Last year the visibility of the Institute of Noetic Sciences got a fair boost when Dan Brown mentioned their research in his bestseller The Lost Symbol. IONS – founded by Apollo astronaut Edgar Mitchell, and with Dean Radin as resident ‘Senior Scientist’ – seems to be going from strength to strength, as the organization has now also completed a major website upgrade, which streamlines the site navigation and highlights numerous interesting features including blogs and the ‘Noetic Now’ bulletin.
Browsing the August ‘Noetic Now’ I came across a fascinating article by a good friend of the Grail, Michael Grosso, titled “Consciousness and Parapsychology: A Thought Experiment” (from the 2007 anthology Mind before Matter):
Consciousness is a recent phenomenon in the history of planet Earth; we know nothing of it beyond or prior to terrestrial history. What we do know is part of the story – the unfinished story – of human evolution. The true function of consciousness is quite puzzling, and its relationship to the central nervous system is riddled with hard questions. Some regard consciousness as eluding rational explanation, as does the mysterian philosopher, Colin McGinn, while some like the late psychologist William James contend that consciousness does not exist, at least not in any substantive sense.
As to its causal powers, there is a spectrum of opinions, ranging from epiphenomenalism (consciousness as impotent brain offshoot) to hypophenomenalism (brain as somehow derivative from consciousness). Some say it is an emergent property, the result of a critical measure of brain complexity; others think it something implicit in being or nature, waiting to be teased into manifestation. Some call it a glorious excresence of chance, others see in its purity – God throwing off sparks of soul life. Dostoysevsky thought consciousness was a disease, a freakish pain, an impediment to life.
Obviously, there is no consensus here. This may be a clue to something important, a kind of wink daring us to push boldly onward. I will therefore take up the gauntlet and attempt an evocation of the extraordinary potential of human consciousness. Now the question we are asking is this: What might the world look like – what would it be like? — if we used human consciousness at full throttle?
Michael then goes on to detail his thoughts on a world in which humans harnessed their latent mind powers (if such powers do in fact exist). Plenty else of interest over there, make sure you check out the new website.
Previously on TDG:
