Our capitalist culture and the business practices that operate within it are in crisis. Capitalism as we know it today—an amoral culture of short-term self-interest, profit maximization, emphasis on shareholder value, isolationist thinking, and profligate disregard of long-term consequences—is an unsustainable system, a monster set to consume itself. Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall argue that a critical mass of individuals acting from higher motivations can make a difference. They offer a radically new philosophy for corporate governance that alters the meaning and purpose of business and wealth creation. They describe a values-based business culture that focuses on the accumulation of “spiritual capital” rather than material capital. Rather than strictly benefiting shareholders, spiritual capital benefits all stakeholders—including the whole human race, present and future, and the planet itself. Spiritual capital nourishes and sustains the human spirit. Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall introduce the concept of spiritual intelligence (SQ), and describe how it can be used to shift individuals and our culture from a state of acting from lower motivations (fear, greed, anger, and self-assertion) to one of acting from higher motivations (exploration, cooperation, power-within, mastery, and higher service). They show how this shift actually happens in a given organizational culture. They look in depth at the issues that dominate corporate culture and examine the role of the leadership elite who must be the ones to bring about and embody this cultural shift. Finally, Zohar and Marshall argue that spiritual capital is a valid and workable form of capitalism and detail what we, as individuals, can do to make it happen. “It is folly to imagine that this can be achieved without transforming the motivations that govern organizations and societies, starting with each of us. As Zohar argues, for all of human history this has required cultivating our spiritual intelligence and building spiritual capital, and today is no different.” —Peter Senge, Director, The MIT Center for Organizational Learning and author of The Fifth Discipline “It is folly to imagine that this can be achieved without transforming the motivations that govern organizations and societies, starting with each of us. As Zohar argues, for all of human history this has required cultivating our spiritual intelligence and building spiritual capital, and today is no different.” —Peter Senge, Director, The MIT Center for Organizational Learning and author of The Fifth Discipline DANAH ZOHAR is a physicist, philosopher, and management thought leader who speaks at international conferences on business, education, and leadership. She has made in-house presentations at numerous organizations, including Volvo, Shell, British Telecom, Motorola, Phillips, Skandia Insurance, UNESCO, The Young President’s Organization, The European Cultural Foundation, and many others. She is the author or co-author of several books, including Spiritual Intelligence, Rewiring the Corporate Brain, The Quantum Self, The Quantum Society, and Who’s Afraid of Schrodinger’s Cat? IAN MARSHALL is a Jungian-oriented psychiatrist and psychotherapist and the co-author (with Danah Zohar) of Spiritual Intelligence, The Quantum Society, and Who’s Afraid of Schrodinger’s Cat? He studied philosophy and psychology at Oxford University before entering medical school at London University. He conducts workshops internationally with Danah Zohar. Introduction Changing Ourselves to Change the World Recently, while visiting Nepal, I had a dream that bears on the theme and unfolding of this book. In the dream I was attending a play with three acts, at a theater-in-the-round where the audience sit very close to the actors and feel part of the action. In Act One of the play, a group of Tibetan monks were chanting their prayers and performing the rituals of Tibetan Buddhism. The scene was very ordered, beautiful and peaceful and uplifting to watch. Everything was in its place. But then suddenly the wooden-beamed ceiling of the room began to collapse. Poles and plaster began to rain down on the monks and killed many of them. I ran from the stage in fear for my own life. In Act Two of the play, Tibetan monks were again performing rituals, but they were old men, bitter and cynical. They were just going through their ceremonies as a matter of habit and appearance, and they were behaving cruelly, even sadistically, to the younger novice monks who attended them. This act of the play had no life. Indeed it was filled with very negative energy and I wanted to flee the theater. In Act Three of the play, a group of very young novice monks were setting off on a journey. Some were walking, others riding yaks (long-haired, bull-like creatures). These monks were innocent, even naive. They were not certain of their goal, but they knew it was their destiny to travel and discover new rituals for their order. As