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Subtle Energies and Uncharted Realms of the Mind The Global Consciousness Project (GCP)
How do you measure Global Consciousness? Nelson started his presentation by describing the background of the GCP. For many years, researchers have accumulated evidence demonstrating that human consciousness, when intentionally focused, can influence physical events. As just one example, Nelson reviewed experiments at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research lab, which has been collecting data for two decades using Random Event Generators (REGs). Simply described, REGs are digital coin-tossers capable of producing a long series of random bits of information (usually 1s and 0s). Under normal conditions, REGs produce a steady stream of random 1s and 0s, but the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research lab has shown repeatedly that REGs can be intentionally influenced to bring about a less random sequence of information. What they have found is that human intentionality brings greater order to the data. As Nelson put it, "the accumulated research shows a tiny but highly significant correlation indicating that consciousness can weakly, but measurably affect the physical world. What seems to happen is that the ‘noisiness’ of the random sequence is changed very slightly. The amount of information or structure is increased and entropy or disorder is reduced." In other words, when humans intentionally focus on a REG, they can influence it to display more order and greater coherence in a seemingly random series of information that it produces. If human consciousness can influence REGs on a small and local scale, then can we imagine this happening on a global scale? If an individual human mind can bring greater coherence to a random series of events, then does this happen already on a global scale without us even noticing it? This is exactly what Nelson is now trying to find out through the work of the GCP. To do this, Nelson has contacted people all over the world who are interested in hosting an "EGG," which is an REG with software to collect data and report it to a central server over the internet. used specifically for the project. The term "EGG" is actually a play on the term "EEG," (meaning an electroencephalogram) and stands for "electro-gaiagram." This metaphorically suggests a technology like that used to examine human brain waves, but applied on a grand scale in an attempt to detect signs of a possible global consciousness. A majority of the 30 EGGs Nelson has out in the field collecting data for the GCP are located in Europe and America, but there is coverage over much of the globe, with EGGs in Brazil, India,Fiji, South Africa, and Indonesia, as well. For about 2 years, Nelson and his team have been collecting data using the EGGs to see if something which might be called "global consciousness" does, in fact, have a detectable influence on the physical world. Tracking and Interpreting the Data The first actual data were recorded by the working network of globally situated EGGs on August 5th, 1998. Serendipitously, just three days later, the attention of the world was heightened in response to the bombing of the American embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania, Africa. In the prediction registry describing events to be examined, Nelson said, "These terrorist attacks exemplify a tearing of the social fabric that would shock a global consciousness temporarily." Thus, the GCP had its first major event in which analysis could determine whether the EGGs would display unusual coherence, a decrease in the entropy of the sequence of 1s and 0s. As he and his team at the GCP had predicted, this event did indeed show a statistically significant response. In fact, the probability that the EGGs would display the spike that they registered at the time news of the bombings was spreading around the world was less than 1 in 1000. Since this first event, Nelson's team has looked at about 50 global events, as reflected in the data from the EGGs. Nelson mentioned that some events have been correlated with large spikes in the random data while others show little or no effect. For example, during New Year's Eve 1998 to 1999, there was a very strong slope in the graph of the random numbers right around midnight. But a year later, for the Y2K New Year's Eve, the departure from expectation was relatively modest by the same measure. Because the Y2K event was so prominent in the global mind, Nelson and his team put the data from the EGGs through a variety of different statistical analyses to see whether the data might show structure related to this extraordinary focus of attention. Indeed, combining data from all the time zones, there does appear to be a strong spike almost exactly at midnight by several measures. Nelson indicated that because this is a new project without any precedent, he is open to alternative interpretations of the data. Although he and his team started the GCP with the hypothesis that there is such a thing as "global consciousness," how it might be detected in a scientific way remains a major focus of open exploration for the project. Nelson gave the example of interesting patterns that has emerged from the data regarding the difference between non-local and local influences on the EGGs. . In laboratory experiments, it appears that distance does not diminish the correlation between conscious intention and the behavior of REG devices. Based on this experience, the GCP was designed from the beginning to chart global consciousness, and expected to register the influence of events without respect to location on the planet. But there is always more to learn. One of the events the GCP charted in August 1999 (the solar eclipse over European skies) seems to indicate that the EGGs may indeed be sensitive to local influences. In this instance the EGGs in Europe, directly in the path of the eclipse, displayed a strong deviation from normal behavior while those further away did not. Summarizing the analyses, Nelson said, "the eclipse results indicate that the REGs are most sensitive to relatively local influences, in apparent contradiction of one of our in-going assumptions, which says that the location of events relative to the EGGs should be unimportant. If this indication is confirmed in other assessments, it means that although the anomalous interaction of minds and machines that we use for our measure is non-local, it isn't unboundedly so. The intensity of regard, or the concentration of attention, may have an effect that is stronger on machines least distant from the people who generate the group consciousness." In other words, the field created by human minds seems to show its strongest effect in its local region, even though it can measured all across the globe in a somewhat diminished capacity. This relatively local influence on the EGGs discovered with the solar eclipse also is indicated in the data from New Year's, 1998-1999. When perusing the data from the EGGs, researcher Richard Broughton found significant deviations in the random numbers in regions where there was a lot of celebration happening on New Year's Eve but not in "mini-celebration" time zones (oceans or other low-population areas). Nelson mentioned that it should be interesting to repeat this analysis in other cases, for example, the Y2K New Year's celebration. In fact, most events, even if they get widespread coverage in the world news, do have a natural home, where they directly affect the lives of the local population. Events like the great earthquake in Turkey, where many thousands lost their lives, or the Kursk submarine tragedy in the Barents Sea, create an emotional reaction around the globe, but, of course, their most powerful effect is on the people involved. These and other cases provide an opportunity to ask whether the effects of global consciousness on the REG detectors is focused in a geographic context, or is broadly non-local, affecting detectors all around the world. Analytical Alternatives There are many possible approaches or strategies for analysis of the GCP data. The primary method is based on predictions of global events which will produce departures of the data from expectation. The test is based on a simple average of the deviations of the data, for each second, across all the EGGs in the network. One alternative which is very appealing but technically difficult is to determine whether there is a high degree of inter-correlation among the EGGs. If there is something in the world, a "global consciousness," which can affect the EGGs, they should all be susceptible to the influence at the same time. This implies that the behavior of the EGGs, which are otherwise completely independent, will become slightly correlated whenever the hypothesized global consciousness is engaged. While a completely rigorous analysis remains to be done, preliminary work by Doug Mast, who hosts an EGG in State College, PA, shows a clear difference in data recorded by all EGGs in synchrony, compared with data assembled across randomly determined intervals. In other words, the EGGs tend to show slightly correlated data at any given moment, suggesting a faint but general coherence. More work needs to be done, but this is a promising, independent perspective that is supportive of the indications drawn from the event-based analyses. Since the data generated by the EGG network are publicly available, researchers can use them in unexpected ways. For example, Russian researchers led by Simon Schnoll are trying to determine whether, in addition to influences from the hypothesized global consciousness, there may be effects that are cosmological in origin. Schnoll's team has found that many natural phenomena show small periodic fluctuations, which are apparently linked to earth and sun cycles. According to Nelson, the Russians have found a robust effect that links the GCP data, which are essentially informational, with these cosmological influences on physical and biological phenomena. The Bottom Line Overall, considering nearly 50 major events, the departure from expectation in the data produced by the EGG network is highly significant. Although Nelson and his team are still investigating different statistical procedures which may give more insight, he noted that the bottom line based on the data collected so far is that such a strong overall effect would only happen by chance once in 10,000 repetitions of this large and complex experiment. Thus, Nelson seems to be gradually building a case that major global events do have a measurable influence on REGs. Large scale, coordinated human consciousness does seem to bring more order and coherence to the physical world. The Case of Barry Fenn In addition to the formal, statistical procedures, Nelson thinks it is valuable to explore other possibilities and interpretations. He presented an example that seems to strongly support the hypothesis that Marilyn Schlitz is working with in her research on the experimenter effect. This line of inquiry is looking at how an experimenter's life and attitude may directly influence the outcome of his or her experiment. Roger shared the story of Barry Fenn, who was instrumental in setting up two of the Global Consciousness Project EGGs in New Zealand, and who had become a friend though they never actually had an opportunity to meet. Barry died of cancer on May 20, 2000, and Roger heard the details from another friend and colleague in New Zealand. With the idea that Barry would have thought it appropriate and worthwhile to do so, Nelson decided to look at the graphs of the random number sequences produced by the two EGGs in New Zealand. One of these was regarded as Barry's EGG, and the second was hosted by a physicist friend from the University in Auckland. Amazingly, and somehow quite appropriately, the two EGGs displayed a highly significant departure from random behavior, in mirror-like opposed curves building up to and continuing after Fenn's death. (See http://noosphere.princeton.edu/barry.fenn.html). How is it that these two EGGs displayed such symmetrically related patterns in their data graphs right at the time of Fenn's death? Is it possible that his consciousness united with his friend's to influence the machines that they worked with? Having seen the effect of human consciousness on machines in simple laboratory experiments, Nelson believes that it is necessary to keep our minds open to extraordinary possibilities. Nelson also remarked that, for him, this event is a beautiful example of an alternative perspective that should be honored by research scientists. There is a tendency to believe we can only discover the truth with formal, quantitative methods, but it may also be important to shift gears and behold the mysterious beauty that exists in the world to teach us in unexpected ways. Conclusion Nelson emphasized the responsibility to balance objective and subjective views, which comes with the attempt to chart territories that have never been explored before. He and the team of researchers involved with the Global Consciousness Project have collected an impressive amount of statistically significant data from the world-spanning network of EGGs, but they are just beginning to understand what "global consciousness" might be and how it may manifest. Nelson believes that in time, as more experience is gained and his team learns better how to interpret the GCP data, they will discover what many philosophers have speculated: that the earth itself is a living and conscious being, and that we are an important aspect of that being. We humans can choose to intentionally influence the direction of our evolving future.
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