Ken Wilber offers a general overview of his comprehensive approach to spiritual growth and awakening, noting an important distinction between spiritual intelligence and spiritual experience.

“We now have compelling evidence, from around the world, that human beings have at least two very different types of spiritual engagement, two very different types of spirituality, if you will — and astonishingly, in all of history, these two types have never been brought together to produce a genuinely unified, comprehensive, whole, and authentic spirituality. (And please note: these types of engagement actually apply across the board to all areas of your own life — your own being and awareness, whether in business, healthcare, relationships, parenting, work, and so on — so even if you’re not particularly spiritual or religious, please stay tuned, because I think you’ll find these absolutely fascinating.)

But as they apply to spirituality, these two major types of engagement are, one, something that might be called spiritual intelligence, which is how we think about and picture or conceive Spirit or an ultimate Reality. And the other might be called direct spiritual experience, or how we directly and immediately experience ultimate Reality. Thus, we can think about it, or we can directly experience it. Talk it, or walk it. And my point is that both of these engagements actually turn out to be equally important, both of them bring something absolutely crucial to the table of what we call religion or spirituality — and in ways that are almost never realized.”

-Ken Wilber