PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Read the 12/17/08 Announcement about IONS' New President

A Year-End Message from IONS' New President
Marilyn Mandala Schlitz

A spirit of change is in the air. Every sector of society has joined the chorus—teachers improving the quality of education, doctors finding solutions to our health care impasse, politicians rallying voters on the campaign trail, concerned citizens cleaning up our environment, and families seeking new economic opportunities.

But are we merely making surface changes or are we committed to a more fundamental evolution of our society? And how do we find the inspiration, skills, and supportive community to make change happen at the scale now required?

This is where the work of the Institute of Noetic Sciences is so vitally important. To paraphrase Einstein, we can't solve our problems working from the same frame of mind in which they were created. A collective evolution of our worldview is required.

For decades, researchers at IONS have shown that the barriers to deep, evolutionary change are often self-imposed. Too often we live in fear and with limited imagination. Through "inattentional blindness," we overlook opportunities to make positive, life-enhancing transformations, even in moments of deep challenges.

In this year of global crises, IONS has had many vital opportunities to engage a wide audience with the most fundamental questions of how we can transform ourselves and our culture. Each day we feel energized by our members' excitement and the clear impact we are having. A few highlights:

• Our research team has completed breakthrough experiments such as the study of distant compassionate intention for cancer patients and a longitudinal study to measure the impact of transformative practices on health outcomes.
• We released the Living Deeply book and DVD, the fruit of over ten years of research on transformation. We shared this work in lectures and workshops in dozens of cities and through extensive appearances in the media.
• Building upon our consciousness transformation research program, we created a new Worldview Literacy Curriculum for school kids that meets the California Standards and will be prototyped in multiple countries.
• We've also created hundreds of new pieces of inspiring web media, provocative weekly teleseminars, an award-winning magazine, beautiful books through Noetic Press, and insightful CDs and DVDs.
• Our scientists have published dozens of articles in technical and popular journals and have presented our findings in many important venues, including Stanford and Harvard Universities, the United Nations, the Naval War College, and the health products and pharmaceutical company Johnson & Johnson.
• Our work has reached the mainstream through features on radio and television, including The History Channel and Larry King Live, allowing us outreach to broad audiences.
• In June 2009 we will convene our International Conference in Tucson, Arizona, Toward a Global Shift: Seeding the Field of Collective Change. This is more than just a name for an event—we see it as a key theme for the coming year. In the midst of economic meltdowns, there is a silver lining for our society, to recognize that previous paradigms are inadequate and that we need new kinds of thinking to catalyze a global shift that is the evolution of our shared worldview.

At the heart of a global shift is the evolution of consciousness. For more than 35 years, IONS has been a respected leader in advancing our understanding of the powers and potentials of consciousness. We have discovered over and over again that our personal transformation and collective evolution are intertwined.

As I take on the new role of President and CEO for the Institute of Noetic Sciences, I am both humbled and invigorated by the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. I am convinced, as never before, that our work is essential to achieving a fundamental course correction. The noetic sciences truly are the missing piece our world needs to help support the shift to a more sustainable, healthy, and whole worldview. I invite you to empower this important work at this critical moment in history with a donation:

With deep appreciation and warmest best wishes for the coming new year and always!

Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, Ph.D.
President/CEO
Institute of Noetic Sciences

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