Participate in IONS Research

Help us understand more about how different meditation types affect the brain.

This research study’s purpose is to evaluate the brain wave differences between two types of meditation: mindfulness of breath and StarGate meditation. This study is part of the IONS Discovery Lab research program.

If you are a healthy English-speaking adult with at least one year of daily meditation practice of any type and live near Petaluma, California, you may be eligible to participate.

The study involves:

• Complete two online surveys (@25 minutes)
• One 2 hour in-person visit to the IONS EarthRise Learning Campus
  • Doing two types of meditation (total 22 minutes)
  • Measuring your brain waves and being videotaped while meditating
  • Recording your experiences with the meditation on videotape
  • Complete a one-page feedback questionnaire

You will be compensated $100 for completing all study activities.

click here to learn more about the study

This IONS Discovery Lab research study is being conducted by Dr. Helane Wahbeh, IRB# #WAHH_2021_06_IDL+StarGate

Have you ever had a spiritual or transcendent experience? It might be noetic.

In a noetic experience, someone receives information or energy from beyond the conventional notions of space and time. An experience of oneness or peace, a message from a deceased relative, a mind-to-mind communication with another person — these are all noetic experiences.

At IONS, we are seeking to better understand these relatively common occurrences.

Want to help? We are collecting these experiences in the Noetic EXperiences Archive (NEXA).

To participate, you must be 18 years of age or older, able to read and write in English, and to fully understand and consent to the study activities. No compensation.

SUBMIT YOUR NOETIC EXPERIENCE AND LEARN MORE ABOUT THE PROJECT

Principal investigator Helané Wahbeh, ND, MCR, IRB# WAHH_2021_02, 04/12/2021

Psigenes Genetic Data Study

The purpose of this study is to learn whether reported psychic abilities are associated with specific genes or genetic networks. If you are a healthy adult and have access to your genetic data through a direct-to-consumer company like 23andMe or Ancestry.com, you may be able to participate. The study involves:

1. Attaching a file with the genetic raw data you received from the direct-to-consumer company.
2. Completing an online survey asking about questions related to psychic ability.

Study activities will take about 30-40 minutes. Participants who complete all study activities will have the chance to enter a drawing to receive an iPad (current generation).

Learn More

Principal investigator Helané Wahbeh, ND, MCR, IRB# WAHH_2016_02, 06/04/2020

Many people have had precognitive dreams or successful intuitive hunches and ask themselves: Do I have psychic or psi abilities?

GotPsi is a simple way to explore these abilities through a suite of psi tests based on techniques similar to those used in more formal laboratory experiments. The tests are fun (and valid) and you’ll get immediate feedback about your performance. There are also various “Halls of Fame” where you can compare your performance with others.

Click to Explore Your Psi Abilities

Principal investigator Helané Wahbeh, ND, MCR, study IRB# WAH_2018_05, 03/01/2021

Projects by IONS Fellow Rupert Sheldrake, PhD*

The Joint Attention Test

Can you tell when someone is looking at the same photo you are?

Joint attention is the shared focus of two or more individuals on the same object. Detecting the direction of another person’s gaze plays a major role in establishing joint attention. The purpose of this research is to find out if joint attention involves a kind of mental resonance that can be felt by people looking at the same thing, even if they are many miles apart.

This experiment requires two people and takes less than five minutes to complete. One of you registers a group name, then you both log in at a prearranged time. In each of 12 trials you’ll be randomly shown either the same picture or different ones. After 10 seconds, you’ll be asked “Was your partner looking at the same picture?” In half the trials you’ll do the guessing while your partner concentrates on the image, then in the second half you’ll reverse roles.

Take the Joint Attention Test

Waking Before Alarm Clocks Go Off

Have you ever woken just before your alarm clock goes off? What about waking before unscheduled disturbances?

IONS Fellow, Rupert Sheldrake, is conducting exciting new research around this common but mysterious phenomenon, which may be a form of pre-sentiment precognition. He is interested in hearing from those who have had experiences of waking just before unexpected alarms, such as fire alarms, or any other unscheduled disturbance. Watch a brief (4 min) video about the experiment and learn how you can participate by sharing your own experiences.

Watch Video

Telephone Telepathy

Many people have had the experience of thinking about a particular person, for no apparent reason, and then the phone rings and that person is on the line. Generally such calls are from familiar people like close friends and family members. These seemingly telepathic experiences with telephones are very common.

Dr. Sheldrake has developed a simple, easy to use, automated test that works on cell phones in the US, Canada, the UK, and Italy. It is free and can be done at any time. You register online here, giving the names and numbers of two people you know well, who will be your callers in this test. The registration link gives full instructions and details.

You will receive your score at the end of each test, which involves six short calls randomly spread out over about one hour.

Dr. Sheldrake is keen to know if people can get better with practice. Also, does it work better after you have been meditating? Or after other practices that help you increase your intuition? Do please have a go at the test, and see if you can find ways of improving your score. If you can do this, please send Dr. Sheldrake an email describing how you did it.

Test Your Telepathy

*Please note that these projects are not being overseen by a research ethics committee.