---

Highlights from the 2009 International IONS Conference 

---

One of the great things that I get to do as the Assistant to the Director of the new Institute for Advanced Studies of Spirituality & Wellness at Chicago Theological Seminary is go and network and gather information at conferences that focus on connecting cutting edge science and spirituality. In June, I attended the 13^th International IONS Conference, “Toward a Global Shift: Seeding the Field of Collective Change,” in Tucson, Arizona. IONS, the Institute of Noetic Sciences, is an organization founded by Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell back in the 1970s. IONS’ mission is advancing the science of consciousness and human experience to serve individual and collective transformation.

     For many of my readers, Dr. Mitchell’s experience as he traveled home from the moon in 1971, gazing at planet Earth floating freely in the vastness of space from the confines of the cramped cabin of the his space capsule, will be familiar—not in exact circumstance, but in essence. During that flight, Mitchell was engulfed by a profound sense of universal connectedness—an epiphany. He states: “The presence of divinity became almost palpable, and I knew that life in the universe was not just an accident based on random processes … The knowledge came to me directly.”

     Many years have passed and the science of transformation is finally catching up to that experience of ineffable knowing that is part of so many experiences of transformation. Going to the 2009 IONS conference was an opportunity to gather first hand information from the researches involved in the science of transformation. If you didn’t get to the conference, however, you can still have an almost first hand experience by purchasing the CDs, MP3s and DVDs that were made during the event. Just go to www.noetic.org and click on the IONS 13^th International Conference link and you’ll get to a page listing all the available CDs, MP3s and DVDs.

     The list ranges from “All Plenaries on Video DVD Plus All Workshops and Institutes on Audio CD 7 DVDs and 70 CDs for $999” (Yikes! Expensive!) to individual selections like the Thursday Evening Plenary featuring Bruce Lipton’s talk on “Spontaneous Evolution” (CD, $20) and the Friday Morning Plenary featuring Azim Khamisa’s “Journey of Forgiveness,” Dean Radin’s “Latest in Psi Research,” and Larry Dossey’s “Power of Premonitions” (CD-$30) and to day-long workshops like the one I attended with Edgar Mitchell entitled “Understanding the Functions and Power of the Quantum Hologram” (CD-$40).

     The one thing you won’t find is more in-depth descriptions of these sessions. It would have been nice if IONS had linked the selections with the information that appeared in their on-line registration materials. For example, the Saturday Morning Plenary (CD-$30) features Chip Conley’s presentation, “PEAK: How Organizations get the Mojo,” and Barbara Dossey’s “Healing, Global Health, Integral Model.” The decision to purchase that selection would be easier to make if there were an accompanying descriptions. Descriptions like:

     • Chip Conley, founder, president, and CEO of Joie de Vivre Hospitality and author of PEAK: How Great Companies Get Their Mojo from Maslow, gave a great talk about how he reinterpreted Maslow’s hierarchy of needs to help his company focus on the higher needs of its employees, customers, and investors—and about how we can do the same thing.

     • Barbara Dossey, PhD, RN, AHN-BC, FAAN, is not only the wife of Larry Dossey, but an international co-director of the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health and co-author of 23 books. Her presentation was a tapestry, weaving together Florence Nightingale’s (1820-1910) legacy, science, and art to increase our understanding of what it means to be a global citizen activist at our deepest and highest expression of self, nature, and culture as we work together to create a healthy world by 2020.

     These match-up descriptions are not on the current IONS’ website. So maybe some highlights from my own IONS Conference experience will help.

 “Understanding the Functions and Power of the Quantum Hologram” with Edgar Mitchell (www.quantrek.org): Wow! This one-day pre-conference workshop was so jam-packed with in-depth information that I purchased this workshop CD set—even though I was taking notes on my laptop as fast as my fingers could type. The workshop focused not only on the Quantum Hologram, but on the possibility of other life in the universe. According to Mitchell’s quantrek.org website, the Quantum Hologram (QH), “a real phenomenon validated experimentally, explains many phenomena in nature where there was no mechanism to account for the transfer of information between objects. It offers strong evidence that suggests that it is the basis of consciousness and explains how living organisms know and utilize whatever information they know and utilize.”

     Here are some highlights of the workshop:

     • The Hubble Telescope has revealed to us that there are as many galaxies in the universe as there are stars in the Milky Way. For more about the Hubble Telescope and some amazing photos, check out http://hubblesite.org.

     • Newly discovered planets and computer simulations indicate that water and life might exist on many strange worlds. That means that vastly more planets are conceivably inhabitable.

     • Newton’s theory of entropy, the idea that disorder is always increasing has been proven incorrect. It is the quantum hologram that is the fundamental stuff of existence.

     • We call our instinct our sixth sense; it is really our first sense since it is located in the quantum, which is the basis of all.

     • We are reaching a Bifurcation Point, a place or point of branching into new types of behavior. This is usually a sudden change, rather than a slow and gradual evolution.

     • Possible new discoveries from Quantum Hologram research suggest ways that matter could arise ex nihilo (“out of nothing”) and evolve (teleologically) from the Zero Point Field of quantum fluctuations.

Lessons from Azim Khamisa’s “The Journey of Forgiveness: Destination Peace: Azim N. Khamisa (www.azimkhamisa.com) is founder, chairman, and CEO of the Tasriq Khamisa Foundation (TKF) and author of From Murder to Forgiveness: A Father’s Journey.  Khamisa lost his only son Tariq to a senseless gang-related murder and was able not only to forgive, but to help others find their way to forgiveness and peace. His advice includes:

     • Acknowledge and go through your pain.

     • Get rid of your resentment. Resentment is like drinking poison and waiting for your enemy to die.

     • Reach out to the offender with love and compassion.

     • Forgive.

Dean Radin’s Latest in Psi Research (www.deanradin.com): Dean Radin is IONS Senior Scientist and author of The Conscious Universe and Entangled Minds. Highlights of his presentation include:

     • Radin compared the history of the human view of reality to a series of software programs ranging from Reality 1 (Earth as a living organism) to Reality 2.1 (the Greek idea that reality can be deduced) to Reality 2.5 (Classical physics: consciousness is all in the brain, a brain generated illusion; reductionist—we’re nothing but a pack of neurons.) to Reality 3 and beyond (relativity; quantum physics. Non-locality is an experimentally proven fact). “Many scientists don’t realize it …” stated Radin, “This is mainstream.”

     • According to Radin, we are now on Reality 3.3 (Quantum Biology). Research is now showing that the mind and the brain are not the same thing. Oh dear, I took notes about all the experiments being published in mainstream journals like Science and Nature, but I see that once again, my fingers couldn’t go fast enough—guess I’ll have to send away for the Friday Morning Plenary CDs!

My Advice: Take a look at the list of CD, MP3, and DVD offerings. If you see any titles that intrigue you, go ahead and buy them. You won’t regret the investment!

---

Mary Montgomery is a certified web author and developer. Her company, Montgomery Media Enterprises, specializes in public relations, writing projects and web authoring, development and publicity, especially in the non-profit sector. Ms. Montgomery has a Master’s Degree in religious studies from Chicago Theological Seminary (CTS) and is working on a Ph.D. with a focus on the scholarship of Unlimited Love and the Other Regarding Virtues. She is also is also the Assistant to the Director for CTS’s newly established Institute for Advanced Studies on Spirituality and Wellness (IASSW). Contact her via e-mail at monty764@sbcglobal.net.

---

Next Article

Return to This Month's Index

Go to the Home Page