MYSTICAL INTELLIGENCE
The ability to look beyond the physical world
We are all born with Mystical Intelligence, and the quest is universal. Yet most of us are not aware of it.
We feel, we suspect, that there is something beyond this world, and that it is significant. I recognise this in many of the people I work with. They are searching for something bigger than what the physical world can offer.
“Mystical Intelligence is a person’s capacity to grasp that there is a world beyond the physical, and that we, in this physical world, are part of it. I believe that world is very real.
It also includes an inner desire to explore that world, and to experience it rather than simply study it.
For some, it is a desire. For others, as for me, it becomes a necessity. It is not about knowing. It is about having the capacity, or the desire, to be open to it.”
Why does Mystical Intelligence matter?
Many people reach a point where they have achieved everything they wanted: success, a loving family, a good business. They are grateful. And still, something is missing. They tell me: I came into this life, and I cannot believe that this is all there is. They expected their achievements to fill the void. They did not.
Others are brought to the question by death: their own mortality, or the loss of someone they love. It is hard for the mind to accept that a consciousness so vast and so capable will one day be gone.
These questions are growing. As uncertainty increases, and as technology changes the world beyond our imagination, I believe people will turn far more towards the mystical.
Three dimensions of Mystical Intelligence
An inmate capacity
Beliefs are acquired. Mystical Intelligence is innate: we are born with it.
Most of us are never shown how to develop it, but once you have experienced it, you cannot forget it. It exists beyond time, and it stays alive within you.
A Calling
I do not think we choose Mystical Intelligence; I think it calls us.
For some, the call comes very early; I had these questions at ten or eleven. For others, it comes through success that still feels incomplete, through death or loss, or quietly: you are sitting somewhere and suddenly feel a presence, something much bigger.
Then the moment is gone, and you are left with the question: what was that?
A personal quest
What matters most is an intimate dialogue with the universe: not institutional, not ritualistic, but personal and direct.
Once the mystical has called you, it gives you a fire, a quest. Even when life distracts you, it returns, with the feeling that there is something essential you still need to understand.
Signs that Mystical Intelligence is underdeveloped
Something is missing, even when life is stable.
With age and life wisdom, people become more stable and more balanced, yet a void remains. I felt that void in myself all my life.
Your interest stays intellectual.
You read about the mystical, but reading is not enough, because the mystical is an experience. It is not about the brain; it is beyond that.
You practise without experiencing.
You keep the rituals, but they feel institutional rather than spiritual. I went to church for a decade, and it was pretty far from spirituality.
We are born with the capacity, but civilisation does not develop it. It is like language: if you are never exposed to it, you do not develop it. Institutional religion lost the experiential side; secular society ignores the mystical altogether. And so the pathways have disappeared.
What changes when you open yourself to Mystical Intelligence?
I see it most clearly in leadership.
Your world expands. You see life from a much bigger space, and even difficult situations feel different.
Your attitude towards people changes. There is more compassion, more kindness and more love.
You see reality more clearly, because you are no longer operating from a limited space.
You live with less anxiety. People who are learning this world learn to function without much of it.
You gain strength and hope. You know, deeply, that you are not alone in this world.
You understand who you are. We are transcendental beings: we come from beyond the physical world, we live here, and we return to it.
In my view, Mystical Intelligence comes first: it holds the biggest context of all, of life and death and what lies beyond, and Philosophy of Life follows from it. But people do not all begin in the same place. Each of us leans towards the intelligence we can most easily embrace. Some begin with themselves, others with the world. Wherever you begin, the mystical is big enough to hold the rest.
How we work together:
When I wanted to learn mathematics, there was a tutor at my door. If I wanted to learn psychology, or how society works, there were universities, schools, family and culture to teach me. The only thing I could not find was a path towards the mystical. I had to walk in the dark, carving my own way.
I do not believe anyone should spend their life, and reach the end of it, without discovering this world. Those who experience it do not stay alone in it; they look for community, for language, for understanding.
Life Intelligence Coaching provides that search a space, a language and a companion.