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:
Part 2
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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!
YOU’LL RECOGNIZE some of these classic interview and documentary clips. I love the way they’ve put them together and have strengthened the message. Enjoy and then vist the Symphony of Science website…
New evidence supports the idea that we live in an area of the universe that is “just right” for our existence. The controversial finding comes from an observation that one of the constants of nature appears to be different in different parts of the cosmos.
If correct, this result stands against Einstein’s equivalence principle, which states that the laws of physics are the same everywhere. “This finding was a real surprise to everyone,” says John Webb of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Webb is lead author on the new paper, which has been submitted to Physical Review Letters.
Even more surprising is the fact that… (read more)
There’s a Buddhist saying that describes religion as being like a raft, once you’ve crossed the river you don’t carry that raft on your back to your destiniation, do you? After you’ve made it to the opposite shore leave your raft there and continue on foot without the oppressive weight of your raft (or religion) on your back.
Likewise there is another Buddhist saying that insists that if religion were a raft don’t stay on it too long or you will get washed out to sea where you will be forced to stay and deal with the consequences.
Religion A Good Start
I’ve always said that religion is an excellent starting point for a spiritual life…sort of like ‘Spirituality 101’. But after that you’re on your own, you need to make your own way.
Most of the problems on Earth are caused by people who are trying to carry their raft…or who have stayed on their raft too long.
Your Path to Enlightenment
There are 6 1/2 billion people on the planet and there are 6 1/2 billion paths to enlightenment. We are creative souls…get creative…ask questions!
Don’t carry your religion like a raft, don’t stay on your raft too long and mostly importantly, don’t follow me….make your own path.
FIRST OFF let me clarify, it’s not just what’s wrong with WordPress but all blogs and forums…in fact any website whose raison d’être is to be a hub of information sharing and dialogue.
I’m a broadcaster by trade, I’ve been communicating ideas for over 20 years. Likewise, I’m not new at this, I’ve been blogging on different subjects for years, this blog The Nous Age (pronounced ‘New’ Age), is my latest effort and the culmination of much research and thought.
The Beginning
When I discovered blogging in 2004 I was drawn to it’s touted ability to bring people together for dialogue about a given subject and at first it seemed so. But the more I look at it today I realize that it has done the opposite, it has polarized people about ideas. Where I have gone looking for open dialogue I have been threatened with deletion.
Rather than helping people become more informed about topics that they never would have been exposed to had blogging not existed, it has simply brought together people of like minds and solidified their ideas no matter how arcane they seem.
What I’ve Learned From Blogging
My subject is spirituality. I went from being a devout “church every Sunday” Christian to a free thinking spiritualist that has now discovered deeper meaning through profound dialogue with various people from around the globe that I encountered over the years. I have come to conclusions about religion and spirit which I am now sharing through this blog. (The New Age, Destination 2012, The Universe Is Conscious)
Not to say my philosophy is set-in-stone, it’s not. I am open to other ideas which is part of what I’m calling The Nous Age Principle. A year from now perhaps I won’t agree with 5% of what I believe today and that’s ok, because that’s what open and honest dialogue does, right?
The Challenge
Today I give you a challenge, visit another blog and leave a comment for someone who you don’t agree with. I don’t mean to instigate a literary food fight…I mean to instigate a dialogue, even if the outcome is only to agree that you disagree. You never know how many seeds you’ll plant through that one gesture. Get out of your comfort zone…
This is The Nous Age, it’s here if you want it!
We are evolving. We may not see it in the short term but we are continuously moving forward.
Contrary to popular thought, our evolution is not the evolution of the one, it is the evolution of the collective. Science has shown us that before there were multicellular organisms on this planet there were only single cells. For millions and millions of years there were just single cells living out their single cell ‘lives’. Sadly, awareness for these single little cells was what came in contact with the surface of their membrane. A great evolutionary step came when the cells recognized that they could increase there survival rate by gaining more awareness.
Increasing Awareness
There are 2 ways for a cell to gain more membrane (awareness), (1) grow bigger, which has it limitations because a cell can only get so big, or (2) cells could come together and share membrane.
How Your Body Works
In reality, your body is a busy collection of amoebas working together, sharing jobs and information all to ensure your survival. Now, think of yourself as a cell in a greater collective brought together to share awareness. Every person on this planet is a cell in this collective, contributing their own membrane creating a synergy of awareness. All of this to create one living organism that we could call the human race. When we can come together to recognize what’s happening and begin to work in a coherent fashion we will have stepped up to the next level of evolution.
Where Are We Going?
Another of my great teachers, Bruce Lipton talks about this. He says that the cell of the human is essentially the same as the cell of the amoeba…the human form is a reiteration of the single cell and as such is a fractal. When our collective is complete, the Earth as an organism will likewise have completed it’s evolution. The Earth is a living, breathing, pulsing entity. Just like when the cell was complete, it connected with other cells, now that the human is complete it is hooking up with other humans (think of technologies like the internet). In the future as the Earth is complete as a living organism, will it likewise hook up with other organisms of the same nature? Will Earth become a part of a galactic community? Only time will tell.
We are indeed living in interesting times, sitting on the verge of going from the ‘me’ to the ‘we’ way of thinking and being. Welcome to The ‘Nous’ Age!
The Nous Age 