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Spiritual Intelligence
Spiritual Intelligence is a groundbreaking exploration of how we are all hardwired for higher consciousness. Based on over 400 scientific studies, this transformative book reveals the brain’s capacity to access states of bliss, compassion, and connection through what neuroscientists call the "Enlightenment Network."
Whether through meditation, prayer, or peak performance “flow” states, author Dawson Church demonstrates how anyone can activate these circuits to create rapid and life-changing shifts in wellbeing and health.
In Spiritual Intelligence, Church draws on decades of cutting-edge research, from Tibetan monks to peak-performing athletes, to show how activating these states rapidly rewires our neural networks for lasting joy, peace, and resilience. With vivid real-life examples such as Nelson Mandela, Joan of Arc, Mahatma Gandhi and Pope John Paul II, Church illustrates how spiritual intelligence (SQ) is not a vague ideal but an attainable skillset that shapes our brains for extraordinary happiness.
This book is a must-read for seekers, parents, teachers, scientists, entrepreneurs, athletes and leaders—anyone looking to elevate their consciousness and reduce stress. It shows how SQ combines clear inner purpose with passionate engagement with life. Packed with actionable insights and powerful practices, Spiritual Intelligence shows you how to access the power of your brain to create enduring happiness while contributing to the greater good.
Whether through meditation, prayer, or peak performance “flow” states, author Dawson Church demonstrates how anyone can activate these circuits to create rapid and life-changing shifts in wellbeing and health.
In Spiritual Intelligence, Church draws on decades of cutting-edge research, from Tibetan monks to peak-performing athletes, to show how activating these states rapidly rewires our neural networks for lasting joy, peace, and resilience. With vivid real-life examples such as Nelson Mandela, Joan of Arc, Mahatma Gandhi and Pope John Paul II, Church illustrates how spiritual intelligence (SQ) is not a vague ideal but an attainable skillset that shapes our brains for extraordinary happiness.
This book is a must-read for seekers, parents, teachers, scientists, entrepreneurs, athletes and leaders—anyone looking to elevate their consciousness and reduce stress. It shows how SQ combines clear inner purpose with passionate engagement with life. Packed with actionable insights and powerful practices, Spiritual Intelligence shows you how to access the power of your brain to create enduring happiness while contributing to the greater good.
- GenresSpirituality
353 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 1, 2025
30 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 25, 2025
It was less than expected. I had wanted more how-to. Instead this is book is largely why it's so great.
August 29, 2025
It would certainly be nice if, by sitting in meditation for a spell, we could spontaneously reach an awakened state and spend the rest of our lives moving sagely through the world as enlightened beings, always in focus, always in a high pitch of wellbeing, free of spiritual taint.
To hear Dawson Church tell it in his book, Spiritual Intelligence: Activating the 4 Circuits of the Awakened Brain, it is not only nice, it is imminently possible. Meditate regularly using the technique he advocates, concentrate on activating certain mental patterns, control your breathing, relax your tongue, and poof: Awakening! Except the poof may not come right away. Sometimes it takes a while. You have to build it up, like a muscle.
Such is one lesson of this entertaining book about attaining a lofty spiritual self. There are many others. Dawson Church is keen to explore the correspondence between heightened spiritual states–particularly what in olden times was called Enlightenment–and the activities of the mind that modern neuroscience can measure. Ancient Buddhist practices, and the long tenure of apprenticeship in the technique, are here reduced to scratches on a CAT scan graph.
But why not? Why can’t modern science recognize and even promote the exalted states of master yogis in the modern mind? Church has made a busy career working away at this sort of question. His other books–The Genie in Your Genes, Mind to Matter, and Bliss Brain–have all, in one way or another, examined the mutual reflection of spiritual exaltation and neuroscience.
In Spiritual Intelligence, he looks comprehensively at the connection, describing how “caveman brain,” as he calls it, through evolution became the modern brain, filled with dendrites eager to make connections with each other. He discusses how habits of mind lead to the hard-wiring of mental patterns, using neurological studies, graphs, and even pictures of gradually connecting brain cells.
In 337 pages watermarked with starry patterns and other designs, Church presents case studies portraying seekers who have found their way to “bliss brain” through meditation and the flow state, and the wonderful things this discovery has wrought in their lives. He talks about the connection between these mental practices and gene expression.
Each chapter ends with lists of bulleted recommendations for deepening one’s spiritual practice and following deeper into numerous resources. The method of meditation itself he leaves to be described on his website, SpiritualIntelligence.info. All in all, it’s a smorgasbord, longer in description than prescription, but intelligent and comprehensive, and sure to be an important read for anyone interested in this fascinating question.
To hear Dawson Church tell it in his book, Spiritual Intelligence: Activating the 4 Circuits of the Awakened Brain, it is not only nice, it is imminently possible. Meditate regularly using the technique he advocates, concentrate on activating certain mental patterns, control your breathing, relax your tongue, and poof: Awakening! Except the poof may not come right away. Sometimes it takes a while. You have to build it up, like a muscle.
Such is one lesson of this entertaining book about attaining a lofty spiritual self. There are many others. Dawson Church is keen to explore the correspondence between heightened spiritual states–particularly what in olden times was called Enlightenment–and the activities of the mind that modern neuroscience can measure. Ancient Buddhist practices, and the long tenure of apprenticeship in the technique, are here reduced to scratches on a CAT scan graph.
But why not? Why can’t modern science recognize and even promote the exalted states of master yogis in the modern mind? Church has made a busy career working away at this sort of question. His other books–The Genie in Your Genes, Mind to Matter, and Bliss Brain–have all, in one way or another, examined the mutual reflection of spiritual exaltation and neuroscience.
In Spiritual Intelligence, he looks comprehensively at the connection, describing how “caveman brain,” as he calls it, through evolution became the modern brain, filled with dendrites eager to make connections with each other. He discusses how habits of mind lead to the hard-wiring of mental patterns, using neurological studies, graphs, and even pictures of gradually connecting brain cells.
In 337 pages watermarked with starry patterns and other designs, Church presents case studies portraying seekers who have found their way to “bliss brain” through meditation and the flow state, and the wonderful things this discovery has wrought in their lives. He talks about the connection between these mental practices and gene expression.
Each chapter ends with lists of bulleted recommendations for deepening one’s spiritual practice and following deeper into numerous resources. The method of meditation itself he leaves to be described on his website, SpiritualIntelligence.info. All in all, it’s a smorgasbord, longer in description than prescription, but intelligent and comprehensive, and sure to be an important read for anyone interested in this fascinating question.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews