The scene unfolded in milliseconds. A professional soccer player collapsed on the pitch, his body seizing. The roar of thousands fell silent. In that suspended moment between chaos and intervention, something remarkable happened: players from both teams dropped to their knees in prayer while medical personnel rushed to provide care.
The player, who had survived a serious motorcycle accident just a year earlier, recovered fully. Medical reports confirmed no new injuries. But what transpired in that field has sparked an unexpected conversation in boardrooms and psychology departments alike: What happens in the human brain when faith activates in crisis?
The neuroscience of compassionate action
Dr. Sarah Mitchell, a neuroscientist at Columbia University who studies decision-making under pressure, explains the phenomenon. “When we witness a crisis, the bystander effect can trigger what we call ‘collective paralysis,’” she notes. “The prefrontal cortex, responsible for executive decision-making, essentially freezes as individuals wait for someone else to act.”
But something different occurred on that Brazilian field — and in a secondary school hallway 30 years earlier, where a young student broke through a frozen crowd to help a seizing stranger through prayer and presence.
“What we’re seeing is the activation of the anterior cingulate cortex,” Mitchell continues. “This region serves as a neural gateway to compassionate action. When individuals have strong spiritual practices or faith frameworks, they can bypass the paralysis response and move directly to intervention.”
This intersection of neuroscience and spirituality has given rise to a concept gaining traction in leadership development circles: Spiritual Intelligence, or SQ.
Beyond IQ and EQ: The case for SQ
For decades, corporate leadership has prioritised Intelligence Quotient (IQ) and Emotional Intelligence (EQ). But researchers in positive psychology argue that a third dimension has been systematically overlooked.
“Spiritual Intelligence isn’t about religion,” explains Dr. Martin Seligman, founder of the positive psychology movement. “It’s about accessing wisdom that transcends data-driven analysis. It’s about meaning-making, purpose, and maintaining presence when everything feels out of control.”
Barbara Fredrickson’s “broaden-and-build” theory suggests that positive emotions like compassion and faith expand our cognitive repertoires, enabling more creative responses to challenges. “When leaders cultivate spiritual practices, they’re building psychological capital that becomes accessible precisely when it’s most needed,” she notes.
The psychology of presence
The Brazilian soccer incident and the secondary school intervention share a common thread: someone chose presence over panic.
Positive psychology identifies this as “moral elevation” — the capacity to be moved to action by witnessing suffering, combined with the psychological resources to actually intervene. Research by Angela Duckworth shows this capacity isn’t innate; it’s developed through consistent practice of empathy and meaning-oriented activities.
Corporate leadership in crisis
The implications for organisational leadership are profound. In an era of unprecedented volatility, executives are discovering that traditional competencies fall short when teams face burnout or collective trauma.
“We’ve had employees experience mental health crises this year,” shares Jennifer Wong, chief people officer at a Fortune 500 technology company. “No amount of strategic planning prepares you for when someone on your team is metaphorically ‘seizing.’ You need leaders who can hold space, who can be present.”
Wong has since introduced contemplative leadership practices into her executive development programmes. The results align with positive psychology’s emphasis on character strengths — research by Christopher Peterson and Martin Seligman identified transcendence as a universal character strength associated with life satisfaction and organisational effectiveness.
The measurement challenge
Critics argue that Spiritual Intelligence lacks empirical rigour, but researchers are developing frameworks. Dr. Robert Emmons at UC Davis has created assessments measuring meaning-making capacity, transcendence orientation, and conscious state expansion — all correlating with individual well-being and leadership effectiveness.
A return to wholeness
Perhaps most significantly, the integration of spiritual intelligence into leadership frameworks represents what positive psychology calls “the return to wholeness” — acknowledging that human beings bring their complete selves to work, including their deepest values, existential questions, and spiritual resources.
“For too long, we’ve operated under the assumption that spirituality has no place in professional contexts,” reflects the secondary school student who intervened in that hallway crisis years ago, now a global wellbeing consultant approaching their 50th birthday. “But that’s not how humans actually function. We don’t check our souls at the office door.”
As organisations navigate increasing complexity, the question isn’t whether spirituality belongs in leadership — it’s whether leaders can afford to ignore this dimension of human capacity.
The players kneeling on that Brazilian field weren’t abandoning reason. They were accessing a resource that complemented medical intervention, that held space for mystery while honouring protocol, that chose faith as a companion to action rather than a substitute for it.
In positive psychology terms, they were demonstrating post-conventional leadership — the capacity to hold paradox, to integrate multiple ways of knowing, to act decisively while remaining open to forces beyond their control.
“There is power in prayer,” the now-recovering soccer player told reporters. “Faith changes the atmosphere.”
Neuroscience is beginning to explain how. Positive psychology is measuring the outcomes. And leadership development is finally catching up to what spiritual traditions have known all along: presence matters, compassion activates, and faith — properly understood — doesn’t bypass the brain.
It elevates consciousness itself.
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Dr. Joshua Awesome is a Coaching Psychologist/Executive and Business Performance Coach who has supported over 100,000 professionals across Africa and the globe. He can be reached via: joshua@africainmind.org
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