My dad made us crack codes to find our Christmas presents: Dan Brown

At 61, Dan Brown is chasing his most ambitious puzzle yet — the human mind. On a video call from what he says is his library in New Hampshire though it looks uncannily like his protagonist Robert Langdon’s cryptic chambers, the author spoke about his first book in eight years.

‘The Secret of Secrets’ is built on the little-known field of noetic science or the mystery of human consciousness. In a chat with Mohua Das, he spoke about his obsession with codes, and why the mind may be the next big frontier of hidden knowledge

Your books have long played with the power of the mind, cracking codes of the Illuminati, Freemasons, and Dante. But in your new thriller you turn inward, to the mind itself. What took you down that rabbit hole?

I like to write about big topics such as the life of Jesus, and artificial intelligence. But there really is no topic bigger than human consciousness. It’s the lens through which we see ourselves and the world.

I always knew I wanted to write about it. I started a little bit in ‘The Lost Symbol’ but that was me getting my feet wet. It took me 10 years to wrap my head around consciousness enough to write a thriller. What drew me in was realising we’re at the cusp of a revolution in how we look at our minds, our interconnection to people, and the way consciousness works.

Your novels always open with a ‘FACT’ page, but this one says even the experiments are real. Did ‘The Secret of Secrets’ finally close the gap between faith and science and did it change your own sense of the afterlife?

Definitely. I began this book a sceptic of all things paranormal and noetic and came out the other side an absolute believer.

I’m no longer afraid of death. The deeper we go into science, the more it fuses with spirituality. Particle physicists in noetic science have conversations that sound almost spiritual, describing the mind as a receiver or trusting unseen forces. Scriptures across traditions also speak of “receiving” the word of God or wisdom flowing into you.

What’s happened now is that Langdon has gone full circle, realising that ancients and moderns are often saying the same things.

The FACT page is simply to remind readers that the science and locations are real. The characters are fictional, but they move through a real landscape. When I reference a govt document, an experiment, a tower, those things exist. For me, that makes the fiction more interesting and relevant.

You manage to make something as dense as soul science rather accessible.

That’s the challenge. To take a complicated topic and make it readable for someone who’s never studied it or can’t even spell ‘consciousness’.

I read mountains of books, then spoke to physicists and noetic scientists. I use analogy and examples to explain the science of consciousness. Experiments in precognition, out-of-body experiences…the things that seem impossible. A baseball hitting a kid in the head and him waking up speaking Mandarin Chinese.

That sounds impossible, but it happened. Which means our model of consciousness is incorrect.

Half the fun of a Dan Brown mystery is the way you turn cities into puzzle boards with ambigrams and cryptexes to the riddles in Prague’s cathedrals and clocks in this book. What drew you to this way of storytelling?

My dad was a mathematician who loved codes. We grew up without a television, so we did puzzles, music, and reading.

On Christmas morning, there would be no presents under the tree. Just a code. You had to solve it to find your presents. For me, codes have always been fun.

Across the series, Langdon has had a brilliant woman by his side yet he’s famously unromantic. This time his bond with Katherine feels more intense but still restrained. Why tease readers waiting for him to have a love life?

Well, Langdon does have a love life. He wakes up in bed with a woman he’s known his whole life, someone he’s very attracted to. You don’t see it in the narrative — the book takes place in under a day — but they end up in bed together. For Langdon, that’s an enormous leap. In this book, I wanted to give him a real romance.

You have a loyal readership, but critics have called your writing ‘tour guide prose’ or ‘self-parody.’ Govts, the Vatican, even scientists bristle at your books. Why do your novels trigger such extreme reactions?

It’s the nature of creative arts. Some people are going to like it, some people are not. Of course, you wish everybody loved what you do, but that’s unrealistic. Everybody has different tastes. These books spark dialogue, and that’s important. If you don’t like my book, there are thousands of others you can read. I’m just grateful for so many fans, especially in India. When I toured there for ‘Inferno’ in 2016, the reception was incredible.

I’ve wanted to set a Langdon book in India.

Why haven’t you, given your interest in Hindu iconography and symbolism?

It’s complicated for a Western person to understand. I’m trying to learn but I feel like I don’t know enough yet to write about it. It would be almost disrespectful. But who knows? Life is long.

In an age of AI, what do you see as the next big frontier of hidden knowledge?

I see human consciousness as the great unknown frontier — more than space, oceans, or any technology. It’s the most important subject I’ve ever researched or written about.

You’re also co-creating a Netflix series of this book. How different is screenwriting from writing novels?

Screenwriting is minimalism — distilling a novel’s essence without the tools novelists rely on, like shifting viewpoints, flashbacks, or internal monologue. What I enjoyed this time was the collaboration with Carlton Cuse (showrunner of ‘Lost’). After seven years of working alone on this book, it was fun to be in a writers’ room, read pages, and give feedback.