A new book claims that if you’re not asking fairies for help, gazing at the sky to regain your peace, saging your house and throwing the windows open twice a day, your Spirituality Quotient (SQ) is probably very low!

The Daily Mail is reporting on the new book, Raise Your SQ: Transform your life with Spiritual Intelligence by Annie Ridout, a UK author, journalist and poet.

As Ridout explains: “We all know about IQ as a measure of intellect, and you might even have heard of EQ, our ‘emotional quotient’, which tells us how emotionally intelligent a person is. But for me, our SQ, or spiritual intelligence, is more important even than those."

Describing herself as a person who has always been spiritual, she said her mother was forever knocking on wood and talking about the spirits of relatives who’d passed away.

“But it was only when I started to study spiritual practices in depth that I realized just how much they can transform your life,” she said. “Those with a high SQ are able to get what they want out of life by being effortlessly positive. They don’t complain about their lot but focus on what brings them joy, and then ask for more of it.”

Some refer to this as a “manifesting mindset,” an idea drawn from the New Age theory known as the Law of Attraction which posits that if a person can perceive it, they can make any dream manifest just with the power of the mind.

“But to me, improving your SQ is more than that,” Ridout continues. “It’s about being receptive to the idea that there may be something beyond the body and mind; an energy we can access but that isn’t visible.”

She recommends that we keep this positive energy flowing in our lives by engaging in a series of practices.

First, by spiritually cleansing the home on a regular basis by opening the windows once or twice a day, sage-smudging the interior of the house, and spraying the rooms with essential oils.

Another suggestion is to set up a shrine in the home, not necessarily to worship a god but to “create a sacred space to focus in peace and calm.” Her desk shrine contains candles, good luck charms, and a Tibetan singing bowl that she “dongs” at the beginning and end of every day while saying something out loud such as “I look forward to an amazing work day.” A pot of her favorite gemstones is used to replenish her energy and confidence by holding the stones, closing her eyes, and asking for what she needs.

Another practice she endorses is to consult the spiritual powers of nature such as fairies by imagining them hiding in the trees or bushes. “When out in nature, ask the fairies — in your head, or out loud — to help you find the answer you need. Really, the answer is always within you, but turning outwards and relying on an imagined outside entity to guide you to the answer can often help to unblock your mind.”

Skycology is another suggested practice and involves gazing at the sky for at least 60 seconds while either lying down or standing. Ridout cites a theory by some researchers who believe humans are physiologically wired to benefit from looking upward and experience an immediate calming effect by gazing at the sky.

Last, she suggests turning to “positive superstitions” to improve your SQ. Rather than focus on negative superstitions such as never opening an umbrella in the house, she looks for symbols of good luck such as white feathers for hope and spiders for creativity.

This is disappointing because the methods recommended actually do nothing to improve a person’s spiritual health. Instead, they are nothing more than “spiritual band-aids” that help a person to feel better rather than to be better.

For example, saging and spraying essential oils might make the home smell good, but have no power to chase away alleged “negative energy” (which doesn't exist anyway). A far more effective way of chasing away anything "negative" from your home would be keep blessed objects in the house, sprinkle the rooms with holy water and, of course, keep out anything sinful.

Gazing at the sky for 60 seconds is a great way to restore one’s calm, but what happens when the 60 seconds are over? Whatever was robbing our peace simply returns and the calm once again dissipates. It would be more effective to gaze upward to the Creator of the sky, to the One who has the power to actually do something about the problems that are robbing you of your inner calm.

What good is conjuring up imaginary fairy friends when you could turn to the angels and the saints who are more than willing to intercede for us in our moments of need? What good is imagined help if you could have the real thing?

There’s no such thing as “positive” superstitions such as white feathers and spiders because, in reality, use of these objects calls upon the same demonic powers as those that tell us to avoid ladders and black cats. Is there anything more negative than Satan?

Judging by the absence of the mention of God’s role in the development of a person’s “Spirituality Quotient” we can assume that a higher SQ is dependent upon a person’s willingness to embrace New Age, neopagan, and occult practices.

In this case, it’s safe to say that for the Christian, the lower the SQ the better off they are!

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