The Secret of Secrets: A Novel
by Dan Brown
Contents
Chapter 72
Overview
In the embassy limo, Katherine Solomon explains the “replication crisis” surrounding noetics and how controversial findings like Ganzfeld and retrocausality fuel attacks from skeptics. She argues that consciousness may be quantum and inherently difficult to measure repeatedly, making standard scientific expectations unfair in her field. Katherine Solomon then reveals this theory is not her headline discovery: her real finding is tangible and repeatable. In New York, Jonas Faukman learns Alex Conan has identified who stole Katherine Solomon’s manuscript and prepares to investigate the motive while Robert Langdon and Katherine Solomon remain unaccounted for.
Summary
In the embassy limousine crossing Manesfv Bridge, Katherine Solomon begins explaining to Robert Langdon why her work has attracted violent attention. She introduces the scientific “replication crisis,” arguing that many experiments suggesting nonlocal consciousness produce striking results that later cannot be consistently repeated, giving skeptics ammunition to discredit noetic research and ruin careers.
Katherine points to famous flashpoints in the debate, including the early-1980s Ganzfeld telepathy experiments and Daryl Bem’s “Feeling the Future,” which appeared to show participants recalling words they would only study later. Langdon recalls bringing Bem’s results to his physics colleague Townley Chisholm, who framed them as “retrocausality” and cited the delayed-choice quantum eraser as evidence that future observation choices can correlate with past outcomes.
Struggling with time running backward, Langdon pushes back. Katherine offers an alternative: a timeless universe in which past, present, and future coexist and “the universe knows all things.” She then reframes the replication issue, comparing it to athletics: a rare, exceptional performance can be real even if it is not repeatable.
Katherine argues that insisting on repeatability may be an unfair bar when studying consciousness because quantum reality is inherently probabilistic and unpredictable. She claims consciousness operates in the quantum realm and becomes especially difficult to measure because observing consciousness with consciousness creates a self-referential feedback problem.
When Langdon assumes this philosophical argument is her dangerous “discovery,” Katherine laughs and clarifies that it is only background. She insists her real discovery is tangible, experimental, and repeatable. The scene then shifts to Random House Tower in New York, where editor Jonas Faukman, unnerved despite recent arrests, worries because Robert Langdon and Katherine Solomon remain missing. Jonas Faukman knows Alex Conan has discovered who stole Katherine Solomon’s manuscript, and Jonas Faukman prepares a plan to uncover why it was taken.
Who Appears
- Katherine SolomonExplains replication crisis and quantum-consciousness theory; insists her real discovery is tangible and repeatable.
- Robert LangdonQuestions Katherine’s claims, recalls reading PSI research and discussing retrocausality with a physicist colleague.
- Jonas FaukmanRandom House editor; anxious about Langdon and Katherine’s whereabouts; plans to investigate the manuscript’s theft motive.
- Alex ConanInvestigator who has identified who stole Katherine’s manuscript; his finding prompts Jonas’s next steps.
- Townley ChisholmLangdon’s physics colleague, recalled explaining retrocausality and the delayed-choice quantum eraser.
- Daryl BemSocial scientist cited for “Feeling the Future,” an experiment suggesting retroactive influence on memory.
- GessnerNamed as a prominent skeptic who attacks noetics when results cannot be replicated.