In 1971, astronaut Edgar Mitchell was aboard Apollo 14 on its return spaceflight from the moon and had a profoundly mind-blowing experience while gazing down at planet Earth.
Several years later, he created the Institute of Noetic Sciences—Noetic is derived from the Greek word noetikos, meaning "intuitive knowing"—to explore and document what he dubbed "inner space."
IONS, as it is known today, is a thriving organization for scientists also interested in consciousness. PCMag met with cognitive neuroscientist Dr. Julia Mossbridge, Director of the Innovation Lab at IONS, in San Francisco recently to talk about the transcendent mind (also the title of her latest book) and why IONS might have a solution to Silicon Valley geek burnout.
"I've been giving talks at Silicon Valley companies and we've uncovered a real problem in the industry—mistaking work engagement for what is really an inability to switch off and do any self-care at all—essentially coders cracking up under pressure," she said. "At Google they call it the Superhero-Burnout Syndrome. Many engineers think of themselves as machines, yet they don't expect their devices to diagnose and fix themselves. But they assume their minds and bodies will reboot. It just doesn't work like that."
Mossbridge wants to flip the model of the "Quantified Self" from using devices to monitor and "coach" to one that also examines events in inner space, like emotions and spiritual experiences. Mossbridge is an advisor to many tech startups in this arena, including Entangled and Focus@Will, and wants geeks to become more self-aware than just the (literal) steps they're taking towards a fitness goal.
"I want to use technology to reveal what's going on inside us," Mossbridge told PCMag. "We just held our third 'Hackation' [hackathon + vacation] at the tranquil IONS retreat center in Petaluma, California. Engineers and coders from many companies, including Google and Dreamworks, took a weekend off to join us, rest, learn more about themselves, exchange ideas, share new concepts and yes, do some coding too."
The "Hackation" produced an app, due out in early 2017, but it's under wraps for now. In the meantime, Mossbridge has explored using technology to document inner space in her app, Choice Compass.
Choice Compass uses patent-pending algorithms to detect and record heart rhythms. Mossbridge tested it on hundreds of people and found mathematical regularities in heart rhythms while people were thinking of positive versus negative life choices. We tried it out and found it strangely prescient.
Here's how it works: download the app to your phone (Android or iOS), and type in two options for something about which you need to make a decision. Then, clear your mind, place your middle or index finger (non-dominant hand) on the camera lens. Keep it there and focus on choice one for about 50 seconds. It helps to freely pontificate out loud on the pros and cons, if you can. As you do this, you'll notice the app records rhythms from the blood flow detected in your finger's pulse (you need relatively warm fingers, as the app is sensitive to heat).
Rest, briefly, after choice one (no more than 60 seconds because the app compares physiological measures within a short time period) and then repeat for choice two. Once the heartbeat timing has been sent through the algorithm, the choice that engendered the most "joyful" response is revealed—the one that matches the more positive responses of the test participants, anyway. Hopefully you'll feel good about taking the path of least resistance.
It's certainly more fun than calling on the mighty Magic 8 ball or one of the thousands of Tarot or Astrology offerings in the various app stores. And, in terms of mind/body connection, considering you're using actual contact with your corporeal self, it feels rather real.
"It's based on a combination of ideas from 'Unconscious Thought Theory' and psychophysiology," said Mossbridge, "And it draws on signals—like heart rhythms—that come from the unconscious, as opposed to rational mind, to ascertain a 'joyful' state."
As for how Choice Compass and Hackations at IONS will help Silicon Valley types, they both draw attention to inner space, turning the world of technology, as Mossbridge says, "inside out."
"I'm working on bringing Hackations to tech companies—we're in talks with some of the big Silicon Valley players right now—to provide a 'productivity retreat' that integrates bursts of productivity—for designers, engineers, and coders who enjoy spending time working with their 'tribe'—with self-care skills like eat well, take naps, meditate, and shift your brain into a flow state.
"The draw, for them, is not just an opportunity to get away from their desks but also to use their extraordinary minds to enhance and explore new ideas. We've found improved productivity follows improved self-care, because it turns out that people, like machines, need maintenance."
Sadly Edgar Mitchell, the astronaut from Apollo 14, and founder of IONS, passed away recently, so didn't get to see Mossbridge's tech tools and processes that map the inner workings on the human mind/body connection. But it feels awfully close to his vision. And, if Silicon Valley turns their data science gods onto something deeper than analyzing traffic spikes, the Bay Area might be returning to its cool counterculture roots for a whole new era.