Formed after an astronaut said he had an epiphany in 1973, the IONS group is still attempting to reach what it calls “global consciousness.”
The Institute of Noetic Sciences is a national philosophical group established by Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell in 1973. Local “consciousness researcher” Roberta Shoemaker-Beal said Mitchell experienced an epiphany while in space that led to the formation of the group IONS.
“[IONS] started as a result of the spiritual awareness that Edgar Mitchell had when he was coming back from the moon,” Shoemaker-Beal said. “He saw the Earth from space. He called it the little blue jewel floating in space, and he shared [his experience] with millions of people.”
The Austin IONS group meets every fourth Thursday to discuss spirituality and the expansion of consciousness. Austin IONS founder Don Switlick started the group in 1992 and says its purpose is to educate people on metaphysics, spirituality and consciousness.
In an Austin IONS flyer, the group states its mission is to propagate embodiment and empowerment of all people with an abundance of the three C’s: creativity, consciousness and compassion, by utilizing the three S’s: synchronicity, synergy and spontaneity. The group also explores Kundalini, which in Sanskrit means “coiled-up.”
The flyer states the group’s ultimate vision is to change the world perspective and reality from one of impending calamity to a secure place for humanity.
“Hopefully, there will be more of an awareness of people from materialism, let’s say, to awareness that there is more meaning in life,” Switlick said. “More of awareness away from materialism.”
He said the group is secular, not religious, nor does it ask what a person’s religious belief may be.
Shoemaker-Beal said the tenets of the group are to study consciousness and to not be judgmental of anyone’s experience of spiritual or expanded dimensions of perception.
“To support research and local groups like this of people who have had expanding-awareness experience, who want to gather and meet and talk with one another,” Shoemaker-Beal said,
She said every world tradition has a group at its spiritual core called the mystics that come every few generations and revitalize the tradition of a certain religious denomination.
Wimberley High School student George Matthews has attended the meeting twice and said noetic means “how we know, what we know.”
“The first [meeting], I was able to meet people that were interested in things that I’m interested in,” Matthews said. “Like healing and different things about conspiracy theory and 2012.”
He said the group is trying to prepare people’s consciousness to be ready for 2012.
“The Mayan calendar is a galactic year and would go in from the top of the midline of the galaxy to the bottom of it,” Matthews said. “Someone else said the planets might align and create weird gravity, but I don’t know, there is a lot of things that I’ve heard. Maybe everything will stay the same.”
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