Scientist at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, Dean Radin, discussed his latest research into the extraordinary powers of the mind, and enlightened beings. Various 'supernormal' powers, called siddhis, were described in classical yoga texts and included everything from telepathy and precognition to invisibility and levitation. According to this tradition, these abilities would occur as a consequence of deep meditation. While everyone has the potential to develop these skills, "our lives are so distracted, that we don't have the capacity to pay attention to what's actually inside all of us," he noted. The first siddhi in advanced meditation is the simultaneous perception of past, present, and future, which could lead to precognition, he said.

Yoga and Eastern philosophies in general suggest that consciousness is fundamental and out of this emerges the physical world. Even science is beginning to question the seat of consciousness-- that awareness does not stem from the brain but is just built into the fabric of reality, Radin commented. In this way of thinking, the brain could be thought of as a receiver, and something like telepathy is not a form of signaling, but a momentary recognition of the holistic nature of reality, he outlined. Citing an experiment with an advanced meditator, he explained how the subject was able to influence the movement of a laser beam in a separate room, not by projecting outward, but by going deeper into his mind.

"Our ordinary senses are basically always projecting outward; creating a picture of a three-dimensional world that we live in...space and time. But in this deep meditative state...the whole universe is inside you," he continued. Radin also shared updates on some of his other work, including the Global Consciousness Project, an experiment showing that oolong tea blessed with good intentions strongly affects people's moods, and a new series of experiments studying interactions between mind and light.

Space Update

First hour guest, space historian Robert Zimmerman commented on NASA and private space mission efforts. Congress wants to fund the Space Launch System/Orion (SLS) which will cost around $3 billion a year. But the problem with this system is that it will only be able to launch a mission once every four years, which is not a good return on the expenditure, he remarked. However, Zimmerman said he is currently optimistic about space because private enterprise has really energized the industry with competition. SpaceX, for instance, which is gearing up for their first commercial geosynchronous satellite launch, charges very little per launch, and that's really shaken things up, he said.

News segment guests: Mish Shedlock, Dr. Peter Breggin