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

‘Men go abroad to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the oceans, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering.’

(St. Augustine)

The first principle of Spiritual Intelligence is the realization that you are a miracle and are wonderful! There is no doubt about it, and you should hold yourself, and others, in awe. Each one of us is more precious, valuable, rare, beautiful and priceless than the most precious and rare ruby or diamond.

A miracle is defined as any ‘amazing or wonderful’ thing or event, or ‘a person or thing that is a marvellous example of something’ – as in ‘a miracle of design’. The word ‘miracle’ derives from the Latin miraculum, a wonder, or wonderful thing. You cannot argue – all the evidence supports the fact that you are amazing. Consider the miracle of your own engineering:

We also know that you are more unique and more different from each other person on earth than any snowflake is from its fellows.

Moreover, we know that the atoms of which you are made come from the stars. You are, in the very real sense of the word, a Starchild!

Each one of us is capable of the most amazing feats of courage, endurance, heroism and sacrifice, as well, unfortunately, as the worst excesses of greed, selfishness, depravity and cruelty – this is the miracle of being human.

‘Be humble for you are made of earth.

Be noble for you are made of stars.’

(Serbian Proverb)

The Bigger Picture

A common activity for young children all over the planet, who are just beginning to explore the wider dimensions of their world, is to send a letter to a friend or pen pal, addressing it as follows:

My friend Jane Fitzgerald,

16 Paradise Street,

London,

England,

Europe,

The World,

The Milky Way,

The Universe.

These children are beginning to sense, as the Spiritually Intelligent do, that the universe is their home, and that they live in a series of bigger and bigger neighbourhoods.

It is the universe’s vastness that creates a sense of excitement, wonder and awe, and which raises all kinds of spiritual questions about the meaning of our existence, and our individual place and significance in that universe.

‘Every now and then,

Take a good look at something

Not made with hands;

A mountain, a star,

The curve of a stream.

There will come to you

Wisdom and patience,

And above all, the assurance

That you are not alone in the world.’

(Sidney Lovett)

And this universe is vast:

Imagine how many atoms (the building blocks of all matter) there must be in the Universe, when just one grain of sand from many of the hundreds of thousands of beaches on our small planet contains millions of atoms.

Spiritually Intelligent people actively cultivate an awareness of the magnificence of every living thing and the vast and gigantic beauty of the universe. This awareness has been furthered dramatically by the invention of telescopes and space probes and, of course, manned space flights. Thanks to these instruments, exquisitely beautiful pictures of planets, stars, galaxies and inter-galactic clouds where stars are born, trillions of miles above us, have been beamed directly into our televisions and living rooms. This dawning Spiritual awareness is beautifully encapsulated in the story of astronaut Edgar Mitchell.

I met Edgar Mitchell in 1973, a couple of years after he had flown to and around the moon on the Apollo 14 mission. His experiences had radically changed his life, and he had established an institute for the study of humanity and the environment. He told the following story:

The Astronaut’s Story

The training at NASA for the flight to and around the moon was very, very, thorough. The astronauts had simulated every stage of the flight in terms of duration and daily activities – they had literally ‘gone to the moon and back’ while on Earth!

Indeed the training had been so thorough that Mitchell reported virtually no emotions of fear or exaltation when they took off, because it felt so familiar and ‘normal’.

This familiarity continued all the way to the moon, everything running smoothly, on schedule and, as far as the crew were concerned, almost robot-like. They arrived and began to prepare for their journey to the ‘dark side of the moon’.

This, like everything else, had been rehearsed. The trip was to take only an hour or so. The significant thing about being on the dark side of the moon was that for the first time on the journey, the sight of the earth would be totally blocked from view, and no radio or television waves could either penetrate or go round the moon. The astronauts would be totally excommunicated from Earth!

Mitchell said that the first five minutes on the dark side were fine, but after that the simulation training began to peel away, and concern, a touch of fear, and his imagination began to kick in. He began to think more and more about Earth – about his wife and children, his home, his neighbourhood, his friends and the places they met, and the changing colours of the seasons.

As his imagination expanded, time began to stretch, as it does when you are waiting for someone you love who is late. But this was not just one person Mitchell was waiting for. This was everyone and every thing that he loved. He began to wonder whether there were some strange time-warp effects on the dark side of the moon, and whether he and the others were trapped in an eternal night. Mitchell reported that the minutes began to feel like days; the time behind the moon was becoming eternity.

After what seemed like aeons, they came out the other side.

And there, at last, was the Earth!

But the Earth was not as Mitchell had imagined. In his mind it had been the giant planet on which the universe of his home and family existed. What he saw now was a tiny blue planet floating in the vast inky blackness of space. Surrounding it was a fragile, wafer-thin covering of white – our entire atmosphere. Mitchell felt that he could literally reach out with his hand and flick the Earth, like a tiny pearl, into oblivion.

That moment, and that sudden realization of the fragility of our local home in the vastness of our big home, caused a paradigm shift in Edgar Mitchell. When he returned to Earth he felt far more compassion and concern for his fellow living beings, and decided to devote the rest of his life to helping protect this delicate, unique and beautiful planet.

A love of and respect for Nature is very characteristic of the Spiritually Intelligent. The tribal peoples we so often admire for their Spiritual Intelligence, such as the Native Americans and the Aborigines of Australia, are renowned for their deep concern for the conservation of the environment, for their respect and love for animals and other living things, and for their reverence for and awe of the Universe. This springs from an affiliation to and with the earth, and a feeling of responsibility to act as its guardians.

Nurture Yourself in Nature

Spiritual inspirations often make themselves known through music and poetry, and musicians and poets often see nature as their muse.

Byron, in Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage wrote:

‘There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,

There is a rapture on the lonely shore.

There is society, where none intrudes,

By the deep Sea, and music in its roar …’

Similarly the visionary poet, artist and mystic William Blake wrote:

‘When thou seeest an eagle, thou seeest a portion of Genius. Lift up thy head!’

And when writing of an ideal approach toward the Universe, Blake penned the immortal lines:

‘To see a World in a Grain of Sand

And a Heaven in a Wild Flower

Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand

And Eternity in an hour.’

Beethoven, Mozart and many other great musicians used Nature as their inspiration, incorporating into their music the songs of birds, the sounds of wind and water, the calls of animals and the sounds created by peasants and farmers going about their business. The entire four movements of Beethoven’s Symphony no. 6 (Pastorale) were based on a walk in the countryside!

Nature has a way of rewarding those who investigate her, by enhancing their insights into all things, and thus raising their Spiritual Intelligence. One such example of someone who has been increasingly awed by the beauty and complexity of Nature is the British broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, whose prize-winning series on animals, plants and the natural world have amazed and inspired millions of viewers across the planet. Perhaps none have been more captivated by the wonders of nature than Sir David himself.

If you think about the following, you will understand why he and others, such as Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey in their work with endangered apes and gorillas, have become so fascinated by the natural world.

This reverence for life and living things is an important part of Spiritual Intelligence; if you habitually swat flies, bugs and spiders, go to the bottom of the class!

Brought to Life by Near-Death Experiences!

Many Spiritually Intelligent people report that it was often a near-death trauma that ‘woke them up’ from their spiritual sleep. One such experience certainly had me appreciating life more after it than before!

Teri and his Second Life

A good friend of mine, Teri, was a very fit and athletic man, a cyclist, rock-climber and caver. The end of his ‘first life’ came when climbing down the sheer face of a smuggler’s cave. He grabbed a small outcrop of rock and it came away in his hand. His last conscious moments were spent realizing that he was falling backwards 180 feet, cracking his head on a rocky jut on the way down, and ending up in a bloody heap at the bottom with a smashed knee, broken leg, foot, arm, ribs, a punctured lung and a cracked skull.

Teri’s ‘second life’ began in hospital when he regained consciousness and realized that he had been ‘born again’. Everything appeared to him much brighter, more memorable and meaningful. Thirty years on Teri still reports that being given a ‘second life’ comprehensively changed his attitude to every day in that new life. Each day is a gift, and he spends each day enjoying every moment of it. He is known as a wonderfully caring and compassionate man, with a gift for putting others at ease with his generosity and humour.

As he so succinctly puts it: ‘Well, when you get a second chance at life, it does make you see things differently and appreciate what you’ve got a lot more, doesn’t it?’

Tony and the ‘Floating Balloon’

On holiday in the Caribbean, I was taking an early-morning swim in an exquisitely beautiful bay with crystal-clear blue water, mirror flat from the calm of the night before. Not particularly paying attention to where I was going, I ended up doing a long and leisurely series of back-strokes. When I stopped to turn around, I saw what looked like a blown-up balloon on the surface of the water, and without thinking (always dangerous!) I swam towards it. I noticed that the colour of the water underneath it appeared to be not so much blue as a beautiful lavender. Suddenly my brain recognized the danger signs, and screamed at me:

‘Portuguese Man-of-War!’

Terrified, I swung about in the water – too late. The beautiful purple tendrils wrapped themselves around my waist and legs and sent me rocketing out of the water in pain. It felt as if I had been wrapped in barbed wire through which giant electric shocks were being pulsed.

I suddenly remembered (and understood!) the many reports I’d heard of people who had died of such an experience. For the next 10 or 15 minutes I was like some Walt Disney cartoon character with my legs thrashing like an outboard motor in the effort to get back to shore! With every stroke I wondered whether the poison was going to kill me rapidly, or lock all my muscles into an immovable rigidity that would lead me to drown.

The fact that you are reading this book means that you know I made it! I spent a little time in hospital, and came out still shocked, having been taught a number of lessons by Mother Nature – among them that I need to be more observant and more alert to danger.

Most importantly, however, I had learnt, while facing the prospect of having no days left, to pay much more attention to appreciating and enjoying the ‘gift’ of every day that I had and would be given.

Do You Make a Difference?

‘God sleeps in the rock,

dreams in the plant,

stirs in the animal,

and awakens in mankind.’

(Sufi teaching)

Believing that they can make a difference is another hallmark of the Spiritually Intelligent.

Do you make a difference?

Of course you do! Everything you say, do or create affects the environment and the people around you, and it and they affect others, and so on for infinity and eternity. This cause and effect can be confirmed by Chaos Theory – according to which a butterfly beating its wings in the Amazon rainforest can cause sufficient air turbulence to eventually cause a typhoon in Java.

You and your soul are ‘immortal’ whether you wish them to be or not! The real choice you have is whether that ‘immortality’ affects the human race and the planet in a positive way; whether you wish to leave it to chance; or whether you wish to work to its disadvantage. The Spiritually Intelligent person obviously chooses the first of these options!

Now that you are aware of your own magnificence, the vastness and the beauty of the universe in which you live, of the wonderful nature of Nature, and the fact that your spirit is immortal, you are ready for a good Spiritual Workout.

Spiritual Workout

1 Remind Yourself How Miraculous You Are

Remind yourself just what a magical work of design you really are. Make it a point to track down more information about the extraordinary capabilities of your human body and brain. Go to your local library or bookstore and dig out some of the popular science books around at the moment – on everything from brains to genes! Alternatively, watch some of the popular science programmes on TV. Constantly apply this knowledge to your own self-awareness and to the development of your self-confidence.

2 Remember that Everyone is Miraculous

Apply your new-found knowledge of your own magnificence to everyone around you – your friends, family, children, colleagues, people you meet on the street, and yes (this is a book on Spiritual Intelligence!), even your enemies. Once you begin to realize that everyone is as unique a person as you are, you will find yourself looking at people in a new light: each one with the spark of divinity in them. Decide what you can do to appreciate, help and learn from them more.

3 Learn from Your Life’s Events

Look back over your life and its major events, traumas, pains and failures. Realize that every one of these is something that is strengthening your Spirit. Do everything you can to help that experience accelerate your growing strength – seek out the positive aspects, the silver linings, and all the possible lessons you can learn.

4 Learn to Appreciate the Natural World

Spend some time appreciating the multi-sensory beauty that surrounds you. Go for walks in the countryside as often as you can, or in parkland or some beautiful botanical garden (if you are lucky enough to live near one). Drink in the fresh air, the different scents and sounds, and the peace. Try doing this alone, as well as with your family or friends.