Publisher's note

Cultivating spiritual intelligence to heal diseases of meaning: A conference report

PP: 103

Article Text

The fundamental crisis of our times is a crisis of meaning. Much of our suffering, even chronic physical conditions, consists of 'diseases of meaning'.
Such was the premise of Danah Zohar's seminar at the Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Sydney, in January 2002 on 'Spiritual Intelligence and the Power of Inner Leadership'. Applying concepts explored in her best-selling book SQ: The Ultimate Intelligence (Bloomsbury, 2000) co-authored with Dr Ian Marshall, the seminar attracted senior business and institutional leaders from health, finance, government, manufacturing, education and technology sectors, looking for new ways to develop their own leadership and take their organisations forward.
Zohar and Marshall's credentials add weight to their theory. Zohar studied physics and philosophy at MIT before doing her graduate work at Harvard University in psychology and theology. She is Visiting Fellow at Cranfield School of Management in the UK, and teaches in the Oxford Strategic Leadership Programme at Oxford University. Dr Ian Marshall is a practising psychiatrist and psychotherapist with degrees from Oxford University and the University of London.

Stress caused by crisis of meaning
Zohar referred to an international conference of doctors, patients, scientists and policymakers in June 1999, highlighting the correlation between stress and major illnesses, including cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's and other dementias (Jobst, Shostak & Whitehouse 1999).
The delegates argued that the medical and scientific establishment increases the prevalence of diseases of meaning by ignoring the more complex origins of much illness. Instead, it chains itself to the 'medicalisation of disease – finding the 'right' gene, designing the 'right' drug to block or eradicate the disturbance, while ignoring that many of our pathologies are not primarily physical, but rather spiritual and psycho-physical (Zohar & Marshall, 2000: 29–30).
There is no doubt that stress is a major cause of illness in our society. Symptoms present not only in patients but across the nursing profession itself. In this issue's Guest Editorial (Vol. 12/2, p. 107) Carrie Sanders describes how a dispirited workplace manifests itself in low morale, high turnover, burnout, frequent stress-related illness and rising absenteeism… evidenced by the increasing problems associated with nurse recruitment and retention.
While nurses enjoy high levels of public trust as ethical professionals, intolerable working conditions, for nurses worldwide, are impacting on the quality of patient care (Vol. 12/1, p. 7; Johnstone, 2002a). This in turn is leading to a revisioning of workplace healthcare ethics (Vol. 12/3, in press, Johnstone, 2002b).
According to Zohar, the main cause of stress is lack of meaning. We are too busy, too 'dizzy', to access our inner lives. Zohar proposes that the answer to this modern-day crisis of meaning lies in developing and using our Spiritual Intelligence. Whereas the Intelligence Quotient (IQ) measures what we use to solve logical or strategic problems, and Emotional Intelligence or EQ (Goleman 1995) indicates awareness of our own and other people's feelings and the ability to respond appropriately, Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) indicates the intelligence with which we address and solve problems of meaning and value. Ideally, these three basic intelligences work together and support one another, but it is SQ that is the necessary foundation for the effective functioning of both IQ and EQ.

What is SQ?
Clarifying upfront that SQ has nothing to do with religion, spiritual movements, sects or belief systems, Zohar described it as an internal, innate ability of the human brain and psyche, resting in that deep part of the self that is connected to wisdom beyond the ego, or conscious mind. SQ is our deep human need for, and access to, meaning, vision, values and a sense of purpose in our lives. It is the intelligence with which we heal ourselves and with which we make ourselves whole.
Zohar reasoned that SQ is a concept that is firmly grounded in quantum physics and recent research in the field of neurophysiology. Because SQ operates literally out of the brain's centre – from the brain's neurological unifying functions – it integrates all our intelligences.

Scientific evidence for SQ
Zohar and Marshall dealt with questions such as how we have SQ and how it functions in the human brain. Using some of the most recent scientific research available, their work draws on a body of recent neurological, psychological and anthropological studies of human intelligence, as well as studies of human thinking and linguistic processes, to provide scientific evidence for SQ. First, they cite research carried out in the 1990s, by neuropsychologist Michael Persinger (Persinger 1996) and neurologist V.S. Ramachandran at the University of California (Ramachandran and Blakeslee 1998), on the existence of a 'God Spot' in the human brain. This built-in spiritual centre is located among neural connections in the temporal lobes of the brain. These neural areas light up on scans taken with positron emission topography whenever research subjects are exposed to discussion of spiritual or religious topics, or when talking about what is deeply meaningful to them. Subjects report experiences of profound peace, unity, love and spirituality. Such temporal activity has been linked for years to people who suffer from temporal epilepsy, seizures, or people who take LSD. Ramachadran's work is the first to show it active in normal people. The 'God Spot' does not prove the existence of God, but it does provide a basis for understanding how the brain gives us spiritual experience.
The second body of research is on unifying, synchronous 40 Hz oscillations across the whole brain (Gray & Singer 1989; Singer & Gray 1995; Singer 1999) and EEG studies of meditators' brainwaves (Bensen 1975; Banquet 1973). This work shows that there is a neural process in the brain devoted to unifying and giving meaning to our existence – a neural process by which our experience is bound together and placed in a wider frame of meaning. Before Singer's work, neurologists and cognitive scientists only recognised two forms of brain neural organisation – serial neural connections (the basis of IQ) and neural network organisation (the basis of EQ).
Research into the nature and function of 40 Hz oscillations has been extended by Rodolfo Llinas and colleagues at the New York University School of Medicine (Llinas & Ribary 1993; Pare & Llinas 1995). Their work on sleeping and waking consciousness and the binding of cognitive events in the brain has been greatly enhanced by magneto-encephalographic technology, which allows whole-skull studies of the brain's oscillating electrical fields and their associated magnetic fields. Zohar theorised that there may be a quantum dimension to SQ, to the ion channel activity that generates the oscillations, as well as quantum coherence among the oscillations at multi-neurone level. Research in this area is unfolding.

Implications of SQ for individuals and organisations
The practical application of SQ provides a focal point for managers and leaders concerned about the sustainability of existing institutional and business human resources management strategies. Zohar and Marshall presented a new psychological model of the human self and human personality, integrating insights of modern Western psychology, Eastern philosophies and twentieth century science.
Dr Peter Saul, one of Australia's leading and most respected management consultants, specialising in human resources, strategy, organisation change and the future, facilitated a workshop by Zohar and Marshall following the seminar. Dr Saul added: connecting with SQ is important because it facilitates the link between our limited human selves and the life-force that empowers the broader universe. We can, in essence, only tap the power that created all living things through our SQ. It is a pathway to being bigger than we otherwise might feel we are.
Working on understanding aspects of their own SQ at the seminar enabled participants to gain insight into their own leadership style and develop a more ethical, inspirational and effective leadership capacity. Participants used a business model to develop and apply the 'spiritual capital' in their organisation.
Irene Keda, Manager Employee Assistance Service with Gold Coast District Health Service, felt that the diagnostic tools she was given would prove useful in facilitating change in her organisation and in contributing to the emotional health and well-being of nursing staff.
The emerging research and theory in the area of Spiritual Intelligence offers a framework to address issues raised in the following Guest Editorial of this issue (Vol. 12/2) as well as Megan Jane Johnstone's articles in Vol. 12/1 and 12/3 on the moral capacity of nurses and the revitalisation of debate on healthcare ethics in the workplace. These include recognising spirituality as an integral component of patient care, the need for nurses to be aware of and comfortable with their own spirituality in order to provide this, and the challenge of living spiritual principles when we find ourselves faced with a dispirited workplace.
Zohar, Marshall and Saul have established 'SQ Consulting' to help leaders assess the SQ of employees and managers, assess the extent to which the organisation's culture, policies and practices nurture the expression and continuing development of the SQ of employees and other stakeholders. 'SQ Consulting' provides in-company training to introduce the SQ concept and its management help individiuals to develop their SQ and leaders to develop SQ strategies to realign their organisation. (Enquiries: +61-2-9960-6654.)

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