Measuring Focused Intent – Part 1

Some of the most famous mind-over-matter experiments were conducted over a twelve year period at the PEAR labs. PEAR is an acronym for Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research. Their experiments centered on a person as the controller who was attempting to influence the behavior of a REG device, which is a Random Event Generator. Basically, a REG acts as the computer equivalent of a coin flipper. Statistically, a coin will land on heads half the time and tails the other half. Instead of heads or tails, a REG spits out 1s and 0s at random with the same statistical split as the coin. (An early REG device is shown to the left.)

The target of the experiment was to get the REG to spit out either more 1s or 0s in a consistent stream, indicating that the events were no longer random. Over the course of the study, scientists were able to acquire enough data to show conclusively that a person could influence a machine.

The Global Consciousness Project (GCP) uses field REG devices placed all over the globe. Some may know it as the EGG Project. Recently they’ve recorded spikes just before the great tsunami that wiped out Indonesia and just before the 9/11 events. Notice that the spikes occurred just prior to the event. (Modern field REG device made by Psyleron shown to the left.)

This means that the GCP brings to light two important aspects of consciousness studies. The first is that focused attention can influence a REG device, even if that is not that target or intention of the ones holding the thought, as it was in the PEAR experiments. The second is that the collective consciousness of humans is aware and reacting to a major event just prior to it actually manifesting in linear time.

There have been many such studies under strictly controlled conditions that all show, irrefutably, that focused attention can affect matter and that awareness can precede an actual event. However, none of these studies reflects the dramatic results of anecdotal evidence displayed with focused intent, especially when there is a sense of urgency or great need between two people who are closely bonded.

In the next installments of this series, we’ll look at the difference in focused attention and intent and why healing with intention experiments are so difficult to conduct.

The Sage Age - Blending Science with Intuitive Wisdom, was featured in Publishers Weekly shortly after its debut. Visit www.SageAge.net for more information and to read articles on many of the topics covered in the book.

PEARs, SQUIDs, and Consciousness – Part 2

In the first installment of this series we delved into one of the real Noetic Science experiments mentioned in The Lost Symbol involving mind-over-matter research using Random Event Generators and how that research evolved into the Global Consciousness Project.

In this installment, we’re going to have a look at the mysterious “Cube” Dan Brown created as the heart of Katherine’s lab.

A real “Cube” does exist. In fact, there are several around the world. They are specially shielded rooms that contain a device called a S.Q.U.I.D., which stands for Super-conducting Quantum Interface Device and is used for such diverse investigations from helping localize pathology in the brain to the measurement of energy being emitted from the hands of healers and Qigong masters.

A S.Q.U.I.D. is so sensitive that the room in which it is used must be heavily shielded from any stray electromagnetic (EM) energy. Basically, this means that no light can enter the room from the outside world. That is precisely why Brown’s character, Katherine, had to traverse a completely dark expanse between her lab and the door that lead to the outside world.

EM radiation comes in many forms including sunlight, lamp light, and any type of broadcast signal such as TV, radio, and cell phones. EM radiation is also present around electrical wires generating AC, which is why Katherine’s lab was powered by hydrogen fuel cells that delivered DC, or Direct Current.

Devices as sensitive as a S.Q.U.I.D. can measure very subtle energies that are giving researchers a way to quantify their existence and their ability to affect matter by conducting experiments that apply the rigors of scientific investigation. However, the data gathered from these experiments has also encouraged many pseudo-science practitioners to claim that we are finally able to measure consciousness, thought, and even finally prove the existence of the subtle energy bodies that surround and permeate the physical body.

Such an arranged marriage of physics and metaphysics is not new. When the EKG was developed to measure the electrical activity surrounding the heart and then refined into an EEG to measure the electrical activity around the brain, similar claims of measuring thought also occurred. In fact, some people, including a few scientists, claimed that these signals proved the existence of telepathy. History is simply repeating itself with the S.Q.U.I.D. And, history clearly shows that every advancement in technology also carries an advancement of the attempt to blend science with mysticism, esoteric knowledge, or intuitive wisdom. (Read more on the evolution of thought on light from both science and intuitives in the article Coming to Terms with Light.)

David Bohm, one of the founding fathers of quantum physics, clearly described why we will never be able to measure the subtle energies that reside in the invisible realm he called “the implicate order” that lies outside the manifested, or visible realm he called “the explicate order.” He also clearly described how these subtle energies guide matter and become the resulting data of the experiments we conduct in our search to measure consciousness. (For a little more background on Bohm’s ideas, read the article Dancing to the Same Score - The Particle/Wave Duality of Light.)

The fact that there is a threshold between the invisible and the visible realms has never deterred scientists and engineers from imagining ways to measure what was previously unknown. For instance, radio waves, which are a frequency of light, were always present in our atmosphere. At some point, several folks became convinced of this fact and began a life-long journey of building devices to not only measure them, but to also develop uses for them from a broadcast signal of communication to a way of studying the stars.

At some point, when we get beyond the novelty factor of it, a S.Q.U.I.D. may become as much a standard diagnostic tool as an EKG is today. However, I’m not so sure that any of us will get used to taking that long walk in the dark to get to it.

The Sage Age - Blending Science with Intuitive Wisdom, was featured in Publishers Weekly shortly after its debut. Visit www.SageAge.net for more information and to read articles on many of the topics covered in the book.

PEARs, SQUIDs, and Consciousness – Part 1

In The Lost Symbol, Dan Brown alludes to the research behind Noetic Sciences as having the ability to measure the effect of mind-over-matter. He mentions Random Event Generators and experiments being conducted in a specially shielded lab he calls “The Cube.”

Dan Brown is known as a master of so seamlessly blending fact into fiction that it becomes an invitation to the reader to sort one from the other. Following are a few of the facts of the real research that has been conducted over the last three decades showing irrefutable data that it is indeed possible for the mind, through focused intention, to cause a measurable affect on matter.

Privately-funded research has been carried out by several major universities in the U.S. including the PEAR project, which was an acronym for the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research program. Many of the experiments conducted by PEAR involved the measurable influence that a test subject could have upon a random event generator (REG). PEAR’s in-house lab tests were conducted over a 12-year period. During that time, they developed a variety of mind-to-machine interfaces which resulted in a mountain of statistical evidence showing that human intent did in fact affect the outcome of the machine’s performance. The deviations from truly random outcomes were small, but statistically significant.

By the 1990s, a field REG was developed by Roger Nelson that could be operated from a laptop PC. It was taken on field trips to measure the effects of group meetings, particularly those conducting rituals on sacred sites. These experiments registered a deviation six times higher than normal on the REG compared to trials in the lab at PEAR. The readings were also two times higher than field measurements taken at other gatherings.

The project officially began recording data in 1998 with 10 field REG units strategically placed around the globe. Interest and funding in the project grew and by 2004 over 60 units were in place globally.

Nelson described the deployment as resembling the configuration of electrodes as they were placed on the human head during an ElectroEncephaloGram, or EEG. Since these REG nodes were monitoring global events, Nelson dubbed it an ElectroGaiaGram, or EGG Project.

The Global Consciousness Project maintains a website where significant spikes in the data stream can be viewed. Of note are the spikes that occurred four hours prior to the 9/11/2004 attack in the U.S. and just before the Asian Tsunami came ashore on 12/26/2004. (Take note that these spikes happened prior to the events.)

In the second installment of this series, Dan Brown’s Cube will be discussed along with a special quantum measuring device called a S.Q.U.I.D. that requires a shielded room in which to operate.

The Sage Age - Blending Science with Intuitive Wisdom, was featured in Publishers Weekly shortly after its debut. Visit www.SageAge.net for more information and to read articles on many of the topics covered in the book.

The Research Behind The Lost Symbol – Part 3

In the first and second installments of this series, I mentioned the premise of The Lost Symbol and how Dan Brown built a bridge between science and ancient wisdom in just six pages. He also brought to bear the fact that there are multiple ways of knowing that are valid and promote the evolution of human thought.

Brown is known for his research. It gives him the ability to create credibility for his story. It’s exciting for readers because Brown issues an invitation for readers to do their own research and discover what’s fact and what’s fiction.

Research takes time and tenacity. Some folks have lamented that The Sage Age is too deep a read. I make no apologies for that. Education on deep topics does require some effort on the part of the student. It contains the same type of information that Dan Brown had to study in order to write The Lost Symbol.

The Sage Age is a four year education condensed into one inch of paper. Many folks think it’s over their heads until they read it. The book doesn’t assume you know anything about these topics and clearly elucidates them for you.

Following are some of the names of people, books, philosophies, and devices that Brown calls out in Chapter 15 and where they are located in The Sage Age. As you will see, the elements constantly cross over the bridge between physics and intuitive wisdom. Dan Brown used this same knowledge to create The Lost Symbol.

PEAR –
Chapter 4 The Mind Body Antenna, Chapter 11 Quantum Physics
REG –
Chapter 4 The Mind Body Antenna, Chapter 11 Quantum Physics
Lynne McTaggart –
Chapter 3 The Energy Bodies, Chapter 4 The Mind Body Antenna, Chapter 5 Metaphysics,
Chapter 11 Quantum Physics
Frozen water crystals –
Chapter 4 The Mind-Body Antenna, Chapter 12 Medicine
Heisenberg –
Chapter 6 Common Roots of Eastern and Western Thought, Chapter 7 Sound, Light, and Time,
Chapter 8 Physics, Chapter 11 Quantum Physics
Newton –
Chapter 5 Metaphysics, Chapter 6 Common Roots of Eastern and Western Thought,
Chapter 7 Sound, Light, and Time, Chapter 8 Physics, Chapter 9 The Nature of Waves,
Chapter 10 Cosmology, Chapter 11 Quantum Physics, Chapter 12 Medicine
Einstein –
Every chapter of the book
Bohr –
Chapter 3 The Energy Bodies, Chapter 6 Common Roots of Eastern and Western Thought,
Chapter 7 Sound Light, and Time, Chapter 11 Quantum Physics
Hawking –
Chapter 6 Sound, Light, and Time, Chapter 10 Cosmology, Chapter 11 Quantum Physics
Entanglement –
Chapter 11 Quantum Physics
Upanishads –
Chapter 3 The Energy Bodies
Schrodinger –
Chapter 4 The Mind-Body Antenna, Chapter 11 Quantum Physics
Superstring Theory –
Chapter 11 Quantum Physics

By reading The Sage Age, you will be able to sort fact from fiction in The Lost Symbol. And, it has a long list of cited references on each of these topics so you can go straight to the source for more reading.

The Sage Age - Blending Science with Intuitive Wisdom, was featured in Publishers Weekly shortly after its debut. Visit www.SageAge.net for more information and to read articles on many of the topics covered in the book.

The Research Behind The Lost Symbol – Part 2

In the first installment of this series, I mentioned the premise of The Lost Symbol and how Dan Brown built a bridge between science and ancient wisdom in just six pages. He also brought to bear the fact that there are multiple ways of knowing that are valid and promote the evolution of human thought.

Five years before the publication of the book, I began an intensive course of study and research to gain an educated state of clarity on the very concepts presented in The Lost Symbol. After three years of study at a pace to rival any graduate student, I finally had enough information to begin to connect the dots between what, on the surface, seemed to be far-flung fields of study. What I discovered was that they were actually the flipside of the same coin. That’s when I knew I had to publish my notes.

Research for The Sage Age coincided with my initiation as a shamanka (feminine for shaman). That rite of passage came after a decade and a half of preparation. Most folks think of shamans as healers. But, the basic definition of a shaman is one who journeys to other realms and anchors the information gathered into this realm for use. Edgar Cayce was a shaman in that sense. He didn’t actually heal anyone. He gathered information to properly diagnose and treat others, among other revelations he brought back from his journeys. That practice directly impacted my ability to sort through mountains of information and hone in on the connections between the rational and noetic sciences. It also gave me a way to gain an experiential knowing of the information that forever changed my life and altered its course in response to the education I received.

Also in that timeframe, I became a member of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), which helped me find even more resources for study.

In Part 3 of this series, I’ll reveal where to find more information on topics highlighted in The Lost Symbol.

The Sage Age - Blending Science with Intuitive Wisdom, was featured in Publishers Weekly shortly after its debut. Visit www.SageAge.net for more information and to read articles on many of the topics covered in the book.

The Noetic Scientist in The Lost Symbol

There are no coincidences.

Clinical research scientist, medical anthropologist, and author Marilyn Schlitz has worked at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) for fifteen years. Recently, she accepted the position of CEO. In just a few short months, it has become apparent that she is spearheading a shift in the organization to bring IONS into the mainstream of conversation. To the absolute delight of IONS members, Schlitz has become active on the various internal IONS blogs and, more importantly, she regularly posts on social media sites such as Twitter; radically broadening the scope of reach for IONS. (She tweets as @MarilynSchlitz) What’s even more impressive is that Schlitz uses this medium with a perfect balance of announcements and social networking. She doesn’t just talk at people. She informs and makes genuine connections. She’s taking IONS to people all over the country and the globe in a very personal way, and sharing the vast resources of research and educational programs produced by IONS that are so very relevant and helpful in our changing times.

A few weeks ago, Dan Brown released his latest novel, The Lost Symbol. Brown is noted for his incredible research that helps him seamlessly blend fact and fiction in his novel in such a way that it becomes not only an engaging story in which readers can relate, but it also becomes an invitation to the reader to begin their own personal investigation of the information he presents.

One of the entities that Brown features in The Lost Symbol is IONS, and the head researcher, Katherine, is a main character. She is on the cutting edge of blending the rational sciences with noetic sciences in a way that will forever change the world.

There is no doubt that Dan Brown laid a beautifully wrapped gift on the doorstep of IONS. The publicity a best seller brings to the organization is a great boon. Just one day after publication, The Lost Symbol brought IONS into mainstream conversation. The publication came less than a year after Marilyn Schlitz became CEO. The synchronistic timing of Schlitz and Brown leads one to believe that there is a wholistic quality to the movements and choices we make that serves the greater good of all. Fortunately for the rest of us, these two people chose to cooperate with that process.

IONS and Schlitz wasted no time in capitalizing on the gift Brown delivered to the organization. A 12-week teleseminar is available where Marilyn discusses the real noetic science behind The Lost Symbol. I’ve listened to the first session and must say that the more I hear from Marilyn Schlitz, the more impressed I am, and, as my friends will attest, I’m not easily impressed or swayed.

What my friends will also tell you is that I'm passionate about promoting whatever brings clarity and will help folks attain a wholistic view of our changing times. I believe the work of IONS at this moment in our evolution is critically important to that effort.

You can attend the next teleseminar in this series live on Wed. Oct 14 at 5:00 p.m. PST. The topic of science behind The Lost Symbol will be “Why Consciousness Matters.”

Schlitz has also recently been featured on National Public Radio’s program “All Things Considered.” You will find links to both audios on the Shift in Action site of IONS, which is loaded to overflowing with interviews from luminaries all over the globe in multiple fields of endeavor. I would strongly urge you to join IONS to enjoy the benefit of access to a rich library of resources and to hear this relevant series with Marilyn.

Of course, the audio from the NPR interview is freely available and is a great way to be introduced to Marilyn Schlitz and IONS.

The Research Behind The Lost Symbol – Part 1

I’m in the process of reading Dan Brown’s latest novel, The Lost Symbol, and was delighted to witness the bridge Brown built in Chapter 15. It details Katherine’s introductory education by her elder brother Richard into the tangled web of human thought from ancient to modern time.

Katherine, a scientist, is all at once stupefied and excited to learn that the esoteric teachings of ancient mystical texts mirror modern quantum and string theory with eerie precision. And, that is the underlying premise of the book. In just six pages Brown builds a believable case that ancient mystics cultivated a noetic understanding of deep mysteries that was lost over time and has finally been recovered by modern science. However, despite the intellectual fire power of today’s scientists, and the technological complexity of their measuring devices, they still don’t truly understand what they are dealing with. In Chapter 15, Brown positions Katherine’s character to be the one person on the planet to finally blend the breakthroughs of the rational, or analytical sciences, with powerful intuitive wisdom from the masters.

One of the aspects of Chapter 15 that excited me was to see the names of texts, mystics, philosophers, and scientist that Brown listed. All of them are covered in The Sage Age.

In Part 2 of this series, I’ll tell you what lead me to do the same research as Dan Brown. In Part 3, I’ll reveal where you can find information on the topics highlighted in The Lost Symbol.

The Sage Age - Blending Science with Intuitive Wisdom, was featured in Publishers Weekly shortly after its debut. Visit www.SageAge.net for more information and to read articles on many of the topics covered in the book.

Free Webinar with Dr. Amit Goswami

There’s a revolution going on in science and Dr. Goswami is leading the way. You may remember Amit Goswami from his appearance in the movie “What the Bleep Do We Know?” but that’s not what he is best known for in the physics world. Dr. Goswami is the man who wrote the textbook every university in the world still uses to teach the basics of quantum mechanics and every theoretical physicist in the world has studied his writings.

By his own admission, Dr. Goswami was a hardcore Material Realist, meaning that he was sure that matter was the primary element of all existence. Scientific Materialism is the metaphysical basis of post-modern science that has dominated the world through the second half of twentieth century and is dominating the scientific world even now. But he had a change of heart that deeply connected him in a new way to his childhood religion and suddenly he realized that consciousness was the basis of All That Is.

His new documentary released earlier this year, “The Quantum Activist”, has won multiple awards and received rave reviews. (I was lucky enough to be one of the first folks to review this film. Read it here.) In it he explains his pioneering role in the new paradigm of science called “science within consciousness”.

To bring this revolution in science to the people, Dr. Goswami has introduced a new course of study titled Quantum Activism, which is building a bridge between the rational sciences and the noetic sciences in a way that will help us all move forward together in a new direction.

I invite you to join me for a free webinar Dr. Goswami is presenting on Tuesday, Oct.
6 at 5:00pm PST! Information and links to the webinar can be found here. As he says, be there or be E=mc²!