We have 5 senses: touch, taste, sight, smell and hearing. But are there more? The idea of a 6th sense has been touched on by popular culture, serious magazines and now mainstream TV on Discovery channel hosted by my favorite voice over guy (well, besides me) Morgan Freeman.
I see this as even more evidence that we are getting closer to what I call The Nous Age. Click below to watch:
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Part 4
I’ve been a fan of Dan Brown’s writing for many years. As someone who grew up on a healthy diet of movies and popcorn, I found his aggressively “cinematic” writing style attractive.
Ironically, in the summer of 2009 when I heard about his (then) forthcoming book, The Lost Symbol, I was on a family vacation to Washington D.C. If you’re familiar with the book you know that it takes place entirely in the U.S. capital. I can honestly say that I don’t think I had ever anticipated a book as much.
When it finally arrived in the familiar brown Amazon box I ripped it open and started in on it on the spot. I think I got through the 1.8 lb (hardcover version) in about a week and a half…was entertained, informed about some very interesting things but most importantly…I discovered the Institute of Noetic Sciences.
What is IONS
A quick Google search brought me to the IONS website and it instantly opened a door to a plethora of information. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t my first exporsure to the information, I had been reading and talking to my friends about the subject for years, but here was an organization who’s entire raison d’être is the study of consciousness…it’s scientific and spiritual implications!
Fast forward to this past week where I found myself sitting comfortably on an airplane, soaring at 36,000 ft. to San Francisco to take part in the 14th International IONS conference titled: Noetic 2.0 Tools and Technologies for a World Transforming
The Highlights
I arrived early for the pre-conference institutes. First up Dean Radin with Daryl Bem and Jonathan Schooler to talk about the evidence and implications of precognition. I’ve known about Dr. Radin’s research since What the (bleep), a movie which also introduced me to the quantum activist himself Amit Goswami, who’s book The Self Aware Universe explained what I had been instinctively feeling about the construct of the Universe for 20 years.
The second pre-conference was a one man show, Rupert Sheldrake on his concept of morphic resonance and the extended mind. I wish I could tell you every mind blowing thing he shared with us but 5 days later I’m still struggling to processing it. Needless to say I downloaded his book Morphic Resonance to my Kindle and am only taking a break from reading it to write this post. I’m anxiously looking forward to his book ‘The Science Problem’ which he says will be out this fall. (NOTE TO AMAZON: find a way to have an author sign the Kindle version of their books, thanks) :0)
One of the emotional highlights for me came on opening night when Dr. Edgar Mitchell the 6th man to walk on the moon and incidentally the founder of IONS got up to speak. The bravery to be able to break from the materialistic world view is hard enough…but that gets compounded when you are such a high profile personality.
Conclusion
I have met so many amazing people with whom I was able to discuss some of my own ideas and interpretations of consciousness sciences. Based on the people I met and seeing the work IONS continues to do we are in for an interesting future.
One Negative Experience
The only downside of the conference was the hotel’s elevators…they were too fast. On the first day I boarded an elevator and found myself alone, face-to-face with Dean Radin, 3.5 seconds was hardy enough time strike up any kind of meaningful conversation. I ended up blurting out something about Chett Snow… :0/
Learn more about IONS here
I‘m thrilled you’ve discovered my corner of the world wide web and I hope you decide to jump into the discussions below or at least subscribe in the top right corner. I don’t care if you disagree vehemently or agree with me whole heartedly (or are somewhere in between like most of my readers) I personally invite you to become a part of our discussion.
Why This Website
This website is a sketch pad for my ongoing research, which I plan to publish as a book tentatively titled The Door to The Nous Age. It’s where I am connecting the dots between cutting edge scientific research in quantum physics and psi, and religious traditions from around the world. It’s a place for me to pose theories and hypotheses on this building alignment of science and spirit and what it means to our modern “connected” world. It’s also a place for me to field criticisms and be inspired to move my research into new directions. And along the way, you’ll get a sneak peek into what you can expect from my book.
Full Disclosure
I am neither a scientist nor a theologian and I don’t pretend to be.
What I am is a journalist with an insatiable curiosity and desire for taking things apart to understand why they work and how they work. From a journalistic point of view I am documenting new scientific discoveries and attempting to coorelate them to what religions have been saying for thousands of years. And because I like Indiana Jones so much (who doesn’t), a bit of archeology to help us better understand the world dominant Abrahamic religions and what clues to our past they’ve been hiding in plain site all this time. Is it possible that we are only re-discovering what a civilization that predates known history already knew?
Objectivity
Some would ask what business I have talking about science when I’m not a scientist; or talking about religion when I am likewise not an expert. In two words: objective journalism. I think it’s precisely that I don’t have any so called professional truths to uphold that I am able to explore ideas unencumbered by either religious, scientific or archaeological dogma.
What I Believe
We are in the midst of some kind of paradigm shift, NOT a cataclysmic shift like many doomsday-ers are predicting but simply a change in the way we see ourselves as a society, as a species, as a planet. And this change in perspective that we are moving into is what I call The Nous Age…welcome!
The Nous Age 