and spirit up! Wherever you are, dear lady, I eternally thank you for your wonderful and successful rescue mission!

In one flash of heart-rending realization, my life had been changed. I came to see that there was more to intelligence than simply words, numbers and logic. (In fact, I was soon to discover that there were multiple intelligences – Creative, Personal, Social, Sensual, Physical, Sexual, Spatial and Spiritual, as well as Verbal and Numerical, which I explore in my book Head First.)

Spiritual Intelligence – A Definition

We often hear of:

‘the spirit of the age’

‘full of spirits’

people in ‘poor’ or ‘high spirits’

‘troubled spirits’

‘the nation’s spirit’

‘my spiritual father’

‘she was a leading spirit …’

‘my spiritual home’

but just what are ‘spirit’ and ‘spiritual’?

The whole concept of spirit comes from the Latin spiritus, meaning breath. The modern term refers to your life energy and to the ‘non-physical’ part of you, including your emotions and character. It includes your vital qualities of energy, enthusiasm, courage and determination. (It is interesting to note that spirit also means a form of purified alcohol. Note that the emphasis is on purified!)

Your Spiritual Intelligence is concerned with how you grow and develop these qualities. It is also concerned with the protection and development of your soul, which the Oxford English Dictionary defines as your ‘moral and emotional identity’ and the intensity of its ‘emotional and intellectual energy’.

Spiritual Intelligence progresses naturally from your Personal Intelligence (knowledge, appreciation and understanding of yourself), through Social Intelligence (knowledge, appreciation and understanding of other people), to the appreciation and understanding of all other life forms and the Universe itself. In fact, contact with, understanding, and an appreciation of nature is a major aspect in the development of your Spiritual Intelligence.

Self-actualization

Self-actualization is the ultimate state of achievement described by the respected American psychologist Abraham Maslow, in what he described as his Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow discovered that, regardless of what tribe or place on the planet they were from, all human beings went through ascending stages of survival and spiritual development. These included:

the need for food

the need for shelter

the need for physical health

the need for family

the need for education

the need for social integration

the need for intellectual, social and material accomplishment.

It is only when all these are met that people reached their ultimate stage of human development: Self-actualization.

Maslow defined self-actualization as a spiritual state, in which the individual poured out creativity, was playful, joyful, tolerant, with a sense of purpose and a mission to help others to achieve this state of wisdom and bliss. All of these are to be accomplished in an environment of growing compassion and love.

Maslow was describing what we now call Spiritual Intelligence!

The Global Hunger for Spiritual Intelligence

The new global emphasis on developing the power of Spiritual Intelligence has come at just the right time for a world that is often described as spiritually sick.

‘What is the world coming to?’ we ask, when words like ‘divine’ are downgraded to describe, breathlessly, new furniture or clothes; when people describe themselves as ‘transported’ when their suburban gardens are given makeovers by TV experts; and when ‘ecstasy’ is used to describe not a state of transcendence, but a cheap and brain-damaging drug?

However, all is not as bad as it seems – the very fact that people are looking for ‘that buzz’ confirms that the spirit is still alive! It is simply looking for guidance to find the right path, and has momentarily lost its way among the mundane and commonplace.

Even the incessant stream of bad news which daily pours out of our radios, our TVs and the papers contains some silver linings. Natural disasters like earthquakes, avalanches and floods cause undeniably awful pain and suffering; but similarly they can result in extraordinary displays of compassion and community of spirit. Such events often help jolt us out of the semi-robotic way in which we allow our lives to run, and into a new awareness that is out of the ordinary. This is an awareness and insight that can be brought about also by birth and death, loss of loved ones, a sunrise, a painting, and all those things that have inspired the greatest art, poetry and music throughout the centuries.

There is more good news!

More and more people in affluent societies are growing tired of the shallowness of their materialistic lives, and are searching for a new set of values by which to live; values which emphasize a new sense of collective belonging to and responsibility for a world that is in an increasingly fragile state.

A recent survey conducted by John Naisbitt, the author of Megatrends 2000, showed that for the first time in history more people were moving from the big cities to the suburbs; from the suburbs to the exurbs; and from the exurbs back to the countryside than were moving into the cities.

Why? Because, people reported, they felt that in some way they were ‘losing their souls’ and that they needed to get back in touch with themselves, with Nature, and with the sense of human community for which they longed. They wanted more Quality of Life; a life that fed, rather than depleted their spirits.

At the same time, the world is experiencing a new Renaissance. In country after country, more art galleries, concert halls and museums are being built. And in many countries more people than ever before are studying (professionally and for personal enjoyment) music, drawing, painting, creative writing, theatre and dance.

You are living, at the beginning of this 21

Century of the Brain and the Millennium of the Mind, in a world that is transforming itself from a relatively ‘dark night of the soul’ to an age of Spiritual awareness, development and enlightenment. You are part of that process.

‘Great men are they who see that the spiritual is stronger than any material force.’

(Ralph Waldo Emerson)

Case History – Valentina Tereshkova

Many leading individuals are publicly calling for greater attention to be paid to Spiritual Intelligence and a more caring and nurturing approach toward the children of the future and the planet. One particularly notable example is Dr Valentina Tereshkova. On 16 June 1963, a powerful rocket boosted the space capsule ‘Vostok 6’ into outer space and Valentina piloted it 48 orbits around the earth. Three days later she landed her space capsule safely, and became and remains the only woman in the world to accomplish solo flight into space. She received many awards and decorations, and has devoted an increasing part of her time to speaking at international peace conferences. She was recently nominated for the Women of the Year award of ‘The Woman of the 20

Century’, and in her acceptance speech she stressed the responsibility we all have for the future of human civilization:

‘We all have to understand and in full measure accept our responsibility for the future of human civilisation in all areas of activity – in the economy, in science and culture and art … I believe we all know which dangers we have in mind. The pollution of the environment due to the retroactivity of men, the pollution of outer space, and the problem of the sensible use of the scientific and technological achievements [for] the benefit and not the detriment of humanity.

‘Another problem is to protect the spiritual health of our children, to provide them with a moral compass to choose the right road in the limitless cyber space. Can we solve all these problems? Yes we can, thanks to responsibility and solidarity.’