The IONS Integral KnowledgeCenter

Putting Together the Pieces of What We Know
An Open Source Guide to the Frontiers of Noetic Science

A world community of scholars, researchers, and explorers combining perspectives and insights on consciousness, human nature and the human potential.

The KnowledgeCenter is a growing body of knowledge--a place to share and access our collective understanding of the nature of consciousness, the human potential, and the mysteries of our universe. The KnowledgeCenter is a knowledge integration system and corroboration engine designed to facilitate an evolving multi-disciplinary dialog leading to new insights and discoveries, and to bring the benefit of collective wisdom to our personal life decisions. The self-organizing consensus-building system uses your input, comments and feedback to create a contually evolving body of knowledge that can be accessed from Noetic.org, and affiliated topical websites.

The KnowledgeCenter uses an open source submission, annotation and filtering process to gather and compile the collective knowledge and experience of individuals and organizations across academic and cultural boundaries. The system facilitates personal access to relevant ideas, while allowing individuals to contribute their unique pieces to the emerging picture. You are invited to add to the pool of knowledge with articles, papers, theories and alternative explanations on any topic, and to weigh in with your own views and perspectives. Your feedback, corroborating notes and other annotations to existing content influences which articles rise to the top within each topic. Articles can be custom sorted by interest, accuracy, clarity and corroboration level, guiding your attention to the most enlightening content.

Content Sources The forums have been seeded with hundreds of IONS Review articles by noted authors including Ken Wilbur, Deepak Chopra, David Bohm, Joan Borysenko, Jeffrey Mishlove, Stan Grof, Norman Cousins, Dean Ornish, Willis Harmon, Michael Murphy, Charles Tart, Marilyn Schlitz We invite individuals, researchers and organizations to join the conversation on this site or by providing submission and access nodes to the IONS KnowledgeCenter from affiliate websites.

Some of the many conversations that are currently being addressed include:

What are the most useful ways to understand the nature of consciousness? What types of PSI phenomena are most highly supported by research findings? Is there any scientific validity to astrology? How can we use our mind/body connection to strengthen the immune system? What can science and other cultures tell about what happens after death? What is the purpose and meaning of dreams? What is the most effective way to master meditation? What are the most achievable approaches to transforming society?

Using the KnowledgeCenter

• To find topics quickly, use the "Browse Categories" link
• To see a complete list of articles and postings, use the Detailed Content Map
• To find all content relating to a specific keyword or author, use the Search function
• To add articles, postings, comments or ratings, go to the appropriate topic list
• Use the "Sort" option to find postings that best match your interests

Pro and con comments are sorted by agreement level under each article, allowing you to weigh the best evidence or arguments on both sides of controversial issues. Each topic includes a resources section for posting and exploring the topics in more detail. The hierarchical search function allows you to quickly find groups of articles or discussions on any given topic. Links to books and media products associated with each posting are provided. Please support the institute by purchasing products you are interested in, online!

More about KnowledgeCenter Software
The KnowledgeCenter is designed to facilitate:

• Collectively brainstorming and productive dialog leading to new insights
• The inter-disciplinary cross-validation and testing of ideas
• Access to multiple perspectives and ways of understanding a given topic
• Public access to new discoveries currently sequestered in research journals
• The collective creation of a living owner's guide to the human mind/body/spirit

A New Model of Participatory Publishing

Over the years, the Institute has hosted and supported some of the most important conversations of our modern era through its publications, research papers and networking events. Now you can participate in these ongoing dialogs through the KnowledgeCenter forums. The forums, which cover a wide range of topics, have been seeded with hundreds of topical excerpts drawn from the IONs archives and other sources. Each posting includes columns for adding pro and con commentary or additional information. Comments are automatically sorted by agreement level, causing the most highly agreed-upon supporting comments to appear next to the most highly agreed upon alternative viewpoints.

De-fragmenting the Noetic Conversation

The Future of the Body, Michael Murphy's encyclopediac work on the Human Potential begins with the following words: "We face some daunting obstacles in trying to make sense of the evidence for human transformative capacity. Among these are the fragmentation of knowledge caused by professional specialization, the uneven quality of evidence for extraordinary functioning, and a widespread resistance among scientists and academic philosophers to mystical truth claims and data regarding paranormal phenomena." Now you can help us overcome these obstacles by participating in the creation of a central knowledge base that puts the pieces of the puzzle together and converts our many individual noetic experiences into an integrated, quantifiable body of evidence.

It has been said that the last living person who was able to hold and absorb all of the scientific knowledge of his time was Sir Francis Bacon. Perhaps this is when the current fragmentation crisis began. If knowledge is to progress, we must find a way to re-integrate the pieces of our understanding into a cohesive whole. Since there is no way that one mind can hold and assemble all the threads required to show the image on the tapestry, we must now develop tools that will allow us to collectively combine our various perspectives into a central body of knowledge. KnowledgeCenter is an attempt to begin this process.

A Virtual Tribal Elder for the New Global Village

For thousands of years, human beings relied on wisdom that was passed from generation to generation for guidance and authority in life. In the most modern societies, these wisdom traditions and religions eventually gave way to science as the ultimate authority. The conflict between science and religious spirituality led to a great split, forcing many to choose between the two ways of believing or knowing. At first, it seemed that these two great shapers of human destiny were mutually exclusive. In the last few years however, many spiritual teachers cite examples from science to support their age-old traditions, and many scientists are re-discovering spiritual principles. The new IONS Integral KnowledgeCenter is a place where you are invited to help make these connections.

Please Join the Conversation!

Adding access to the KnowledgeCenter from your website
feedback/ contact

KnowledgeCenter Software copyright 1999-2004 KnowledgeFilter Inc. patent pending