SQ: Connecting With Our Spiritual Intelligence [Hardcover]

Danah Zohar (Author), Dr. Ian Marshall (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 15, 2000

A radical new exploration of the human need for meaning and values.
At the beginning of the 20th century, as psychologists discovered ways and means to measure intelligence, Aristotle's definition of man as "a rational animal" developed into an obsession with IQ. In the mid 1990's, Daniel Goleman popularized research into emotional intelligence, EQ. Now, in the twenty-first century, there is growing evidence that a third "Q" exists-"SQ," or Spiritual Intelligence.

SQ is our most fundamental intelligence. It is what we use to develop our capacity for meaning, vision and value. It allows us to dream and to strive. It underlies the things we believe in and the role our beliefs and values play in the actions that we take. Spiritual Intelligence explores how accessing our SQ helps us to live up to our potential for better, more satisfying lives.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The standard IQ test measures rational intelligence--the skills we use to solve logical or strategic problems. For a long time, IQ results were considered the best measurement of a person's smarts and potential for success. But in the early 1990s Daniel Goleman pointed out that success is also dependent on emotional intelligence--the thinking that gives us empathy, compassion, and the ability to respond appropriately to pain or pleasure. Now, at the end of the 20th century, authors Danah Zohar and Dr. Ian Mitchell claim that there is another important Q to consider--the SQ, otherwise known as Spiritual Intelligence. In fact, the authors assert that "SQ is the necessary foundation for both the IQ and the EQ. It is our ultimate intelligence." They have an excellent point. After all, computers have high IQ, animals often have high EQ, but only humans have SQ--the ability to be creative, change the rules, alter situations, and question why we are here. Because the authors are well-researched and highly articulate, the entire book makes for intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually compelling reading. Chapters include "The God Spot in the Brain," "How We Become Spiritually Stunted," "Six Paths Toward Greater Spiritual Intelligence," and "Assessing My SQ." --Gail Hudson

From Publishers Weekly

Science may still be a long way from measuring the quality of human consciousness, but it can already detect its presence in the brain's electric frequencies. Drawing on the research of neuroscientist Rodolfo Llinas, which connects consciousness with the presence of 40 HZ neural oscillations in the human brain, the authors of The Quantum Self attempt to conceptualize the spiritual state of "higher consciousness" within the realm of quantum physics. Going one step further than Llinas, Zohar and Marshall propose that these frequencies are evidence of spiritual intelligence, or the "intelligence of the soul." They define SQ as "unitive" thinking and describe it in physical terms as the high frequency oscillatory activity that binds the proto-consciousness in all single-cell life into a unified, meaningful whole within certain special structures, such as the human brain. Of the neural cells involved in conscious experience, they write: "They behave as many individual voices that have become one voice in a choir. No known phenomenon can generate this kind of coherence, but it is the rule in quantum processes." The unity of all living things that is at the core of Buddhist philosophy serves as a natural segue from quantum physics to metaphysics. Unsurprisingly, Buddhist, Hindu and Hebrew texts provide the foundation for the authors' prescriptions for increasing spiritual intelligence in the latter half of this engrossing and inevitably controversial book. Illus. not seen by PW. Foreign rights sold in Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Brazil and the U.K. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (January 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582340447
• ISBN-13: 978-1582340449
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.5 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #735,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Pyschological/Spiritual/Physiological New Golden Bough, April 15, 2000

By 

Donald Mitchell "Jesus Loves You!" (Thanks for Providing My Reviews over 109,000 Helpful Votes Globally) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: SQ: Connecting With Our Spiritual Intelligence (Hardcover)

Reading the New Golden Bough was one of the most significant experiences of my youth. That book showed the remarkable similarities in the cultural stories and myths across cultures. From reading these perspectives, one arrives at a more fundamental understanding of the relationship between humanity and nature, people and community, and people with themselves. Reading SQ Connecting with our Spiritual Intelligence left me with a similar feeling. I thought that the opening quotes for the chapters were especially well designed to draw one into the points the authors wanted to make. I got a new sense of how nothingness can provide meaning (such as the hole in the middle of the wheel that allows it to be connected to the source of power). As someone with a very modest knowledge of psychology, I enjoyed the sections that integrated psychological and religious thinking about the meaning of life. There is a part of the book where you can take personality tests and help focus on the questions that will allow you to make your spiritual journey. As someone who has been a meditator for some time, I was fascinated by the reports of research on how vibrations provide wholeness in the brain. Certainly, that's what it feels like when I am meditating. I especially like books that provide a new perspective on something that I have been thinking about a lot. I found the questions for spiritual progress to be quite interesting. They certainly caused me to shift my attention in new ways that will undoubtedly lead to new learning. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in more self-awareness, particularly aimed at getting in touch with one's real nature. If you work in a business, you might also enjoy Rewiring the Corporate Brain, also by Danah Zohar.

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars S Q Connecting with our Spiritual Intelligence, June 1, 2000

By 

Paul D Edwards - See all my reviews

This review is from: SQ: Connecting With Our Spiritual Intelligence (Hardcover)

Spiritual Intelligence is a concept whose time has come. It will soon be bursting upon our present scene making a powerful impact. This cutting edge Book by Zohar and Marshall will change the way of our thinking of psychology and education, to family values and personal identification.

This Book brings together four specific streams of research speaking to the discovery of the God Spot, the relationship between IQ. EQ and SQ, the new MEG (magneto-encephalographic) technology and the evolution of symbolic imagination.

Spiritual Intelligence can be used to wrestle with problems of good and evil, life and death, the deepest origins of human suffering and often despair. It is universal with no cultural, ethnic or religious ties. Spiritual Intelligence is not a program, or a technique or a psychology. It is rather a life style. The good news is, it comes from the bottom and moves up. We do not have to wait for some program to come down from above. It is already here waiting to be discovered, used and shared by everyone and with everyone.

As the Author of "The Spirituyal Intelligence Handbook" I found this approach different but confirming. SQ research is the pioneer concept for this century. Zohar and Marshall's "Spiritual Intelligence" with be a foundation book for our time.

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My thoughts about the book, January 22, 2000

By 

Carmen A. Rivera - See all my reviews

This review is from: SQ: Connecting With Our Spiritual Intelligence (Hardcover)

It gave me some answers to questions I have had for a long time. The use of Jung, Holland and other personality theories from the Greeks and the Tao to explain the spiritual path we choose as human beings is excellent.. The book allowed me to integrate all these theories in a different but stimulating way...