We hypothesize that everything is interconnected, and that embodying this awareness reveals information and energy not limited by space and time, which can create breakthroughs in transformation, innovation, and well-being.
Can increasing our sense of interconnectedness and gaining access to new sources of information and energy profoundly amplify these key concepts in human fulfillment? The IONS Discovery Lab is uncovering the answers. Each of these factors — Innovation, Transformation, Well-being — plays a pivotal role in maximizing human potential.
Innovation is the ability to creatively develop new ideas and discover new ways of looking at problems and opportunities. It is the ability to apply novel solutions to problems in ways that enhance people’s lives or enrich society. The challenges we face in society, and in our own personal experience, require innovative thinking. But unfortunately, we are often unnecessarily limited by too narrow a view. Noetic experiences and transformational practices work to expand our perspectives, often allowing us to see new approaches that are waiting to be discovered. At the IONS Discovery Lab, we examine whether wisdom practices, extraordinary experiences, and healing modalities increase creative outside-the-box thinking with qualitative questions and objective computer tasks.
Transformation can be described as a discontinuous leap forward in consciousness – a paradigm shift characterized by profound shifts in worldview, behaviors and attitudes1. We define transformation an essential change in people’s consciousness, worldview, or perspective, resulting in long-lasting changes in the way they experience and relate to themselves, others, and the world2,3. Different from simply learning something new or changing a behavior, transformation involves a profound alteration or expansion of people’s understanding of the world and their place in it. IONS decades of research on transformation continues with the IONS Discovery Lab prospectively measuring how people change before and after they engage in wisdom practices, extraordinary experiences, and healing modalities.
Well-being is a broad term that includes positive psychological states, including how people evaluate their lives, the emotional reactions people have toward their daily experiences, and reflective overall assessments of their life, emotional states, relationships, and a sense of meaning and purpose (OECD, 2013). It also includes physical vitality and sense of wellness, even in the face of physical symptoms such as pain or illness. IONS Discovery Lab investigates how well-being might be enhanced through engaging in wisdom practices, extraordinary experiences, and healing modalities, and exactly what mechanisms account for improvements in well-being.
If indeed a sense of interconnectedness ultimately leads to enhancing peoples’ abilities to create a better world, IONS is committed to understand the mechanisms of this process so that we may more rapidly weave them into our personal lives and our society at large.
1) Neal JA, Bergmann Lichtenstein BM, Banner D. Spiritual perspectives on individual, organizational and societal transformation. Journal of organizational change management. 1999;12(3):175-186.; OECD Guidelines on Measuring Subjective Well-being. Paris: OECD Publishing; 2013.
2) Schlitz M., Vieten C., Amorok T. (2008). Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation. Berkeley, CA: New Harbinger Publications.
3) http://noetic.org/research/transformation_model
