Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), Katherine Solomon and The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown

In his lastest book "The Lost Symbol", Dan Brown writes about Katherine Solomon, a fictional character who's a scientist in the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California.

Robert Langdon, the well-known star of Brown's books, when was explained about the concept of noetic sciences, asserted "Sounds more like magic than science" (a typical reply by a conventional scholar when confronted with a new field like that of noetic science)

According to Dan Brown: "Katherine’s two books on Noetics had established her as a leader in this obscure field, but her most recent discoveries, when published, promised to make Noetic Science a topic of mainstream conversation around the world."

It reminds me of real-life noetic scientist Dean Radin, whose books "The Conscious Universe" and "Entangled Minds" have brought of field of noetic science to almost mainstream discussion (remember that Radin's first book was reviewed in leading scientific journal Nature. For a criticism of that biased review, see Nobel Prize-winner physicist Brain Josephson's commentary in this link)

As an example of real-life noetic science research, see this brief talk by Dean Radin on mind-matter interface (a key topic in noetic sciences):



Let's to return to to Brown's book. On Solomon character (and showing that Brown is informed about some the lastest findings of actual neotic sciences), he writes: "Deep within this building, in the darkness of the most remote recesses, was a small scientific laboratory unlike any other in the world. The recent breakthroughs Katherine had made here in the field of Noetic Science had ramifications across every discipline—from physics, to history, to philosophy, to religion. Soon everything will change, she thought"

"Experiments at facilities like the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) in California and the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab (PEAR) had categorically proven that human thought, if properly focused, had the ability to affect and change physical mass. Their experiments were no “spoon-bending” parlor tricks, but rather highly controlled inquiries that all produced the same extraordinary result: our thoughts actually interacted with the physical world, whether or not we knew it, effecting change all the way down to the subatomic realm.

Mind over matter
."

For more information on real-life mind-matter interaction research, see this talk by the Society of Scientific Exploration:





Brown continues " In 2001, in the hours following the horrifying events of September 11, the field of Noetic Science made a quantum leap forward. Four scientists discovered that as the frightened world came together and focused in shared grief on this single tragedy, the outputs of thirty-seven different Random Event Generators around the world suddenly became significantly less random. Somehow, the oneness of this shared experience, the coalescing of millions of minds, had affected the randomizing function of these machines, organizing their outputs and bringing order from chaos.

The shocking discovery, it seemed, paralleled the ancient spiritual belief in a “cosmic consciousness”—a vast coalescing of human intention that was actually capable of interacting with physical matter. Recently, studies in mass meditation and prayer had produced similar results in Random Event Generators, fueling the claim that human consciousness, as Noetic author Lynne McTaggart described it, was a substance outside the confines of the body . . . a highly ordered energy capable of changing the physical world. Katherine had been fascinated by McTaggart’s book The Intention Experiment, and her global, Web-based study— theintentionexperiment.com—aimed at discovering how human intention could affect the world. A handful of other progressive texts had also piqued Katherine’s interest
."

For a commentary the Global Consciousness Project and the events of the 9/11, see Dean Radin's real noetic sciences book "Entangled Minds"(pp. 195-202), and these brief videos:





For a information on The Intention Experiment, watch this interview with Lynne McTaggart:



It's interesting to note that, even though Brown's book is "fictional", the character of scientist Katherine Solomon is based in actual, real-life noetic scientists like Dean Radin and others.

So, if you have interest in noetic sciences or are a fan of Brown's books, you'll enjoy his lastest one "The Lost Symbol":

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