Research is humming at IONS! A few highlights below:
We just completed our analysis of the collective consciousness experiment we conducted at Burning Man, investigating whether the collective attention that peaks during the burning of the man at this unique festival that brings over 50,000 people to the Nevada desert each year might be reflected in deviations from randomness in random number generators (RNGs) at the event location and around the world. See the results.
IONS Senior Scientist Dean Radin and I just returned from a trip to teach an intensive 20-hour workshop on the Noetic Sciences in Tuscany, Italy. Hosted by Pronto Seminars, the participants in this week-long workshop represented eight countries from around the world. Since we receive requests frequently asking how one becomes a “noetic scientist,” we are considering how we might develop more formal Noetic Science training programs for scientists, health care professionals, and students.
This month, our laboratory will be moving to a new and larger space, allowing for greater flexibility in conducting multiple experiments, and providing a mini “exploratorium” atmosphere for colleagues and funding representatives to see up close how the work is done. The down-side: a six to eight-week hiatus in laboratory experiments and the challenge of moving our 2000 pound shielded room—no easy feat! In the meantime, we are busy collecting and analyzing laboratory data from our experiments on brain correlates of mediumship, the psychophysiology of spiritual transmission (from spiritual teacher to student), and mind-matter interactions with the double-slit apparatus. We’re also working hard on raising funds for our work in the coming year.
While most of our writing effort goes into reporting results of our experiments in peer-reviewed publications for scientific journals, it’s helpful for us to get our name out in the mass media as well because it increases our visibility and support for our work. The letter to the editor I wrote was published in the Sept/Oct 2012 issue of Psychology Today (readership estimated at 3 million), critiquing the one-sidedness of this article on anomalous experiences. This earlier article in 2000 on the topic was more balanced. EarthRise, our retreat center here at IONS, was also mentioned in AARP The Magazine (the magazine with the highest readership in the country at around 23 million) as a great place to go for personal renewal.
Be sure to save the date for our conference coming up next year, where you can learn more about our science and how we apply it in the world, and hear talks by me, Dean Radin (discussing his upcoming book on the science of extraordinary abilities), Edgar Mitchell, Bruce Lipton (author of The Biology of Belief), Manjir Samanta-Laughton (author of Punk Science), Marilyn Schlitz on her new project Death Makes Life Possible, a film and educational program on how afterlife cosmologies influence the way we live, and many, many others! A confluence of science, spirit, art, technology, and community—hope you can make it!
