Evidence for Consciousness-Related Anomalies in Random Physical Systems
D. I. Radin, R. D. Nelson

Foundations of Physics, Vol 19, No 12, pp 1499-1514, December 1989

Speculations about the role of consciousness in physical systems are
frequently observed in the literature concerned with the interpretation
of quantum mechanics. While only three experimental investigations can
be found on this topic in physics journals, more than 800 relevant
experiments have been reported in the literature of parapsychology. A
well-defined body of empirical evidence from this domain was reviewed
using meta-analytic techniques to assess methodological quality and
overall effect size. Results showed effects conforming to chance
expectation in control conditions and unequivocal non-chance effects in
experimental conditions. This quantitative literature review agrees with
the findings of two earlier reviews, suggesting the existence of some
form of consciousness-related anomaly in random physical systems.

Experiments in Remote Human/Machine Interaction
B. J. Dunne, R. G. Jahn

Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol 6, No 4, pp 311-332, 1992

Several extensive experimental studies of human/machine interactions
wherein the human operators and the target machines are separated by
distances of up to several thousand miles yield anomalous results
comparable in scale and character to those produced under conditions of
physical proximity. The output distributions of random binary events
produced by a variety of microelectronic random and pseudorandom
generator, as well as by a macroscopic random mechanical cascade,
display small but replicable and statistically significant mean shift
correlated with the remote operators' pre-stated intentions, and feature
cumulative achievement patterns similar to those of the corresponding
local experiments. Individual operator effect sizes distribute normally,
with the majority of participants contributing to the overall effect.
Patterns of specific count populations are also similar to those found
in the corresponding local experiments. The insensitivity of the size
and details of these results to intervening distance and time adds
credence to a large database for precognitive remote perception
experiments, and suggests that these two forms of anomaly may draw from
similar mechanisms of information exchange between human consciousness
and random physical processes.

Operator-Related Anomalies in a Random Mechanical Cascade
B. J. Dunne, R. D. Nelson, R. G. Jahn

Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, Princeton University,
Princeton, NJ 08544

Experiments with a "Random Mechanical Cascade" (RMC) apparatus have
yielded anomalous results correlated with pre-stated intentions of human
operators. Based upon a common statistical demonstration device, this
machine allows 9000 polystyrene balls to drop through a matrix of 330
pegs, scattering them into 19 collecting bins with a
populationdistribution that is approximately Gaussian. As the balls
enter the bins, exact counts are accumulated photoelectrically,
displayed as feedback for the operator, and recorded on-line. Operators
attempt to shift the mean of the developing distributions to the right
or left, relative to a concurrently generated baseline distribution. Of
the 25 operators who have completed one or more experimental series with
this device, four have achieved anomalous separations of their right and
left efforts, and two others have displayed significant separations of
either their right or left efforts from their baselines. The overall
mean difference of right versus left efforts concatenated across the
total data base of 87 series (3393 runs), has a probability against
chance of <10-4, with 15% of the individual series significant at p
<.05, and 63% conforming to the intended directions.

The concatenated results display a stark and curious asymmetry, in that
virtually all of the right vs. left separation is provided by the left
vs. baseline separation. This pattern also appears in the data of
several individual operators, and is not attributable to any known
physical asymmetry in the experimental system. In addition to the
systematic asymmetric deviation of the distribution means, cumulative
excesses in the variances of the left and right distributions relative
to baseline are also observed, progressing to statistical probabilities
of .003 in the left efforts, but only .2 in the right. More detailed
study of the individual bin population patterns reveals that while most
of the bins contribute to the overall mean shifts and variance changes,
those on the outer portions are more influential than those near the center.

Operator achievements tend to compound marginally but systematically in
cumulative deviation patterns characteristic of the particular
individuals and, in several cases, similar to those produced by the same
operators in microelectronic Random Event Generator (REG) experiments.
Within these characteristic patterns of achievement, some operators also
show sensitivities to secondary experimental parameters, such as
instructed vs. volitional establishment of the intended directions, or
the presence or absence of feedback displays. Other successful operators
seem insensitive to such options.

Two major protocol variations have been explored, one employing remote
operators, the other, multiple operators. In the former, operators with
well-established performance in local experiments attempt to influence
the bin distributions from remote locations up to several thousand miles
from the laboratory. Significant results are again obtained that are
quite similar to those of the local experiments, with the exception that
the overall right and left distribution variances are smaller than those
of the baseline. In the multiple operator experiments, early results
show little resemblance to those achieved by the participating
individuals alone.

A Linear Pendulum Experiment:
Effects of Operator Intention on Damping Rate
R. D. Nelson, G. J. Bradish, R. G. Jahn, and B. J. Dunne

Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol 8, No 4, pp 471-489, 1994

Also available in expanded form as Technical Note PEAR 93003,
Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Princeton University,
Princeton, NJ 08544

An attractive pendulum consisting of a two-inch crystal ball suspended
on a fused silica rod is the focus of an experiment to measure possible
effects of conscious intention on an analog physical system. The
pendulum is enclosed in a clear acrylic box, and provided with a
computer controlled mechanical system to release it from the same
starting height in repeated runs. A high speed binary counter registers
interruptions of photodiode beams, to measure velocities at the nadir of
the pendulum arc with microsecond accuracy. In runs of 100 swings,
taking about three minutes, operators attempt to keep swings high, i.
e., to decrease the damping rate (HI); to reduce swing amplitude, i. e.,
to increase the damping rate (LO); or to take an undisturbed baseline (BL).

Over a total of 1545 sets, generated by 42 operators, the HI \- LO
difference is significant in the direction of intention for five
individuals, and the difference between intention and baseline runs is
significant and positive for five other operators. The overall HI \- LO
difference is reduced to non-significance by strong negative
performances from several operators, four of whom have comparably large
scores in the direction opposite to intention. Analysis of variance
reveals significant internal structure in the database (main effects $F
sub {4, 189}~=~ 2.845,~~p~=~.025$). Subset comparisons indicate that
male operators tend to score higher than females, and that randomly
instructed trials tend toward higher scores than volitional trials,
especially for male operators. Trials generated with the operator in a
remote location have a larger effect size than the local trials.

While direct comparisons are not straightforward, it appears that
effects of operator intention on the pendulum damping rate may be
similar in magnitude and style to those in other human/machine
interaction experiments. Although this result fails to support an
experimental hypothesis that the analog nature of the pendulum
experiment would engender larger effect sizes, it does confirm a basic
similarity of consciousness effects across experiments using
fundamentally different physical systems.
===

Wishing for Good Weather: A Natural Experiment in Group Consciousness
Roger. D. Nelson

Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, School of Engineering/Applied
Science, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544

Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 47-58

Many human activities are affected by the weather, and there is a long
history of rituals and ceremonial efforts aimed at controlling it. In
modern societies, such efforts are largely vestigial and amount to
informal hoping or wishing for good weather for special occasions.
Reunion and commencement activities at Princeton University, involving
thousands of alumni, graduates, family and others, are held outdoors,
and it is often remarked that they are almost always blessed with good
weather. A comparison of the recorded rainfall in Princeton vs. nearby
communities shows that there is significantly less rain, less often, in
Princeton on those days with major outdoor activities.

REG Experiments: Equipment and Design

Introduction

Beginning about four decades ago, electronic random event generators
(REGs) have been used in a large number of laboratory experiments
designed to test the hypothesis that human consciousness might interact
directly with sensitive physical systems. The results provide clear
statistical evidence that the behavior of these devices deviates from
chance expectation in correlation with the pre-defined intentions of
participants in the experiments. In 1979, the Princeton Engineering
Anomalies Research Laborarory (PEAR) began collecting large databases in
an REG experiment with particularly rigorous controls and a variety of
optional parameters to assess the reliability and the nature of the
apparent mind/machine interaction. Over a 12 year period of primary
investigation, ten physical and psychological conditions were examined
as possible mediating variables in the experimental results. A number of
extensions and variations on the basic protocol have been explored,
using several random sources as well as a selection of different
physical systems whose performance is dependent in a fundamental way on
some form of random process. A brief summary of the REG results based on
an analysis of variance is available.

In 1993, a new protocol was developed to allow experimentation in the
field. A portable REG connected to a laptop or a palmtop computer,
allows freedom of movement for field applications. Typically the device
is brought into a group situation, to record data continuously in the
background while the participants are engaged with each other or the
ongoing events. A crucial difference between these FieldREG experiments
and the laboratory REG work is that in the former, there is no assigned
intention to interact with or influence the device. Instead, the
FieldREG has the role of a simple monitor, with the purpose of recording
data that will subsequently be examined for deviations that correspond
with pre-specified time periods. Both the laboratory and field versions
of this research have accompanying calibrations and control data which
confirm that the random sources are of high quality, delivering data
that conform to theoretical expectations in control conditions.

Equipment

The PEAR program has used three generations of random event generators,
with different primary sources of white noise, but important common
features of design. The original "benchmark" experiment used a
commercial random source developed by Elgenco, Inc., the core of which
is proprietary. Elgenco's engineering staff describe the proprietary
module as "solid state junctions with precision pre-amplifiers,"
implying processes that rely on quantum tunneling to produce an
unpredictable, broad-spectrum white noise in the form of low-amplitude
voltage fluctuations. The PEAR Portable REG uses Johnson noise in
resistors, which is so-called "thermal noise" and is also a quantum
level phenomenon that produces a well-behaved broad-spectrum
fluctuation. The PEAR Micro-REG uses a field effect transistor (FET) for
the primary noise source, again relying on quantum tunneling, and
providing completely uncorrelated fundamental events that compound to an
unpredictable voltage fluctuation.

In all cases, the design begins with white noise, for example in the
PEAR Portable REG, a flat spectrum ± 1 db from 1100 Hz to 30 KHz. A
low end cutoff at 1000 Hz eliminates frequencies at and below the
data-sampling rate. This filtering, together with appropriate
amplification and clipping, produces an approximate square wave with
unpredictable temporal variation. Sampling at a constant 1 KHz rate is
typical, although special sources have been constructed allowing higher
rates (up to 2 MHz). Analog and digital processes are completely
isolated by alternating these operations to exclude contamination of the
analog noise train by digital pulses. To eliminate biases of the mean
that might arise from such environmental stresses as temperature change
or component aging, an exclusive or (XOR) mask is applied to the digital
data stream. This is either an alternating 1/0 pattern or a more complex
mask comprising an array of all bytes with equal occurrence of 1/0. Both
exclude bias of the mean, in principle, and the latter also excludes all
short-lag bit-to-bit and byte-to-byte autocorrelations. Finally, data
for the PEAR experiments are recorded as "trials" that are the sum of N
samples (e. g., 200 bits) from the primary sequence, thus further
mitigating any residual short-lag autocorrelations. The result is a data
sequence that conforms to the appropriate theoretical binomial
distribution and to its normal approximation.

The final output of the PEAR devices is a sequence of bytes presented to
the computer's serial port, which are then formed into a sequence of
trials (typically sums of 200 bits), generated at 1 per second.
Calibrations on all of the devices show behavior that closely models
theoretical expectations for mean, variance, skew and kurtosis.

REG Experiment Design

Given a sequence of trials with a well-defined expectation for the mean
and standard deviation (100, 7.071), participants try to change the
output according to pre-stated intentions. The situation is analogous to
trying to get more "heads" or more "tails" while flipping an unbiased
coin. The REG is in this sense a very sophisticated, high speed
electronic "coin-flipper", connected to a computer for reliable data
collection in controlled experiments. The computer also allows immediate
computation of statistics, and feedback of various kinds including
graphic displays of the accumulating deviations from what is expected
for an undisturbed random process.

The basic design for laboratory experiments using the REG technology
constitutes a final level of protection against artifactual sources of
apparent effect. It is a "tripolar" design, where participants generate
data under three conditions of pre-specified intention, namely to
achieve high (HI) or low (LO) means, or to generate baseline (BL) data.
In addition to this primary variable, a number of secondary parameters
are represented as options that can be explored. These include the
identity of the individual operators (participants), including robust
comparisons that are possible among a subset of prolific operators who
do many replications of the experiment. A related, simpler variable is
the operator's gender, including operator pairs who may be of the same
or opposite sex, and who may be "bonded" pairs. Different sources for
the data include the true random sources described earlier, and both
hardware and algorithmic pseudorandom generators. Other parameters
include the distance the operator is from the machine, up to thousands
of miles, and analogous separations in time, up to several hours or a
few days. The information density (bits per second) and the number of
trials in runs have been varied, as have the instruction mode, feedback
type, and the replication number or serial position. A number of
publications giving details are available.
===

FieldREG Measurements in Egypt:
Resonant Consciousness in Sacred Sites

Roger D. Nelson

Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research, Princeton University,
Princeton, NJ 08544

Technical Note PEAR 97002

Abstract

Over a two week period, various "sacred sites" in Egypt were visited by
a group with interests in the spiritual qualities of the ancient
temples, pyramids, and tombs. The group expected to engage in informal
ceremonies including chanting and meditation, to pay respect to the
sacred sites of the ancient Egyptians. A portable random event generator
and palmtop computer were used to generate and record ongoing random
sequences accompanied by time-stamped indexing and onsite notes.
Preplanned hypotheses predicted anomalous deviations of the sequence
during visits to the special places forming the core of the sacred
sites, including the inner sanctum or Holy of Holies in the temples, and
the interior chambers of the pyramids. A further prediction was made
that coherence or resonance building activities of the group, including
chanting and meditation in these special locations, would correlate with
anomalous deviations. Both formal hypotheses were confirmed, with a
combined associated probability of 2.7 times 10e-6.
===

http://noosphere.princeton.edu/
Global Correlations in Random Data

The Global Consciousness Project, also called the EGG Project, is an
international, multidisciplinary collaboration of scientists, engineers,
artists and others. This website introduces methods, technology, and
empirical results under the "Scientific Work" menu below, and gives
background, interpretations, and implications under "Aesthetic View".

We have been collecting data from a global network of random event
generators since August, 1998. The network has grown to about 65 host
sites around the world running random colors per egg per sec custom
software that reads the output of physical random number generators and
records a 200-bit trial sum once every second, continuously over months
and years. The data are transmitted over the internet to a server in
Princeton, NJ, USA, where they are archived for later analysis.
Individual data create a random tapestry of color. The dot below
indicates their global coherence.

Our purpose is to examine subtle correlations that reflect the presence
and activity of consciousness in the world. We have learned that when
millions of us share intentions and emotions the GCP/EGG network shows
correlations. We can interpret this as evidence for participation in a
growing global consciousness. It suggests we have the capability and
responsibility for conscious evolution. We make the world we live in,
and we can create a Planetary Smile.