Full Spectrum Intelligence
by Chris Thomson
Full Spectrum Intelligence: A Practical Course on Behaving Wisely and Well
I actually reviewed this book for Amazon a couple of months back, but I really wanted to bring it to Mirror Spiritus to encourage people to read it. Every so often, one reads a book that blows the mind with “good stuff”. It is very rough-going for authors to get the attention they deserve if they aren’t already famous or carried by the giant publishers. So I’d like to do my part for this book.
Thomson illuminates the various realms of intelligence available to humans. He writes about that which we are most familiar because it is the most valued…mental intelligence or brain smarts. Perhaps a growing number of us are familiar with these other types of intelligence: emotional intelligence, or being able to manage our feelings or social intelligence, the ability to “play well with others.” He goes on to explain that intuition is also an intelligence, something more and more of us are realizing but not something valued much in our patriarchal society. He also gives credence to spiritual intelligence or the ability to go beyond normal awareness, understanding, and behavior, and finally, to physical intelligence which goes beyond the concept of an athlete’s skills to the finer use of all of our senses.
So, what’s the Mirror Spiritus tie-in? It’s the full-spectrum, baby! Mirror Spiritus is about light and what better way to embody light than to fully develop our innate intelligence to its full potentials. But there’s more. I see this work as a reflection of human potential. Thomson does a beautiful job of opening our minds to all that remains untapped within us.
My Amazon review went as follows:
This book deserves a 10 star rating, but since that isn’t an option, I’ll settle for five. Chris Thomson has written a fascinating book I wish EVERYBODY would read…like NOW! It is clearly written and easy to read but full of incredibly inspiring and insightful information about “behaving wisely and well”. He explores the various intelligences–physical, emotional, mental, intuitive, social and spiritual–in a completely accessible way and offers simple practices to become more aware of and to build your intelligence in every area. It’s really a timely book while the whole world seems to be going mad; it reminds us to exercise humility and to pay attention to the whole self. It’s a prescription for what ails us if we are willing to get past our outdated concepts of intelligence (and indeed past our own arrogance) and heal the wounding around not being smart enough. I hope it gets translated into every known human language.
As Thomson writes, developing our intelligences is a means to become fully human. To be unconscious in any of the intelligences is to be less than we can be…indeed were born to be. And ignorance perpetuates insanity. Let’s face it. Some crazy-ass shit (pardon my language) has been going down in the world lately. Just this week, Paris endured terrorism the likes of which it has never known. I’m not saying this book can change the world and end the hate, but I am saying that this book can change your world if you let it. And isn’t that how we change the rest of the world?
Full Spectrum Intelligence: A Practical Course on Behaving Wisely and Well