In Search of Spiritual Intelligence
Author: Betty Steinhauer
ISBN 978-1-913170-23-3

My name is Betty Steinhauer…

I have no address. I own very little besides what I carry with me as I roam the streets. Just stuff bundled in 9-10 suitcases parked with friends across the world.

For me, being homeless is part of a bigger plan.

After being hit by a car several years ago not long after retiring, I had an epiphany. I realised that I had been on my own spiritual journey since my first visit to India in 1990. Since then, I have travelled to 155 countries, sometimes as a tourist, sometimes on business, sometimes for my charity. I have made friends all over the world. But, I still had unanswered questions. So, I decided to sell everything, pack up my life and travel the world with a difference.

This time I would journey not as a tourist but as a traveller wanting to learn from every wise person who crossed my path, and every challenging situation I found myself in. I would document my learning from the people I interviewed across the world. And so was born my new book, In Search of Spiritual Intelligence.

Listen to Betty in an interview with New York Behind The Curtain Radio host Kathy Barrett in a discussion about spirituality and the ‘nomadic intern’.

REVIEWS

The perfect metaphorical antidote to Covid 19. Betty Steinhauer’s personal story and those of her interviewees take the reader on an intimate inner adventure in search of truth. During this time of global quarantine and uncertainty about the state of humanity, this book provides a road map to creating a better world.
Kathy Barrett – Writer, “The Icon Hunter,” Producer gobehindthecurtain.com

When Betty told me that she interviewed 39 great and brilliant minds for “In Search of Spiritual Intelligence”, I really wondered how she could fit so many people in one book! Maybe it is like squeezing 10 times more bodies in a cab than what seems possible…

But reading the book, I was amazed to see how she did it! A perfect blend of ideas and stories. This book is more like a ballet of views where each one adds a step to a dance of deep significance. The need for being spiritually intelligent comes out as a necessity for our own benefit and for the benefit of the world. Easy to read and most importantly, very enlightening! A very intelligent and spiritual reading cab that will take your mind way beyond what you asked for!
Eric Le Reste – Television Producer, National Coordinator for the Brahma Kumaris in Canada and admirer of Rickshaw drivers like Betty!

The wisdom conveyed throughout this book has helped me to slow down and listen more to my spirit, the life force we all tend to ignore in the rush of everyday life, and this, in turn, has shown me a lot of important truths that had become buried in my rush for accomplishments and ‘success’.  This book should be required reading for anyone seeking to tap into the joy and beauty of the human journey.
Dr Gordon K. McIvor – Past President, Empire Club of Canada … full review below

Spirituality shapes attitudes, actions and the path of life, yet it is hard to describe and often remains unacknowledged in the hustle and bustle of the everyday; this insightful book creates a space to recognise and explore the power of the spiritual for individual and societal health.
Jenny Kartupelis MBE – Director, Faith in Society

Betty has done a great job interviewing people from all around the world on the subject of Spiritual Intelligence. A fascinating look at people’s beliefs and motivations in life.
Briony Bax – Editor at Ambit Magazine, Poetry Editor at The New European

You have certainly met some fascinating people over the years. I really admire your willingness to share so much of yourself with your reader. It takes courage.
Mary Lewis  – Social Services advocate, Canada

A most humane, compelling, and compassionate account of spiritual intelligence, told with perfect pitch.
William Storrar – Director of Theological Inquiry,  Princeton USA

This book is rich with wisdom. It is like having a good conversation with like-minded friends and discovering threads of ideas that weave into a tapestry of shared understanding. A lovely read. Congratulations.
Judy Johnson  – Development Consultant, Canada

A great read. Highly recommended. This book is a delight from start to finish. I feel I have actually been on the journey with Betty; enriched by everyone she met and interviewed. It is littered with deeply personal insights from some very wise folk. It will be useful for those who have already found their spiritual path and those still looking. Betty has definitely achieved her aim of giving readers ‘ a path to their own spirituality’. A great read. Highly recommended.
David Goodman – Community Dentist (rtd) Leeds Brahma Kumaris  UK

Your Spiritual journey through life is amazing! I declare your book the Book of the year! How much I enjoy every page of the treasures you share. I know so many of those interviewees personally. What great relevance it has for the world at this time.
Mathilde Sergeant – India

I have just finished reading IN SEARCH OF SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE. It is an informative and reflective book that will benefit anyone searching for the ever-illusive “inner peace”. 
Nora Gray – Canada

This is a must-read, for all who seek the truth and love, in their lives. The spiritual dimension of our lives deepens, questions, and then integrates itself into our lives and our souls. There are many pathways to Truth. It is our choice as to which path to journey… with many twists and turns along the way. To me, personally, God is the truth, the light, and the way to eternal life, extending beyond our short time here on earth. I loved the many stories that Betty elicited from people all over the world, different cultures, different beliefs, informing their own brand of spirituality. Betty’s approach remains open and insightful.
Judy Buddle – Edmonton Alberta

For the seeker looking for a spiritual path, Betty Steinhauer’s own journey of self-discovery provides a practical guide. On her journey, Steinhauer interviews people she met and has known and whom life has challenged. She enables them to reach into their inner selves and they share their personal experiences. They make no excuses, do not shield behind victim-hood but reveal the naked truth in the way that only those who have experienced their revelations can. The reader is treated with similar honesty by not being given a theory of or instructions for life. This is simply how it was. Highly recommended for anyone interested on starting on the road to self-discovery.
Lisa German

Inspirational learning… a definite must-read!
Stu Gilchrist  – Theatre Producer

An inspiring, thought-provoking journey!
Maureen Travers Donnelly – Retired Educator

This is an excellent book for a down-to-earth attempt at finding out about an aspect of life which some people believe is there and some don’t.
Jenny Chapman – Business Editor, Cambridge News

Millions of congratulations! It is magic. The presentation is first class. It gives the feeling of a warm understanding embrace. I just can’t wait to get into it. 
Nancy Stewart – UK

This wonderful book relates to the spiritual journey of 39 diverse people from around the world. These stories allow the reader to get an inner view of the different paths in seeking spiritual intelligence. In these turbulent times of a worldwide pandemic, the book offers hope in self-awareness and the importance of connection to the divine.
Michael Levine – Professor of Economics and Political Science, Fresno, California

This book deserves to be required reading in a university course. The author challenges you to look at the depth of your life and how you live it.
Hugh Mckeown – Global Educator, Canada

It is a beautifully presented book and very impressive.  Congratulations!
Bruce Chambers – Canada

… reads so naturally but with great energy behind it.
Rachel Priestman – UK Brahma Kumaris

 

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With thanks to Dr McIvor for the following full review

I am of the generation that dutifully measured IQ, with parents often prognosticating about their child’s future promise based on the results of IQ testing. Later in life, we began to think about EQ, or emotional intelligence, and realized that this opened up a whole new universe and led to a more complete picture of an individual’s capacity to succeed, find fulfillment and successfully cultivate relationships with others.

Recently, a lot has been written about SQ, or spiritual intelligence, yet another measure of the human condition where the individual feels at one with his or her world, guided by an inner light allowing them to see the unfolding universe not as frightening or incomprehensible, but rather as a natural and inevitable symphony where we each play our own instrument while coming together as a melodious and harmonious whole.

Eckhart Tolle picked up what Deepak Chopra had started in writing about this topic for the general public, but very few have ever had the idea of interviewing people who were widely acknowledged as having achieved SQ and asking them why and how they arrived at this position of what we used to refer to as “enlightenment”. That was before Betty Steinhauer’s accessible and thoroughly enjoyable new book was released earlier this year, aptly entitled “In Search of Spiritual Intelligence”.

Through kitchen-table style conversations with 39 people around the world who seem for many to have achieved a high level of SQ, Ms Steinhauer sets out to find some clues, or signposts, of how they got there and what they do to remain in this state. Some are famous and have lived in the spotlight, many others have quiet lives entirely out of the public eye, but all share a deep sense of connectedness not only to their fellow travelers but to the universe and the love that permeates it from the source, what many call God. Some of these people are religious, others not, and all would fully appreciate the difference between being religious and being spiritual. While the ideas they express in this book are often profound and demand reflection, they are conveyed in a conversational and entirely accessible fashion that gives the reader the very pleasant illusion that he or she is in a room with some truly evolved human beings , and is being allowed to listen in on their most intimate conversations. This is not in any way to be confused with pop psychology since concepts are not simplified or vulgarized but rather stated in as accessible a fashion as possible, making the reader feel he or she is simply a guest at a very special dinner party.

We live in troubled times, full of political, environmental and medical turmoil. It is a time where many are losing themselves and their identities with egos weakened by forces as inexplicable as they are frightening. This is a perfect time for a book full of warm and very real stories told by people who have climbed up onto a plateau we are all called on to ascend to. And the very best part of this book, the secret ingredient that puts it over the top…when you finish reading it, you will know that SQ is not only fully achievable but that it is not that far out of our grasp. For that reason, this book comes at a perfect time and will help those who read it feel at peace with the imperfect, chaotic and often tragic world we live in. It tells the story of several souls who learned to accept and assume those realities and not let them damage the purity and strength of the inner light. Read this book and feel better about our human condition, and most importantly lose your fear of the physical world by better tuning into what lies within.

Dr Gordon K. McIvor – Past President, Empire Club of Canada