The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown's popular novel from last year, includes the noetic sciences. When I present myself as the director of research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which is referenced multiple times throughout the book, the answer is always the same: "That's great...what is noetic science?"
Here are some examples of definitions:
- no•et•ic is derived from the Greek nosis/ notikos, which means inner wisdom, direct knowledge, or subjective insight. Noetic is a term used by the philosopher William James in 1902 "states of insight into truths that the discursive mind has yet to explore. They're revelations, illuminations, full of meaning and importance, even though they're all inarticulate, and they usually come with a strange sense of authority..."
- Science is a branch of knowledge acquisition that uses observation, experimentation, and replication to explain and describe natural events.
- no•et•ic sci•ence: A interdisciplinary field that studies the whole spectrum of human experience by combining objective scientific instruments and methodologies with subjective inner knowledge. To put it another way, we may learn about the world around us in a variety of ways.
Science is based on objective judgment, measurement, and experimentation and is based on external observation. As we interpret what we see, this is helpful in boosting objectivity and lowering prejudice and inaccuracy. Subjective — or internal — knowledge includes gut feelings, intuition, hunches — for example, how you know you love your children — and experiences that cannot be described or verified but seem totally true regardless. This type of knowing is referred to as noetic.
All subjective — noetic — experience emerges from physical matter, and consciousness is just a result of brain and body activities, according to a purely materialist, mechanistic worldview. The noetic sciences are concerned with applying scientific methods to the study of subjective experience and the ways in which awareness might affect the physical environment.
The term "consciousness" has been defined in a variety of ways. At its most basic level, consciousness is just awareness – how humans perceive, interpret, and direct their attention and intention toward their surroundings. The way a group (an institution, a community, or a species) observes, attends to, and makes sense of the world is referred to as collective consciousness. According to some definitions, consciousness encompasses all we observe and experience, even at the subconscious level. Consciousness has been described as a "milieu of potential" in its broadest, most universal meaning, the common ground of being from which all sensations and events emerge and return. The fundamental postulate of the noetic sciences is that awareness is important. When, how, and why does it matter are the questions.
What is the Institute of Noetic Science, and what does it do?
The Institute of Noetic Sciences has been investigating the major issues since its foundation in 1973: Who are we? What are our potentials, and how do we go about realizing them? What causes personal and societal transformation and healing?
Our work is based on the belief that limitations in human consciousness and our understanding of it are at the root of many of the most pressing issues confronting us as a global society (violence, inequity, and resource mismanagement), and that gaining a better understanding of the nature of consciousness will reduce suffering and improve the quality of life for all.
"Advance the science of consciousness and human experience to assist individual and collective transformation," says our mission statement. As a result, we concentrate our study on the underlying nature of consciousness, its connection with the physical universe, and how the human experience of consciousness may fundamentally change.
We conduct basic science and laboratory research on interconnectedness and mind-matter interactions, social science investigations of transformational experiences and practices and their impact on individual and collective wellness, and clinical and applied studies evaluating the effectiveness of consciousness-based interventions in real-world settings. We also advance consciousness research by training young scientists through our internship program, stimulating innovative new work through our awards and small grant programs, and facilitating strategic collaborations and invitational meetings among scientists to speed the development of new, cross-disciplinary studies
We compile summaries of bodies of knowledge, such as the science of meditation or the function of awareness in healing, spread them, and utilize what we've learned to choose future steps. We then publish our findings in peer-reviewed scientific publications and scholarly gatherings, as well as in the broader public, and adapt them into educational goods and curricula for specific audiences.
"Universal awareness isn't some airy New Age concept; it's a serious scientific fact, and harnessing it has the ability to revolutionize our planet," states Dr. Katherine Solomon, a fictitious character in The Lost Symbol. "I promise...if we as humans can comprehend this one basic reality, the world will change overnight," she says. While proof of a universal consciousness may not yet be a "hardcore scientific reality," a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that consciousness does matter in a variety of settings and in many different ways, and that subjective experiences of interconnectedness may have some ontological reality.
Noetic experiences are real; they have an impact on our health, actions, and lives, and they may reveal a lot about who we are and what we're capable of. As a result, real-life noetic scientists are committed to their thorough investigation and the implications for human evolution.