Faculties of the Spirit

Intelligence as a Holistic Interaction of Human Faculties

In addition to our Centers of the Mind (as described on this website based on the philosophy of the Fourth Way) and our Organs of the Mind (based on Vedic philosophy), there is yet another spiritual classification to consider: that of the well-known IQ, the intelligence quotient that is present in every human being, but proves to be barely measurable.
A high general IQ, as it is measured today, actually says very little. The tests used for this purpose are hopelessly incomplete. Savants for example, may score extremely high in a specific domain, while scoring low in other areas that fall outside the scope of the test.
It is therefore essential to explore which different forms of intelligence exist side by side and how they interact. Human IQ is thus better understood as an umbrella concept that includes various specific faculties (or capacities) for intelligence, which are either not described at all or only incompletely.

There is, however, the theory of Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, which proposes that intelligence is not a single factor, but consists of multiple aspects. However, whereas Gardner sees intelligence as a collection of learnable skills aimed at performance in the outer world, Zelfkennis Nu considers intelligence to be a composite of innate, mutually interacting capacities rooted in our individualized essence. They are not measurable competencies, but dynamic expressions of consciousness that function in relation to one another. Gardner regarded intelligence as a set of tools available to a person. At Zelfkennis Nu, however, we do not speak of tools but of capacities, partly because the spiritual instrumentarium has already been described under the Organs of the Mind. Not only would it be confusing to view intelligence quotients as tools as well, it would also be inaccurate: they are faculties (capacities).

The fundamental difference between the quotient-based classification below and Howard Gardner’s classification of intelligence lies in a different view of the concept of intelligence. Gardner describes intelligence as a set of specialized skills—a kind of toolbox of tools one possesses to varying degrees. His model focuses primarily on performance and application in the external world: how well someone can reason, make music, interact socially, or apply spatial insight. The use of the word “skills” also implies that these are developable. Whether that is truly the case is debatable. If we were to replace “developable” with “unveilable,” it would be more accurate.

Selfknowledge.today (Zelfkennis.nu) does not regard intelligence as a static collection of skills, but as a dynamic and interactive system of conscious capacities that are present at birth. These faculties are part of our innate individualized essence.
The interrelation of these faculties, and how they can reinforce one another, is of fundamental importance. Intelligence is not a collection of separate ‘competencies’, but a holistic interplay of mental, emotional and attention-related capacities. This approach is not based on neurological or psychological studies, but on broader spiritual-philosophical insights. You cannot therefore score on it.
An upbringing in which these faculties are recognised and stimulated ensures that they can influence our growth from an early age, and help shape our thinking, speaking and acting. If such an upbringing is lacking, they can become covered up – just as other qualities of our individual essence can be suppressed when the upbringing is inadequate.

The quotient classification below is not intended to measure, but to understand how different faculties can reinforce each other and interactively contribute to a higher level of self-expression and self-realisation. Consciously using and refining the innate presence and functioning is what matters in a human life. It shows the functioning of our mind in relation to the world and to ourselves. An IQ test for this is simply not possible.

Interactive

All Q’s (faculties) are interactive in nature. They exist in inseparable interplay with one another and complement each other, just as the spiritual organs (the spiritual instrumentarium) influence, complement, and support one another.
The depth of these capacities, the harmony between them, and the way they reinforce each other—even when these processes are not explicit or visible—largely determine a person’s overall intelligence (the IQ).

Selfknowledge.today (Zelfkennis.nu) hereby proposes an entirely new classification of Intelligence Quotients, a classification not used elsewhere in this way. It goes beyond the lists commonly used in psychology.
All faculties are innate and part of our individualized essence. Therefore, they cannot be ‘increased.’ However, they can be discovered, purified, and brought to optimal functioning—just like our Centers and Organs of the Mind. For this, self-reflection and self-study are essential.

Our IQ is the umbrella of mental capacities under which the following Q’s fall:

• RQ – Rational Quotient
  The capacity for intellectual/cognitive understanding: logical and analytical thinking and structuring. This enables us to recognize patterns, classify, and make connections between facts.
• EQ – Emotional Quotient
  The capacity to perceive, understand, and healthily deal with emotions in oneself and others. This includes empathy, emotional regulation, and social sensitivity. It reflects the level of empathy, the ability to show emotion and compassion, and also how selflessly and devotionally one can commit.
• SQ – Social Quotient – The ability to relate effectively and consciously to others in social contexts. This includes communication skills, ease in group dynamics, and the ability to sense and influence social structures. It stands for the ability to be a connecting presence among people, to collaborate selflessly, including the flexibility to accept situations.
• AQ – Attention (Awareness) Quotient
  The capacity to be attentive in the Now, with a large span of focus. It reflects the level of self-reflective attention one can bring forth and the ability to integrate inner attention to ourselves with external attention to the situation we are in. It reflects our ability to be inwardly still and transcend ego conditioning.
• NQ – Noetic (Intuitive) Quotient
  To avoid confusion with the regular IQ, we call this the NQ (Noetic Quotient). It is the capacity for intuitive perception—the ability to arrive at insights without explicit reasoning or facts. It stands for an ‘inner knowing’ and for picking up non-rational signals, often based on experience and unconscious information processing (subsidiary consciousness). This ability also arises from information coming from the subtle senses. Premonitions and revelations also fall under this.
• LQ – Linguistic Quotient
  The ability to use language in a creative, precise, and expressive way, important for idea processing and in communication and rhetoric. LQ includes both verbal and written skills, the creation of clear descriptions, metaphors, and the development of new words or concepts (including through bisociation).
  Due to linguistic relativity—which means that the language we have learned and permanently use influences our thinking and thus our perception of reality—we should not underestimate LQ.
• DQ – Deductive Quotient
  The ability for causal thinking, to recognize cause-effect relationships, which also structures reasoning. This quotient reinforces rational thinking (RQ) and is important in analytical, scientific, and spiritual processes. It stands for the ability to understand things in and outside ourselves, to derive and learn from them, including the insight to understand these conclusions more deeply.
• KQ – Kinesthetic Quotient
  The capacity to combine spatial and physical insight with motor control. This includes body awareness, motor memory, and the sensing of spatial structures/conditions—recognizable in architects, visual artists, musicians, and athletes.
• MQ – Musical Quotient
  The capacity to sense, understand, and apply tonal structures, rhythms, harmonies, and compositions. It includes the ability of inner hearing. The MQ functions not only in performing and composing musicians but also in listeners and dancers. We are speaking of a strong rhythmic and auditory awareness.
• CQ (Creative Quotient) determines the extent to which we deal creatively with situations, art forms, and (social) circumstances. The Creative Quotient defines the ability to have new and original ideas and to think outside the box. The creative capacity sometimes makes connections that cannot (immediately) be consciously explained. This often manifests subsidiarily. It determines improvisational ability.
• TQ (Transcendent Quotient) represents our ability to develop spiritually/mentally. It is not only about feeling an attraction to the spiritual (which many people today experience to some degree), but about the capacity to actually recognize and transcend identifications and ego mindsets, and to be ‘self-sacrificing’ regarding ego possessions. This means that nothing in our mind that hinders our self-realization is bypassed.

Focal and Subsidiary Awareness: The Hidden Dynamics of Intelligence

All of these faculties are interactive, provided we possess them to some extent. The interaction between capacities is layered and draws from different sources. This is because we possess two forms of awareness, as described by Michael Polanyi.

• Focal awareness is where our direct attention is directed.
• Subsidiary awareness encompasses everything that plays in the background and contributes to our understanding, without us explicitly focusing on it.

The interaction between capacities can occur such that one capacity functions focally, while an underlying capacity intervenes subsidiarily, complementing or deepening the focal function. A dynamic collaboration exists. Some faculties can be actively and consciously directed, while others operate in the background (unconsciously) to support the interaction. For example: in a conversation, we focus on what someone says (focal), while we automatically interpret intonation, body language, and context (subsidiary).

Instead of measuring all sorts of separate categories of observable skills and talents, we should consider a dynamic interplay in which each form of intelligence can support and enrich the others. A holistic whole of mental, emotional, and motor faculties along with attention-related aspects. This provides a far more complete picture of what we are capable of as human beings and what possibilities we have in the development of our consciousness. The dynamic between focal and subsidiary awareness deepens the interaction between the various capacities (quotients). It builds bridges between learned skills (such as language or logic) and more intuitive faculties (such as empathy or creativity). This creates an extra dimension in the complexity of human consciousness and a more complete model of quotients.

Crystallized and Fluid Intelligence and Bisociation

There are widely accepted concepts that align with this: crystallized intelligence and fluid intelligence.

• Crystallized intelligence is the ability to make use of existing knowledge and experience in solving problems.
• Fluid intelligence is the ability to reason creatively and solve problems without relying on previously acquired knowledge.

The interaction between intelligence capacities can also be described as a form of bisociation, which can yield new, surprising, or deeper insights. Bisociation is the process of consciousness in which different or seemingly unrelated ideas come together and are combined, creating something new or unexpected. Various (intellectual) faculties of consciousness then work together and reinforce one another unnoticed. It is precisely these cross-links between capacities that enable us to generate truly new insights and give this quotient model its richness and depth.

© Michiel Koperdraat