This Mighty Heart: exploring the power of Heart Intelligence with Scilla Elworthy

Aug 9, 2023

Dr Scilla Elworthy, peacebuilder and three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee who founded Oxford Research Group and Peace Direct, shares her journey from witnessing Hungary and working with Auschwitz survivors to developing The Mighty Heart. She discusses inner listening and heart practice. The conversation covers nuclear policy dialogue, creating safe spaces for difficult conversations, and balancing AI with heart intelligence.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

Kitchen-Table Research Became Policy-Shaping Work

Scilla formed the Oxford Research Group with two friends and researched how nuclear decisions were made by studying archives and specialists.
Their report mapped actual people and channels in nuclear states and circulated surprisingly widely, even inside ministries of defence.

ANECDOTE

Access To Top Officials During China Visit

Scilla travelled with military figures and unexpectedly accessed high-level Chinese decision-makers during research visits.
She recalled walking into the Great Hall of the People where officials addressed her by name, surprising her male colleagues.

INSIGHT

Heart Listening As Practical Guidance

Scilla cultivates heart intelligence by moving attention from the overactive brain into the heart through daily quiet practices.
She treats inner listening as practical guidance and expresses gratitude when clear instructions arise.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

We all know that we need to reconnect to our HeartMinds and to bring our Heart Intelligence up to meet the explosion of left brain intelligence - we just don't know how to do it. This week's guest is one of my living heroes - who does have clear, grounded ideas of how to do this.

Dr Scilla Elworthy was thirteen years old when she saw the Soviet Invasion of Hungary on the television and understood the horror of what was happening. Her mother found her packing a case to go to Budapest to help and managed to persuade her to stay home by promising she'd help to train her to be what the world needed. When she was sixteen, she worked in a holiday camp for Auschwitz survivors, and sat peeling potatoes and listening to them talk of their suffering.

Since then, she has been nominated three times for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with Oxford Research Group to develop effective dialogue between nuclear weapons policy-makers worldwide and their critics. In 2003 Scilla founded Peace Direct, to work closely with locally-led peace building initiatives throughout the world, bringing us daily experience in how to help prevent violent conflict and build sustainable peace throughout the world.

She has written numerous books, given numerous TED and TEDx talks and now leads The Business Plan for Peace to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of transforming destructive conflict. She was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize in 2003 and the Luxembourg Peace Prize in 2020. She is one of the clearest, most grounded thinkers I have ever met and she's working tirelessly to create the future we'd be proud to leave behind. I was more than a little star-struck, but this was a genuinely heart-felt conversation and I hope listening to it leaves you feeling as heart-connected as it did me.

The Mighty Heart https://mightyheart.co.uk/

The Mighty Heart in Business program: 18th October - 6th December 2023 https://thebusinessplanforpeace.org/the-mighty-heart-in-business/

TED Talk: Fighting with Non Violence https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk3K_Vrve-E
TEDx Talk: Dare to Question: Why are we so afraid of getting older https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6zenOjPC1A
TEDx Talk: How do I deal with a bully without becoming a thug? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgWyolwBGgE
TEDx Talk: The Future Belongs to those who can see it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWDl1PqGjqY
TEDx Talk: Do something - OK, but how? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYlhHkLgBWA
TEDx Talk: The Business Plan for Peace https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH1WgurH5FA

Conversations in Compassion w Dr Scilla Elworthy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C5BMRDYzc8

Book: Pioneering the Possible https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/pioneering-the-possible-awakened-leadership-for-a-world-that-works-scilla-elworthy/3218709?ean=9781583948620
Books: The Mighty Heart in Action and The Business Plan for Peace https://mightyheart.co.uk/media/