II. Spiritual Intelligence (written in 1996!)

Spiritual Quotient (S.Q.)

If our intelligence is often dominated by the emotional state, the emotions in turn receive their calls to attention by the reason. For example, on a cold winter morning the alarm rings. The dialogue between reason and emotion begins:
Emotion - It's too cold today and so warm in bed. I want to stay just five more minutes.
Reason - No! It's time to get up. The last time you wanted just five more minutes you slept another hour and arrived late at work.
Emotion - Please, today is too cold. Don't be in such a hurry. After all I slept very late last night.
Reason - No! Get up you lazy good-for nothing.
Emotion - Please just over two minutes. . .
This is how the internal dialogue often goes on. Wanting (emotion) and knowing (reason) battle it out on the field of the mind using the recordings in the subconscious to bolster their respective arguments. We want things we know are not good for us. We know many things we do not want to know. In this way inner conflict takes birth. It  ends only when spiritual strength takes charge from the confused, overwhelmed and weakened ego.
What I propose here is a Spiritual Quotient (S.Q.) Which is precisely what can give guidance and strength to the intellect and fulfilment and tranquillity to the mind.
If rational intelligence is what helps me to manage things and emotional sensitivity is what helps me in dealing with other human beings, it is my dose of spirituality that saves me from the excesses of the other two.
Instead of a series of questions and answers of the type used to calculate the IQ and EQ, the SQ  can be computed automatically by applying some criteria regarding the effectiveness of my life. For example:

• Am I spending more time, energy, money and thoughts than I need to, to get the results that I have?
• Can I keep bilateral respect in my relationships?
• Do I play a fair game when I'm working with others?
• Do I keep my dignity while respecting the dignity of others?
• Do I feel peaceful despite having  a lot to do?
• Am I sensible in my decisions?
• Do I remain stable in a situation of tumult?
• Am I more aware of people's virtues than their defects?

These and most other questions could serve as a basis to calculate my SQ. If most of the answers are yes, you certainly have a well-developed dose of spirituality.


This article is from my book "Endoquality: The Emotional and Spiritual Dimensions of the Human Being in Organizations", published by Editora Casa da Qualidade (1997). It was in this book in which I introduced SQ, the first time that this concept appeared in a book, at least in Brazil. Later in the same year, the book "Rewiring the Corporate Brain" by Danah Zohar, in which she also introduced the concept of Spiritual Intelligence. I only got to see that book years later. Definitely synchronicity was happening.