In this novel, one of the real entities he uses is The Institute of Noetic Sciences IONS). And, one of the main characters, Katherine Solomon,  is the head researcher. Her real-life counterpart is Dr. Marilyn Schlitz.

If you haven’t read the book yet, you’ll find it to be a entertaining introduction to the very serious research being conducted all over the world on topics that were once taboo in scientific circles.

If you have read the book and you’re ready to go deeper, I invite you to visit the IONS website at www.Noetic.org. There you will find a wealth of information on their three main areas of research including consciousness and healing, worldview transformation, and extended human capacities. This is not the woo-woo stuff. It’s real science conducted by respected researchers and has real-world applications that are making real changes in people’s lives, as well as in ecology, economics, and community systems.

And, if you want to get a real handle on the blending of science with intuitive wisdom in one book, pick up a copy of The Sage Age. I have just a few on-hand from my last lecture tour, if you would like one personally autographed for yourself or someone you would like to gift.

Here’s a brief description of what you’ll get in the book.

• Harmonizing the full range of frontier science with current intuitive wisdom and practice.
• Demystifying science jargon and metaphysical buzzwords with easy to understand examples and illustrations.
• A seekers guide bringing new models for new thought.

In these changing times, it’s important to have clarity of where we are headed. I’m delighted that The Lost Symbol has highlighted such a vital organization like IONS where you can find a host of articles, blog posts, audio and video downloads, research papers, and other publications to help you make sense of it all. And, did I mention membership is free? Be sure to take note of their past and future Wednesday teleseminar series info too.  I’m usually on those calls. Maybe we’ll get to chat there too.

Here are a few other blog posts you may find interesting:

The Research Behind The Lost Symbol
The Noetic Scientist in The Lost Symbol

The data gathered in the PEAR, Global Consciousness Project (GPC), and other such studies has shown irrefutable proof that some phenomena is at work that cannot yet be accounted for by physics as it is currently understood. In other words, even with all of the experimental evidence based on quantum theory, we still have an incomplete understanding of reality, scientifically speaking.

These controlled studies often produce results that are only slightly above random. While that may not sound like much to a lay person, it gets the full attention of statisticians. Keep in mind that quantum physics is built entirely on the work of theoretical mathematicians such as Einstein. Statistics matter.

Both the PEAR and GPC data is based on the statistical deviation of a REG device as affected by an individual or group of “senders.” This model is significantly different from an experiment where two individuals are coupled to a common goal.

The bottom line is, a REG device does not care whether it spits out ones or zeros and the sender of the intent will not have their life turned upside down if the target is not reached. A mother with an endangered child both care about the outcome in a very intense way. When real need comes into play everything changes.

Countless books and videos are filled with stories of miraculous recoveries from danger and illness. In scientific terms, such incidents are considered anecdotal at best because there is no way to independently verify what single action brought about the final result.

Dramatic results like these are nearly impossible to reproduce in a lab. Consider this story. There is a car wreck and a bystander sees a baby trapped in one of the cars that is on fire. He rips through the tangled, bent metal as if it was plastic and retrieves the infant just before the car explodes. Even though he produced what seemed like super-human strength in that moment, he would be hard pressed to reproduce it under normal, or controlled conditions.

The sciences of physics and biology write off this scenario as the bystander’s physical reaction to his body being flooded with adrenaline. But, no such explanation exists for when a mother knows that her child has been harmed and needs “rescuing” only to find out later that the child was involved in the car wreck 100 miles away. And, there is no pardon for a one-time-only psychic event such as this in the mother’s life. The expectation is that she can reproduce this connection at will under controlled conditions.

The fact is, need, desire, and intent all play heavily into how our consciousness affects reality. These factors simply do not exist to the same heightened degree during lab experiments. So, in many ways, science is gathering data out of context. This is considered akin to “studying the cadaver.” In other words, biology only made so many gains by studying the anatomy of a cadaver. To advance, at some point they had to begin applying that knowledge to a living system.

The good news is that systems theory is gaining popularity among all branches of science. In ecology, for example, it was no longer enough to study just the animals and/or plants in a region. It became evident that studying how they interacted together was the only way to develop a real understanding of the whole.

With studying focused intent, it is also becoming evident that caring counts and new experiments must accommodate ways to include this fact. We are at a point where we are realizing that simply reading statistics from a baseball game without ever having seen a game is no longer a valid way to study what is happening. The emotional content of the game playing out is a significant factor in the whole endeavor.

The Sage Age – Blending Science with Intuitive Wisdom, was featured in Publishers Weekly shortly after its debut. Visit www.SageAge.net for more information and to read articles on many of the topics covered in the book.

What physics can’t accurately measure, physics can’t study with great precision. That is the limit of physics, but not the limit of reality. One of the most frustrating aspects of setting up experiments to show the effectiveness of energy healing is the ability to accurately assess and measure both the intent of the healer and the affect on the receiver.

The bottom line on this problem comes down to two types of questions, with variations depending on the experiment. Those basic questions are: 1) How do you measure a dose of prayer, and 2) Do you feel better after having received it?
Countless experiments have been conducted over the last forty years in an attempt to set up a controlled environment in which data can be gathered and analyzed to show whether or not energy healing has any real effect.

One of the aspects of a controlled experiment is to compare data between at least one test group that receives the healing that is being studied and a control group that only receives standard care. In all such studies, the statistical norm for the placebo, or power-of-belief effect is known to be established at 35%. This means that a study showing healing among the test group must first discount 35% of the positive results due to the placebo effect. The same 35% must be deducted from the control group. The odd thing about all of this is that to gather statistical data for analysis, a full one-third of those who had positive results in each group must be discounted. That begs the question about priorities. Is the point to heal, by whatever means, or to discount something known to heal? If the placebo effect statistically brings some favorable results, why not include it as standard treatment in addition to any other treatment delivered? After all, it has no ill side effects.

Another statistical bane for these studies is accurately measuring how much better someone feels after receiving treatment. In many cases this measurement is anecdotal, meaning that it is somewhat subjective in nature. If the patient was in pain, for example, they may be asked to assign a number to their pain level both before and after treatment. Considering that everyone’s pain threshold is different, there is no way to absolutely quantify the result stated.

One of the biggest hurdles faced in these types of studies also lies with the significant paradigm difference in allopathic and energetic healing models. In allopathic treatment, for example, a pill is given with the expectation of quickly relieving the physical symptoms and/or affecting remission of the underlying physical cause. Energetic healing primarily deals with the underlying cause, which may be rooted in the psychological or emotional state of the patient. The illness is considered a physical manifestation of an unbalanced energy state and not, in and of itself, the problem.

Energy healing often takes time to bring about a real cure. As most any energy healer can attest, instantaneous healing is atypical. In fact, the first few visits with an energy healer may only result in reframing the mindset of the patient to receive healing, take responsibility for their own health, and become willing to have the root cause surface. This is especially true if they are uneducated in energy work in general and are fully indoctrinated to allopathic expectations of something outside of them, be it a doctor or a drug, bringing about the relief of symptoms.

In effect, energy healing studies are being conducted on a model that does not suit the real conditions in play. In other words, they are comparing apples to oranges while maintaining that fruit is fruit and healing is healing.

In the last installment of this series, we’ll have a look at why controlled studies of energy healing and focused intent do not usually display the dramatic results found in everyday life.

The Sage Age – Blending Science with Intuitive Wisdom, was featured in Publishers Weekly shortly after its debut. Visit www.SageAge.net for more information and to read articles on many of the topics covered in the book.

The experiments at the PEAR lab began in 1979, but physicist and parapsychologist Helmut Schmidt had been using REG devices in consciousness studies since the 1960s. For the most part, all of these studies involved a strictly controlled environment where a person focused their intent on causing the REG device to deviate significantly from random. Many variations on this theme were run including having the person be miles away or focusing their intent long after the REG data had been run and sealed. Regardless of distance or time, the results were still the same. The “intender” had the same effect on the REG as if they had been sitting in the room with it while it was running.

The natural evolution of such studies became what is now the Global Consciousness Project (GCP), which monitors field REG devices all over the world. The data they have archived for the past decade clearly shows a significant shift from random in the REG devices just before a major event happens somewhere in the world.

There are important differences between the PEAR and GCP studies. In the PEAR experiments, the person attempting to affect the device used focused intention. There was a specific goal, or target, that they were trying to achieve. With the GCP study, there is no specific goal and the recorded events are in reaction to an event.

In other words, the PEAR study measured focused intent. The GCP measures focused attention. The PEAR study measured an individual’s intent. The GCP measures global consciousness.

The difference in these studies brings to bear an entirely new aspect to future experiments and helps scientists develop trials that distinguish what type of data they are gathering. This is especially important in studies on energetic healing.

In the next installment, we’ll look at healing studies and why the PEAR and GCP models are inadequate models to show the whole picture of what is transpiring.

The Sage Age – Blending Science with Intuitive Wisdom, was featured in Publishers Weekly shortly after its debut. Visit www.SageAge.net for more information and to read articles on many of the topics covered in the book.

The target of the experiment was to get the REG to spit out either more 1s or 0s in a consistent stream, indicating that the events were no longer random. Over the course of the study, scientists were able to acquire enough data to show conclusively that a person could influence a machine.

The Global Consciousness Project (GCP) uses field REG devices placed all over the globe. Some may know it as the EGG Project. Recently they’ve recorded spikes just before the great tsunami that wiped out Indonesia and just before the 9/11 events. Notice that the spikes occurred just prior to the event. (Modern field REG device made by Psyleron shown to the left.)

This means that the GCP brings to light two important aspects of consciousness studies. The first is that focused attention can influence a REG device, even if that is not that target or intention of the ones holding the thought, as it was in the PEAR experiments. The second is that the collective consciousness of humans is aware and reacting to a major event just prior to it actually manifesting in linear time.

There have been many such studies under strictly controlled conditions that all show, irrefutably, that focused attention can affect matter and that awareness can precede an actual event. However, none of these studies reflects the dramatic results of anecdotal evidence displayed with focused intent, especially when there is a sense of urgency or great need between two people who are closely bonded.

In the next installments of this series, we’ll look at the difference in focused attention and intent and why healing with intention experiments are so difficult to conduct.

The Sage Age – Blending Science with Intuitive Wisdom, was featured in Publishers Weekly shortly after its debut. Visit www.SageAge.net for more information and to read articles on many of the topics covered in the book.

Katherine, a scientist, is all at once stupefied and excited to learn that the esoteric teachings of ancient mystical texts mirror modern quantum and string theory with eerie precision. And, that is the underlying premise of the book. In just six pages Brown builds a believable case that ancient mystics cultivated a noetic understanding of deep mysteries that was lost over time and has finally been recovered by modern science. However, despite the intellectual fire power of today’s scientists, and the technological complexity of their measuring devices, they still don’t truly understand what they are dealing with. In Chapter 15, Brown positions Katherine’s character to be the one person on the planet to finally blend the breakthroughs of the rational, or analytical sciences, with powerful intuitive wisdom from the masters.

One of the aspects of Chapter 15 that excited me was to see the names of texts, mystics, philosophers, and scientist that Brown listed. All of them are covered in The Sage Age.

In Part 2 of this series, I’ll tell you what lead me to do the same research as Dan Brown. In Part 3, I’ll reveal where you can find information on the topics highlighted in The Lost Symbol.

The Sage Age – Blending Science with Intuitive Wisdom, was featured in Publishers Weekly shortly after its debut. Visit www.SageAge.net for more information and to read articles on many of the topics covered in the book.

Clinical research scientist, medical anthropologist, and author Marilyn Schlitz has worked at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) for fifteen years. Recently, she accepted the position of CEO. In just a few short months, it has become apparent that she is spearheading a shift in the organization to bring IONS into the mainstream of conversation. To the absolute delight of IONS members, Schlitz has become active on the various internal IONS blogs and, more importantly, she regularly posts on social media sites such as Twitter; radically broadening the scope of reach for IONS. (She tweets as @MarilynSchlitz) What’s even more impressive is that Schlitz uses this medium with a perfect balance of announcements and social networking. She doesn’t just talk at people. She informs and makes genuine connections. She’s taking IONS to people all over the country and the globe in a very personal way, and sharing the vast resources of research and educational programs produced by IONS that are so very relevant and helpful in our changing times.

A few weeks ago, Dan Brown released his latest novel, The Lost Symbol. Brown is noted for his incredible research that helps him seamlessly blend fact and fiction in his novel in such a way that it becomes not only an engaging story in which readers can relate, but it also becomes an invitation to the reader to begin their own personal investigation of the information he presents.

One of the entities that Brown features in The Lost Symbol is IONS, and the head researcher, Katherine, is a main character. She is on the cutting edge of blending the rational sciences with noetic sciences in a way that will forever change the world.

There is no doubt that Dan Brown laid a beautifully wrapped gift on the doorstep of IONS. The publicity a best seller brings to the organization is a great boon. Just one day after publication, The Lost Symbol brought IONS into mainstream conversation. The publication came less than a year after Marilyn Schlitz became CEO. The synchronistic timing of Schlitz and Brown leads one to believe that there is a wholistic quality to the movements and choices we make that serves the greater good of all. Fortunately for the rest of us, these two people chose to cooperate with that process.

IONS and Schlitz wasted no time in capitalizing on the gift Brown delivered to the organization. A 12-week teleseminar is available where Marilyn discusses the real noetic science behind The Lost Symbol. I’ve listened to the first session and must say that the more I hear from Marilyn Schlitz, the more impressed I am, and, as my friends will attest, I’m not easily impressed or swayed.

What my friends will also tell you is that I’m passionate about promoting whatever brings clarity and will help folks attain a wholistic view of our changing times. I believe the work of IONS at this moment in our evolution is critically important to that effort.

You can attend the next teleseminar in this series live on Wed. Oct 14 at 5:00 p.m. PST. The topic of science behind The Lost Symbol will be “Why Consciousness Matters.”

Schlitz has also recently been featured on National Public Radio’s program “All Things Considered.” You will find links to both audios on the Shift in Action site of IONS, which is loaded to overflowing with interviews from luminaries all over the globe in multiple fields of endeavor. I would strongly urge you to join IONS to enjoy the benefit of access to a rich library of resources and to hear this relevant series with Marilyn.

Of course, the audio from the NPR interview is freely available and is a great way to be introduced to Marilyn Schlitz and IONS.