Emotions in
Global Consciousness
A study of basic emotions evoked or embodied
In events correlated with GCP/EGG data
Bial Foundation 7th Symposium
Behind and Beyond the Brain: Emotions
Roger Nelson
Princeton University and Global Consciousness Project
http://noosphere.princeton.edu
First, a thank you to the Bial Foundation for including me in this gathering,
and for inviting my wife and me to visit this beautiful country …
And a heartfelt thank you to the people who make the GCP go
International collaboration of more than 100 Scientists, Artists, Friends, …
Richard Adams, USA, general support
Brad Anderson, USA, widget programming
Peter Bancel, Paris, professional analysis, collaboration
Paul Bethke, USA, windows programming, network
Dick Bierman, Netherlands, design and realtime display
Taylor Jackson, Canada, realtime display maintenance
Greg Nelson, USA, program architecture, general support
Dean Radin, USA, design and independent analysis
Fernando Rodríguez, Spain, egghosts google map
Leane Roffey, USA, music, outreach, general support
Jaroen Ruuward, Netherlands, realtime programming
Marilyn Mandala Schlitz, USA, logistical support
Dick Shoup, USA, independent analysis
Nishith Singh, India, realtime programming
Mahadeva Srinivasan, India, general support
William Treurniet, Canada, egganalysis programming
John Walker, Switzerland, programming, general support
… And all the EGG hosts around the world
What is Global Consciousness?
We all have the immediate experience
of Personal Consciousness
Sometimes, a Group Consciousness is
experienced during rituals, concerts, etc.
We lose individuality to become a group
Rarely, great events focus our attention
and engage our emotions so powerfully
that we share a Global Consciousness
Note that this is an Operational Definition, not a theory
Stepwise development of the
Global Consciousness Project

Laboratory
REG and PK Experiments, Intention

Field Studies
Group Consciousness, Resonance

Global Scope
Major Events, Shared Engagement
PEAR Laboratory, Princeton University
Experiments in Mind Matter Interactions
INTENTION to change behavior of an REG
A physical REG: the basics
Quantum level
Electronic noise
11001010100010111010111010010110
10101110101000000101111110001011
00101011101000111101001010010010
1110101100101010100101101110110010100101010…..
In practice we make “trials”
Which are the sum of 200 bits
We collect one trial per second
120
100
80
Binomial distribution, 1000
200-bit trials, compared with
Theoretical normal distribution
100 is expected
What happens in such data over time?
Plot cumulative deviation from expectation
Should be a random walk (a “drunkard’s walk”)
Chance expectation is
Level, horizontal trend
Expected value = zero
Cumdev is sequential sum of
Differences from the expected
Value, in this case, zero deviation
Laboratory Experiments, PEAR:
Intention to Change the REG Behavior
High and Low Both Depart From Expectation
Expectation level trend
HI
BL
5 Years, 87 Experiments
LO
Field REG Experiments
Take REG technology into the Field
Look for evidence of a Consciousness Field
Situations with Resonance or Coherence
Concerts, Operas, Churches, Cathedrals
Rituals, Ceremonies, Sacred Spaces, …
Comparison with Mundane situations
Shopping centers, train stations
Busy street corners
Physical Random Event Generators
REG or RNG -- Miniaturized for field use
Mindsong REG
Orion RNG
FieldREG Experiments: Deep engagement,
Coherent group consciousness and emotion
Expectation for the data is a level trend,
But the real data show striking slopes
Numinous event: Shamanic
Healing ritual for Devils Tower
Group chanting: Sacred space
Great Pyramid, inner chambers
Departures from expectation correlate with
Coherent or resonant group consciousness
Deeply engaging ideas and emotions
The extension to global dimensions
Prototype Global Event November 1995
Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
Murder
Multi-REG data, 12 independent sources
During Princess Diana’s Funeral
Sadness, Compassion, Love
Expectation is level trend
Red trace
During the
Funeral
P ~ 0.01
Green lines
Random
Control
Data
The natural next step
Create a permanent network
We made a plan and gathered resources,
Built hardware and software
In August 1998
The GCP began collecting data
A World Spanning Network of About 60 Eggs
A Google Map
http://noosphere.princeton.edu/egghosts/
Internet transfer of data to Princeton
It looks random: Combined data
For a whole day, from 48 eggs
We can see better what’s happening by
Plotting cumulative deviations (2 - df)
Average
cumulative
deviation
shown by
the black
dotted line
If we average across REGs we can see trends
In the cumulative deviation from expectation
Cumulative deviation is a
Graphical tool to detect change
(process control engineering)
Recall that the
Expected picture is a
Level random walk
Did something
Happen here?
Natural disasters often are Global Events
Hurricane and Flooding in Bangledesh
Persistent, Nonrandom Trends
The Concorde crash July 25 2000:
We feel surprise and a sense of loss
Major organized gatherings
For Meditation and Prayer
Four million people
bathe in Ganges
A million or more
via the Internet
Sometimes the trend is very clearly not random
September 11 2001
Cumulative deviation, netvar
Non-random trend for over 2 days
An undeniably “global” event
Major human-caused disaster
Shredding the social fabric
A “control” data set
From one year later
On this day there was globally shared fear and compassion
Other Views of September 11 2001
These are pictures of the variability among the eggs
They should look like a “random walk” on 9/11, but …
Variance starts big change at 04:00
First plane hits tower at 08:46
9/11 was unique
in 3 years of data
Current result: formal database, 9+ years
247 rigorously defined global events
Odds: Million to 1 against chance
Evidence for an effect of
Operationally defined
Global Consciousness
Is strong, with
Million to one odds that it is
Just chance fluctuation
We are ready for deeper analysis
NUMBER of people paying attention has
A substantial effect on the network
Significant but may be confounded
overall
How about Emotions?
Exploratory, proof of principle
Subjective categorizations
Reasonable reliability
Striking differences
The World Trade
Center
September 11
2001
The GCP network
Then had 37 REGs
Around the world
Tamara Beckwith
LEVEL of emotion relatively easy
To assign -- highly significant factor
overall
SURPRISE is listed by some researchers
As an emotion, but it does not have
A big effect in GCP formal events
(note possible confounds with other emotions)
VALENCE: Both positive and negative events
Have larger effects than neutral events
(But differences are not significant)
COMPASSION: Events that evoke or embody
Compassion or love have larger effects
overall
William James’ Four Basic Emotions
Derived from “Bodily Involvement”
overall
Emotion on a grand, global scale?
Long-term negative trend in primary measure
Are we meditative? … Or depressed?
Trend is
significant
9/11
9/11
Analysis by
Peter Bancel
What might explain the long-term trend?
Correlation with a sociological measure
Presidential Approval Rating vs NetVar
Model Fit &
Update to 2007
GCP Data: Brown
Polling Data: Blue
9/11
We see similar spikes and trends
Analysis by Peter Bancel
Take away
1) It appears that our operationally
defined global consciousness has
real effects in the material world
2) This “global consciousness”
responds to events emotionally in
ways familiar to us as individuals
Perhaps knowing this can help us get our act together
"The Age of Nations is past. The task
before us now, if we would not perish,
is to build the Earth."
- - Père Teilhard de Chardin
Can the flap of a butterfly’s wing …
Thank You
Changing Emotions
A reversal of trend
After the defined event
Event
Period
Post
Event
Analysis by Peter Bancel
Concatenated data of
Formal events
Vs
Equal duration
Post event segments
Event
Period
Post
Event
The recent turmoil in Tibet
Arouses compassion –
The “religion” of Buddhism
Consciousness Fields?
Compassion may be a primary source
September 11 2001: Fear and Compassion
Destruction of the World Trade Towers
A 50-hour trend followed the attacks
Two days
Perhaps knowing this can help us get our act together
“Someday after mastering winds, waves,
tides and gravity, we shall harness the
energies of love, and then, for the second
time in the history of the world, man will
discover fire.”
- - Père Teilhard de Chardin
Distribution of Event Z-scores:
Roughly normal, shifted by ~ 0.3 std dev
z-Test: Two Sample for Means
Variable 1 Variable 2
Mean
-0.01163904 0.372648
Known Variance
1.001459 1.080784
Observations
10000
159
Hypothesized Mean Difference 0
z
-4.62710645
P(Z<=z) one-tail
1.856E-06
Effects by GCP event categories
2007 update generally similar to 2004
(More categories are significant – N is greater)
Positive intent and compassion
An organizing field of consciousness?
2004 analysis based on
Jaan Suurkula hypothesis