Recently, the psychic community was all abuzz over the fact Dateline NBC was going to interview novelist (The Da Vinci Code) Dan Brown about his newest book, The Lost Symbol . The book introduces a complicated code, a labyrinth of clues, Astrology, and some historic half-truths about The Freemasons–all against the backdrop of Washington D.C.’s mystical architecture; but the psychics I know were all wondering what Dateline would say about The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS). IONS is a real-life, little-known but well-respected, facility conducting research on ESP and consciousness and its effects. IONS was founded by Apollo 14 astronaut, Edgar Mitchell.
Most psychics might have been disappointed with the Dateline story. Dateline said very little about psychic research - devoting just a few minutes near the end of the program to note some ongoing scientific studies on whether our minds can affect change (as described in The Lost Symbol ). Dateline reported that IONS won a grant from the U.S. government to study the effects of long-distance healing intentions. This is good news for IONS and for followers of senior psychic researcher Dean Radin, whose studies are done there. Dateline showed a few scenes of people being wired up (it looked like they were wearing electronic hair-nets). There were also a few sentences about Random Number Generators, and whether groups of people can consciously affect the expected odds. But Dateline’s visit was just a surface-scratch view of this remotely-located Institute (looking pretty much like Area 51 to me) in Petaluma, CA.
Anyone who has worked in the area of psychic phenomena and psychic testing knows about Dean Radin and his research on ESP. He is a serious scientist, but he is not without a witty perspective. One of the components of the IONS website is a series of games where you can test your ESP. Not only are the games pretty to look at, they can easily become all-consuming, as you race to heal a cartoon character, create fairies in a forest, find hidden treasure, and so on. In a very rudimentary way, these games test your abilities to "know" psychically and to use this psychic knowledge to score well. To me, these games are fun, but also a door opening to the public to help them understand, in a non-threatening way, the very basics of extra-sensory-perception and again, the powers of the mind over matter.
Several years ago, I participated in an extra-sensory-test of my abilities, on another site. It was by invitation from Dean Radin, which pleased me a great deal. I don’t believe the results of this world-wide test resulted in any meaningful research for Dr. Radin, but then you never know (or if you’re psychic, maybe you do).
Which brings me back to Dan Brown’s book, The Lost Symbol - a fun and challenging read, supposedly; it’s been a best-seller for some time now, and I hear strangers talking about it in the library and book stores. I appreciate Brown’s research, and I know he’s onto something with his mind over matter speculation (he says the true power of the mind scares him, especially if someone wanted to use his mind to do something powerfully bad). After I whet my appetite by watching The Dateline program, I bought the book. Many other people probably did too: good for Dateline, good for Dan Brown, and perhaps good for IONS, because many new people now know IONS exists. Perhaps this good news thread will also extend to the Discovery Channel, which will explore The Lost Symbol on Oct.25.
A final psychic note: The IONS - U.S. government-funded research–is not the first government-funded research on mind-power. For many years, back in the 1970’s - 90’s, the government also funded secret research (The Stargate Project) on remote viewing (long-distance seeing) and its applications to defense. This was controversial, and when The Administration changed office, funding ended abruptly in the 1990’s; the closely-held remote viewing group closed down. But there are some in the government, who, once again, with another change in Administration, seem ready to take up research on the powers of the mind.
A new movie, The Men Who Stare at Goats, starring George Clooney, is due out next month. The subject, again, is psychic research by the government. Compared to years past, we are suddenly "flooded" with material about psychics and their abilities.
It appears to me, as I indicated elsewhere, that the power of the mind to affect change (including the Placebo Effect) and ESP will appear more and more on our public radar. Today’s books and the movies are validating and exploring consciousness and ESP, and are just the beginning of a movement to create a new public perception that there is so much more to the mind than meets the eye.
10-19-09
