Noetic Now

When Skeptics Face the Evidence

This last weekend found me in Washington, DC, at the Society for Experimental and Social Psychology Annual Conference (SESP). I was invited to discuss the controversy that was kicked up in the field of social psychology about the study of precognition.

Social psychologists (and other scientists) as a whole are extremely skeptical not only of the research on psi but of the very idea that psi can or should be studied by scientists. But this may be changing. The session I presented in was very well-attended, and I found that most people, while not exactly open-minded, were open-hearted, thoughtful, and willing to engage in respectful discussion about the topic.

Inner Space – Technology’s New Frontier?

It’s immersive, it’s interactive, it’s embodied (sort of), and it’s actually changing people’s lives, tapping into each individual’s potential to get beyond their conditioning and become engaged in transforming themselves and their world.

Generation Wired…and Wise?

Wisdom and technology had their friendly faceoff at the second annual Wisdom 2.0 conference as some of Silicon Valley’s finest mixed comfortably with a trio of mindfulness masters and an audience of new media pioneers...

The Power of Media to Transform

It wasn’t always the case that Hollywood, the media capital of the world, could be expected to embrace a day-long symposium on the power of arts and media to transform. When I broke into the industry in 1985, power was held by the major studios...

The Noetic Change Model — Living a Life of Meaning

We all have experience of a noetic nature: things we know to be true even without external “proof.” We often refer to these “knowings” as intuitions or synchronicities. Sometimes, for many of us, in workshops, retreats, or deep meditations, these events can be large and even shake us up… we can sit and practice, go deeper and ask ourselves, How does this noetic moment inform my life and my ability to serve others in a way that they wish to be served? How can I live it fully?

Telepathy Between Couples: Is It Real?

IONS Senior Scientist Dean Radin and some of his colleagues were interviewed for this article in Discovery News, which features research done by the Institute of Noetic Sciences on telepathy.

East Meets West on Evolution’s Border

The official theme of the third annual Science and Nonduality conference was “On the Edge of Time,” but the unofficial narrative was about time running out on the flat-earth paradigms of our day: the world works like a machine, consciousness follows matter, our lives are essentially meaningless, we are in this thing alone.

Social Healing: Rwanda Has Much to Teach Us

On a recent trip to Rwanda to explore how societies heal from massive collective trauma, violent conflict, and human rights abuse, I was shocked to find more evidence of societal healing than I could have imagined possible.

Absent-Minded Science, Part III: What Is Matter?

Whether we call our philosophy “idealism” or “materialism” or “panpsychism,” we are trying to explain the same thing: reality, this. Some approaches are better than others, but our criteria are themselves necessarily subjective. I have highlighted empirical adequacy, logical consistency, and intellectual pedigree here, but other criteria could be used and different conclusions reached.

Meditation Research: A Bridge between Worldviews…

Research on meditation is not off limits any longer. Scientists are learning from the spiritual traditions without contaminating the scientific method. Spiritual groups are seeking scientific evidence for the role of meditation to better understand their practice and deepen their faith. Health interventions are benefitting from centuries of scientific research as well as millennia of spiritual inquiry. This is something that we get really excited about at IONS. And meditation research paved the way.

Research is Humming in October

We completed our analysis of the collective consciousness experiment at Burning Man, Dean and I just returned from a trip to teach an intensive 20-hour workshop on the Noetic Sciences in Italy, our laboratory will be moving this month, and more...

IONS Welcomes Visiting Scholar Michael Bloch

Michael Bloch, PhD, is a new scholar in residence here at IONS, working on a number of projects investigating the effects of olfactory stimulation on mind-matter interactions, as well as studying hemispheric and olfactory involvement in presentiment tasks.

Meditation: Relaxation or Awakening

Meditation allows us to penetrate the surface experiences of the mind and gain a more detailed understanding of its workings and essential nature. That understanding allows us to remove the veils that obscure our authentic nature, revealing the qualities of human flourishing.

IONS Senior Scientist Dean Radin Interviewed for ABC News

Just this week, IONS Senior Scientist Dean Radin was interviewed in Los Angeles by Elizabeth Vargas of the ABC News program, 20/20. Dean was interviewed along with several other scientists about the science of premonitions, and now the producer is looking for people who have had a premonition and are willing to talk about it on camera...

Two New Video Talks on Noetic Sciences

Two TEDx talks I gave last year have both just been released on video. In December I spoke at TEDx Napa Valley on "The Science of Interconnectedness." Earlier in the year I gave another TEDx talk at Black Rock City in the Nevada Desert for Burning Man 2012. I hope you enjoy these talks as much as I enjoyed giving them!

Experimenter Effects and Replication in Psi Research

Two distinguished colleagues and I have received funding to conduct a new experiment to test the hypothesis that the expectancy of the experimenter will have an impact on the outcome of a psi task.

What the Noetic Sciences Mean to You

Recently, IONS invited our eNews subscribers to share a few words on what the Noetic Sciences mean to them. We received over 200 responses and have generated a "word cloud" based on these submissions. Thank you to all who participated in helping us gather this collective intelligence!

Beingness-In-Action

“To be or not to be—that is the question.” (And then, the joke continues, the man lost in the motel asks himself…“or is it 3C? 4D?") A common interpretation of this famous Shakespearean quote is that Hamlet was contemplating suicide, but wasn’t sure if death would actually be preferable to the alternative ...

There's Nothing "Magical" about Societal Healing

I know that affirmations, gratefulness, and forgiveness can bring swift benefits, and that sometimes it seems as if we achieve dramatic and miraculous support for our best intentions. But social healing is slow.

Restoring the Balance

When people ask me what I do for a living, I answer that I direct the research program at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. What follows are a range of responses. For some, a light of recognition is ignited in their eyes: “Oh, I love that place…cool!” For a few, there is the “Never-heard-of-it” glaze. And ...

7 Noetic Steps to Surviving a Volcanic Ash Cloud

I was preparing for my lecture on consciousness transformation to the League of Optimists in Brussels, Belgium when I got the news: All flights from Europe were cancelled. I was due to go on stage shortly and nothing about the implications of this information had sunk in. I just wanted to be here tonight and home tomorrow...

Absent-Minded Science, Part VI: On Natural Selection and the Universal Eros

This essay continues my extended critique of “absent-minded science” – the tendency in modern science to ignore, intentionally or through oversight, the role of mind in nature. I want to be clear up front that I am not a supporter of Intelligent Design or any religiously-motivated critique of natural selection. Rather, I approach these very difficult problems primarily from the point of view of a hard-nosed philosopher and scientist trying to make sense of it all – and finding that many mainstream approaches could be significantly improved.

IONS Scientists at the Tucson Consciousness Conference

This is the second edition of Breaking News, giving you the latest updates on what's happening in Research at IONS. Last week, three of our visiting scholars participated in the "Toward a Science of Consciousness" conference hosted by our longtime friends and collaborators at the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona...

Thought Balloons

No one ever mentioned thoughts in medical school, or throughout my residency training. Come to think of it, the term was rarely mentioned during my years with the Fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. Mind, mindful, mind-body, yes. But no professorial lecture or class discussion on what actually constitutes our thoughts...

Engaging the Global Consciousness Community

Each day the world seems to grow smaller and more complex. Wars rage. Intolerance breeds contempt across races, ethnicities, and nations. Refugees wander, far from their homes. In too many parts of the planet, children go hungry—ending their days filled with fear and hopelessness. There are plenty of reasons ...