Hot Flash Forward on Dan Brown’s New Book, “The Lost Symbol”

© 2009 by Joyce Mason

On Hot Flashbacks, Cool Insights, we like to play the symbols, not lose them as in the title of Dan Brown’s latest book, The Lost Symbol. But I found out recently that I haven’t lost my touch for inklings! Brown’s new book features an organization you’ve heard a lot about recently on this blog. You may recall our wonderful, two-article series by guest writer Janet Walden about the Institute of Noetic Sciences (IONS) last August. (To flash back, visit IONS: Tools to Change the World and IONS at the Movies.)

Unbeknownst to me—and certainly to Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, President of IONS—it turns out that Dr. Katherine Solomon, the female protagonist in the novel, bears remarkable similarities to Marilyn Schlitz. Dr. Schlitz only found out about her brush with fictional fame on the book’s release date. Katherine is a composite of her and some other noetic scientists. Noetic science figures prominently in the story. I thought you’d like to know that life was anticipating art on Hot Flashbacks! Hopefully, you were fascinated enough by Janet’s articles on this organization to be cheering with me about its 15 minutes of fame. I am thrilled to have played a small part in the current wave of “positive IONS!” (Have you noticed how the Google ads on this site, keyword-based, think we’re talking about positive ion air machines, whenever the acronym IONS appears?)

Because I consider IONS to be one of the most on-purpose and in-integrity organizations dealing with the big issues that bring science and spirituality together, I believe spirited people everywhere should be applauding this depiction of the organization in a mainstream novel that’s selling like hotcakes. It’s a spirited living breakthrough. Brown’s newest book rose immediately on its September 15 release date to #1 on Amazon, sold one million copies overall the first day, and broke nearly all historical sales records for fiction—just for starters! This means that millions of people around the world are being exposed to the merger of science and spirituality through its pages.

Stay tuned for an NBC "Dateline" special, “Secrets of the Lost Symbol,” airing October 16 that will focus on the symbolism in Dan Brown’s book and feature IONS scientists Marilyn Mandala Schlitz and Dean Radin and the work of IONS.

I feel a part of the excitement of these blessings that IONS is reaping, even if my involvement is “fringe” and from the auspices of a little fish blog in the deep blue sea of millions of them. I thought you might like some links to learn more about how Marilyn and IONS are greeting this surprise gift:

In the Spotlight on IONS Home Page – Follow links if interested in a weekly audio course on the book.

NPR: Woman Read’s Dan Brown Novel, Discovers Herself – Marilyn Schlitz wakes up to instant fame

Marilyn Schlitz, PhD: Lead Character in "The Lost Symbol?" – Short You Tube video by Marilyn

I haven’t read the book yet, but it’s next in my reading queue. If anyone has read it and would like to comment without spoilers--or offer a guest blog review, please contact me.

Since I’m over the Moon for the good fortune of IONS, here’s an ending quote by IONS’ founder, Astronaut Edgar Mitchell. He is describing his trip home from the Apollo 14 Moon-landing mission:

"Up in my cockpit window every two minutes, the Earth, the Moon, the Sun and the whole 360-degree, panorama of the heavens and that was a powerful and overwhelming experience. And suddenly I realized the molecules of my body and the molecules of the spacecraft and the molecules of the bodies of my partners were prototyped and manufactured in some ancient generation of stars. And that was an overwhelming sense of oneness, of connective-ness. It wasn't them and us, it was...that's me, that's all of it...it's...it's ONE THING!' And it was accompanied by an ecstasy, a sense...OH MY GOD...WOW...YES! An insight, an epiphany."


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