ASSESSING SQ

According to Danah Zohar logical intelligence (IQ) is about rational, logical, rule-bound thinking. Emotional intelligence (EQ) is about associative, habit-bound, pattern-recognising, emotive thinking. Spiritual intelligence (SQ) is about creative, insightful, rule-making, rule-breaking, transformative thinking.

Zohar believes that unlike IQ, which is linear, logical and rational, spiritual intelligence cannot be quantified. Instead she asks questions that are simply an exercise in reflection.

The questions have been organized into seven sections representing possible spiritual paths or journeys. Zohar believes at least three of the spiritual paths will be relevant to each person. There are four groups of questions for each spiritual path. These relate to:

a general survey of your relevant experience
common obstacles to progress
some possible themes for further progress
some transpersonal, or more conventionally spiritual, aspects of any given path

PATH 1: DUTY

What groups have you been glad to belong to in your life? Family? Friends? Work? Neighbourhood? Nation? Ethnic group? None?
Which of these groups (if any) have you become estranged from? Why? Are you left with any bad feelings? Disagreements? Traumatic incidents? Guilt? Do you still feel bound by any of the group's rules or customs? If so why?
Is there any group to which you would like to belong more fully? Is this practical?
What is your moral code now? What is its source? How far do you follow it? Have you thought of a change that might improve one of your groups for everyone (or nearly everyone) concerned? Have you done anything about it? Have you made any important resolution in the past year and kept to it?

PATH 2: NURTURING

Are there now (or have there been in the past) any people to whom you would happily give more than you receive? Are there any people (now or in the past) from whom you happily receive more than you give?
Are there any people whom you are currently neglecting, harming or bearing a grudge against? Why? Have you made any positive or negative decisions about this?
Are there any people (now or in the past) whom you want or wanted to help but cannot? How do you feel about that? Can you have close friends if they don't need your help or advice? Can you, in intimate relationships, be open and honest about difficult topics?
Do people find you easy to talk to? Do you sometimes help someone in need who approaches you, even though they are outside your social circle?

PATH 3: UNDERSTANDING

1. Do you take an active interest in the lifestyles of those around you? Family? Work? Neighbourhood? Current affairs? Have you recently read or discussed anything to do with psychology, philosophy, ethics or similar subjects?

2. If you feel bogged down in a problem do you usually put it aside, or do you try another approach? Do you have any unmade decisions, confusion about some subject, or long-term practical problems? What would have to happen for you to make progress on any of these?

3. Can you usually see some value in both sides of an argument? If so, what happens? Can you progress beyond this point? Do people often surprise you, or is your intuition about them correct more often than not?

4. Are you intellectually seeking something? Try to define what, exactly, you would like to understand better. What might help with this? What hinders you? How important is this to you? Can you accept your present lack of understanding without giving up?

PATH 4: PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION

1. 'We never possess anything unless we possess it first with passion.' How far is this true in your life relationships, causes, art, vocation etc.? Are there ways of feeling that you try to avoid?

2. Recall a person, dream, daydream or story that filled you with a passionate or romantic longing, but which did not reach a completely happy conclusion. Was there something missing or incomplete about your life at the time? Did you try to realize your dream? If so, what happened? Did you give up out of pain, humiliation or cynicism? If not, what held you back - morals, justified prudence, timidity, or all three? Find a way to express some part of this emotion or theme now, perhaps through poetry, writing, dancing, listening to music or talking to someone you trust. (Talent, here, is less important than being authentic.) In any given emotional situation, do you usually see many possible styles of expressing your feelings?

3. Can you see that your emotions and longings are cut from the same cloth as those of writers, artists or musicians whom you respect? Take one such work of art that moves you. Find out something about its creator and compare his or her life with yours. Do you see that even pain can become a contribution to others, if placed in context and transformed?

4. Take any example of personal behaviour that moves you deeply. What are its pros and cons? Now try to find a complementary or counter-balancing example of behaviour. See if the two can have a satisfying dialogue. Are there any examples of rebels or rogues with whom you identify or feel sympathy? What can you learn about yourself from that?

PATH 5: BROTHERHOOD

1. Ideally, would you like to be able to have a conversation with anybody? Pick any meeting with others that has interested you. Can you imagine yourself reversing roles with any or all of the others there? Do you take an active interest in local or citizenship affairs?

2. Are there some people with whom you can't feel at ease? Why? What is your emotion? (Boredom? Fear? Anger? Competitiveness? Contempt? Regret? Something else?) Do you think that you would behave differently from these people if you were given their background and situation?

3. Is justice important to you? For everyone, or just for a few groups that are close to your heart? If you are only concerned with justice for some groups, what have you got in common with them?

4. Are you disturbed or embarrassed by the subject of death? Do you believe in any kind of life after death? Heaven? Reincarnation? The survival of your ideas or your family? Have you ever had an experience of love for, and unity with, all beings? Have you ever felt that you could lay down your life for certain people or causes?

PATH 6: SERVANT LEADERSHIP

1. Have you been accepted as the leader of any group? How did that make you feel? Have you ever had visions of or longings for the way an ideal group or society could live? Did you do anything about it, however small? Have you abandoned it? Why? Can you make further progress with your vision? Does it need refining?

2. Have you 'inherited' some of your views of society and/ or your role in it? That is, have you adopted, without reflection, ideas and views from earlier in your life? Have you accepted what parents, friends, work associates or a spouse partner wanted you to do? Have you made hasty decisions when confused or stressed? How much of this have you outgrown? Does any modified form of such inherited purposes still interest you?

3. Can you always find, despite the difficulties, the deep energy needed to deal with an emergency? If your deep vision is challenged, do you give up? Become assertive because you 'know best'? Debate the issue democratically?

4. Are you willing to stand up and be counted for what you most value, even if that has no immediate chance of being accepted by others? Have you ever had an experience of something holy, sacred, a source of intelligent energy from beyond yourself Have you tried to express it in some way, to some degree? Can you imagine practical structures that might express it?

THE CENTRE

1. Have you ever felt yourself to be in the presence of a powerful spiritual force that goes beyond your everyday self. If so, did it include a sense of love for or unity with all things? Did it include a sense of an intelligent and sacred source of energy from beyond yourself Was the experience beyond time, space and form - an indescribable void of which you were yet consciously aware? Have any of these experiences remained important to you?

2. Do you often have nightmares? Do you sometimes feel that all your luck, good and bad, is caused by hidden forces? Do you find it difficult to feel close to anyone? Do you often feel that life is pointless? Do you really dislike being alone? (These are all negative forms of spiritual energy that must be overcome if you are to raise your SQ.)

3. If, after long discussion, you still disagreed with your associates on a point of principle, what would you do? Imagine several different situations and their possible outcomes.

4. Do you have moments not just of pleasure but of deep contentment? What are you usually doing at the time? Do these moments inspire you or give you strength at other times? If you were to die tonight, would you feel that your life has in some way been worthwhile? How?

Source: Zohar, D & Marshall, I. (2000). SQ: Connecting With Our Spiritual Intelligence. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing

Spiritual Intelligence - SQ