Following is the text of the E M Wijerama Endowment lecture 2015, of the
Sri Lanka Medical Association, held at the inauguration of Foundation Sessions held on 28th October 2015 at Anuradhapura General Hospital Auditorium.
Speaker:
Dr. Sunil Seneviratne Epa
Consultant Physician , Past president of the Sri Lanka Medical Association
Emotional and spiritual intelligence and its relevance to medicine.
Let me start by showing you a quotation from Albert Einstein.
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift, and rational mind a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant, and forgotten the gift”. It is on this Intuitive mind or the forgotten gift that that I am going to talk to you about today. Purpose of my lecture is to show you the vast potential of this intuitive mind and how best we can put it to good use. Emotional and Spiritual Intelligence is a function this intuitive mind.
Let me now show you few pictures. They are all about emotions in life. Emotions are a function of this Intuitive mind, that Einstein spoke of. Some people refer to this intuitive mind, as subconscious mind. According to some classifications, as much as 88% of our mind is subconscious. What is Intelligence?. A simple way to understand this abstract term, is to think of it as an ability to apply Skills. We now have a definition of Intelligence which is as follows.
“Intelligence is the ability to apply appropriate skills, at right time for right purpose.” We have different types of intelligence
If we are to place different types of human intelligence as horizontal layers or levels in a pyramid, the bottom layer of this pyramid is the very basic level of intelligence, the Physical Intelligence. All of us have this. When we are hungry, we know we have to eat. When we are sleepy, we go to sleep, as simple as that . Even animals have this basic level of intelligence.
Above this basic level is the Cognitive Intelligence, which we commonly refer to as IQ , or Intelligence Quotient . This is a measure of our cognitive abilities such as mathematical, analytical or linguistic abilities. Next level above this, is the Emotional intelligence or EQ. The highest level of intelligence or the peak of the intelligence pyramid is called Spiritual intelligence or SQ. In my today’s presentation, I will be talking mainly, on these last two types of intelligence, the EQ and SQ.
Traditionally, the Intelligence Quotient or IQ is what we have been referring to as intelligence, at least up to few decades ago. Even today, that is what many people think of as intelligence. As a result, IQ Score has been the basis of skills assessment – both in education and employment. However this trend is now fast changing. Over the years, we have realized that after reaching a certain level of IQ, there is no direct correlation between IQ level , and the actual achievements or success in life.
What then is the secret of success in people with average IQ , over some with very high IQ? The concept of Emotional intelligence or EQ, emerged as an answer to this question. Emotional Intelligence , basically means how skilled you are, in handling emotions, your own or other peoples’ emotions. Daniel Goleman was a pioneer in popularizing the EQ concept by publishing his book on this topic in 1995. We now have a definition of EQ and it is as follows.
“Ability to make healthy choices based on the ability to recognize, understand and manage , your own feelings and feelings of the others”.
Emotions have played a survival function in us, during evolution from primitive age. At that stage our thinking brain or neo cortex had not fully developed and as a result we had to depend on our intuitive mind to a greater extent for survival. May be for this reason, our emotions are still a function of what is called primitive brain, or the limbic system of our brain, which includes Amygdala as the main body. Neo cortex or the thinking brain developed later on in evolution, and therefore it sits over and above this primitive part of brain anatomically. This limbic system is also connected to the neo cortex, or the thinking brain, in prefrontal area of the brain, through neural circuits. There seems to be a certain balance, between the thinking brain and the emotional brain, and it is this balance that helps us control our emotions. As a result we are not totally driven by emotions. It is believed that people with high EQ , have a better balance between these two brains.
Customary thinking had been, to look upon emotions as a kind hindrance or a negative trait, to success in life. A classic example would be the case of under performance of an artist when overwhelmed by anxiety in a public performance . So may be the exam performance of a kid in an examination hall. However it was only in last few decades, that we realized, we can use emotions or at least handle them, to our own advantage in real life situations. It is this skill, that we are talking of as EQ or emotional intelligence, the ability or the skill to handle emotions to our advantage. This could be our own emotions, or other peoples’ emotions.
Imagine a picture of a floating iceberg in the sea, the bulk of which is not seen. Similarly, the bulk of our intelligence too is not manifest, but remains only as potential. Just like the iceberg – what we see at the top is the IQ and the rest is submerged and constitutes the bulk including EQ and SQ. Unfortunately, the conventional tools of measurement of intelligence, test only the visible tip of this intelligence , which is IQ. Research has revealed, that it is this invisible component of intelligence, that is more important for the success in life in lot of people, who otherwise have just an average IQ. Good EQ means good emotional skills, and is an advantage in any situation in life.
Goleman described 4 domains of EQ . According to him, EQ is a collection of different emotional skills. It is not a single skill that we are talking about , rather a profile of skills. So one may be good at one skill, but may be poor at another. So if we are to improve our EQ, it is important for us to know in which respect we are weak. Let me now briefly tell you what these skills are. They are categorized into 4 categories of skills. Two of them are related to self or to your own emotions. The other two relate to other peoples’ emotions. The two skills related to self are two fold, ie ability to recognize your own emotions and ability to manage them well. The two emotional skills related to other people are also two fold, ie ability to recognize other peoples’ emotions ( we refer to this as Empathy) and ability to manage them (this ability, we refer to as social skills or soft skills). Ability to manage your own emotions is referred to as self control or impulse control and is an important skill. Then the Empathy , the ability to recognize other peoples’ emotions too is an important skill in Emotional Intelligence. Social skills or soft skills which come under the ability to manage other peoples’ emotions are very important aspect in leadership. So lot of leadership qualities such as communication skills, motivational skills, conflict resolution, team work etc. come under this category. As much as 55% of our communication is non verbal which includes communication through emotions too. These are skills highly sought after in business world. So it is no surprise, how business community embraced the EQ concept, when all these skills are vital to their success. Studies have shown that EQ of the top executives and of business leaders is directly related to, how well they do in businesses, and also to the overall business success. Research has shown that, over 90% of success at CEO level is attributed to EQ, rather than to IQ. In fact at that top level, EQ is twice as important as, IQ plus technical skills put together. Traditionally, companies have been investing millions of Dollars in the US, on enhancing the technical skills of their employees, but the trend now is changing, and they are spending more and more on EQ Training as well, of their employees. Validated EQ assessment tools have been developed. They are designed to test all four skill components of EQ , and to give a rating. People vary in their skills in different components as already stated. One may be good at empathy but may be poor in impulse control or vice versa. This is why it is important to know in which aspects of EQ, one is weak if his or her EQ is to be improved by training. Studies have shown that improvement in EQ following training could be retained for as long as five years on follow up. So EQ coaching is now a big industry in developed world today. You may have seen even in local press , advertisements for very costly corporate training programmes for EQ . If you want to know your own EQ rating , you may do so by logging into one of the sites (there are many such sites) in the internet offering free assessments of your EQ.
Judging from these success stories in business world it is not difficult for us to imagine how important EQ could be for the practicing doctors who deal with patients , a category of human beings with special emotional needs. Unfortunately in Sri Lanka, medical profession has lagged behind in the EQ concept, partly due to lack of awareness. We never had a formal training on this concept when we were students or even thereafter, in spite of the fact that EQ plays a major role in professional development . That is why we have now included an item called Personal Development as one of the five objectives under professional development, in the Portfolio for National CPD Certification programme by the SLMA. Personality is a mix of both IQ and EQ . Sadly some of my own colleagues have asked me- what it is meant, by personal development. It basically means developing a good balance between EQ and IQ.
Gut feeling ( also called Intuition)
This is the feeling based on perception rather than on rational thinking. Under normal circumstances, when it comes to making important decisions, we tend to rely mostly on rational or thinking brain (ie on prefrontal inputs.) However, there are times we have felt that something is not quite right with such decisions. That is the gut feeling. This is a function of our EQ. Our limbic system is a rich repository of all our past emotional experience. It is this experience that whispers us secretly and gives us the gut feeling. Unfortunately, not all of us get this gut feeling because we have what is called Emotional deficiency or retardness in us. Emotional deficiency – a new terminology for us in medical profession, but it is the reality. People with high EQ have the ability to use this vast pool of emotional experience too in their decision making. Such people have what is called good balance between the emotional and rational minds. Often the gut feeling when you get , is more accurate than what you have deducted from rational mind alone. A surgeon may be guided by his Gut feeling , whether to operate or not on a bad patient. Steve Jobs of Apple fame once said he got his revolutionary ideas of innovation through intuition. So was the story of Bill Gates who was a Harvard drop out.
We now come to topic of Science of Emotion. Conventional thinking has been, that emotions are produced by changes in neurochemistry of brain. So it was a chemistry that we talked of. They are mediated by what are called emotional peptides – short chains of amino acids. When a peptide is taken up by a receptor on the cell surfaces, it triggers a chain reaction and produces a response. A Classic example is Endorphine which is responsible for pleasure sensation. Likewise, there are many hundreds of such peptides in our body, allowing us to feel different emotions. There is however now newer evidence, that these peptides once get attached to the cells, cause a vibration in the cell membranes, producing energy waves with different frequencies. So we are now talking of physics of emotions, producing measurable energy waves with different frequencies. This brings us to a totally new topic , Cell vibrations. Each atom in our body is in a state of constant movement or vibration. As a result, each molecule and each cell of our body too is in vibration. This is not very difficult to comprehend. In fact the body is a bundle of energy in constant vibration producing a measurable energy frequencies. There is a constant movement of subatomic particles causing vibrations. It is energy. Nikola Tesla , who is considered to be the father of electromagnetic engineering said “Everything is vibration and everything is energy”. I am showing you here a vibration frequency chart of different emotions. At the top of the chart are the positive emotions like peace and joy, and at the bottom are the negative ones like fear anger shame etc. The frequency of vibrations increases from negative to positive emotions from 20 Hertz – 700 plus Hertz. This means, we vibrate fast when we are happy and joyous. The vibration pattern of sadness is much slower.
Empathy is the ability to perceive another persons emotions. Secret of empathy my lie in the energy waves of emotions. So it looks, we now have a scientific basis for explaining Empathy – the ability to perceive another person’s emotions-. How strange? You may have heard of people who can read other peoples’ minds. This may be the secret then. These emotional vibrations producing energy waves may explain the mechanism of transfer of merit or blessings on to another person by us performing spiritual activities. This is totally a new dimension connecting spirituality with science. Isn’t that strange again?
Spiritual Intelligence (SQ)
Let me now talk on the other intelligence , the spiritual intelligence or SQ - a kind of extension of EQ. In the intelligence pyramid, spiritual intelligence is at the top. So it is basically the highest form of intelligence that we can aspire for. We have a definition of Spiritual Intelligence too. “It is the ability or the skill to behave with Compassion and Wisdom while maintaining Inner and Outer peace regardless of circumstances”. How many of us have this skill or intelligence? - the ability to be calm and be able to maintain our inner and outer peace regardless of any situation.
Yes, if you can do it then you have highest form of intelligence , the SQ. Unfortunately not every one of us have this skill as much as we love to have . When we look at what is happening around us in the world today with so much hatred and war one may wonder if we have any spiritual intelligence at all. If I ask you to think of one person who has these qualities utmost, who would you think of?. This question was asked in a study and, majority of people thought of their respective religious leaders. This shows that they consider such leaders, as their symbol of Compassion and Wisdom. I think this is how, the term “spiritual” came to be coined with this highest form of intelligence . What are the traits of a person with high SQ. They essentially have both, inner and outer peace.
This inner peace component is what distinguishes SQ from EQ. In EQ we are not talking so much about inner peace. A sales man may recognize an angry customer and may respond appropriately to calm him down and may succeed in maintaining outer peace. But he may not feel inner peace in him self during this process. In fact he may be doing this at the expense of his own inner peace.
Progression from EQ to SQ.
As one progresses to SQ , the person becomes skilled in maintaining inner peace too. How do you recognize people with high SQ?. Essentially , they are Calm, peaceful, compassionate people. Such people have less stress and conflict both at work and at home. They have better health and better output of work at work places. This is how SQ also came to be recognized in business world as a positive trait to be encouraged among employees. So it looks, a new trend is now emerging on the application of SQ too in business world.
Let me show you this advertisement, which appeared recently in a local newspaper. It has been inserted by a corporate company and says, all their branches island wide will be closed for business to enable the employees to engage in religious activities. One may have thought, spirituality is the last thing they would be talking of in business world. But things seem to be changing now. Can one improve spiritual intelligence or skills ?. Answer is, Yes. It is a skill that can be acquired and developed, though genetics too may play a role. This is what the British Medical Journal, one of the most prestigious medical journals, said about Spiritual Skills in relation to medical practice, in a leader some time ago “Spiritual values and skills are being increasingly recognized as necessary aspects of clinical care”.
SQ is like a two winged bird. One wing is Compassion , the other one is Wisdom. The result is universal love. Can you think of any other human qualities surpassing these two? That is why we consider SQ as the highest form of human intelligence. One way to learn compassion is to follow the teachings of the religious leaders. They all have preached compassion. Wisdom is a state of heightened awareness of yourself - a state of inner peace and tranquility of mind. It is some thing you need to develop and acquire on your own, with your own effort. How can we do that?. Our inner awareness and inner peace is often disturbed by thoughts, arising from rational or cognitive brain. So if we are to enhance our inner awareness and inner peace, we need to block such thoughts arising from rational mind. Meditation is one way of doing that. There is now enough scientific evidence to suggest that meditation calms down the conscious brain. Why do we lose our inner peace in a conflict situation? Let us take an example. If some body shouts at you , you react because of what is called Ego or self centeredness. You may not react in the same way if shouting was at another person, and not at you. So it is this ego that causes loss of our inner peace. Ego is a function of emotional brain or limbic system. Ego in fact, has served a survival function in our evolution. Meditation is one way to reduce ego. Let me show you a video clip from a BBC documentary of a functional MRI (f- MRI) of brain during meditation. In this video, you will that the front part of brain including limbic area becoming less brighter during meditation - an indication, that Ego too is getting less during meditation. So now , Ego is something demonstrable on f MRI. It is no wonder that people who meditate are calm and have more of inner peace as a result . As the ego element gets thinner and thinner , the person begins to question the true meaning or purpose of life. What am I here for in this world? Where do I go from here? – has this type of questions ever come up in your mind? If so you are seeing the dawn of wisdom- searching for the true meaning or purpose of life.
Let me now digress a little from my topic. Abraham Maslow, a great American psychologist, classified human needs into 5 categories in hierarchial order and put as layers or levels of a pyramid. Bottom layer is the most basic physical or physiological needs like food, shelter clothing etc. Next layer is security and then come social needs. Above that is the need for self esteem, and then at the top of the pyramid is what is called self actualization- the ultimate need of a human being. According to him, the human nature is such that, when we reach one level we try to reach the next higher level. Try to compare the two pyramids. How similar is Maslow’s self actualization (at the top) to the Spiritual intelligence ( at the top of intelligence pyramid)?
At the time Maslow descried his needs pyramid, the concept of spiritual intelligence was not much known. What Maslow meant by self actualization should be the equivalent of SQ in human intelligence - the highest form of intelligence. Isn’t that bit strange? Both seem to be the ultimate aim or the need of a human being. Yes , SQ is the highest state of mind one can think of and one needs to reach. This probably is what all religions have defined as their ultimate goal. Ultimate aim of any human being should be to reach the peak of intelligence pyramid before death. How do we do that? This is a difficult task to achieve , of course. We need to change the way we think. Let me conclude by repeating what Einstein said
“The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and rational mind a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and forgotten the gift”.
I leave you pondering how apt, what Einstein said over 100 years ago, in our present context today.