"By the end of each year’s course students reported feeling increased optimism, hope, and a desire to learn more, and a corresponding decrease in feelings of depression, anxiety, and nihilism."
—Kathleen Noble, et al, regarding the University of Washington Minor in Consciousness

Biography

Dr. Kathleen (Kate) Noble is Professor of Consciousness in the School of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math at the University of Washington, Bothell (UWB). She is also a licensed clinical and counseling psychologist with more than 20 years of practice focusing on the development of resilience and psycho-spiritual well-being.

She has also authored books and research articles about the psychology of giftedness, the development of giftedness in women, and the social and emotional effects of early university entrance. Her current research focuses on the transformative effects of studying consciousness from a transdisciplinary and integral perspective on students’ personal and professional lives.

She has been a UW faculty member since 1990, first on the Seattle campus where she directed the Robinson Center for Young Scholars, and since 2010 on the Bothell campus where she created and directs the Minor in Consciousness and the Center for Education and Research in Consciousness.

By Kathleen D Noble

Sound of a Silver Horn

By Kathleen D Noble
‎Fawcett, 1994

Papers of Note

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Why Consciousness? Teaching and Learning at the Leading Edge of Mind Science

Kathleen D Noble, John J Crotty, Aarshin Karande, Alexa Lavides, Andrzej Montaño
NeuroQuantology, 14/2, 2016
doi: 10.14704/nq.2016.14.2.936

Abstract: Interest in the study of consciousness is growing rapidly among the general population but it has yet to make inroads into mainstream higher education because of the long-standing taboo that has denied the subject legitimacy as a serious area of academic inquiry. In 2014, however, the University of Washington Bothell campus formally launched a transdisciplinary and integral Minor in Consciousness, the first of its kind at a public research institution in North America. A four-year study explored the intellectual and personal effects of studying consciousness from this perspective for undergraduate students who enrolled in the first course in the Minor’s sequence during Autumn Quarter 2012, 2013, 2014, or 2015. Results indicated that students’ beliefs about consciousness and reality changed significantly over a ten-week period, becoming markedly less materialistic and more open to information that they had previously eschewed. By the end of each year’s course students reported feeling increased optimism, hope, and a desire to learn more, and a corresponding decrease in feelings of depression, anxiety, and nihilism. Introducing the study of consciousness within the context of scientific revolutions and paradigm shifts proved particularly efficacious and may be a useful strategy for those who are interested in teaching or learning about consciousness in less than supportive academic environments.

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Fostering Spiritual Intelligence: Undergraduates’ Growth in a Course About Consciousness

William N Green and Kathleen D Noble
Advanced Development Journal, 2013
doi:

Abstract: Despite a growing interest among college and university students in exploring questions about spirituality through higher education, few are provided with opportunities to do so. An integral approach to the study of consciousness addresses this gap by examining theories of consciousness and spirituality from diverse epistemological perspectives, including Western science and non-Western wisdom traditions. This study explored the intellectual and personal effects of this approach for undergraduate students who were enrolled in an Honors course about consciousness at the University of Washington during Winter Quarter 2008. Results indicated that students became more open to diverse ideas about consciousness, more self-aware, and more committed to meditation and self-reflection. Implications for the growing discourse about spirituality in higher education and the development of spiritual intelligence are discussed.



Who's Who in Open Science

Julia Assante   near-death experience, archaeology, art history of the ancient near east Henry Bauer   electrochemistry, history, philosophy, sociology of science Mario Beauregard   neuroscience, neuropsychology, mystical experience, postmaterialist science Marc Bekoff   animal behavior, cognitive ethology, behavioral ecology, compassionate conservation Daryl Bem   psi, self-perception theory of attitude formation, social psychology, physics William Bengston   energy healing, sociology, research methods and statistics Dick Bierman   consciousness and quantum physics, artificial intelligence Stephen E. Braude   parapsychology, philosophical psychopathology James Carpenter   parapsychology, clinical psychology Deepak Chopra   consciousness, mind-body medicine, endocrinology Allan Leslie Combs   consciousness, neuropsychology, systems sciences Larry Dossey   internal medicine, Explore, Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine Brenda J Dunne   PEAR laboratory, consciousness, psychology Peter Fenwick   neuropsychiatry, near-death experience, consciousness Bruce Greyson   near-death experience, psychiatry, neurobehavioral science Stuart Hameroff   consciousness, microtubules, anesthesiology Robert Jahn   PEAR laboratory, physics, aerospace engineering Brian Josephson   Nobel Prize in physics, tunnelling effect in superconductivity Menas Kafatos   computational physics, astrophysics, consciousness Bernardo Kastrup   metaphysical idealism, reconfigurable computing, AI Stanley Krippner   consciousness, psychology, dream research Pim van Lommel   near-death experience, cardiology David Luke   altered states of consciousness, transpersonal psychology, parapsychology Lisa Miller   clinical psychology, mind-body medicine, spirituality in children Kathleen Noble   consciousness, clinical and counseling psychology, early university entrance Alexander Moreira-Almeida   spiritualily and health, mind-brain problem, mediums, psychiatry Elaine Morgan   the aquatic ape hypothesis, evolutionary anthropology Roger Nelson   Global Consciousness Project, experimental psychology, psychophysiology, Marilyn Monk   molecular biology, epigenetics, methylation of DNA, deprogramming Adrian Parker   the ganzfeld technique, psychical research, clinical psychology J Kim Penberthy   mindfulness, psychiatry, clinical psychology Gerald Pollack   the fourth phase of water, medical and biological engineering Diane Powell   consciousness, autistic savants, neuropsychiatry, clinical psychiatry Dean Radin   consciousness, psychology, physics, electrical engineering Beverly Rubik   biophysics, consciousness, spiritual healing, energy medicine Marilyn Schlitz   mind-body medicine, parapsychology Gary Schwartz   spirit detection, life after death, dream precognition, mediums Rupert Sheldrake   morphic resonance, telepathy, the sense of being stared at, biology Stephan A Schwartz   remote viewing in archaeology, nonlocal consciousness Rudolph Tanzi   Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's, genetics and aging, neurology Russell Targ   lasers, remote viewing, Stanford Research Institute Charles T Tart   transpersonal psychology, altered states of consciousness, dreaming, hypnosis Neil Theise   multi-organ adult stem cell plasticity, pathology, theoretical biology, complexity Jim Tucker   psychiatry, neurobehavioral science, children who remember previous lives Cassandra Vieten   IONS, mindfulness, addiction, mind-body medicine Harald Walach   consciousness, homeopathy, complementary medicine, clinical psychology Marjorie Woollacott   meditation, near-death experience, human physiology, neuroscience
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