Noetic Now

IONS at the International Symposia for Contemplative Studies

This is the third edition of Breaking News, giving you the latest updates on what's happening in Research at IONS. Recently, Cassi gave two presentations at the International Symposia for Contemplative Studies, which was hosted by the Mind and Life Institute and cosponsored by several other organizations including IONS.

Final Passages: Research on Near Death and the Experience of Dying

I just returned from an exciting conference held at the biotech company, Promega. The meeting was entitled "Final Passages: Research on Near Death & the Experience of Dying." This eleventh in a series of bioethics forums was held in Madison, WI, April 26–27, 2012, and focused on scientific research into social and ethical issues around dying and near-death experiences. A stellar lineup of global experts addressed a wide range of topics as well as the implications of current research for understanding consciousness.

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...

NEW! - Breaking News from IONS Research

Welcome to the first edition of IONS Breaking News, a periodic brief update coming to you directly from the research team and laboratory here at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. We're expecting new Breaking News posts to be published once or twice a month... keeping you abreast of the latest hot-off-the-presses scientific developments at IONS such as new projects, funding, publications, speaking engagements, and interesting findings.

Tribute to a Friend: Dr. Jeanne Achterberg

A few days ago, on March 7, 2012, Jeanne Achterberg, PhD passed on to the next phase of her spirit journey. Jeanne was a dear friend for decades. Her work with IONS was foundational. Jeanne was always in the vanguard. She was a beautiful, courageous, visionary, and spirited woman.

Death Makes Life Possible - Film Project

IONS and The Chopra Foundation are producing a documentary film about death and what happens after, and what it means for our lives. The new trailer for the film will get its first public screening in San Diego at the Sages & Scientists Symposium this weekend, March 3-5. You can see the trailer here on this website!

Telling the New Story through Movies

Storytelling is timeless, and filmmaking, though a late-comer to the stage, has become a powerful tool for those with good stories to tell. Great films have been around since filmmaking began, of course, and everyone has their own list...

Staff Picks: Our 2011 Media Favorites on Consciousness Matters

Members of the IONS staff enrich their lives and entertain their minds by staying connected to the world of consciousness science and shifts in worldview through books, films, and other media. Here are some of our favorites from the last year. Check them out in 2012!

How Giving Improves Your Health and Heals a Wounded World

If the art of holiday giving is starting to feel a little more contrived this year, a little more commercial, then the science of giving has some news to bolster your holiday spirit...

How the Noetic Sciences Contribute to “Conscious Aging”

IONS Director of Elder Education talks about IONS' new Conscious Aging program and some of the things that IONS is offering to help support the transformation that comes with aging. "My wish," she says, "is that more people could learn how all of these ideas, tools, and practices can help reduce the suffering that can accompany aging and ignite the potential for positive, passionate, and soulful aging."

Goldilocks and the PK Experiment – a Q & A from IONS’ Parapsychology Lab

A conversation with IONS' Senior Scientist Dean Radin about some of the challenges he's encountered when trying to find a device that is "just right" to measure psycho-kinetic (PK) abilities in the research lab.

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.

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.

What’s the Matter with Miracles?

Some days I wake up and it hits me all over again. There’s a lot of science going on in the world, but how many people get to work at a place where a few very brainy and dedicated scientists are measuring the farthest reaches of the mind for clues to higher levels of the human experience?

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.

Farewell Lee Lipsenthal

Beloved IONS Board member, colleague, and friend Lee Lipsenthal passed away last Tuesday, September 20, after a two-year battle with untreatable esophageal cancer.

Assisting the Minds that Assist Change

The world is changing before our eyes. As we dip our toes into the 21^st century, you and I are watching a full tidal shift in world order... Some may respond by denying the experience and others respond by opening up to further exploration.

Give Unity a Chance

Transformation. It’s a powerful word, a game-changing process. When we listen to the stories of how the tragedy of September 11, 2001, transformed people’s lives, we are moved by the recurring theme of unity...

Consciousness Matters—The New IONS Blog

After a year of publishing contributed blog posts from a variety of visionaries, we will be focusing more on the inner life of IONS. Here at the blog, each week a member of our staff will bring you a close-up view of life inside IONS and/or commentary on what we are learning about the evolving field of consciousness research.

Is there Evidence for Universal Consciousness?

In Dan Brown’s new book The Lost Symbol, the fictional character Katherine Solomon mentions “universal consciousness,” which is an ongoing topic of interest at the real-life Institute of Noetic Sciences.

Rejecting Uncommon Beliefs: How Worldview Shapes our Experience

What limits our desire and capacity to take in new ideas – even when we hold an intention to transform and grow? How can we shift a paradigm that we see as flawed and incomplete without understanding the barriers to changing our minds and behaviors? And how can we develop habits that allow us to explore and reveal our own biases and intolerance of ideas that refute our prevailing beliefs and opinions?

How Do I Pray?

We usually think of prayer as an appeal to God or some other spiritual entity to change the world in some way. We might pray for someone’s healing, for success in some venture, for a better life, or for guidance on some challenging issue. Behind such prayers is the recognition that we don’t have the power to make the world the way we would like it to be – if we did, we would simply get on with the task – so we beseech a higher power to change things for us.

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?

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...

A Path Forward: Embracing our Creative Imagination

It’s been quite a year – and it’s barely April. Extreme political unrest is underway throughout the Middle East. Earthquakes rock New Zealand, China, California, and Japan. Shifting plates and tsunami waves in the Pacific Ocean have nuclear power plants perched on the edge of total meltdown.