Our world reveres a high IQ, maybe not quite a much as money or beauty but high intellect comes in a close third. For sure, a strong intellect (left brain intelligence) allows us to understand and manage the physical environment. High intelligence is equated with a natural ability to solve abstract problems that so often bring concrete rewards – like high salaries -  they have just announced that Steve Jobs’ replacement at Apple will be earning over $380 million per year) and public accolades.

I’ve spent a lot of time in Silicon Valley over the last couple of years and I can say that  this area is the Hollywood for ’smart’ people. Not only is it the home of giants like Google and Apple, but is filled with small hi-tech start-ups whose founders’ dreams are almost uniformly to become as successful as the two giants or, failing that, to be bought out by them.

Last week William Poundstone published a book called Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? which lists all the tests, puzzles, and trick questions that Google uses to sift the so-called super smart from the mere smart.

Interestingly, I lived for 20 years with a guy who could have slammed those tests. After obtaining a scholarship to Cambridge University he co-authored two papers with his Genetics professor which were published in professional journals before he’d finished his undergraduate degree. He measured in 1.0 percentile of the population on intelligence tests. He was almost always the smartest guy in the room. And yes, that led to above average remuneration throughout his working life.

But was he smart enough to live a good life? Was he smart enough to know that the matters of the heart trump the life of the brain when it comes to making good relationship, health and financial decisions? But more importantly, in a world where he was continually being told how smart he was, and with the knowledge of all the things this could bring him, was he smart enough to know what he didn’t know?

My experience over two decades of living with someone of his intellectual calibre was that yes, he was brilliant at solving all problems that had no emotional component. But when things got tough, when things seemed to crash and fall apart, he needed, and relied on, my right brain approach to life – an approach that is calm in the face of disaster, flexible in a time of flux, and has enduring confidence that all works for the best for all involved, no matter what, if only we can stay the path and keep putting one foot in front of the other.

There are so many ways of knowing something. This world is only just beginning to see the possibilities of right brain ‘knowing.’ It might not make sense to the left brain, but as stroke survivor and Harvard trained brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor says, the left hemisphere has no role in our perception of forces and powers unseen. In her memoir My Stroke of Insight, in which she describes the effects of the stroke that temporarily incapacitated her left brain, she says:

“Based upon my experience with losing my left mind, I whole-heartedly believe that the feeling of deep inner peace is neurological circuitry located in our right brain…The first thing I do to experience my inner peace is to remember that I am part of a greater structure  – an eternal flow of energy and molecules from which I cannot be separated…Knowing that I am part of the cosmic flow makes me feel innately safe and experience my life as heaven on earth. How can I feel vulnerable when I cannot be separated from the greater whole? My left mind thinks of me as a fragile individual capable of losing my life. My right mind realizes that the essence of my being has eternal life. Although I may lose these cells and my ability to perceive this three-dimensional world, my energy will merely absorb back into the tranquil sea of euphoria. Knowing this leaves me grateful for the time I have here...”

True inner peace cannot be rationally or logically measured, calculated or created. It can’t be seen, only felt. It is the thought/feeling that rises up only when the left brain, the rational measurer and calculator, is silenced. IQ has nothing to do with it.