Noetic Research
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Posted by Dean Radin, PhD on May 2, 2013
Show Me the Evidence
Critics are fond of saying that there is no scientific evidence for psi. They wave their fist in the air and shout, "Show me the evidence!" So I've created a SHOW ME page with downloadable articles on psi and psi-related topics, all published in peer-reviewed journals.
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Posted by Marilyn Schlitz, PhD on Jan. 12, 2013
Experimenter Effects and Replication in Psi Research
Two distinguished colleagues and I have received funding to conduct a new experiment to test the hypothesis that the expectancy of the experimenter will have an impact on the outcome of a psi task.
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Posted by Cassandra Vieten, PhD on Oct. 6, 2012
Burning Man Experiment—Data Analyzed!
Data analysis has just been completed on the experiment that IONS research scientists collaborated on at Burning Man just over a month ago. The report on the experiment is now available, and there are some significant results!
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Posted by Marilyn Schlitz, PhD on Sept. 5, 2012
Death Makes Life Possible – Project update
What happens when we die? And how does asking this question imbue our lives with greater health, happiness, and pro-social behaviors? Thanks to the support of over 550 of you, we have been able to dig deeply into these questions and more through the 'Death Makes Life Possible' project. Here’s what we’ve been up to.
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Posted by Marilyn Schlitz, PhD on May 8, 2012
Final Passages: Research on Near Death and the Experience of Dying
I just returned from an exciting conference held at the biotech company, Promega. The meeting was entitled "Final Passages: Research on Near Death & the Experience of Dying." This eleventh in a series of bioethics forums was held in Madison, WI, April 26–27, 2012, and focused on scientific research into social and ethical issues around dying and near-death experiences. A stellar lineup of global experts addressed a wide range of topics as well as the implications of current research for understanding consciousness.
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Posted by Heidi Fuller on Dec. 10, 2011
How Giving Improves Your Health and Heals a Wounded World
If the art of holiday giving is starting to feel a little more contrived this year, a little more commercial, then the science of giving has some news to bolster your holiday spirit...
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Posted by Kathleen Erickson-Freeman on Dec. 3, 2011
How the Noetic Sciences Contribute to “Conscious Aging”
IONS Director of Elder Education talks about IONS' new Conscious Aging program and some of the things that IONS is offering to help support the transformation that comes with aging. "My wish," she says, "is that more people could learn how all of these ideas, tools, and practices can help reduce the suffering that can accompany aging and ignite the potential for positive, passionate, and soulful aging."
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Posted by Heidi Fuller on Nov. 12, 2011
Goldilocks and the PK Experiment – a Q & A from IONS’ Parapsychology Lab
A conversation with IONS' Senior Scientist Dean Radin about some of the challenges he's encountered when trying to find a device that is "just right" to measure psycho-kinetic (PK) abilities in the research lab.
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Posted by Cassandra Vieten, PhD on Oct. 15, 2011
When Skeptics Face the Evidence
This last weekend found me in Washington, DC, at the Society for Experimental and Social Psychology Annual Conference (SESP). I was invited to discuss the controversy that was kicked up in the field of social psychology about the study of precognition.
Social psychologists (and other scientists) as a whole are extremely skeptical not only of the research on psi but of the very idea that psi can or should be studied by scientists. But this may be changing. The session I presented in was very well-attended, and I found that most people, while not exactly open-minded, were open-hearted, thoughtful, and willing to engage in respectful discussion about the topic.
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Posted by Heidi Fuller on Oct. 12, 2011
What’s the Matter with Miracles?
Some days I wake up and it hits me all over again. There’s a lot of science going on in the world, but how many people get to work at a place where a few very brainy and dedicated scientists are measuring the farthest reaches of the mind for clues to higher levels of the human experience?
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Posted by Cassandra Vieten, PhD on Oct. 1, 2011
Meditation Research: A Bridge between Worldviews…
Research on meditation is not off limits any longer. Scientists are learning from the spiritual traditions without contaminating the scientific method. Spiritual groups are seeking scientific evidence for the role of meditation to better understand their practice and deepen their faith. Health interventions are benefitting from centuries of scientific research as well as millennia of spiritual inquiry. This is something that we get really excited about at IONS. And meditation research paved the way.
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Posted by Marilyn Schlitz, PhD on Sept. 18, 2011
Assisting the Minds that Assist Change
The world is changing before our eyes. As we dip our toes into the 21st century, you and I are watching a full tidal shift in world order... Some may respond by denying the experience and others respond by opening up to further exploration.
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Posted by Cassandra Vieten, PhD on Aug. 29, 2011
Is there Evidence for Universal Consciousness?
In Dan Brown’s new book The Lost Symbol, the fictional character Katherine Solomon mentions “universal consciousness,” which is an ongoing topic of interest at the real-life Institute of Noetic Sciences.
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Posted by Lee Lipsenthal, MD on April 30, 2011
The Noetic Change Model — Living a Life of Meaning
We all have experience of a noetic nature: things we know to be true even without external “proof.” We often refer to these “knowings” as intuitions or synchronicities. Sometimes, for many of us, in workshops, retreats, or deep meditations, these events can be large and even shake us up… we can sit and practice, go deeper and ask ourselves, How does this noetic moment inform my life and my ability to serve others in a way that they wish to be served? How can I live it fully?
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Posted by Cassandra Vieten, PhD on Dec. 24, 2010
Responding to the Debate – Psi Research at a Tipping Point
I posted an article about Psi Research on my Huffington Post blog Friday morning and by Friday evening had nearly 1000 views and 250 comments. It’s been very interesting to read the comments on this article – now nearly 900 - and to see the great interest this topic generated. In this follow-up post I share my response to some of these comments.
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Posted by Cassandra Vieten, PhD on Dec. 15, 2010
It’s about Time – Psi Research at a Tipping Point
Why is the existing literature on psi phenomena routinely dismissed by the scientific community and virtually ignored within the broader academic community? I think it's fear that some of our most cherished beliefs, about how the world works and about who and what we are, may be wrong. Such examination may lead to radical revisions in understanding our human potentials.
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Posted by Dean Radin, PhD on Oct. 3, 2010
Of Mice, Men, and… Miracles?
Does hands-on "energy healing" really work or are outcomes attributed to such healing merely a matter of self-healing, as in the placebo effect? This is what sociologist (by day) and energy researcher (by night?) William Bengston set out to test, motivated by his own remarkable experience with an energy healer who cured his intractable back pain. Bengston got his evidence… and then some.
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Posted by Dean Radin, PhD on Sept. 9, 2010
The Psi Taboo in Action
I have lectured and written about the scientific taboo that prohibits scientists from openly studying psi. One way this prejudice manifests is by being invited to give a lecture at a scientific conference, and then finding yourself disinvited after someone on the conference committee discovers that the invitee has an interest in parapsychology.
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Posted by Dr. William Benda, MD on July 20, 2010
Thought Balloons
No one ever mentioned thoughts in medical school, or throughout my residency training. Come to think of it, the term was rarely mentioned during my years with the Fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. Mind, mindful, mind-body, yes. But no professorial lecture or class discussion on what actually constitutes our thoughts...
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Posted by Dean Radin, PhD on July 9, 2010
Wikipedia – ‘Reader Beware’ When it Comes to Psi Research
The Wikipedia entry on Masaru Emoto is a good example of why no one should trust an encyclopedia written by anonymous amateurs. I know it is possible, at least in principle, to edit Wikipedia pages to make corrections. But it is also possible for pranksters to change information on any page just for fun.
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Posted by Diane Hennacy Powell, MD on June 11, 2010
"Facts" and Their Interpretations
As a scientist and neuropsychiatrist, I agree with the late physicist Sir William Lawrence Bragg’s statement that, “The important thing in science is not so much to obtain new facts as to discover new ways of thinking about them.” One problem with research on anomalous phenomena such as out-of-body ...
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Posted by Cassandra Vieten, PhD on June 3, 2010
Restoring the Balance
When people ask me what I do for a living, I answer that I direct the research program at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. What follows are a range of responses. For some, a light of recognition is ignited in their eyes: “Oh, I love that place…cool!” For a few, there is the “Never-heard-of-it” glaze. And ...
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Posted by Dean Radin, PhD on May 31, 2010
Make Ignorance your Friend
Non-scientists may not realize that most of the time in scientific research – especially research at the edge of the known, where all the excitement is – we really don’t know what we’re doing. Those few things we think we do understand are taught in elementary college textbooks.
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Posted by Marilyn Schlitz, PhD on May 10, 2010
The Brain and Beyond
Scientists from across the world fill the meeting hall at the Bial Conference in Porto, Portugal. Movement toward scientific precision around mind and brain defines this exceptional gathering. Tables, graphs, data – all transport the participants toward deeper engagement with a sense of proof...
