Spiritual Intelligence

by 

Bill Cottringer

“Spiritual Intelligence is seeing past what you are looking at; or better yet, it is seeing the unseeable and knowing the unknown.”

     The evolution of human intelligence involves using whole-brained intelligence, which is the blending all of our multiple intelligences, including physical, intellectual, emotional, social, vocational, and spiritual intelligence. This is our only hope for seeing past what we are looking at, to discover viable solutions to difficult problems we can’t solve with small, incomplete thinking. Since cosmology scientists maintain that 95% of our physical universe is unseeable and unknowable, the pursuit of spiritual intelligence is truly a noble one. Below are three simple ways to access the wisdom of divine consciousness.

Read More

     Rethinking and reusing what you already know stunts growth in thinking, keeping it small and missing a much bigger picture of possible answers to perplexing questions and complex problems. Reading great books helps grow you thinking from smaller to bigger, because you are adding other’s pieces of the puzzle to your own, by learning new perspectives as to how life and people really work, way beyond what you think you already know.  Reading outside your normal comfort zone is a difficult but rewarding way to increase the most useful knowledge. Scientifically-minded readers can benefit from spiritual-based writing, while fiction-preferred readers can learn much from the self-help genre. It never hurts for optimistic or cynical folks to reverse their reading habits now and then. And sometime, reading the same book ten times yields more than a single reading of ten different books.

     Martin Seymour-Smith’s “100 Most Influential Books Ever Written,” representing the history of thought from ancient times to today, is a very good start. Just a few of the intriguing authors of deep thought include: Dante, James, Plato, Aquinas, Chomsky, Confucius, Hobbs, Jung, Kant, Kierkegaard, Shakespeare, Skinner, Spinoza, Thoreau, and many spiritual leaders. If this reading doesn’t wet you whistle, then try Thomas Law’s “40 must read books of all time, with a mixture of novels, business, personal development, science and technology, travel and adventure, and biographies and history books.   Moreover, an algorithm created 130 “best of” book lists at https://www.thegreatestbooks.org/. Or, if you prefer shorter reading time, check out James Clear’s short list of best articles on the Internet at https://jamesclear.com/articles. Finally, for executive summaries of good reading and an exhaustive compilation of articles, check out https://www.selfgrowth.com/.

Listen More

   As Yogi Berra once said, “You can see a lot by observing.”  Well, you can learn a lot about what you don’t know by listening to what others know, rather than trying to teach others what you think you know by talking.  Always remember, we have two ears and only one mouth for a reason. The biggest obstacle to good listening to understand, is mind wandering which usually occurs 70% of the time. Mindfulness, or focusing on the present moment to become more aware of what is going on right now instead of drifting back to the past or off into the future, is the right path to better listening and learning what you don’t know.

    Stephen Covey exposed another obstacle to good listening as the bad habit of listening just to respond with a clever retort, rather than listening to understand. And sometimes, you have to check out your understanding from the assumptions and judgments you make in the background, which often lead to misunderstanding. Our personal interpretation of word connotations can also impede good listening, so it as good idea to clarify potential misinterpretations.

Imagine More.

     The best way to blend whole-brained thinking is to suspend pre-judgements, verify assumptions, take a provisional stance on the truth, and be more open-minded to accept possibilities that may contradict what you think you know. These bad habits often occur when conflict causes you to shut down with tunnel vision. Seeing painful conflicts as opportunities to grow, learn and improve, is quite challenging but also very freeing. Afterall, we are all saddled with the vulnerabilities and insecurities of finding out what we think we know may not be necessarily so. But much energy and brain space are wasted defending our sacred, unquestioned beliefs.

     The Netflix TV series “Manifest” is delving into the growing popular truth that all things are connected within a divine consciousness. A practical example is the fierce interactions between our thoughts, feelings, beliefs and behaviors, where it is virtually impossible to see when one finishes and the other starts, or which causes which or which is a result of the other. And the energy of empathy is all about identifying someone else’s feelings and experiences with your own. These three paths to spiritual intelligence all interact with each other. Reading and listening inspire imagination and imagination inspires more reading and better listening.