Noetic Sciences, a term coined by the Institute’s Founder Dr. Edgar Mitchell, is a multidisciplinary field of study that brings objective scientific tools and techniques together with subjective inner-knowing to study the nature of reality. Over the last 20 years, the Institute of Noetic Sciences, or IONS, has become the world’s most foremost authority in the study of human consciousness.
As a scientist and visionary, Dr. Mitchell saw a need to reconcile his training as an engineer and astrophysicist with the wisdom of the ages to transcend the limitations of what he saw as an outdated materialist worldview. A new framework would be needed: one that could help explain the unexplainable—and spark transformation.
Despite humanity’s ever-expanding knowledge about our physical world, there remains a gap in our understanding when it comes to consciousness. How does it arise from a physical system? Is it limited to our brain? How do I explain my experiences, from aha! to awe, that I know to be true, yet don’t fit any current scientific explanation?
Have you ever had a hunch, intuition, or gut feeling that seemed to come out of nowhere? How about an insight on a project you’ve been hard at work on that suddenly comes to you in a dream? Or you’ve thought of a dear friend or loved one, and they instantly called or texted?
While it may be easy to chalk up these occurrences to mere coincidence, the greatest thinkers, scientists, philosophers, and artists report that such noetic experiences have been central to their process as well as their great works of art and scientific and cultural breakthroughs.
Today, The Institute of Noetic Sciences trains the lens of science onto noetic phenomena such as these to gain a deeper understanding of the interconnected nature of reality. How can we better access this place of inner knowing? What are the practices that enhance our experiences of transformation, innovation, and well-being? What can science reveal to enhance those practices? How does this positively transform our lives and create a better world for all?
Through intensive research and groundbreaking experimentation, IONs explores the interconnection between personal, inner space and the “outer space” of humanity’s shared reality.