Robert Langdon wakes in a lavish Four Seasons Prague suite to his phone alarm playing Grieg’s “Morning Mood.” He enjoys the hotel’s unexpected upgrade and shares a tender morning with Dr. Katherine Solomon, the prominent noetic scientist traveling with him, after comforting her earlier from an intense nightmare she blames on absinthe.

Langdon prepares for his usual morning routine—jogging to the Strahov Swimming Center for laps—despite Katherine urging him to stay. As he leaves the suite, he passes a lobby display advertising Katherine’s Charles University lecture at Prague Castle and recalls the previous night’s event in Vladislav Hall.

In the lecture flashback, Katherine introduces noetic science as the study of consciousness and publicly calls on Langdon. Langdon explains that the most universal religious symbol is the halo, elaborating on variations like the “radiant crown” and linking it to the Statue of Liberty as a modern example associated with enlightenment and elevated consciousness.

Katherine uses the exchange to pivot to her thesis: the accepted model—that consciousness is created by the brain and located inside the head—is, she claims, fundamentally wrong. The declaration shocks the audience, and she frames the rest of her talk as a provocative rethinking of where consciousness originates and resides.

Back in the present, Langdon remembers Katherine has an 8 a.m. meeting with Czech neuroscientist Dr. Brigita Gessner, who invited her to Prague, though Langdon privately dislikes Gessner after meeting her. In the hotel lobby, Langdon finds black-clad police with German shepherds conducting a search; the manager dismisses it as a “minor” false alarm. Langdon heads out into light snowfall to jog anyway.