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IONS was well represented at the Science of Consciousness Conference this year – our CEO Claire Lachance spent much of the week at this academic conference, soaking in the lively discussions and presentations about the nature of consciousness, both in the traditional neuroscientific sense and in the sense of extended consciousness.
BIAL is a Portuguese pharmaceutical company whose mission is to discover, develop and provide therapeutic solutions within the area of health. The Fundação BIAL is the non-profit foundation arm of company and is a major funder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences and parapsychology in general. Every two years Fundação BIAL has a conference in Porto, Portugal bringing their grantees together for presentations, discussions, and networking in a stimulating environment. They also have the noble goal of having scientists present on non-controversial topics—stimulating and collegial conversations between mainstream and parapsychological scientists. Many scientists have never heard of the more controversial topics typical for IONS scientists, and thus, expansion of everyone’s worldview ensues.
Since the passing of IONS’ visionary founder, Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell, two years ago, the IONS board, staff, and scientists have continually worked to not only preserve Edgar’s original vision, but to boldly expand IONS impact at a time when our world desperately needs healing, radical innovation, and transformation.
Have you ever noticed that some of life’s best insights come from completely unexpected places? This happened to me last week as I was having lunch with John Cleese, the legendary comedian and actor best known for Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and A Fish Called Wanda. A passionate supporter of IONS’ work to advance the frontier edge of consciousness research, John graciously donated his time and talent at a special IONS event also featuring our Chief Scientist, Dean Radin.
Monday night I received the news that our beloved Bob Blackstone had passed away.
Earlier this month, Cassandra Vieten, Helané Wahbeh, Jonathan Schooler, and myself made presentations at the Symposium on Human Consciousness at the Vivenanda Ashram on paradise island near Nassau in the Bahamas. More than 200 participants from the ashram attended our sessions. Ashram participants are college graduates from all around the world interested in yoga and eastern philosophy. They are not necessarily devotees, although a core group of about 15 staff members are devotees themselves. It was therefore an enthusiastic and receptive audience to present our ideas and research.
I was pleasantly surprised when I was contacted by CBS News recently and asked to be interviewed for a Sunday Morning segment on extraordinary aspects of the mind and brain, including ESP. Having spent decades studying these phenomena as a scientist, I’m always willing to talk about the state of the research, and the CBS Sunday Morning program offered the unusual opportunity to speak to millions. However, I also knew that TV segments specialize in sound-bites and there’s never enough time to go into any one topic in depth.
Through my research on meditation and contemplative practices, I always noticed that what seemed like a very similar transcendent state was given different names like samadhi, oneness, non-dual, conscious awareness, etc. I also learned that transcendent states achieved through meditative practices have been reported across cultures and throughout history. The exact practices people used to achieve the transcendent states vary quite a bit from transcendental meditation to yoga to contemplative prayer, to other various forms of sitting meditation. Despite the different terms, those who experience them describe a similar unitive, ineffable state of consciousness. I also noticed that no one had systematically examined or synthesized transcendent states during meditation to look at the similarities and differences.