Every so often, a cultural moment arrives that signals a shift in how society thinks about mind, matter, and meaning. Dan Brown’s new novel, The Secret of Secrets, is one of those moments.
Brown has always woven real-world research, artifacts, and organizations into his fiction — but this time, he opens with a striking statement:
“All artwork, artifacts, symbols, and documents in this novel are real. All experiments, technologies, and scientific results are true to life. All organizations in this novel exist.”
In other words, this isn’t just storytelling. It’s a mirror of what’s already happening in science, technology, and culture.
Consciousness goes mainstream
The heart of The Secret of Secrets is consciousness. Not the narrow definition of the brain producing awareness as a side effect of neurons firing, but a far larger picture:
- Nonlocal consciousness: “Consciousness is everywhere. Consciousness permeates the universe. Consciousness is, in fact, one of the fundamental building blocks of our world.”
- The brain as a receiver: “In the nonlocal model, your brain does not create consciousness, but rather your brain experiences what already exists.”
- Filtering and inhibition: “Our brains filter most of what’s available so we don’t become overwhelmed. But in death, psychedelics, or sudden moments of clarity, those filters fall away — and we see more of reality.”
These are the very ideas Wyrd has been advancing through its research tools: measuring coherence, tuning resonance, and studying what happens when filters open.
The anomalies that won’t go away
For centuries, experiences like telepathy, precognition, out-of-body states, and sudden genius have been pushed to the margins under the label “paranormal.” But as Brown’s characters point out:
- “These phenomena are inexplicable, but they are real. They are true anomalies… and they so fundamentally undermine the current model of consciousness that we now find ourselves at a crossroads of human understanding.”
- “The question is not if these phenomena are real. Science has proven they are. The question is why so many of us remain blind to them.”
At Wyrd, we take this exact position. Anomalies are not noise. They are signals pointing to a deeper model of reality. Our Wyrdoscopes and Wyrd Lights are designed to capture these signals with rigour and transparency.
Superposition, retrocausality and time out of joint
The novel also introduces readers to some of the more mind-bending implications of quantum science:
- Superposition: particles (and perhaps minds) exist in multiple potential states at once, only crystallizing when observed.
- Retrocausality: “Today’s experiences are the result of tomorrow’s decisions.” Experiments suggest the future may influence the past in ways our classical models can’t explain.
This matches the kind of anomalous temporal correlations we see in consciousness research — what Wyrd frames through the Model of Pragmatic Information (MPI) as entanglement stabilised across time.
The illusion of separation
Perhaps the most powerful theme in Brown’s novel is the dismantling of the illusion that we are isolated, disconnected individuals:
- “Our conscious minds delude us and trick us into seeing disconnectedness where there is only unity.”
- “Future generations will see that our perception of being alone in the world was once humankind’s greatest shared delusion.”
Wyrd’s mission is to show, with data and experience, that this is not poetry but science: coherence is real, measurable, and can be cultivated.
Death, psychedelics, and the full spectrum of consciousness
Another striking thread is what happens when the brain’s filters collapse. Brown’s characters point to research showing how near-death experiences and psychedelics allow people to access a vastly expanded bandwidth of reality:
- “As he died, his GABA levels dropped precipitously. In his final moments, all of his brain filters were gone. The entire death experience was flowing in — with nothing blocked out.”
- “Expanded consciousness, universal connection, unbounded love, spiritual awakening, creative genius. They all seemed out of reach — the products of rare minds or states — until now.”
This dovetails directly with Wyrd’s exploration of coherence states that mirror what mystics, near-death experiencers, and psychonauts have described — only now with measurement, transparency, and reproducibility.
From secrecy to open science
The novel doesn’t shy away from the history of government programs like Stargate, which tested remote viewing and psychic perception under military secrecy.
- “At some point… skepticism itself becomes irrational.”
- “Stargate never failed. It simply evolved into something far greater.”
For Wyrd, the lesson is clear: secrecy damages trust. The future of consciousness research must be transparent, participatory, and oriented toward collective benefit rather than control. That is exactly the ethos driving our open, ethical, and peer-reviewed approach.
A cultural wave
When a global bestselling author devotes his latest novel to these ideas, it signals more than entertainment. It signals that the cultural imagination is ready for them. That millions of readers will be introduced to nonlocal mind, coherence, retrocausality, and unity not as fringe speculation, but as living questions.
For Wyrd, this is a massive cultural tailwind. We are no longer working in the shadows of “paranormal” or “pseudoscience.” We are standing in the middle of a cultural shift that Brown’s book has just amplified worldwide.
Why this matters
We are living through the dawn of a consciousness civilization. And now, even popular fiction is catching up with what researchers, explorers, and pioneers have known for decades.
At Wyrd, we are not speculating. We are building the tools to measure, model, and work with this expanded reality — so that humanity can learn to live coherently within it.
Curious about how this looks outside the pages of a novel? Explore how Wyrd is turning the very questions Dan Brown raises into real experiments, data, and technologies at gowyrd.org.