Listen to this National Public Radio interview with IONS President Marilyn Mandala Schlitz about the surprise of discovering that best-selling novelist Dan Brown's latest book features a female protagonist who is a noetic scientist!

WOMAN READS DAN BROWN NOVEL, DISCOVERS HERSELF

National Public Radio, All Things Considered,
by Barbara Bradley Hagerty
October 12, 2009
[Excerpt] Dan Brown's latest blockbuster, The Lost Symbol, is jam-packed with surprising twists and turns — especially for Marilyn Schlitz.

"Waking up one morning to find yourself a fictional character in a best-selling novel has taken a little adjusting to," she says, laughing.

The day before The Lost Symbol arrived in bookstores, Schlitz began to notice some unusual traffic on Twitter. Rumor had it that the heroine in the book was a woman at the Institute of Noetic Sciences — a real institute in California that conducts research on things like consciousness and healing .
web link

Listen to this National Public Radio interview with Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, Ph.D. and Dean Radin, Ph.D. as they discuss the science of prayer and healing and IONS' Research Project, The Love Study.

THE SCIENCE OF SPIRITUALITY: CAN POSITIVE THOUGHTS HELP HEAL ANOTHER PERSON?

National Public Radio, All Things Considered,
by Barbara Bradley Hagerty
May 21, 2009
[Excerpt] Ninety percent of Americans say they pray — for their health, or their love life or their final exams. But does prayer do any good? For decades, scientists have tried to test the power of prayer and positive thinking, with mixed results. Now some scientists are fording new — and controversial — territory.
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This article is based on a newly released study that was written and analyzed by sociologists from Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion, in Waco, Texas. This is their second national study on religion; see below for links to Sept. 2006 stories about the initial study.

TOUCHED BY AN ANGEL? MOST SAY THEY'VE BEEN PROTECTED

USA Today, by Cathy Lynn Grossman
September 18, 2008
[Excerpt] A new survey of the USA's religious beliefs and practices finds 55% of all adults — including one in five of those who say they have no religion — believe they have been protected from harm by a guardian angel.
Full Story
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EDGAR MITCHELL USHERS IN THE NEXT EPOCH
IN EVOLUTION

American Chronicle, by Diana deRegnier
May 19, 2008
Reporter Diana deRegnier talks with Apollo 14 astronaut and IONS Founder, Edgar Mitchell, about the 2008 revised edition of his 1996 book, "The Way of the Explorer." The interview covers details from Mitchell's life story, the dyadic model – a proposed model of reality in language for the scientifically-challenged – and Mitchell's spirituality.
Full Story
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GOOD VIBRATIONS:
Can chocolate infused with positive intentions actually improve your life?

American Way, by Chris Warren
May 1, 2008
Jim Walsh launched a new company last year, called Intentional Chocolate, which boasts of having "good intentions" as one of the main ingredients in its sweets. The company claims that its chocolate can actually improve the mood, well-being and energy level of those who eat it. "It is the idea that you are literally changing it, that the intention changes it," says Dean Radin, a colleague of Walsh's and a senior scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences. "The thing itself, whether it's a communion wafer or holy water or whatever it happens to be, carries something that you ingest, and it becomes part of you."
Full Story
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HOPE FOR THE BLUE PLANET:
A Conversation with Edgar Mitchell, Ph.D.

Vision Magazine, by Sydney L. Murray
April, 2008
[Excerpt] Edgar Mitchell is a hero to me. He epitomizes the kind of person who is setting the standard for all of us who believe we have something to offer the world. ... I asked him, what is the one thing that we could all do to change the world? Mitchell replied, “Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me. To change the world we must first change ourselves.” Mitchell is the founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which in my opinion, is one of the premier organizations for the study of human consciousness.
Full Story
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FIRST-HAND HISTORY ON LUNAR LANDING

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat, by Paul Payne,
March 7, 2008

Astronaut and IONS founder Edgar Mitchell took schoolchildren in Petaluma to the moon Thursday -- one of the few men able to do it.

Mitchell spent nine hours walking the lunar surface on Feb. 9, 1971, as part of the Apollo 14 crew. He shared that experience in a visit to McNear Elementary, answering the all-important question: What's it like?
Full Story
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DO YOU BELIEVE?

The Oprah Winfrey Show
February 15, 2007
IONS' Senior Scientist Dean Radin spoke briefly about what science has to offer on the "sixth sense" on this program, which featured well-known psychic mediums John Edwards and Allison DuBois and explored the question of whether it is really possible to communicate with the dead.
web link (click the "Do You Believe" link for more)

These two 'USA Today' articles are based on a study that was written and analyzed by sociologists from Baylor University's Institute for Studies of Religion, in Waco, Texas, and conducted by Gallup.

PARANORMAL BELIEFS, FROM PROPHETIC DREAMS TO ATLANTIS
USA Today
September 12, 2006
[Excerpt] Millions of Americans, particularly women, share paranormal beliefs and experiences "that don't fit under any religious umbrella," says Christopher Bader, one of the Baylor University sociologists analyzing the Baylor Religion Survey.

VIEW OF GOD CAN PREDICT VALUES, POLITICS
USA Today, by Cathy Lynn Grossman
Updated September 12, 2006
[Excerpt ] The United States calls itself one nation under God, but Americans don't all have the same image of the Almighty in mind.
A new survey of religion in the USA finds four very different images of God — from a wrathful deity thundering at sinful humanity to a distant power uninvolved in mankind's affairs.
Full Story (both articles)
web link (paranormal beliefs)
web link (view of god)

THE INSTITUTE OF NOETIC SCIENCES

Petaluma Magazine, by Karen V. Hess
May/June 2006
[Excerpt] Have you ever felt someone's gaze? Have you ever thought about your friend, the phone rings, and it's her? Have you ever felt frustrated, then meditated adn felt more centered, even though the outer circumstances haven't changed? If you have experienced any of the above, then you have experienced the presence of universal consciousness and interconnectivity.
Full Story
web link (from link, go to pg. 34)

INTERVIEW WITH DEAN RADIN

The Bleeping Herald, by Cate Montana,
April / May 2006
[Excerpt] WTB - For those fuzzy on quantum entanglement, could you give a brief overview of the relationship that you've written about in your new book Entangled Minds, between quantum entanglement and psi effects?
Radin - Entanglement was predicted by the mathematics of quantum theory. Quantum theory considers matter not only in particulate form, but also as waves of probability. The interesting thing about a wave is that it can combine and interfere with other waves.
Full Story
web link (part 1)
web link (part 2)

SPECIAL REPORT: The Science of Connecting Mind Over Matter

NBC11 News, by Garvin Thomas and Dean Smith
March 22, 2006 and August 11, 2006 (ran twice)
[TV Intro] A series of tiny computers are generating random numbers around the world. As Garvin Thomas reports, what they started doing in the hours before the 9-11 attacks may change your view of reality.
web link (to watch the video featuring Dean Radin)

RESTORING CONNECTIONS: Local institute's leader advocates power of linking mind, body, spirit

The Marin Independent Journal, by Keri Brenner,
February 20, 2006
[Excerpt] Dr. Phil has never met Marilyn Schlitz. But if you listen to Dr. Phil (as we do — only occasionally, of course), his themes might have grown from seeds planted at the sprawling, lush 200-acre Institute of Noetic Sciences near the Marin-Sonoma county line, where Schlitz presides as vice president for research and education.
Full Story
PDF download (1.8 MB)

SCREENING ROOM: What the Bleep...

Marin Independent Journal review featuring a NYTimes article by Coeli Carr, January 29, 2006
[Excerpt] "What the Bleep Do We Know!?," - a quirky cinematic look at the intersection of science and spirituality - spawned worldwide study groups, a cottage "Bleep" industry and a coterie of fans who have been clamoring for a sequel since the film's release two years ago.
Full Story
PDF download (1.6 MB)

IONS STUDIES 'FRONTIERS OF CONSCIOUSNESS'

LJWorld.com, by Sam Knowlton
September 18, 2005
[Excerpt] It might be surprising that an organization seriously dedicated to the scientific study of phenomena such as spirit, transcendence and enlightenment thrives internationally, with nearly 30,000 members in over 50 countries.

Founded by lunar astronaut Edgar Mitchell in 1973, the Institute of Noetic Sciences explores “frontiers of consciousness,” attempting to establish new ways of thinking and shifting global worldviews. But this is no ethereal new age group. The immediate faculty of IONS boasts dozens of doctoral and medical degrees.
Full Story
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FINDING MY RELIGION
Marilyn Schlitz leads a major study on the controversial topic of remote prayer

SFGate.com, by David Ian Miller,
August 1, 2005
[Excerpt] Can prayers heal? Surveys show that millions of Americans routinely pray when they are sick or when friends or relatives fall ill. Yet studies on the impact of prayer by strangers, or what's called "distant healing," are inconclusive.
Full Story
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MIND MAY AFFECT MACHINES

WIRED, by Kim Zetter,
July 19, 2005
[Excerpt] For 26 years, strange conversations have been taking place in a basement lab at Princeton University.

No one can hear them, but they can see their apparent effect: balls that go in certain directions on command, water fountains that seem to rise higher with a wish and drums that quicken their beat. Yet no one hears the conversations because they occur between the minds of experimenters and the machines they will to action.
Full Story
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MEDICINE MIXES WITH SPIRITUALITY

The Washington Times, by Amy Doolittle,
July 12, 2005
[Excerpt] More than 1,000 doctors, spiritual counselors, holistic healers and patients gathered at the Consciousness and Healing conference at the Hyatt Regency hotel in Crystal City during the weekend to discuss the intersection of spirituality and modern medicine.

Speakers at the conference, which was hosted by the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS), came from a variety of medical and spiritual backgrounds.
Full Story

SCEPTICBUSTERS

Financial Times.com, by Adrian Turpin, April 1, 2005
[Excerpt] If only everything in the strange world of parapsychology was as simple as it looks on television. In the BBC series Sea of Souls a group of psychic investigators at a fictional Glasgow University investigates supernatural phenomena. These paranormal Inspector Morses are a mixed bunch: an eager know-it-all; a brilliant student returning to teach at his alma mater; a woman whose superior interpersonal skills allow her to elicit information denied to her laddish colleagues. Presiding over the department is Dr. Douglas Monaghan, a father-confessor figure played by the charismatically crumpled Bill Patterson.
Full Story
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PDF download (99 KB)

FAR-OFF HEALING
Many Americans pray for the health of loved ones; others turn to shamans or reiki. Now science is putting these practices to the test.

Los Angeles Times, by Hilary E. MacGregor,
May 2, 2005
[Excerpt] On an operating table at a medical center in San Francisco, a breast cancer patient is undergoing reconstructive surgery after a mastectomy. But this will be no ordinary surgery. Three thousand miles away, a shamanic healer has been sent the woman's name, a photo and details about the surgery.

For each of the next eight days, the healer will pray 20 minutes for the cancer patient's recovery, without the woman's knowledge. A surgeon has inserted two small fabric tubes into the woman's groin to enable researchers to measure how fast she heals.
Full Story
PDF download (450 KB)

TOOLS FOR HEALING
Petaluma's IONS publishes comprehensive book on consciousness and healing

Petaluma Argus-Courier, by Jane Lott,
March 23, 2005
[Excerpt] For the past 30 years, scientists at the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) in Petaluma have been exploring the issue of consciousness and healing as part of the institute's mission to expand the under-standing of human possibility. Their approach, known as integrative medicine, takes a holistic view of human health and existence.

The institute takes its name from the Greek word "nous" which refers to inner knowing. IONS research teams are attempting to find ways in which the inner knowing of the body and the outer knowing of science can be integrated for a new vision of medicine. It is a vast and complex subject.
Full Story
PDF download (125 KB)

BOOK REVIEW: Consciousness & Healing: Integral
Approaches to Mind-Body Medicine by Marilyn Schlitz and Tina Amorok, with Mark S. Micozzi

Vision Magazine,
February , 2005
[Excerpt] If you are reading this magazine I will bet you already believe healing is an integrative process considering the progression of the mind, the inner workings of the soul and the ways in which the body reacts to each.
web link (from link, scroll down to see review)

INSTITUTE PROMOTES WORLDVIEW INSPIRED BY ASTRONAUT

Science & Theology News, by Ashley Lawson
December, 2004
[Excerpt] Looking down on Earth during the Apollo 14’s return from the moon, Edgar Mitchell realized that life on this planet encompasses more than what scientific research provides.
Full Story

CAN PRAYERS HEAL? Critics Say Studies Go Past Science's Reach

New York Times, by Benedict Carey,
October 10, 2004
[Excerpt] In 2001, two researchers and a Columbia University fertility expert published a startling finding in a respected medical journal: women undergoing fertility treatment who had been prayed for by Christian groups were twice as likely to have a successful pregnancy as those who had not.

Three years later, after one of the researchers pleaded guilty to conspiracy in an unrelated business fraud, Columbia is investigating the study and the journal reportedly pulled the paper from its Web site.

No evidence of manipulation has yet surfaced, and the study's authors stand behind their data.
Full Story
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THE ROLE OF TRANSFORMATION, SPIRIT and PSYCHOSPIRITUAL APPROACHES ON HUMAN BRAIN ACTIVITY AND IMMUNITY

San Francisco Medical Society Journal,
by Cassandra Vieten, PhD
August, 2004
[Excerpt] The word transcendent conjures images of seeking a mountain top experience, of catapulting above the mundane physical world into a realm where one is unaffected by day-to-day complaints. One definition of the term transcendent is "separate from" or "beyond." But the root of the word transcend is "to climb over or across," which may more accurately describe the lived experience of one facing an illness or other challenging experience. In the real world, transcending life's events has less to do with finding a way to avoid or remove them and more to do with developing ways to live with them on a daily basis.
Full Story
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DREAMING CULTURE, DREAMING TRUTH
The Science of Dreams with Dr. Marilyn Schlitz

Vision Magazine, by Ryan Latimer,
July 25, 2004
[Excerpt] Dr. Marilyn Schlitz, Director of Research at the Institute of Noetic Sciences and Senior Scientist at the Complementary Medicine Research Institute at the California Pacific Medical Center, is one of the top-most experts on parapsychology, psychophysiology, consciousness healing and creativity, having conducted some of the most important research in her field. Originally trained as a medical anthropologist, her myriad studies reflect a distinctly cross-cultural viewpoint, as well as a deep respect for the methods of science. Equally analyst and rebel, Schlitz has pushed the boundaries of science by showing sound research with pioneering results.
Full Story
PDF download (473 KB)