The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) was co-founded in 1973 by former astronaut Edgar Mitchell and industrialist Paul N. Temple[1][2] to encourage and conduct research on human potentials.[3] Institute programs include "extended human capacities," "integral health and healing," and "emerging worldviews."
This research includes topics such as spontaneous remission, meditation, consciousness, alternative healing practices, spirituality, human potential, psychic abilities and survival of consciousness after bodily death, among others.[4]
Headquartered in Petaluma, California, the organization is situated on a 200-acre (80 hectare) campus which houses offices, a research laboratory, and a retreat center (originally the campus of World College West).[5] The institute does not grant educational degrees.
History
Edgar Mitchell, co-founder of the institute
The institute was co-founded in 1973 by Edgar Mitchell, an astronaut who was part of the Apollo 14 mission, wealthy industrialist Paul N. Temple and some others.[6] During the three-day journey back to Earth aboard Apollo 14, Mitchell had an epiphany while looking down on the earth from space. "The presence of divinity became almost palpable, and I knew that life in the universe was not just an accident based on random processes ... The knowledge came to me directly," Mitchell said of that experience. Following his spaceflight, Mitchell and others founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences.[7] Willis Harman served as its president from 1975 until his death in 1997.[8][9][10]
The word noetic is derived from the Greek nous, for which, according to the institute's website,
there is no exact equivalent in English. It refers to "inner knowing," a kind of intuitive consciousness—direct and immediate access to knowledge beyond what is available to our normal senses and the power of reason.[11]
Research
Projects sponsored by the institute include a bibliography on the physical and psychological effects of meditation, a spontaneous remission bibliography, and studies on the efficacy of compassionate intention on healing in AIDS patients.[12] The institute has also conducted a number of parapsychological studies into extra-sensory perception, lucid dreaming, and presentiment.[13]
The institute conducts research programs in three principal areas:[4]
|
Extended human capacities
- Creativity
- Meditation
- Psi studies
- Wisdom capacities
- Subtle energies
- States of consciousness
- Death, dying, and beyond
|
Integral health and healing
- Biofields
- Distant healing
- Global medicine
- Integral medicine
- Mind body medicine
- Extended survival
- Placebo expectancy effects
|
Emerging world views
- Integral intelligence
- Science of wisdom
- Gaia theory
- Transformative practices
- Cultivating spiritual awareness
- East/West/indigenous practices
|
Publications
The institute publishes a quarterly magazine, Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness.[14]
In February 2007, IONS announced a co-publishing agreement with New Harbinger Publications. Noetic Books [15] and New Harbinger partnered to publish books that incorporate science and focus on global issues, consciousness, spiritual and psychological wellness. Authors include Edmund Bourne, Charles Tart, and Marilyn Schlitz.
Adverse criticism
Thomas W. Clark of the Center for Naturalism has stated that:
There are any number of promoters of paranormal and occult phenomena willing to supply such transcendence, for instance renegade biologist Rupert Sheldrake and parapsychologist Dean Radin of the Institute of Noetic Sciences. The lure of what humanist philosopher Paul Kurtz calls the transcendental temptation drives the flight from standard, peer-reviewed empiricism into the arms of a dualism that privileges the mental over the physical, the teleological over the non-purposive.[16]
Stephen Barrett, organizer of the nonprofit organization Quackwatch, whose website describes itself as a "Guide to Quackery, Health Fraud, and Intelligent Decisions," has stated that he views the Institute of Noetic Sciences "with considerable distrust."[17]
References
- ^ Paul N. Temple at the Institute of Noetic Sciences
- ^ Paul N. Temple biography at BioGenesis
- ^ Institute of Noetic Sciences. About: History of the Institute of Noetic Sciences
- ^ a b Institute of Noetic Sciences. Research: Programs from the Institute of Noetic Sciences
- ^ Institute of Noetic Sciences. About the Institute of Noetic Science
- ^ Mitchell, Edgar, The Way of the Explorer, GP Putnam's Sons, 1996. "I wish to thank those who had faith in an idea that led to the founding of the Institute of Noetic Sciences: Henry Rolfs (deceased) and Zoe Rolfs, Richard Davis, Judith Skutch Whitson, Paul Temple, Phillip Lukin (deceased), and John White. And to those who came a bit later to carry the idea further: Osmond Crosby, Brendan O'Regan (deceased), Diane Brown Temple, and Willis Harman."
- ^ Institute of Noetic Sciences. "What the Bleep do we Know?!"
- ^ The new business of business: sharing responsibility for a positive global
- ^ Willis Harman, 1918-1997
- ^ Weaving possibilities for a New Era
- ^ Ions — About: What is "noetic"?
- ^ Institute of Noetic Sciences. Research & Education Projects at the Institute of Noetic Sciences
- ^ Institute of Noetic Sciences. Research & Education Projects at the Institute of Noetic Sciences
- ^ http://www.noetic.org/publications/magazine.cfm
- ^ Noetic Books web page
- ^ Clark, Thomas W. "The Specter of Brain Science — or — How the New Age Might Lose Consciousness" Center for Naturalism, November, 2005
- ^ Stephen Barrett, M.D. "Questionable Organizations: An Overview". Quackwatch. http://www.quackwatch.org/04ConsumerEducation/nonrecorg.html. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
See also
External links
Coordinates: 38°10′31″N 122°36′20″W / 38.1753°N 122.6055°W / 38.1753; -122.6055
