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IONS Director of Research, Helane Wahbeh, ND, MCR, recently published an article exploring the use of an online intervention using mindfulness meditation as a treatment for depression in older adults in the special issue “Mind-body Medicine Approaches,” of the journal Medicines.
IONS would like to celebrate the long life of a remarkable woman who for the last two decades, contributed to making the work we do here at IONS possible. Dr. Ruth Lofgren passed away in her home in San Antonio, Texas, on October 31, 2018 one month before her 102nd birthday.
What are we doing?
The science of how people change (and why they don’t) has not yet made it to the front lines of people fighting the good fight. Until now…The Consciousness, Communication, and Change (C3) workshop brings together the findings of social, cognitive, neuro, worldview, and behavior change research, and unites them with wisdom practices from the world’s spiritual traditions.
It’s a new year — a time time for reflection and setting new intentions. There are many practices one can choose to aid in doing this. One powerful option is to use a labyrinth as a tool for a walking contemplative practice. Veriditas, a friend of IONS, offers a simple practice that you might enjoy.
We are thrilled to announce that the IONS Discovery Lab is up and running and our doors are open! IONS is conducting what will be the largest study ever conducted on how transformative practices and experiences influence well-being, creativity, intuition and extraordinary human capacities. This groundbreaking project is based on IONS’ research over the past 45 years which tells us that when people recognize how we are interconnected, they take better care of themselves, each other, and the planet. We are the only retreat center in the world that provides the opportunity for workshop leaders and retreatants to be a part of groundbreaking science of this scope. Our work at IONS is committed to discovering how each of us can access that place of interconnection — accelerating the creation of a more just and sustainable presence on this planet.
The research department at IONS organized a three-day “hackation" at our Earthrise campus. Hackation is a term we coined a couple years ago that combines a hackathon with a vacation. We started Hackation events as an enjoyable way to hack away at interesting problems related to Noetics. We invited scientists, students in engineering, and programmers to participate. This year, we had 17 programmers who participated, mostly from the San Francisco Bay Area but also a few from around the country. We focused mostly on analyzing Twitter data to see if we could use group collective consciousness to predict events. The participants analyzed 1.6 million Tweets from one week preceding and up to one week following the Dallas October 2017 shooting. This represents 10% of Tweets sent in the US during that period. Participants were experts in big data analysis and used their expertise to analyze these Tweets.
On a chilly November evening outside of Shanghai, I sat captivated by a sound healing mega-concert that continued for over two hours accompanied by a mesmerizing Hollywood-scale light show. The exquisite crystal bowls, ancient wind instruments, chanting, and drums transported me into a deep, peaceful state of mind that enabled me to forget that I was the only person who had forgotten to wear a jacket that evening! It was an unforgettable experience that created a palpable field of interconnection among the thousands of us gathered for the opening ceremonies of the AT ONE International Festival.
At the Institute of Noetic Sciences we are committed to discovering how each of us can better access that place of our interconnection – accelerating the creation of a more just and sustainable human presence on this planet. Over 45 years of research tells us that when people recognize that we are one, they take better care of themselves, each other, and the planet.
What will the world look like in 2050 if we take action to get global warming under control? What will the world look like if we don’t?