IONS and the Science Behind
The Lost Symbol

Intuition, ESP, quantum entanglement, and other extraordinary phenomena are part of a normal day’s research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, but they have mystified much of the Western world enough to push them into the shadows of the imagination. It took a bestselling novel to move noetic sciences into the mainstream spotlight when Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol was published in the Fall of 2009.

To help readers of the book learn more about noetic science, we've put together this page of resources to take you deeper into the actual science that inspired Dan Brown.
 

Our real human potential

“Her field of choice – Noetic Science – had been virtually unknown when she first heard of it, but in recent years, it had started opening new doors of understanding into the power of the human mind.” (The Lost Symbol, p. 15)

Brown's novel features the fictional, mystery-solving Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon and noetic scientist Dr. Katherine Solomon. The characters chase mysterious symbols during a 12-hour period in Washington, D.C., employing the noetic sciences to untangle the web of clues and resolve the conflict between good and evil.

One million copies of The Lost Symbol sold in the first 24 hours of its release and the words “noetic sciences” crossed the lips of many readers for the first time. The book is an artful weaving together of fact and fiction, and Brown identifies the Institute of Noetic Sciences as one of the organizations in the novel that actually exist, making IONS’ website one of the most trusted sources for knowledge about noetic science and experienced phenomena that cannot be easily explained by traditional scientific models.

The word "noetic"

What are the Noetic Sciences?

"The Science behind The Lost Symbol" audio recordings

A recorded 15-part teleseminar series created especially for readers of The Lost Symbol takes you deeper into individual fields of study within the noetic sciences. Headlining the series are leading consciousness science experts discussing anticipation, spiritual healing, shifting archetypes, nature and the cosmos, the biology and sociology of good and evil, ESP, the science of intention, and collective consciousness.

Recommended books

• Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality
  by Dean Radin
• The Conscious Universe: The Scientific Truth of Psychic Phenomena
  by Dean Radin
• Consciousness and Healing: Integral Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine
  by Marilyn Schlitz & Tina Amorok, with Marc Micozzi
• Global Mind Change: The Promise of the 21st Century
  by Willis Harman
• Noetic Books

Journal Publications

This is a selected list of recent, peer-reviewed journal articles on various noetic topics related to things mentioned in the book, The Lost Symbol, that have been authored or co-authored by IONS staff scientists. They include such phenomena as perception through time, distant healing, interconnectedness, consciousness and health, individual and collective intention in the physical world, and transformation of consciousness.

Perception Through Time

• Intuition through time: what does the seer see?
  Radin D, Borges A. Explore, 2009 Jul-Aug;5(4):200-11.
• Toward understanding the pacebo effect: investigating a possible retrocausal factor
  Radin D, Lobach E. J Altern Complement Med. 2007 Sep;13(7):733-39.
• Electrodermal presentiments of future emotions
  Radin, D. Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 18, No. 2, pp. 253–273, 2004.

Distant Healing Intention and Distant Physiological Connectedness

• Compassionate intention as a therapeutic intervention by partners of cancer patients: effects of distant intention on the patients' autonomic nervous system
  Radin D, Stone J, Levine E, Eskandarnejad S, Schlitz M, Kozak L, Mandel D, Hayssen G. Explore. 2008 Jul-Aug;4(4):235-43.
• Of two minds: Sceptic-proponent collaboration within parapsychology
  Schlitz M, Wiseman R, Watt C, Radin D. Br J Psychol. 2006 Aug;97(Pt 3):313-22.
• Gut feelings, intuition, and emotions: an exploratory study
  Radin DI, Schlitz MJ. J Altern Complement Med. 2005 Feb;11(1):85-91.
• Event-related electroencephalographic correlations between isolated human subjects
  Radin DI. J Altern Complement Med. 2004 Apr;10(2):315-23.
• Distant healing intention: definitions and evolving guidelines for laboratory studies
  Schlitz M, Radin D, Malle BF, Schmidt S, Utts J, Yount GL. Altern Ther Health Med. 2003 May-Jun;9(3 Suppl):A31-43.

Consciousness and Health

• Effects of a mindfulness-based intervention during pregnancy on prenatal stress and mood: results of a pilot study
  Vieten C, and Astin J. Arch Womens Ment Health. 2008 Feb;11(1):67-74. Epub 2008 Mar 3.
• Negative affect, emotional acceptance, and smoking cessation
  Carmody TP, Vieten C, Astin JA. J Psychoactive Drugs. 2007 Dec;39(4):499-508.
• Effects of healing intention on cultured cells and truly random events
  Radin D, Taft, R., Yount G. J Altern Complement Med. 2004 Feb;10(1):103-12.

Individual and Collective Intention in the Physical World

• Testing nonlocal observation as a source of intuitive knowledge
  Radin D. Explore. 2008 Jan-Feb;4(1):25-35.
• Effects of intentionally enhanced chocolate on mood
  Radin D, Hayssen G, Walsh J. Explore. 2007 Sep-Oct;3(5):485-92.
• Double-blind test of the effects of distant intention on water crystal formation
  Radin D, Hayssen G, Emoto M, Kizu T. Explore. 2006 Sep-Oct;2(5):408-11.
• Experiments testing models of mind-matter interaction
  Radin, D. Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 20, NO. 3, pp. 375401, 2006.
• Random event generators: correlations of continuous random data with major world events
  Nelson, R. D., Radin, D. I., Shoup, R., and Bancel, P. A. (2002). Foundations of Physics Letters, 15, 6, 537-550.
• Exploring relationships between random physical events and mass human attention: asking for whom the bell tolls
  Radin, D. Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 533–547, 2002.

Transformation of Consciousness

• I to we: the role of consciousness transformation in compassion and altruism
  Vieten, C; Amorok, T; Schlitz, M (2006). Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science, 41:4, 917-933.
• The role of transformation, spirit, and psychospiritual approaches on human brain activity and immunity
  Vieten C, (2004). San Francisco Medicine: Journal of the San Francisco Medical Society 77:7, 28-31.

In the News

“The recent breakthroughs Katherine had made here in the field of Noetic Science had ramifications across every discipline – from physics to history, to philosophy, to religion. Soon everything will change, she thought.” (The Lost Symbol, pg. 34)

Sharing a striking similarity with the book’s female protagonist, IONS’ CEO Dr. Marilyn Schlitz, a world-renowned anthropologist and noetic scientist, has worked with the Smithsonian Institute and conducted secret government remote-viewing experiments. Dr. Schlitz also helped design a 2000-pound electromagnetically-shielded testing room – IONS’ own “cube” (also featured in the book) – where IONS conducts many of its experiments.

Dr. Schlitz tumbled onto the pages of literary folklore when NPR also noticed the resemblance, and she became a global spokeswoman for others digging into the promise and realities of noetic science.

• Listen
• Read
   

• US News and World Report
   

• Television Interview
• Dateline Transcript
   

• Science of Mind Article