Intention Download Series
In a time of heightened popularity for the power of intention and thought, we feel it is vital to promote perspectives that are scientific, grounded, and wise, as well as inspiring and practical. Listen to noted scientific and spiritual leaders in a truly groundbreaking exploration of the science and practice of intention. We asked each of them the same four questions:
- What is your most significant personal experience of the power of intention?
- What scientific experiments or viewpoints have most affected your own view of intention?
- What practices do you see as most effective for cultivating our intention at the highest level?
- If you could focus our collective intentions on one thing, what would it be?
The result? An extraordinary collection of wisdom, wit, and inspiration. We hope you enjoy this series!
January 17, 2008 | 1980 reads
IONS VP, Marilyn Schlitz, completes the Intention Download series with this personal and engaging interview. She reveals her first out-of-body experience at age 15 during a motorcycle accident and her subsequent intuitively inspired intention-setting during her healing process.
September 26, 2007 | 2846 reads
Author of the “Conversation with God” series, Neale Donald Walsch explores intention as a co-creation with the Divine. 
September 17, 2007 | 4885 reads | 5 comments
Michael Bernard Beckwith, founder and Spiritual Director of the Agape International Spiritual Center, shares a story of personal intention and describes the importance of being open to possibility.
July 26, 2007 | 4688 reads | 4 comments
Dattatreya Siva Baba shares an understanding of intention that draws upon yogic insight, meditation practices, and a precise mapping of how the universe works.
July 14, 2007 | 3261 reads
Founder of the Sonoma Ashram in California and a teacher at the Nine Gates Mystery School, Babaji (Baba Harihar Ramji) discusses a unique perspective on intention as a state of tension in which something is desired.
July 11, 2007 | 2612 reads | 1 comment
Daniel J Siegel, M.D., is an award-winning educator, author and on the faculty of the Center for Culture, Brain, and Development at the UCLA School of Medicine. In this dialogue with IONS President James O’Dea, Dr. Siegel discusses intention in the context of interpersonal neural biology.
July 11, 2007 | 2661 reads
Internationally recognized spiritual teacher, writer and former co-director of Findhorn, David Spangler, offers an insightful perspective on intention in this discussion with IONS President, James O’Dea.
June 28, 2007 | 4259 reads | 3 comments
The release of intention and the intellect is the message from Sequoyah Trueblood of the Choctaw Nation, in this enlightening interview with IONS’ President, James O’Dea. Sequoyah's epiphany came while imprisoned, when he shifted to acceptance, stillness and gratitude for every moment.
June 27, 2007 | 3088 reads
In this interview with IONS President James O’Dea, Barbara Marx Hubbard explores the power of entering into imaginal realms in order to link our creative intent with the power of the universe.
June 27, 2007 | 2891 reads | 1 comment
Dr. Rollin McCraty, the Executive Vice President and Director of Research at the Institute of HeartMath, provides a scientific perspective on intention in this interview with IONS’ Senior Scientist, Dean Radin.
June 27, 2007 | 3184 reads
Can chocolate and ice crystals provide clues about the mystery of intention? In this engaging interview with IONS Senior Scientist, Dean Radin, he describes a double blind study with Dr. Emoto (of “What the Bleep” fame) in which 2000 people in Japan sent positive intentions to bottles of water in the IONS lab in California.
June 27, 2007 | 2723 reads | 2 comments
Zaadz founder and CEO Brian Johnson is a living testament to the power of intention. Zaadz has created an online oasis for 75,000 members, who seek to actualize their full human potential and embody that in the way they work, live, eat, and do business.
June 27, 2007 | 2705 reads | 1 comment
Roger Nelson’s Global Consciousness Project at Princeton University has long been a thorn in the side of a purely materialist worldview.
June 27, 2007 | 2654 reads | 2 comments
Self-awareness Institute founder and author Steven Sadleir has straddled two very different worlds – the world of high finance and the world of yogic mastery, in which he is an authorized lineage holder.
June 26, 2007 | 2633 reads | 1 comment
Join the distinguished academic psychologist Charles Tart for an insightful and humorous exploration of intention and its relationship with mindfulness, will, and enlightenment.
June 26, 2007 | 2715 reads
In this interview, mind-body medicine pioneer Bernie Siegel shares many stories of healing and transformation that illuminate how important a patient’s intention can be in facing illness. Patients expected to die have gone on to live remarkable lives as they commit themselves to beauty and service, which, in turn, signals the body to overcome the disease.
June 26, 2007 | 3338 reads | 3 comments
Dr. Larry Dossey’s interview about intention begins with his personal story, facing an inferiority complex as he entered college. His willing, wishing and trying nonetheless resulted in giving the valedictorian speech at graduation. In this discussion with Marilyn Schlitz, Dr. Dossey cautions us about the current popularity of books and movies that promote intention setting for purely self-centered reasons. 
June 26, 2007 | 3507 reads | 2 comments
Bestselling author Marianne Williamson believes that the highest possibility for our intentions is to align with the mind of God, so that what we manifest in the world is an expression of the highest intelligence and the greatest love of which we are capable. 
June 26, 2007 | 4036 reads | 6 comments
In this interview, quantum physicist and former Presidential candidate John Hagelin explains the difference between intention and consciousness, which opens the door on a fascinating discussion of how spending time in deep meditation in the “nuclear” level of thought can multiply the efficacy of intentions.
June 26, 2007 | 2545 reads
In this interview, Esalen’s co-founder Michael Murphy explores the further reaches of human potential, ranging from the philosophy of Sri Aurobindo to the bodybuilding practices of Arnold Schwarzenegger. His perception is that we are always a complex mix of conscious and unconscious intentions, often pulling in opposite directions. 
June 26, 2007 | 3539 reads
Dr. Ervin Laszlo’s 69 books have broken new ground in creating a unified theory that connects spiritual concepts such as the Akashic field with the findings of modern science. In this interview, he explains how practices that deepen our connection to the ground of being can result in greater coherence between minds at a distance.
June 26, 2007 | 3578 reads | 2 comments
Anthropologist, educator and author, Angeles Arrien offers insights into her views on intention. At age 33 she set a conscious intention through prayer and affirmation to do work that had heart and fire and meaning. She has lived that intention for almost 40 years now, surprised sometimes at the synchronicity that has led her to do the work she loves.
June 26, 2007 | 3295 reads
Biologist and author Rupert Sheldrake discusses intention as it relates to all living organisms in this discussion with IONS' Senior Scientist Dean Radin.
June 26, 2007 | 3217 reads
Renowned yoga teacher Shiva Rea explores the many facets of intention in this interview, contrasting the more mental idea of intention with the process of connecting to embodied essence and flow. In her experience, a mentally-directed set of goals often does not become “fertilized” with our life force, whereas aligning with organic impulses can lead to a more effortless process of manifestation.
June 25, 2007 | 3233 reads
The founder of IONS has a unique vantage point to view intentionality, having witnessed and helped facilitate many new scientific studies, as well as developing a theory of quantum holography that can help explain “miraculous” results that some healers produce. In this interview, he delves into theory but also into his personal story, sharing how group healing contributed to eradicating his own cancer. 
June 25, 2007 | 2917 reads
Former IONS President James O’Dea begins this interview by clarifying the relationship between attention and intention, thereby creating a more integral perspective that includes inner and outer transformation. In his deeply heartfelt and poetic style, James contrasts a more materialistic understanding of intention with the summoning of purpose in a life such as we witness with a Mahatma Gandhi.
