The purpose of spiritual intelligence is to give us a sense of transcendence, a goal of life that goes beyond mere materialism. Take on the kind of philosophy advocated by Viktor Frankl in his time, when we can be pleased to find our meaning in this community. reality, something that is only achieved with an inner calm and a personal balance.
Since Daniel Goleman popularized the concept of emotional intelligence in the 1990s, this movement to design in the broadest sense all our cognitive, abstract and intellectual processes that orchestrate our minds has only grown. The subject, as such, is not without controversy, especially since Howard Gardner, an American psychologist at Harvard University, has advocated a different conception of intelligence.
- We talked.
- Of course.
- About the idea of multiple intelligences.
- The factorial models and mental abilities that could be quantified by psychometric tests would be left behind.
- Gardner spoke of a number of areas.
- Of potentialities in which each of us can be more distinguished.
- Or less.
- Thus.
- Among these 8 types of intelligences.
- He thought of adding a ninth.
- Which he called spiritual intelligence.
However, at the time he realized the lack of scientific evidence to demonstrate this competence and preferred not to include it, however, many philosophers and psychologists, such as Robert Emmons or Danah Zohar, advocated listing it, to place recognition of this skill as another step in our human success.
This may be similar to Abraham Maslow and his needs pyramid. Well, Maslow made several corrections to his proposal, and one of them was related to that need that crowned the summit. Finally, he realized one aspect: it’s critical that people look. “self-realization,” understood as a spiritual state in which the individual radiates creativity, tolerance, and wisdom.
It is a state in which the person is closer to finding a life purpose that gives him meaning, a panorama in which his potential is also linked to others to generate well in them.
On the other hand, in our society, many people end up practicing what is called “spiritual materialism”. They seek philosophies, such as Buddhism, mindfulness or yoga, a way to flourish, as if they were following a recipe for literal cooking, but feeding themselves, leading to a true tyranny of ego.
Spiritual intelligence does not seek to nourish the ego. It does not aspire to that personal achievement in which all learning ends up returning to itself, it is to find a purpose in life and to be in harmony with ourselves to reach others, is to connect by empathy, opening up those who are well with themselves to give their best to their environment.
Danah Zohar is a physics, MIT philosopher, and Harvard University psychologist, many voices consider her one of today’s greatest thinkers and, in turn, is one of the pioneers in promoting the acceptance of spiritual intelligence as another skill to work. In.
In 2000 he published the book “Connecting with our spiritual intelligence”, with a very specific objective: to delineate and clarify the principles that orchestrate this type of intelligence.
Are:
Authors such as Howard Gardner, Danah Zohar and Robert Emmons argue that spiritual intelligence allows them to perceive more significant links between everyday life and their own concerns would be a way to better solve problems, to clarify our goals. pay attention to aspects where it is not worth working and working on what makes sense, allowing us to invest in a more real happiness.
However, there is also a more critical view that warns us against something we might or might not consider: thinking spiritually decreases the objectivity of cognitive processes. This makes us see reality from a very subjective point of view and, in a way, prevents us from solving problems more objectively, given the great complexity that defines one of our scenarios.
In any case, the subject of spiritual intelligence (as well as the theory of multiple intelligences) is always accompanied by a controversy in which there will always be more counterattack than to, however, we cannot ignore interest in personal growth. , nothing can be more relevant to human beings than finding a purpose in life and being true to that goal, being consistent with their own beliefs.