If you have read Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and looked beyond the Freemasons and the conspiracies, there was a thread running in the background of the story: Noetic Science. A very vague and dissatisfying explanation was given in the book, and I don’t blame Brown, he can write a whole different book on it, since the topic is so old and vast.
It probably started as Noology and Neoplatonism. Nous in Greek means ‘mind’ and Neoplatonism is a philosophic movement which was started by Plotinus in the 3rd century based on Platonic philosophies.
Though these deal with really mystical thoughts pertaining to the soul, a more modern form of this branch of study known as Noetic Sciences was born in 1973 when astronaut Edgar Mitchell was on a three-day journey from the moon to the earth and he saw our planet from space. Mitchell had what some would call a revelation. He felt the presence of the divine and knew that life on earth was not an accident. This epiphany led him to establish, with the help of a few others, the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS).
The mission of IONS is: ‘Broadening our knowledge of the nature and potentials of mind and consciousness and applying that knowledge to enhancing human well-being and the quality of life on the planet.’ To make this simpler, noetic scientists research on the potential of the human mind and our capability to perform such feats that were earlier called miracles. The main aim of this institute is to figure out the nature of consciousness — what it is, where it resides, what it does and the ultimate question that most cultures and religions have a different view point about, does the consciousness or soul outlive the physical body?
Though since the inception of the IONS, this field of study is called a science, some scientists do show their contempt towards it. They call it a pseudoscience that does not base its findings on the actual experimentation and theorising path that other sciences follow. But noetic science is treading on turf like quantum physics that has recently become a very popular field of study.
“Noetic sciences are explorations into the nature and potentials of consciousness using multiple ways of knowing — including intuition, feeling, reason, and the senses. Noetic sciences explore the ‘inner cosmos’ of the mind (consciousness, soul, spirit) and how it relates to the ‘outer cosmos’ of the physical world, like health and healing, social behaviours, personal growth among others,” states the IONS website. This new age science may sound gimmicky and feel suspiciously like a cult to some, but it cannot be denied that philosophers have been going at it for ages.
Actual science still does not answer basic questions like “Why are we born?” “What is our purpose?” “What happens after we die?” and “What is the soul?” Religion tries to answer these questions and it is are greatly influenced by Noology and Noetics.
Along with trying to find the answers to these questions, IONS works on “extending human capacities, health and healing and emerging worldviews.” They hold studies about the effects of meditation on the mental and physical wellbeing of individuals. They also work on parapsychological fields of extra-sensory perception, lucid dreaming, and presentiment.
This highly complex area of philosophy has not yet been simplified by science but organisations such as the Institute of Noetic Sciences is working hard every day to make the studies accessible to the general public. They hold seminars and talks where the likes of Deepak Chopra impart their knowledge to interested people.
We all live our own lives and are troubled by our own problems about getting into a good college, getting a good job, making enough money, dealing with unreasonable people in our lives and what not, but these ‘sciences’ do exist that promise a bird’s eye view of the universe as it is and make our difficulties seem trivial. What our minds are capable of is a mystery of many layers and as each layer opens, new worlds are there for each one of us to explore at our own leisure.