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Sloww Sunday Newsletter 216 (Apr 27, 2025) — Intuitive Introverts, Separation Illusion, Spiritual Intelligence, & More
The Sloww Sunday newsletter sends to 10,000+ readers slowing down to the wisdom within. If you enjoy this issue, please help grow Sloww by forwarding this newsletter to others.
New to Sloww? Here’s what it’s about in a nutshell (which mirrors the newsletter sections below):
🌀 Developing from Emotional Intelligence to Spiritual Intelligence
You’ve heard of IQ and are likely aware of EQ (emotional intelligence), but what about SQ (spiritual intelligence)? In this new podcast, Cindy Wigglesworth introduces the concept:
Here’s an overview of the 21 skills of spiritual intelligence (notice the ⭐️ next to some key skills in each quadrant):
The arrows between each quadrant below show how the developmental sequence works: quadrants 1 & 2 impact quadrants 3 & 4 (in general, quadrant 4 is an ‘outcome’ quadrant from development in the other three quadrants):
To go further, check out Cindy’s book SQ21: The Twenty-One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence (Book Summary):
- “If you have picked up this book … you are someone who wants to become more fully human … Once this hunger awakens, no distractions, purchases, or promotions at work will satisfy it. You just know there is ‘something more.’” — Cindy Wigglesworth
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0️⃣ Explore More: 50+ posts on Lifelong Learning & Deeper Development (Sloww Stage Support)
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🌎 Indigenous Wisdom on the Illusion of Separation
For years now, I’ve been saying the meta-crisis is a me-crisis. And, in Sloww Sunday #183, I outlined why the root of the meta-crisis is separation. So, it was refreshing to hear Sherri Mitchell come to the same conclusion:
- “We have a crisis of consciousness in this country … This illusion that we have of being separated from one another is something that I wrote about in Sacred Instructions. In my mind, that is the key moment of demarcation for the human species. If such a thing exists, that is the ‘original sin’. When human beings started to see themselves as ‘other’—the moment that they took themselves out of the garden by believing that they were somehow separate from the rest of the beings that lived within the natural world—that is the moment when we began to go off track as a species … We can’t become all of who we are in the world if we don’t heal the illusion of separation that has been ingrained within us … We are misaligned with life, and we’re trying to find normalcy in a system that has consistently moved us further and further away from our alignment with life. There is no normalcy within that. It’s madness … You’ve forgotten how to walk with the sacred. It’s not your fault. It’s embedded into the cultural reality that you’ve been raised up in—that forgetting … The way that we wake up is to realize that we have this urgent need to decolonize our minds.” — Sherri Mitchell
To go deeper, I skimmed some sections of her book Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change. Here are some highlights…
On the myth of separation and individualism:
- “The myth of separation is at the heart of the lies that we’ve been fed, and it supports all of the power structures that we have created. This illusion causes us to forget that we are connected to one another and to a divine source, which is embodied through us and put into action in the world around us. When we forget this truth, and embrace the lie, it becomes possible for us to be at war with one another, and to be at war within ourselves. Over the last two millennia, the illusion of separation has been wrapped up in numerous ideological disguises. One of those disguises is the Western idea of rugged individualism. Here, the lie is cloaked in romantic stories about conquering the frontier. This leads us to believe that success is measured by our ability to plow through any obstacle to obtain personal wealth and recognition for our accomplishments, at all costs. This belief supports the framework for endless cycles of competition, judgment, and condemnation. As a result, we have become isolated inside our individualized lives, cut off from one another, disconnected from the natural world, and unresponsive to the calls of the divine. We have stopped caring for one another; we have forgotten that we belong to one another, and that we are responsible for one another’s well-being. This forgetting has become a very real threat to our survival as human beings.” — Sherri Mitchell
On the existential threat:
- “The outgoing state of consciousness has been filled with the illusions of the false self. Within this state of mind, we have been driven by empty and meaningless distractions that feed our separateness; we have been consumed by endless struggles with false power; we have been blinded by our belief that human beings are separate from and superior to nature; and we have been oblivious to our unrestrained destruction of the Earth. In this state of consciousness, we have become imprisoned by our own illusions, and enslaved by our obedience to warped systems of power that are upheld by legal fictions that bind us to heartless machines of annihilation. We have been subjugated and oppressed, because we have lost sight of our innate and collective power. The state of consciousness that we have been operating in is spiritually bankrupt, and it is destined for ruin. If it remains unchecked, it will lead to the extinction of our species, untold damage to the creatures of the natural world, and potentially to the destruction of the planet.” — Sherri Mitchell
On the truth of interconnectedness:
- “The illusion of separation has prevented us from unifying for millennia, using fear and superstition to create shadows and divisions … The illusion’s unending quest for validation pushed us to explore every inch of the world in which we live, continually breaking it down into smaller pieces, searching for the proof of our separateness … Instead, we have discovered that there is no distinction or separation in our world, or even anything permanent for the illusion to hold onto … The only constant that exists is the interwoven flow of consciousness that animates all life. It is the movement of that flow that carries us along and ties us all together. We are all moving as one stream of consciousness in a flowing river. We can’t stop the flow or separate ourselves from it; all we can do is choose the direction of the current through our collective choices. Together, we have floated through the illusion of separation, and now we are slowly moving back toward the truth of our interconnectedness.” — Sherri Mitchell
On awareness and observation:
- “Our challenge is to remember all of who we are. We begin this process by expanding our awareness to include the entire creation … Everyone possesses the same ability to shed their illusion and see the world as a unified whole, simply by expanding their awareness … When we allow ourselves to become the observer, we see life in a whole new way. There is no more right or wrong, no obligation or expectation, no commitment or entitlement. There is only the thread of life, rising, moving, and returning to source. There is only the expression of life, coming to know itself and seeking to transform itself into something new. This awareness releases us from our old stories and allows us to live our lives fully present and completely free. When we live our lives connected to source, we realize that there is no separation, no limit; there is only boundless possibility and endless truth.” — Sherri Mitchell
On awakening and rebirth:
- “We must wake from this illusion and put an end to the madness that is driving us … We have been waiting for the illusion to fall away and for truth to reawaken in the hearts and minds of humanity … Every awakening is a rebirth. We are born and reborn repeatedly throughout our lives. We are born from the divine consciousness into our mother’s womb. And from our mother’s womb we are born into the Earth. Then we are born again and again, from within ourselves, breaking through layer after layer of illusion, until we are finally able to transcend those illusions and be reintegrated back into the divine consciousness. What we are in the midst of right now is another awakening, another rebirth.” — Sherri Mitchell
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1️⃣ Explore More: 100+ posts on Intentional Living (Sloww Stage 1)
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🤔 Anyone else here an intuitive introvert?
The last two newsletters featured an introduction to Carl Jung’s thinking on the unconscious and psychic danger/psychic epidemics. We’ll keep the streak going one more week here with some highlights from Jung on introversion and intuition (pair with more top quotes from Carl Jung). Whenever I take MBTI personality type tests, I get INTJ. How about you?
On introversion:
- “The world in general, particularly America, is extraverted like hell. The introvert has no place because he doesn’t know that he beholds the world from within … There is no such thing as a pure extravert or a pure introvert. Such a man would be in the lunatic asylum. Those are only terms to designate a certain penchant, a certain tendency—for instance, the tendency to be more influenced by environmental influences (extrovert) or more influenced by the subjective factor (introvert).” — Carl Jung
On intuition:
- “Intuitive types very often do not perceive by their eyes or by their ears … Intuition doesn’t look at the things as they are. That is prison. That is anathema to the intuition. It looks ever so shortly at the things as they are, and makes off into an unconscious process, at the end of which we have seen something nobody else would have seen … Intuition is a perception by ways or means of the unconscious.” — Carl Jung
On intuitive introversion:
- “One of the most difficult types is the intuitive-introvert … The introverted-intuitive has in a way a very difficult life, although one of the most interesting lives … The things that are interesting to them or are vital to them, are utterly strange to the ordinary individual … He has intuitions as to the subjective factor, namely, the inner world. And of course that is now very difficult to understand because what he sees are most uncommon things. And he doesn’t like to talk of them if he’s not a fool because he would spoil his whole game by telling what he sees because people won’t understand it … If or when the introverted-intuitive would speak what he really perceives, then practically nobody would understand him. He would be misunderstood.” — Carl Jung
🔒 Sloww Premium members can chat about all this more in the Sloww Society community here.
2️⃣ Explore More: 50+ posts on Life Purpose (Sloww Stage 2)
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🧠 Short Stories that Pack a Punch
I’ve been a big fan of Anthony de Mello for years. He’s a master storyteller, so I finally knocked out some of his short story (or “story meditation”) books:
- Taking Flight (🔒Book Notes)
- One Minute Wisdom (🔒Book Notes)
- The Song of the Bird (🔒Book Notes)
- The Heart of the Enlightened (🔒Book Notes)
Why do stories matter?
- “It is a great mystery that though the human heart longs for Truth in which alone it finds liberation and delight, the first reaction of human beings to Truth is one of hostility and fear. So the Spiritual Teachers of humanity, like Buddha and Jesus, created a device to circumvent the opposition of their listeners: the story. They knew that the most entrancing words a language holds are ‘Once upon a time …,’ that it is common to oppose a truth but impossible to resist a story. Vyasa, the author of the Mahabharata, says that if you listen carefully to a story you will never be the same again.” — Anthony de Mello
One of my favorite stories that showcases the difference between spirituality and religion is about the art of making fire:
- “After many years of labor an inventor discovered the art of making fire. He took his tools to the snow-clad northern regions and initiated a tribe into the art—and the advantages—of making fire. The people became so absorbed in this novelty that it did not occur to them to thank the inventor, who one day quietly slipped away. Being one of those rare human beings endowed with greatness, he had no desire to be remembered or revered; all he sought was the satisfaction of knowing that someone had benefited from his discovery. The next tribe he went to was just as eager to learn as the first. But the local priests, jealous of the stranger’s hold on the people, had him assassinated. To allay any suspicion of the crime, they had a portrait of the Great Inventor enthroned upon the main altar of the temple, and a liturgy designed so that his name would be revered and his memory kept alive. The greatest care was taken that not a single rubric of the liturgy was altered or omitted. The tools for making fire were enshrined within a casket and were said to bring healing to all who laid their hands on them with faith. The High Priest himself undertook the task of compiling a Life of the Inventor. This became the Holy Book in which the Inventor’s loving-kindness was offered as an example for all to emulate, his glorious deeds were eulogized, his superhuman nature made an article of faith. The priests saw to it that the Book was handed down to future generations, while they authoritatively interpreted the meaning of his words and the significance of his holy life and death. And they ruthlessly punished with death or excommunication anyone who deviated from their doctrine. Caught up as they were in these religious tasks, the people completely forgot the art of making fire.” — Anthony de Mello
🔒 Sloww Premium members can chat about all this more in the Sloww Society community here.
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☯️ Daily Life as Spiritual Practice
My wife recently went back to work, so I’m now full-time daddy daycare to our infant for the indefinite future. Since I don’t have time or energy to do any ‘real work’ most days, I’ve often found myself reflecting on how life in general (and parenting in particular) is the ultimate spiritual practice. Here’s some inspiration…
On life itself as spiritual practice:
- “There is no enlightenment outside of daily life.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
- “The highest spiritual path is life itself. If you know how to live daily life, it all becomes a liberating experience.” — Michael Singer
- “Your own attention is what spiritualizes things. Attention to the meal you cook, the clothes you wash. Attention is love. And that’s transformative.” — Karen Maezen Miller
On eating and drinking:
- “Zen does not confuse spirituality with thinking about God while one is peeling potatoes. Zen spirituality is just to peel the potatoes.” — Alan Watts
- “Drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves – slowly, evenly, without rushing toward the future.” — Thich Nhat Hanh
On chores:
- “Before enlightenment; chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment; chop wood, carry water.” — Zen kōan
- “After enlightenment, the laundry.” — Zen proverb
On relationships:
- “If you think you’re enlightened, go spend a week with your family.” — Ram Dass
🔒 Sloww Premium members can chat about all this more in the Sloww Society community here.
4️⃣ Explore More: 100+ posts on Spiritual Seeing (Sloww Stage 4)
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Thanks & Yes:
- “To love God with one’s whole heart means to say a wholehearted Yes to life and all that life brings with it. To accept, without reservations, all that God has ordained for one’s life. To have the attitude that Jesus had when he said, ‘Not my will, but yours be done.’ To love God with one’s whole heart is to make one’s own the words made famous by Dag Hammarskjöld: ‘For all that has been, Thanks. To all that shall be, Yes.'” — Anthony de Mello
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Kyle Kowalski
Founder, Sloww
