Spiritual Intelligence: Awakening the Power of Your Spirituality and Intuition [Paperback]

In Spiritual Intelligence, Michal Levin explores how, in an intelligent way, without the triviality that often accompanies New Age therapy, we can ease the ache of something missing within ourselves, and claim a spiritual reality. She describes a call that we can all hear:

A call to grow up, almost an evolutionary demand to move towards spiritual maturity. And it's a demand that dictates, first of all, that we move on from the age of the guru or priest.

Levin is clear that she is not a guru, not even a teacher, but more of an enabler. She stresses the need to listen to our inner teacher, and to be aware of the needs and the strengths not just of our physical body, but also of our mental, emotional and spiritual bodies.

As with most books about personal development, it is perhaps inevitable that this one promises more than it delivers, but it does contain a lot of good applied common sense. Levin's "five fundamental truths", for example, are:

1. Do no harm 2. Honour interconnectedness 3. Accept responsibility for yourself, your actions, the situations they create and their effect on others 4. Respect difference 5. Understand that things change.

And it's not just all pleasant-sounding theory; throughout the book are examples from the lives of Levin's clients, students and friends, and at the end of each chapter are practical exercises, questions to ask, issues to think about. All in all, a useful book for those seeking workable spiritual growth. --David V Barrett

‘Michal is sought by those who no longer have blind faith in a conventional god, but cannot commit themselves to Darwinism’ (The Times )

'An inspiring and practical book' (Kindred Spirit ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

A former BBC Newsnight journalist and management consultant, Michal Levin's life changed when she became troubled by an incomprehensible inner disquiet. She left her career and a new - spirit - world opened when she took up meditation. Over a period of months, she began to accept that she was a healer, an intuitive and a teacher. She was even able to diagnose her own near-fatal brain tumour, despite doctors' dismissals, and so save her life.
Michal encounters many people in her teachings with the same 'ache' in their lives. Spiritual Intelligence addresses that increasing number who feel - despite money, success, education, even fame - that there is a missing element. It teaches us how to go on a personal journey - to embrace spirituality, develop intuition and bring it into our everyday lives for ultimate fulfilment. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Michal Levin was Newsnight's medical correspondent and had her own management consultancy business until l990. Now an intuitive and spiritual teacher, she holds regular and very successful seminars in London. She also talks at venues such as St James's Piccadilly as well as at scientific conferences as a member of the Scientific and Medical Network. Her previous autobiographical book - THE POOL OF MEMORY - was published to much acclaim. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Chapter One The Ache Jamie was the first to arrive. He prowled the room. He prowled most places. Usually to great effect. You didn’t become a freelance writer whose work appeared in a major newspaper every Sunday by luck alone, he reckoned. He had looked to use every circumstance he met. If he was honest, that probably meant people too. Or at least that was one way of putting it. He’d never forced anyone to do anything they didn’t really want to, and he’d never broken the law on anything significant (everyone jumped red lights from time to time). But it, something, life, hadn’t come together. Or hadn’t come together enough. He had the great bachelor pad. Women weren’t a problem – or rather that was the problem. It was easy enough not to go to bed alone, but there never seemed any reason, or he never had the desire, to make it much more than that. He liked his work – true, there was a certain element of boredom creeping in now that the big four-oh loomed, but he didn’t seem unique in that. So, what was the problem? Was there a problem? He didn’t know for sure. But recently the pressure had got much worse and a friend suggested this woman, so he was just checking it out. He didn’t intend to go easy on her in this seminar, as it was called, he saw no reason to fall for this sort of stuff. Rosie and Maria arrived together, a minute or two after Jamie. Psychotherapists, they were looking forward to the day. Maria had studied spirituality for several years. More recently she had discovered Michal’s work and was hugely excited by it. It had transformed not only her personal life, but her dealings with her clients as well. Intellectually, too, it fascinated her. Rosie had taken rather longer. At around fifty she was ten years older than Maria. Professionally, more senior. She had investigated orthodox religion first, when it became clear that it was a spiritual dimension she was seeking. But that hadn’t satisfied her needs. Now, this was the third occasion she’d come to listen to this woman, and she felt there was something here she wanted to consider very carefully. She had some questions. A group of others all entered together and the room settled to a quiet anticipatory hum. Twelve present. Two to come. Rod opened the door. He looked around. Three grey heads. They seemed quite old, older than him anyway. But there were also one or two who looked as if they were in their twenties. He had just fancied coming along. He hadn’t thought about it too much. He’d been to a few Mind, Body, Spirit events, picked up quite a few ideas. He didn’t know why, but it felt really important. More important than anything else. He was just on time. They were about to begin. An hour later, we pause. The faces of the group around me bear a familiar stamp. A financial analyst, a great city success, not yet thirty-eight, grey face, grey hair. Two psychotherapists, kind and knowledgeable but with a question mark in their eyes. A slim young man who works in information technology leans forward, determined. A woman who runs a pottery workshop, a home and two small children weeps softly, and openly. A teacher, a journalist, another computer buff, a writer, a martial arts expert, a psychologist, a doctor. I sit with my back to the window, which is like a base or plinth for the circle. The early summer light is soft. It’s no match for the intensity we create in the room. Each face, some wide-eyed, some more cautious, or caught in a stronger grip, burns from within. There are two common denominators. Intelligence is the first. This is no group of gullible New Agers. Even the fiercest sceptic couldn’t tarnish them as a bunch of freaks, or cast some similar (usually altogether unwarranted) aspersion. This is a group of achievers. What distinguishes them is their intelligent, questioning approach. The other common feature is the question. All ask the same question. Only the words are different. How to deal with the ache that has so many different names? Or no name. The ache that cannot be defined in a simple sentence. That money, success, education, fame even, does not wash away. And how to make sense of the glimmers that come at unexpected moments, like the flickering of leaves, never quite still, shimmering in a faint movement of the air. Because a dream of some elusive joy haunts the group who have come to work with me, just as surely as the pain, which intensifies from time to time, stalks them. The salve I offer is simple. The only one I know. I try to teach those who come to me how to embrace their spirituality – how to extend into the realm of spirit – to develop their spiritual intelligence. Because that is the solution to the deepest cause of their pain. Many other factors may contribute to it. But the root, the very core, is the pain of missing. Not missing someone or something, but missing a part of oneself. A crucial dimension of your own existence. Your spiritual reality. The other half of the whole which is you. Your wider, greater, further self – and its connection to the whole of the universe. To find it is the journey of spiritual evolution; to claim spiritual intelligence. And it is a journey that will simultaneously develop your intuition and teach you love. Intuition because it is part of the process. Love because that is the goal – but it is not the love of chocolates and champagne. It is a different understanding of love, one that comes from a wider, deeper perspective. Love for yourself. Love for your fellows. Love for living, and for the spirit that infuses all living. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.