I often refer to the term “Integrated Intelligence.” For example, it is a central part of my most popular book Discover Your Soul Template: 14 Tools for Activating Integrated Intelligence , as well as my podcast The Consciousness Files. However, not everyone who will read this has read my books or knows what I mean by the term. So in today’s post I am going to give a succinct little summary of what Integrated Intelligence (or INI) is. I’m also going to outline what you can actually do with it, and give some fascinating examples. If you feel proficient at these kinds of things, or you merely experience them often, then you may have advanced integrated intelligence!
INI is typically a fuzzy intelligence. It isn't always on tap, and isn't always reliable. But it can be developed if time and focus are applied. I have spent many thousands of hours working with INI. It is true that some have a special gift in this area, but just like any skill, with dedication you can develop competence or even mastery.
Having written a doctoral thesis on the subject, and being a practicing intuitive life coach, I have developed quite a lot of practical and academic knowledge about the subject. But enough of my credentials!
Before we even begin to define Integrated Intelligence, we should stop for a moment to ask what intelligence is.
Intelligence is the mental ability which allows you to function successfully in a given situation.
– and nothing more. Academics and philosophers have been arguing about this for centuries, and still can’t agree on much more than the definition I give you.
It’s from this definition of intelligence that I define Integrated Intelligence as:
The ability to draw on the extended mind and all its intuitive capacities to function successfully and solve problems in given contexts .
The extended mind, in turn, is:
Consciousness that extends beyond the individual’s brain, and connects us with other people, places, times and realms.
So basically Integrated Intelligence is using more of your “mind”, including the intuitive, to do what you really want. This does not exclude the “rational” functions of the mind, because both the intuitive and the rational have their valid functions.
Integrated Intelligence is similar to the ideas of spiritual intelligence and psychic ability – only more specific. It also follows that Integrated Intelligence is not the same thing as “enlightenment” or spiritual evolution. Nonetheless, Integrated Intelligence can be employed towards the goal of “awakening.” INI is typically described as being part of higher states of consciousness, as reported in many spiritual traditions. And the more acute these states, the more developed Integrated Intelligence tends to be.
Using INI
Let's get a little more practical. How can you actually apply INI? There are at least seven core mental functions that Integrated Intelligence allows you to perform.
Connectivity/Deep Empathy. This is the ability to sense the connections between and amongst things. It can also express itself as the strong sense of being in someone else's shoes, and feeling what they feel. Connectivity has several forms, and is probably not a single cognitive process (perhaps I will break it down in later writings). It includes the higher order enlightenment experiences where the individual‘s sense of self expands out beyond her immediate body.
A classic example comes from Maurice Bucke’s Cosmic Consciousness (1905), where he reported a profound mystical experience.
I was losing my consciousness, my identity, I was powerless to hold myself. Now came a period of rapture so intense that the Universe stood still, as if amazed at the unutterable majesty of the spectacle! Only one in all the infinite Universe! The All-loving, the Perfect One! The Perfect Wisdom, truth, love, and purity! And with the rapture came the insight. In that same wonderful moment of what might be called supernatural bliss, came illumination… What joy when I saw there was no break in the chain — not a link left out — everything in its time and place. Worlds, systems, all bended in one harmonious whole. Universal light, synonymous with Universal love!
Location. This is the capacity to sense where things are, without necessarily having prior information.
This can occur through a feeling, or might be visual in nature. Once I lost my credit card, and couldn’t find it for days. So I did a meditation, putting myself into a light trance state. I kept asking where the card was, and after a few minutes a clear image came to me of the back pocket of a black pair of jeans. I got up immediately and went to the wardrobe where my only black pair of jeans was hanging, and found the credit card in the back pocket.
Diagnosis. Diagnosis is the ability to intuitively find the cause of problems.
A friend of mine who worked for steel giant BHP some years back, reported that he used his intuition to repair machinery. Rather than trying to rationally analyse why a machine had broken down, he would often just stop, and allow the answer to come to him. He claimed he could do this anywhere, and referred to an incident when he was on a friend's boat, and the engine stopped. He told the boat owner what he felt was wrong, and as soon as the problem was investigated, his hunch was proven to be correct.
Recognition is being able to immediately know somebody or something without ever being told about them or it.
In Autobiography of a Yogi, Paramahansa Yogananda tells a story from his childhood. One day he was walking along a street and saw a yogi (Indian wise man) walking towards him. He was filled with a deep and immediate knowing that this yogi was to be his master. He fell to his feet, and was full of tears. This began a teacher-student relationship which lasted many years till the yogi’s death – and even after, according to Yogananda (He was able to communicate with his master in spirit form).
Precognition. When you sense what is going to happen in the future, this is Precognition.
A few years ago when I was on the phone to a friend of a friend. We were trying to arrange a meeting to discuss a certain issue which could help my wife. The guy in question told me he’d ring back to see if he could find the time to meet me that afternoon. When he hung up I asked my wife if she felt he would meet us (I was encouraging her to develop hr intuition). She said she had no idea. I then told her there was more chance of the Dalai Lama becoming the next president of China than that guy taking the time to meet us. I could feel his complete lack of intention. He sent a message three hours later to say he was busy.
Evaluation. Evaluation involves being able to intuitively determine the wisdom or value of different options and choices.
In Discover Your Soul Template I tell the story of a very long and protracted meeting at a school I worked at in Hong Kong, where we teachers and administrators sat through a tedious four-hour meeting, listening to representatives of text book companies give their pitch. After a couple of hours, and with everyone almost falling asleep, I simply felt the energy of the four options, and saw straight away that there was only one real choice. There was another meeting the following week before the admin finally chose that same book I felt was the right one.
Inspiration and creativity. This term refers to creative knowledge and ideas that come to you from external or spiritual sources, not your conscious mind.
Many creators, artists writers and even scientists have reported being guided by inspiration that was beyond their conscious volition. William Blake, for example, said that angels inspired his poetry. For the writing on my thesis, I used a process I call Integrated Inquiry, which allowed me to write prolifically.
There are also two outcomes which emerge from the successful application of INI.
Wisdom. Wisdom results from the capacity to use INI to create a life that is deeply meaningful and in alignment with a person’s highest needs.
Transformation. This is a core shift, lifting the person towards greater wisdom and intelligence, and creating a higher level of consciousness. This causes a transformation of his/her entire being.
So that, in a nutshell, is Integrated Intelligence.
Marcus
Marcus T Anthony (PhD) is a futurist of the human mind, writer and spiritual adviser. His web site is www.mind-futures.com. He is the author of many books, including Discover Your Soul Template.
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