The most vehement criticism of Dan Brown's new book The Lost Symbol concerns the view of many reviewers that while the material about Freemasonry may be based on fact, the science is more akin to science fiction.
Katherine Solomon, one of the main characters, is a scientist particularly interested in 'mind over matter': the power of thought--or intention--to affect and change the world.
The 'big idea' in Dan Brown's book is that science is only now providing evidence of what ancient traditions have traditionally espoused: that thought has a tangible power, enabling human beings to be creators of their own world.
I'm in a unique position to comment on this as I have extensively studied all the science Brown includes in his book, written two bestselling books on the subject and I facilitate these kinds of experiments all over the world.
In fact, Brown prominently singled out me, my book, The Intention Experiment, my research and my website www.theintentionexperiment.com for special mention in the blockbuster, claiming that one of his main characters was 'fascinated' by my work and my web-based global laboratory, testing the power of thought.
Although Solomon is solidly fiction, the vast majority of her work is based on solid fact.
In a sizeable body of research exploring the nature of consciousness, carried on for more than 30 years in prestigious scientific institutions around the world -- Princeton and Stanford Universities, the Universities of Arizona and California, and, in Europe, the Universities of Freiberg and Edinburgh --thoughts directed at targets in the laboratory have been shown capable of altering machines, cells and even complex organisms like human beings. This mind-over-matter power even seems to traverse time and space.
In my own web-based experiments, we involve thousands of participants in 90 countries around the world, sending thoughts to targets created in rigorous laboratory settings at the University of Arizona, Pennsylvania State University, University of California at Davis, and other prestigious universities in Europe.
Of our 19 experiments to date, 16 have shown significant positive results, six of which have been published in a scientific paper.
These studies go well beyond spoonbending tricks. This central idea, that consciousness affects matter, lies at the very heart of an irreconcilable difference between the world view offered by classical physics - the science of the big, visible world - and that of quantum physics - the science of the world's most diminutive components. These discoveries offer convincing evidence that all matter in the universe exists in a web of connection and constant influence, which often overrides many of the laws of the universe that we used to believe held ultimate sovereignty.
At least 40 top scientists in academic centres of research around the world have demonstrated that an information transfer constantly carries on between living things, and that thought forms are simply another aspect of transmitted energy. Hundreds of others have offered plausible theories embracing even the most counter-intuitive effects, such as time-displaced influence, as now consistent with the laws of physics.
Ideas about the power of thought are no longer the ruminations of a few eccentric individuals. They now underpin many well-accepted disciplines in every reach of life, from orthodox and alternative medicine to competitive sport.
Medical scientists often speak of the 'placebo effect' as an annoying impediment to the proof of the efficacy of a chemical agent. It is time that we understood and made full use of the power of the placebo. Repeatedly, the mind has proved to be a far more powerful healer than the greatest of breakthrough drugs.
Frontier science is the art of inquiring about the impossible. All of our major achievements in history have resulted from asking an outrageous question. What if stones fall from the sky? What if giant metal objects could overcome gravity? What if there is no end of the earth to sail off of?
All of the discoveries about the power of thought and remote influence have similarly proceeded from asking a seemingly absurd question: what if our thoughts could affect the things around us?
True science always begins with an unpopular question, even if there is no prospect of an immediate answer - even if the answer threatens to overturn every last one of our cherished beliefs. The scientists engaged in consciousness research must constantly put forward unpopular questions about the nature of the mind and the extent of its reach.
In our group Intention Experiments, we have asked the most impossible question of all: what if a group thought could heal a remote target? It is a little like asking, what if a thought could heal the world?
It is an outlandish question, but the most important part of scientific investigation is just the simple willingness to ask the question.
Mainstream science has grown ever more fundamentalist, dominated by a few highly vocal scientists who believe that our scientific story has largely been written. Nevertheless, a small body of resistance carries on in defiance of this restricted view. With every unorthodox question asked, with every unlikely answer, frontier sciences such as those featured in my books - and now Dan Brown's -- remake our world. May they and their ilk light our way.
The Intention Experiment - The Largest Mind-Over Matter Experiment ...
The Intention Experiment: Where Dan Brown's Fiction Becomes Fact
One always special theme in Science Fiction is time travel. It's "time" to explain further
that it is a potential of human thought (and "thoughts are things") to transcend the "present"
and to really mind-travel to the past. And to the future. For the few who manage that, the
experiences are revelatory (and "noetic"). But definitely not for the unprepared. Oh no?
There is an obelisk in Central Park, New York City, whose matching one of the pair is
still in Egypt. The Pharaoh who commissioned them was witnessed and said "one of the
pair would reside in the Great Lands of the West." Then there is the current Nostradamus
fad. Nostradamus was not one person, but a representative name for a small group of men
who were "seers." Such are the "circles within circles", where truth is stranger than "science
fiction." Now, where did that saying, "You've must have a horseshoe in your pocket" come from?
Oh, yes. Stonehenge.
But as in the article, "Metaphysics in Science," such developments and aids must follow well-established protocols and preparations. Even Orson Welles proclaimed, "No wine before its time."
Such is the Way with Cycles, Aquarian among them, and the Lords of Karma who oversee them.
The honorable Order of Freemasons are hardly the only, nor the most esoteric, of Initiatic Fraternities.
But they are highly depictive of the mostly hidden influence on society, its culture, architecture, and links to a very distant past that is nearing re-discoveries that will change the course of the planet's future. "Noetic science" is indeed science in the most esteemed manner, known to advanced thinkers, philosophers, scientists, artists, and engineers, from Albert Einstein, to Henry Ford, and Walt Disney. Now is the time for preparation for more revelations.
Science uses repeatable experiments to demonstrate how reality works.
Both you and Brown neglect to mention that Princeton cut its noetics program because it wasn't producing any significant scientific results.
Science is about demonstrable cause and effect.
What exactly have you proven? Get really specific, please.
And don't try to claim the placebo effect for noetics. Emotional states in human beings are chemical, and stimuli (such as verbal abuse) can trigger chemical changes. The brain responds chemically to input, such as the assertion by a doctor that healing medicine has been administered. This information reduces stresses and creates positive chemical feedback. The reality of the placebo effect within an internal chemical system is apples; claiming that the thoughts or beliefs of person X can effect healing in remote person Y, without any demonstrable physical causes or physical or personal interaction? That's not even oranges. That's the philosopher's stone. And if you tell person Y that people are trying to remotely cure him or her, you can get a placebo effect if that person is credulous--but again, that isn't noetics, that's cause-and-effect internal chemistry.
Aside: Did anyone notice how Noetics in the Lost Symbol was pure red herring? It has no relevance to Brown's plot--he makes it seem like it will, but leaves the thread loose. Horrible plotting.
You get what you look for, determined by the tools you use.
That is the main rule.
We exist in a 'frequency soup' which is much bigger than our sensory apparatus, even our
extended sensory apparatus of the last century or so. Demonstrable cause and effect is
predicated on the assumption of temporal linearity. Temporal linearity is only one subset
of fractal temporality. Fractal temporality is both self replicating and nonlocal. Turn the
kaleidescope of time and everything changes but nobody notices. Except the few who
remember 'timeline anomolies' from the previous turn of the kaleidescope. Grok on it.
Science, narrowly defined, sees the guinea--and a lot more than the guinea! It now sees a mind-bogglingly large ball of fire fueled by continual nuclear explosion lasting billions of years, with a predictable lifespan--one of billions of such stars, around a significant percentage of which there are earthlike planets, on which it is eminently possible that creatures might be trying to cash in on the local equivalent of noetic science. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with seeing the Hallelujah chorus either (interestingly, the "scientific reality" might seem more fantastic and imaginative to a common person of Blake's day than the chorus. Such is the power of "scientific reality").
There is something wrong, though, with pretending that the Hallelujah chorus is demonstrable _using scientific method_ if you don't have experiments that will show it.
If McTaggart can prove the Hallelujah chorus, more power to her.
It takes true believers whose ideas seem absurd to make scientific advances.
But there is a difference between Icarus and the Apollo program. It's called science.
Let McTaggart prove her case for noetics first, and then put the feather in her cap.
Q: Why does "noetic science" want so badly to be "science"?
A: Grant money.