Noetic Science and the True Power of the Human Mind

If you've picked up Dan Brown's latest thriller, The Lost Symbol, you've been treated to an introduction to "noetic science" (1). If you were to believe Brown, noetic science is the study of the power of human thought-and has been proven that people can go so far as to influence the order of matter at a subatomic level.

Of course, like most of Dan Brown's work, what he describes exists, insofar as there are many people who practice and believe in such methods. However I highly doubt there's a massive room in the Smithsonian collections where noetic theory has been proven-never mind all the questionable intelligence one receives about the nature of the Freemasons. The facts, however, are nearly as interesting as Brown's fiction.

Let's start with a history lesson. The idea that the human mind has unlocked potential is not a new one, and is closely related to metaphysics-a philosophical branch that involves the study and investigation of just what the world really is, and how we and other things relate to it. The great Greek philosopher Aristotle spent a lot of time outlining metaphysics, but attributed its roots to an even earlier Greek philosopher, Thales. Thales believed that the world came from a single elemental source-water (2). Aristotle for his part published the three-section Metaphysics, an oft-mistranslated and misunderstood volume. One of Aristotle's main points was that while mathematicians study aspects of things countable and measurable (he uses the word qua as "under the aspect"; for example, x qua y is the study of x, focusing on the y aspect of x), metaphysicians study the abstract qua of things (3).

It's hard to wrap your head around, but Aristotle's views on focusing on abstract pieces of a whole was important and influential. A branch of philosophical thought arose that said that human thought could and did influence the world around us because of a relationship with the world, and that non-rational thought could relate to reason. This was the formation of noetics.

Modern noetic science is heavily influenced by the Institute of Noetic Sciences, founded in 1975. According to the Institute, co-founder and former astronaut Edgar Mitchell had an epiphany while looking down at Earth from space on the Apollo 14 mission; the universe, he decided, could not have been created by accident. Following the flight, Mitchell founded the institute with others, including industrialist Paul Temple. Today the institute boasts 30,000 members. (4).

But what does the Institute do? The self-described "core" of the Institute's tenets is the assertion that there is no true or solid universe-rather everything is influenced by our perceptions. That isn't to say that everything is relative, they continue-some things are more tangible and solid than others (4).

One of the more interesting and concrete tenets these noetic proponents subscribe to is the idea of the power of intention. Basically, the idea distills into the general concept of mind over matter-that we have the ability to influence ourselves on a biological level, as well as influence others using non-verbal communication. For example, the Institute uses as evidence a quote from former bodybuilder and current governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger that his weightlifting performance increased if he focused on the muscles he was training rather than letting his mind drift (4). This is closely related to other theories such as the one behind the bestselling book The Secret, which says that focusing on a positive action will cause it to occur--but focusing on negative outcomes also makes them more likely to happen (5). As such, the Institute focuses on things like extrasensory perception of ESP and "biofields", the idea that unseen energies dictate things like health.

Then the question remains: is any of it true? The Institute admits noetic science is considered "marginal by the mainstream scientific community" (4). Basically, there remains no substantial and accepted scientific evidence for most of noetic science's claims-while Dan Brown would have you believe that the opposite is true, it's once again a case of artistic license. It's not surprising that noetic science is being bundled with alchemy at conventions and talks (6)-both are essentially updates of previously ignored or discredited pseudoscience. In short: most of noetic science is merely wishful thinking-but considering it's based on the whole premise of wishful thinking in the first place, that may be enough for those who believe that noetic theory is a reality.

Further reading
*Harris, Samuel (1883). The philosophical basis of theism: an examination of the personality of man to ascertain his capacity to know and serve God, and the validity of the principles underlying the defence of theism.
*Nuallain, Sean (2002). Being Human; the Search for Order (ISBN 1841500259).
*Shermer, Michael (2002). The skeptic encyclopedia of pseudoscience, Volume 1 (ISBN 1576076539).