Shamanism for the Age of Science: Awakening the Energy Body - Kenneth Smith 2018
Intelligence
Building a Creative Life
A defining aspect of discovery is intelligence, resources you bring to bear on a situation, as well as the means with which you apply them. Intelligence is often presented as a score, an intelligence quotient, commonly known as IQ. In recent years, this has been challenged as being a very limited perspective on human capabilities. Some say the measurement of IQ is culturally biased, others say it focuses too much on intellectual capacities, and still others say it’s just plain obsolete.
Research indicates that intelligence surfaces in many ways. Building on the rational and emotional intelligence considerations outlined in chapter three, we find that educator and cognitive scientist Howard Gardner provides evidence in his classic book, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, that humans have within themselves a number of different intelligences. ”Human beings,” he says, “have evolved to exhibit several intelligences and not to draw variously on one flexible intelligence.” Included among the intelligences that Gardner says we have are those of language, mathematics, music, the physical body, and social adeptness. He even suggests that there is a “spiritual intelligence.”2
Intelligence can be defined as “the ability to meet and adapt to novel situations; the ability to utilize abstract concepts effectively; and the ability to grasp relationships and to learn quickly.” Gardner finds intelligence to be the ability “to resolve genuine problems or difficulties.” He adds, “possession of an intelligence is most accurately thought of as a potential [italics mine].”3 Pure potential, then, is pure intelligence. It embodies all forms of intelligence, all waiting to be tapped in a variety of ways, to engender creativity.
Human intelligence is our ability to open to potential, to apply what is perceived, and to integrate the results. This profile may then be applied to whatever situation is at hand, whether it is working with mathematics, composing music, seeing, or dipping into social psychology. Since evolving the energy body relies on intersecting with emanations, with a greater potential of energy, with building new cohesions and then applying these results; intelligence may also be thought of as the ability to manage cohesion. Accordingly, plugging into potential is intelligent. Evolving through your energy body is intelligent. Bringing yourself to life is intelligent.
Discovery requires the vigorous application of intelligence, not just resting with innate ability. It hinges on allowing new insight, on bringing the unconscious to the light of day. It results from a solid relationship with learning that lasts a lifetime and is addressed further in chapter eleven.