My take away on what Noetic Science is seems to be much different than what is being discussed here. I took as being more the study of thought and the human conscience and could it have an impact on the physical world. Not ghosts and parlor tricks. Things like do thoughts have mass that could actually alter the physical world and if so, could this explain say what people feel is divine intervension for example? Im a beleiver and Im willing to keep an open mind to this explanation.

Also the study of if we are linked somehow by our subconscious? Like when a mother simply just knows something is wrong or happening to their child? Or when you get the feeling you are being watched? Or when you”ve been thinking of someone you haven’t talked with in a while and phone rings or you get a text. Maybe these are simple coincidence but I think its very interesting and warrents the research being done.

It’s a great topic for discussion Dave. Thanks for posting this.

Very telling that when you click on the "peer reviewed publication" link it just leads to a landing page that says "this link is designed to be an example".

They do appear to know the difference between a hypothesis and a theory, which is a refreshing change in the world of woo, but having a hypothesis makes you a scientist in the same way that trying to ride a tidal wave of human diarrhea to the moon makes you an astronaut.

That's kind of the whole point of science. Study the unknown and what seems to be the far fetched in order to find out if there might be some validity to it.

If I understood this post correctly, you are promoting IONS (Institute Of Noetic Sciences) as a ... a science based organization and that the studies they conduct are ... um ... scientific. Is that right? In the spirit of that being the case, I give you this from RationalWiki:

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Note that noetic "science" and noetic philosophy are distinct. Noetic (from the Greek noetikos, "mental" ) philosophy is philosophy dealing with the mind, intellect, or consciousness. However, this more often goes under the more obvious name of "theory" or "philosophy of mind" these days. Noetic "science" is closer to the pseudoscience of parapsychology and other such New Age fluff as "expanding your consciousness."

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Science has looked into these issues over the years and has found no supporting evidence for any of the claims that have been made at any level in parapsychology any more convincing that random chance. Science would be delighted if any of this carried any weight because it would open new vistas of discovery and study. Job security for real scientists, so there is no cause for bias against the topic other than the fear of ruining a long and hard fought for career in the responsible sciences. If you'd like more, I can provide it.

Metaphysics

Science studies anything and everything. That's the whole point of science, to weed out what is real and what isn't. There have been studies done on gods, ghosts, ESP, alternate realities, aliens.. but obviously have fallen short with evidence.

What are their findings? Have they published in any scientific journals? Their website isn’t very helpful.