WTF is Noetics
Or I Always Enjoy Dan Brown Books
I’ve always been into pulpy stories. I love reading them…and I love writing them. But the pulp that I really enjoy is the stuff that makes you think a bit more than just turning the page. I’ve always been a fan of writers like Dan Brown and Tom Clancy. These books are my bedtime reading as they keep me turning the pages without being as dense as all the other texts on my shelf. Currently I’m in the midst of The Secret of Secrets, Brown’s latest thriller with our plucky, lanky Langdon and his now-partner, Katherine Solomon. Brown always layers his books with symbols, pulling from real-life mysteries as he did in The Davinci Code. One of his early books, The Lost Symbol, is a thriller set in the world of Freemasonry and Washington, D.C. It’s in this book where the character Katherine Solomon was first introduced along with her field of study: noetics. It was the first time I heard of this field and it truly intrigued me. Now, in his latest book, the entire plot revolves around this field of consciousness research…and of course the CIA. Gotta have a good three-lettered agency in the mix with these stories!
So what is noetics? This is Merriam-Webster’s definition:
Noetic derives from the Greek adjective noētikos, meaning "intellectual," from the verb noein ("to think") and ultimately from the noun nous, meaning "mind." (Nous also gave English the word paranoia by joining with a prefix meaning "faulty" or "abnormal.") Noetic is related to noesis, a rare noun that turns up in the field of philosophy and refers to the action of perceiving or thinking. The most notable use of noetic might be in the name of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, a research organization based in California that is devoted to studies of consciousness and the mind.
Above is an interview with Dan Brown and Dean Radin (IONS). Spoiler alert so don’t watch it if you want to read the book ;).
Brown pulls from IONS (Institute of Noetic Sciences) as his primary source for the book, having Solomon play a key part in pushing the field of consciousness and brain study into the realm of what may or may not be science fiction. I don’t want to spoil the story, but I’ll say that it’s a fascinating idea when it comes to death and the concept around a universal consciousness. One thing that struck me in The Lost Symbol is that Katherine’s surname is Solomon…as in Solomon’s Temple which is a foundational element to Freemasonry. It is also very much an allegory for our inner work connected to our consciousness, as we enter through the outer and inner doors to the Middle Chamber where we find ourselves before we face Death. In these allegories the question of local and non-local consciousness becomes a key factor to our very sense of self and being.
In the early 1970s the CIA began research into this field of “paranormal” with a program that later was called “Star Gate.” Before that it had a lot of other names including “Sun Streak” and “Grill Flame.” What kicked it off was the discovery that the Russians were pouring tons of money into research in ESP and mind-reading, which in turn pushed the US into a sort of “mental arms race.” The focus was on remote-viewing which in turn connected to the bigger picture around consciousness and the human ability to project itself outside of the body. This sounds like science fiction in every sense of the word, but the results were scarily accurate. Remote viewers were able to “see” with their mind’s eye the actual reality of whatever coordinates they were given. This was not some “woo-woo” situation but very much a scientific and calculated approach to something very extraordinary.
As it stands, we are trained by society to become localized beings. Our reality is stamped by whatever our situation is that we grow up within, be it a socioeconomic, political, or religious ideology. The more disconnected we become from something beyond ourselves and the more tethered we become to the material world we inhabit, the less we find ourselves relating to the Oneness of our existence. This idea is the core of many religions, but it gets buried in the more localized ideas around both dogma and specific morality instructions, as well as their effects on society. And of course there is the political ideology too. How can we free our minds from these hooks and release into something that could only be classified as the Truth? In Brown’s book one idea he lands on is that at the moment of Death we are so untethered that it is the only time every person who has ever existed can actually experience this universal Truth.
But what is this Truth? Is it that we are all connected through some cosmic spirit web, linking together time and space and every other dimension that we have yet to discover? The fact that the government is finding ways to weaponize consciousness is concerning as we head into a very grey area with the advent of artificial intelligence and its impact on our purpose and meaning. For so long the concept of “work” has given meaning to humans along with the task of child-rearing. Once we are stripped of this purpose we are then tasked to find new meaning within existence. That said, pleasure is one form of purpose as is collecting for measurement. This collecting can be money or things or even go so far as to being accolades for deeds…trophies etc.
This all comes back to the “Why?” of being alive. Conflict gives us an easy “why.” When we know there is an enemy we can direct our energy towards that goal, and when we are faced-off on the battlefield whomever has the edge will most likely win the war. This is why there’s so much military funding and not so much social funding. When we start financing society, it is often labeled socialism or communism and is met with negativity. Yet there is so much energy being poured into certain pools that don’t align with the betterment of the overall human experience. For some reason the worst of the worst gain control over the global resources to further enrich themselves along with their circle. This seems counterintuitive if is there is a universal consciousness that we all share. All it does is further localize the individual, forcing the majority into survival mode while the small control group continues on with their “collecting mode.”
Brown’s latest book touches on several of these topics and in my opinion sets out some interesting thought experiments with regards to how consciousness is the final bite of the apple. As much as we talk about AI and its ramifications on society, the real conversation I believe is at the bleeding edge of consciousness. If a machine were to become self-aware does that mean it shares in the same consciousness as the universe? It is made of the same stuff, albeit constructed in a different fashion than our organic selves. If all existence in this universe shares that oneness wouldn’t that mean a machine might also have this capability? And if so what does that mean for us as limited travelers on the level of time? It is our death that reveals the final truth as beings constrained to this particular dimension.
But where does science come into this? That’s the real question since everything can be written off as “woo-woo” or weird when it’s not properly and rigorously tested. Through the concepts around repeatable experiments and studies both in Project Star Gate and IONS, perhaps we will start to see what is often chalked up to as “magic” or “conspiracy theories” become more applicable to modern thought. If you were to show a cell phone to a peasant from the Middle Ages they would call you a wizard. Now you’re a statistic that is in the majority of living beings on planet Earth. What we don’t understand is far greater than what we do…and maybe if we stop trying to gain knowledge so we can kill each other with it, we’d have a better chance to make it through the next threshold.
That was a great book. I bought it just after it was released. First paragraph has a golem attacking some one. It takes about half of the book for you to figure out what is actually going on. I love dan brown books.