The Emerging New Story: Cosmos and Consciousness
February 20, 2010
Chabot Space and Science Center
Oakland, California
Join Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, Edgar Mitchell, Nancy Maryboy, David Begay, Brian Swimme, and Siddha Master Sri Dattatreya Siva Baba as we explore ancient cosmology, map the cosmos, and give tribute to Edgar's 80th year. Read the press release.

Expand your mind, open your heart, and activate your full potential.

March 5–7, 2010 – Live from Your Strengths: A Journey Toward Increased Engagement and Meaning in Life with Lauren Vanett, MA

March 19–21, 2010 – Green in Spirit: Healing through Permaculture and Biosynamic Gardening with Brenda Sanders

April 16–18, 2010 – Cells and the Sacred: Discovering the Cell as Messenger for the Marriage of Science and Spirituality with Sondra Barrett, PhD

April 16–18, 2010 – From Science to God: A Journey into the Mystery of Consciousness with Peter Russell, MA

April 23–25, 2010 – Learning Telekinesis:Your Gateway to Mind Over Matter and April 26, 2010 – Developing Subtle Energy Awareness and Telekinesis: One-Day Intensive, both with Natalia Shareyko, MD, PhD, of the Institute for Biosensory Psychology in St. Petersberg, Russia

May 21–23, 2010 – The Six Life-paths of the Human Soul and the Imprints of Conception with Ralph Metzner, part of the six-part Alchemical Divination Series

June 11–13, 2010 – Ready, Set, Transform!: Define your future and make it your new reality! with Jean Meeks and Azim Khamisa

June 18–20, 2010 – Be the Change: How Meditation Can Transform You and the World with Ed and Deb Shapiro, with guest speaker Edgar Mitchell

June 25–27, 2010 – Primordial Qigong: A Gem from the Treasure Chest of Taoist Mystical Qigong with Donald and Cheryl Lynne Rubbo

Register online, email workshops@noetic.org, or call 707-779-8224.

Located on 200 acres of beautiful rolling hills just 25 miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, the center features meeting facilities, cuisine, and accommodations for up to 120 people. Our clients offer educational programs, workshops, and retreats, with a broad focus on health, personal growth, and transformation. We also welcome weekend workshops and retreats for small groups (less than 25). Many programs are open to the public.

For more information and an Events Schedule: www.noetic.org/retreat.cfm
events@noetic.org

Science and Religion: Time to Make Peace?

The limited release of the film Creation (which opened January 22), about the life and work of Charles Darwin, has provided the impetus to revisit some of the hostility between those circling giants of faith and reason or, from a more noetic perspective, subjectivity and objectivity or, from an especially polarizing angle, between evolution and "intelligent design." In what has essentially been a battle for worldview supremacy, a growing chorus of voices is suggesting that a while an ultimate convergence of the two may not be imminent, the conflict has overlooked some very important issues.

No less an authority than New Scientist, for example, in an article entitled "The Evolution of Evolution," begins with the provocative statement, "Just suppose that Darwin's ideas were only a part of the story of evolution...," and goes on to explain the paradigm-shifting work of microbiologist Carl Woese and physicist Nigel Goldenfeld at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. Less the result of random accidents, they suggest, our evolutionary history may owe its development to the more creative dynamics of self-organizing systems.

Musing on the new book Natural Reflections: Human Cognition at the Nexus of Science and Religion by Barbara Herrnstein Smith, in which she challenges the fight for hegemony between faith and reason as ultimate arbiters of truth, New York Times blogger Stanley Fish writes, "Once the shift is made from asking 'What is and should be the ultimate ground of our actions?' to asking 'What resources are available to us for dealing with these problems and opportunities?,' the question of which model or way of conceptualizing things is true or truer becomes...less urgent and less interesting."

Perhaps the final word should be left to the distinguished Canadian philosopher and Templeton Prize winner Charles Taylor, speaking at a recent Cambridge University symposium on "Faith, Rationality, and the Passions." As UK Guardian columnist Mark Vernon describes his remarks, Taylor reminds us that "...in the modern world we've bought into an illusion, one that posits a radical split between reason and revelation...For when you examine the way science actually works, you see that there's a third factor at play. Philosophers of science call it by different names. Colloquially, it's the hunch or the Eureka! moment. More technically, it has to do with an elusive force named intuition."

For the latest research into the phenomenon of intuition, check out the following peer-reviewed papers:

• "Intuition through Time: What Does the Seer See?" by Dean Radin and Ana Borges (2009)
• "Can Intuition Improve Deception Detection Performance" by Albrechsten, et al (2009)
• The article "Lessons from 'Good Minds': How CEOs Use Intuition..." by Jaana Woiceshyn

Other Resources

The Constant Fire: Beyond the Science vs. Religion Debate by Adam Frank. Given a starred review by the respected journal Publishers Weekly: "Light years beyond the stale standoff between uninspired scientific materialism and unscientific intelligent design, this vision of coexistence appreciates the heavenly music of the spheres."

The Evolution of God by Robert Wright. Wright, a self-proclaimed materialist (and intellectually gifted writer), asserts that the development of religion has been a meaning-making response to conditions in the material world. This recent New York Review of Books article about the book finds Wright's argument less persuasive.

The Purposeful Universe: How Quantum Theory and Mayan Cosmology Explain the Origin and Evolution of Life by Carl Johan Calleman. This biologist's effort to dismantle the theory of randomness, while at times speculative, raises some provocative questions about the patterns and direction of human evolution.

Sol Weingarten

After practicing psychiatry for 45 years, I began working with prisoners in the California prison system, and developed a self-training program based upon a duality of human consciousness. On the one hand, the unconscious and emotional reactions of the brain's amygdala often prevent people from making wise choices; on the other, the brain is plastic—it can change—and this ability provides the vehicle for stopping destructive human behavior, which in turn unleashes creative expression. A rapid transformation occurs in more than half of the inmates who have participated in our program—violent inmates become nonviolent! Surprising growth and the realization of positive potential occurs on an ongoing basis without further teaching. I have been supporting IONS because of their unique work in the field of consciousness studies, unlike any other organization I know of.

Presently I am teaching a group of fifty lifer inmates to be mentors in a recently instituted rehabilitation program. The plan is to have them teach the dual nature of consciousness at various California prisons. We hope to see the results of their efforts in the next two years, and that the culture of prisons that presently focuses on keeping inmates incarcerated becomes one of exciting development of their positive civilized expression, in society as well as in their family relationships. Our hope for such extraordinary results is based upon a real indication in our current self-training program, which most inmates are able to relate to and apply to their behaviors. If you'd like to know more about this program, please email me at jdwein@comcast.net.

To learn more about IONS' Circle membership, contact Deborah Breitbach at 707.779.8216 / dbreitbach@noetic.org.

The Institute often uses volunteers for a variety of tasks and projects, and you don't have to live in the area to be helpful. Many kinds of skills are appreciated. If you are interested in volunteering, please contact Jamila Gulick at volunteer@noetic.org or call 707-779-8219.

The Institute of Noetic Sciences is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit research and educational organization located in Northern California that conducts and sponsors leading-edge research into the potentials and powers of consciousness—including perceptions, beliefs, attention, intention, and intuition. The Institute explores phenomena that do not necessarily fit conventional scientific models, while maintaining a commitment to scientific rigor.

We depend on and gratefully accept your financial support.