Institute of Noetic Sciences

Now more than ever, humanity is facing vitally important questions that will directly affect our individual and collective realities. Our future demands that we explore our inner space with the same rigor and ingenuity as we explore our outer world. Our technology must increasingly be infused with the wisdom that comes from personal inquiry, and the lens of science must be applied to the further reaches of human potential. This, for the survival and thriving of humanity and our planet, is one of the most important endeavors of our time. The Institute of Noetic Sciences trains the lens of science onto noetic phenomena to gain a deeper understanding of the interconnected nature of reality.

Our Hypothesis: Everything is interconnected. By embodying an awareness of this interconnection, we can tap into information and energy not limited by space and time, and profoundly amplify transformation, innovation, and well-being.

We have been testing this hypothesis through various experiments and peer-reviewed papers for 45 years. We were pioneers of mindfulness research in the 1980s, and continue to expand the field on the scientific understanding of integrative and complementary health and wellness practices.

What we have learned over time is that science can reveal a deeper understanding of our seemingly coincidental, subjective experiences. Through iterative research that builds on past findings, we are able to illuminate the mechanisms of what is essentially ineffable, in a way that can make these experiences of awe, creativity, intuition, healing, and more regularly accessible and applicable. Today, our research explores the boundaries of our current knowledge through two cornerstone programs: the IONS Discovery Lab and IONS X.

Our Scientists and Fellows
Each one of our scientists and fellows are experts in their domains including physics, molecular biology, computer science and engineering, neuroscience, psychophysiology, and clinical research. As a group, we have published over 300 peer-reviewed papers read by hundreds of thousands of people and have presented our research findings at hundreds of conferences internationally.

IONS DISCOVERY LAB
Here at our EarthRise campus, and online around the world, the IONS Discovery Lab is creating what will become the world’s largest dataset ever on the effects of transformative practices. Like the Framingham Heart Study which revealed the intricacies of heart disease, or the Human Genome Project, which taught us the fundamental building blocks of our DNA, this research project seeks to unlock a deeper sense of what it means to be human and how we can integrate our interconnection to make the world a better place.

Through the IONS Discovery Lab we will deepen our understanding of how transformative experiences and practices – from leadership development to yoga and meditation to distant healing practices and more – have the capacity to influence one’s sense of interconnectedness, to expand our human capacities, to lead to more compassion and innovation, and ultimately to infuse these skills in personal and professional settings.

IONS X
Our “moonshot” — a multidisciplinary effort to reliably and robustly demonstrate the mind’s influence on a physical system. The first several decades of our research led the way in innovating research protocols to establish small but highly statistically significant ways that attention and intention appear to impact physical systems, even at a distance. Now, we are investigating potential mechanisms by which that can happen, and under what conditions we can boost those effects, with the eventual goal of using the power of our consciousness to improve health and healing, technology, businesses, and our everyday lives.

After decades of research, we know that our consciousness matters. What we think, believe, intend and pay attention to makes a difference, in our own bodies, in our relationships to others and our environment, and increasing evidence suggests, directly in the physical world. Like electricity once was, we think human awareness could be an invisible but powerful untapped resource for shaping our lives, and our collective future. This premise challenges science to improve its methods, champion academic freedom, and move beyond a purely reductionist, materialist stance.

Through our scientific research and discovery in mind/body medicine, we have helped improve healthcare in the U.S. and around the world. Our scientists have published over 40 peer-reviewed papers in the last 3 years. We have disseminated our educational programs to schools, universities, and elder communities. IONS scientists have presented at dozens of conferences around the globe. Next we plan to advance the frontier edge of consciousness research by launching the IONS Discovery Lab (IDL), conducting scientific research on non-local consciousness in order to advance the field of noetic sciences. We plan to expand our experiential education programs and re-imagine IONS "community group" model as a vital network to infuse noetics into daily life throughout the country and the world.