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The Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) is a group that attempts to use scientific research to understand alleged paranormal phenomena such as telepathy, clairvoyance, psychokinesis and "mind-body health" such as the effects of meditation. "Noetic" is derived from the Greek "nous," meaning "intuitive ways of knowing."

Headquartered in Petaluma, California, IONS' membership rolls number about 35,000. The organization is situated on a 200-acre (80 hectare) campus housing an active retreat and learning center.

The Institute was founded in 1973 by Edgar Mitchell. Mitchell was part of the Apollo 14 mission. During the three-day journey back to Earth aboard Apollo 14, Mitchell had an epiphany while looking down on the earth from space. "The presence of divinity became almost palpable, and I knew that life in the universe was not just an accident based on random processes ... The knowledge came to me directly," Mitchell said of that experience. Following his spaceflight, Mitchell and others founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences.

Among the projects the Institute has sponsored are a bibliography on the physical and psychological effects of meditation, a spontaneous remission bibliography, and studies on the efficacy of compassionate intention on healing in AIDS patients. Current research and education is focused on "extended human capacities," "integral health and healing" and "emerging worldviews."

The Institute publishes a quarterly review called Shift: At the Frontiers of Consciousness.

Skepticism

In a November 2005 article that critiqued the New Age movement's detachment from the mainstream scientific community, Thomas W. Clark, founder of the Center for Naturalism, criticized members of the institute. Clark wrote: "parapsychologist Dean Radin of the Institute of Noetic Sciences ... what humanist philosopher Paul Kurtz calls the 'transcendental temptation' drives the flight from standard, peer-reviewed empiricism into the arms of a dualism that privileges the mental over the physical, the teleological over the non-purposive."

The skeptical organization Quackwatch includes the IONS on its list of websites it does not trust.

The CSICOP has also criticized work supported by the IONS.

References

1. Showalter, Bruce C. University of Virginia course "New Religious Movements." Retrieved October 30, 2006.
2. Institute of Noetic Sciences.
3. Institute of Noetic Sciences.
4. Institute of Noetic Sciences. "What the Bleep do we Know?!"
5. Institute of Noetic Sciences.
6. Clark, Thomas W. "The Specter of Brain Science — or — How the New Age Might Lose Consciousness" Center for Naturalism, November, 2005.
7. Stephen Barrett, M.D. "Questionable Organizations: An Overview". Quackwatch. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
8. http://www.csicop.org/si/2001-03/fringe-watcher.html
9. http://www.csicop.org/si/9909/fox.html

External links

• IONS official website
• IONS Shift in Action community & archive website
• Independent description of IONS. (University of Virginia course guide for "New Religious Movements.")

• Consciousness studies
• Unaccredited institutions of higher learning