History
The institute was co-founded in 1973 by Edgar Mitchell, an astronaut who was part of the Apollo 14 mission, investor Paul N. Temple and some others. During the three-day journey back to Earth aboard Apollo 14, Mitchell had an epiphany while looking down on the earth from space. "The presence of divinity became almost palpable, and I knew that life in the universe was not just an accident based on random processes ... The knowledge came to me directly," Mitchell said of that experience. Following his spaceflight, Mitchell and others founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences. Willis Harman served as its president from 1975 until his death in 1997.
The word noetic is derived from the Greek nous, for which, according to the institute's website, there is no exact equivalent in English. It refers to "inner knowing," a kind of intuitive consciousness—direct and immediate access to knowledge beyond what is available to our normal senses and the power of reason.
Read more about this topic: Institute Of Noetic Sciences
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