Newsletter 1/2003

Institute of Noetic Sciences
by Pauline Tiben

On a Monday morning a few weeks ago, a large envelope from America arrived in Hilversum, Holland, at the Movements Foundation. The content of this envelope, a letter and two copies of a magazine, turned out to be quite a surprise.

It was sent by an organisation called the Institute of Noetic Sciences, which has its seat in California, USA. Apparently, they wrote a review of our CD-ROM “The Art of the Sacred Movements” by Wim van Dullemen, and published this in their widely read magazine.
My surprise consisted in, first of all, that they thanked us for having sent the CD-ROM (in their letter); secondly their excellent review, actually the best we have seen so far; thirdly that the CD-ROM was well understood and held in high esteem by a serious organisation that operates outside the so-called Gurdjieff world; and fourthly by the quality of the articles: well-written, well-edited, about research projects in what is called ‘frontier science’ for instance, written by people who clearly know what they are talking about.

From the first page of their magazine, I learned that Apollo astronaut Captain Edgar Mitchell founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) in 1973, to explore the inner cosmos of the mind with the same level of rigor and commitment that scientists had applied to understanding the physical universe. The word ‘Noetic’ comes from the Greek ‘nous’, which means intuitive mind or ways of knowing. Noetic sciences further the explorations of conventional science by rigorous inquiry into aspects of reality – such as mind, consciousness, spirit – that go beyond physical phenomena. They also function as an umbrella organisation for like-minded people and organisations, or as they say themselves: “IONS continues to support an international network of people committed to personal and societal transformation”.

In the article about ‘What are Noetic Sciences?’ I was struck by the following formulation: “For the first time in history we are beginning to create a growing, progressively funded body of established experience about humanity’s inner life – and particularly about the perennial wisdom of the great religious traditions and gnostic groups. For the first time, there is hope that this knowledge can become – not a secret repeatedly lost in dogmatization and institutionalization, or degenerating into manifold varieties of cultism and occultism – but rather the living heritage of all humankind.”

This is exactly the direction we have in mind with our Movements Foundation. We have two stable, co-operating groups, started over 6 years ago, in Berlin and Amsterdam, practising Gurdjieff’s movements, music, and teaching. We are convinced that Gurdjieff’s teaching is definitely part of ‘the perennial wisdom of the great religious traditions and gnostic groups’, and many of the members of our group have personal experience with the struggle of not letting it become ‘a secret lost in dogmatization and institutionalization’ or of not letting it ‘degenerate into manifold varieties of cultism and occultism’. Although I must admit that the latter remains difficult, if you allow me this digression. We want to be open, yet maintain the integrity of Gurdjieff’s teaching. We want to reach people who may be seriously interested (they could be anywhere), yet not get lost in a maze of irrelevant paths.

The review of "The Art of the Sacred Movements" appeared in IONS Review, No. 63, March-May 2003, p. 43, a publication of the Institute of Noetic Sciences (website: www.noetic.org). By kind permission of IONS, we published the review on our website.

“The mystery and insight of Russian teacher G.I. Gurdjieff comes to life in this multimedia guide to sacred movements and music based on Gurdjieff’s work with his students in the first half of the twentieth century. This CD-ROM offers a thorough and captivating introductory study on the form and function of these movements, many of which were supposedly influenced by his encounters with sacred temple dances in the early part of his life. This Dutch-produced disk, on the Internet at http://www.gurdjieff-movements.net, is a rare opportunity for the general public to begin to experience the profound nature of these movements. (Movements Stichting, 2002)”