ions - kn

IONS research includes the study of extended human capacities — experiences that appear to go beyond the conventional boundaries of space and time.

Hosting “a vibrant community of explorers and change agents who are working together to make a difference in the world” is one of the key functions of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). There are over 175 community groups across 21 countries that meet regularly to hear speakers, explore research, and discuss topics such as transformation, forgiveness, healing, psychic phenomena, and new scientific discoveries. Most important to me, however, is the deep listening and authentic sharing that happens within an IONS Community Group.

On Monday, Dr. Wolfgang Baer presented the research team of Arnaud Delorme, Leena Michel, Alan Pierce, and lead scientist Dean Radin with a check for $1,000 for the Nascent Prize for Best Paper.

I was recently asked to talk about the science of consciousness at Chinmaya Mission in Princeton, New Jersey. While I have been greatly interested in consciousness studies for many decades, this was my first official IONS talk on the topic. I caught myself up on the current evidence for the science of consciousness, and developed a presentation titled “The Science of Consciousness: Personal, Relational, Global and Beyond”. My 20-minute PowerPoint had beautiful pictures, graphs and figures to engage the audience.

These days a lot of people talk about a ‘new paradigm.’ In the modern world there are paradigm shifts taking place everywhere, from ecology, economics and health, to physics and cosmology. For many, however, when we’re talking about the new paradigm, we’re talking about something bigger: an approaching shift in thinking that, when realized, will constitute a deep collective change in the way we see our place in the universe.

Aging can be a discouraging process in our youth-obsessed culture. In popular media, those in the later stages of life are often presented as diminished, having little to offer, and disengaged from meaningful activities.

Sports, fitness and exercise programs in the United States continue to evolve as athletes of all types, both professional and recreational, seek to achieve higher levels of performance.  In doing so, athletes, coaches, trainers, and sports psychiatrists are embracing some of the concepts of the Integral Movement in the West, in order to attain elevated states of athletic functioning and heightened awareness. These somatic mind/body practices integrate Eastern and Western principles, philosophies and exercises to achieve optimal results.  Michael Murphy, who along with George Leonard has introduced the first coherent integral practice in the West,  Integral Transformative Practice (ITP), has termed these approaches “Transformative Practices” and defines them in Future of the Body as “a complex and coherent set of activities that produce positive change in a person or a group.”

The vision for creating the Institute of Noetic Sciences came in 1971 when IONS’ founder Dr. Edgar Mitchell landed on the moon as one of the Apollo 14 astronauts. Space exploration symbolized for Dr. Mitchell what it did for his nation as a whole—technological triumph of historical proportions, unprecedented mastery of the world in which we live, and extraordinary potentials for new discoveries.

Reflections on an experiment in dissolving the work/joy dichotomy through hacking an app while meditating on vacation.

It’s productive and effective to bring distinct people together with a shared purpose to make fascinating creations. Combine that with merging the office space with a retreat center and conduct a vacation at the same time, now that is simply just brilliant.

In December, the call went out across Silicon Valley. “Anyone with tech skills who is interested in consciousness exploration, fill out this application for the Innovation Lab’s experimental collaboration with Consciousness Hacking – a ‘Hackation’ (hackathon + vacation) – in which we will build a smartphone application to assess psi (or ‘psychic’) skills worldwide.”