Spiritual Intelligence: in a lot of people's minds, this is a bit of a contradiction. After all, for many secular thinkers, "intelligence" is something which, once applied, tends to dispel the old myths and pre-rational beliefs of the traditional religions—that is, intelligence is what frees us from the need for spirituality. On the other side of the divide, many postmodern spiritual seekers and practitioners have an inherent distrust of the rational mind, viewing it as an obstacle to "real" spiritual insight at best—and at worst, single-handedly responsible for the disenchantment of the world, not to mention the very source of our ongoing assault on Mother Nature.
Overall, this has often made "spirituality" and "intelligence" painfully estranged from one another, to the detriment and disillusionment of all. But if there is anything truly novel about the Integral approach, it is this: it actually offers an intelligent way to talk about spirituality. That is, the Integral approach cuts right through both materialistic reductionism on the one hand, and the sort of anti-intellectualism that has become so rampant on the other, offering a much more sophisticated model of growth and development that allows us to better understand the contours of our evolving spirituality—and most importantly, offers a way for us to continue our spiritual paths beyond the limitations of our traditional mythic religious institutions.
One of the key insights offered by the integral approach is that the word "spirituality" can be understood in many different ways—we will not describe all of them here, but it's important to mention at least two of these different definitions. The first has to do with spiritual states of consciousness, often called "peak experiences". These states of consciousness are available to us at all times, can be catalyzed by contemplative or meditative practice, and do not unfold in a strictly linear way—though meditative practices often take us through a particular sequence of these states, our experience of these states are themselves not sequential. (You can read more about these states of consciousness in Ken Wilber's latest Integral Post, Stages of Meditation.)
The second important meaning of "spirituality" actually forms the topic of Ken and Cindy's discussion. Here we identify spirituality as an actual line of development in its own right—one which has a profound and pivotal influence on how we interpret the various states of consciousness that we might experience.
That is, we all possess a unique constellation of "multiple intelligences" that evolve through various stages of competency and complexity, including cognitive intelligence, emotional intelligence, aesthetic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, ethical intelligence, kinesthetic intelligence—and, yes, "spiritual intelligence". Though there are some crucial relationships between certain lines, each of these different intelligences tend to develop at their own pace—it's possible to be quite advanced cognitively, but possess the ethical intelligence of a nine year old child, for example—and this development is almost entirely sequential (you cannot "skip" from ethical stage 2 to ethical stage 4, for example, without first growing through ethical stage 3).
But the question remains, if we actually do possess a "spiritual intelligence", how do we assess it?
Earlier this year we offered you the Spiritual Intelligence assessment (or SQi for short), developed by our good friend Cindy Wigglesworth at her research and development group, Deep Change. In this two-hour conversation, Cindy and Ken Wilber explore the claim that Spiritual Intelligence is the next step in our personal development, beyond our current understanding of intellectual and emotional intelligence. What Ken finds particularly groundbreaking about Cindy's SQi assessment is that, for the first time, taking the SQi assessment can help you measure your current skill levels through the lens of multiple intelligences and stage development.
In their dialogue, Ken and Cindy explore the history of human intelligence research, beginning with the well-known ideas of IQ and EQ (emotional intelligence), noting their impact on our personal relationships and careers. They then take a close look at the overall Spiritual Intelligence model, discussing the three primary reasons for taking the SQi assessment:
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Evaluating your current levels of development in 21 different skill areas, as organized by the four quadrants
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Identifying your own limitations and growth edge, and figure out what you might want to work on next
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Becoming more conversant about these skills with people of any faith tradition or life experience.
Finally, Ken and Cindy sample some of the 21 SQi skills, and explore how they might inform your own relationship with spirituality, offering some much-needed guidance to help us take our next steps toward more love and more liberation.
For more information about the Spiritual Intelligence assesment, click here.
Text by Corey W. deVos
