Body Intelligence Scale: Defining and Measuring the Intelligence of the Body

This article introduces the Body Intelligence Scale (BIS) to humanistic, trans-personal, and positive psychologists, the most likely initial users of the BIS. I invite research collaboration and clinical trials with individuals in appropriate health care and clinical populations to evaluate the efficacy of the BIS. Theory and research rele-vant to body intelligence are reviewed and the concept of body intelligence is de-fined. The combination of qualitative and quantitative methods employed in scale de-velopment supports a multimethod approach to scale development, especially as relevant to assessing subtle human qualities. The current BIS is composed of three subscales: the Energy Body Awareness, Comfort Body Awareness, and Inner Body Awareness subscales. Future research should evaluate the reliability and validity of the BIS, usefulness of the BIS as a tool for the enhancement of body intelligence gen-erally, and the relationship of the scale to appropriate clinical populations, particu-larly individuals with weight-management challenges, history of trauma and abuse, and/or physical illnesses clearly aggravated by stress. I wanted to begin not with characters or ideas, but with movements