Global Consciousness
One Mind
One Emotion
Sharing One World
A slide show describing scientific process,
primary findings, and preliminary interpretations
Roger Nelson, Director
Global Consciousness Project
http://noosphere.princeton.edu
The Global Consciousness Project
Also known as the EGG Project
A serious scientific adventure
In a decidedly poetic quest
We are seeking signs of the Noosphere,
A sheath of intelligence for the Earth
Imagined by Teilhard de Chardin as
The next evolutionary stage for Humanity
This is an introduction to the project
In becoming planetized humanity is
acquiring new physical powers that will
enable it to super-organize matter.
Even more important, is it not possible
that by the direct converging of its
members it will be able, as though by
resonance, to release psychic powers
whose existence is still unsuspected?
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Future of Man
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
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
Basics of a Physical REG
1. Quantum noise source, e.g. Diode
2. Sample electron tunneling voltage
3. Convert high and low to 1 and 0
4. Count these ‘bits’ vs 50/50 probability
Noise
Bits
Display 1000 trials from
A physical random source
Each trial is the sum of 200 bits
120
100
80
The binomial distribution of 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
But significant departures
From expectation may be
Correlated with consciousness
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
Moving out of the laboratory
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 center, train station, busy street corner
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
A prototype global event, November 1995
Assassination of Yitzhak Rabin
Murder
The next step: A truly global event
Colleagues in Europe and the US
Collected 12 independent data streams
Expectation is level trend
GCP Inception
Psychophysiologists meet Parapsychologists
A hallway discussion of technologies
19-channel EEG
&
12-channel REG
Led to the concept of a
Multi-channel ElectroGaiaGram (EGG*)
The EGG project began collecting data Aug 1998
*Greg Nelson’s name and acronym for Dean Radin’s “World EEG”
When you put a thing in order,
and give it a name,
and you are all in accord,
it becomes.
- - From the Navajo, Masked Gods, Waters, 1950
Global Consciousness Project
(aka the EGG Project)
The people: International collaboration, 100+ people
Network of over 60 host sites world wide
The tools: REG technology, Field application
A world EEG – an ElectroGaiaGram or EGG
The method: Identify deeply engaging global events
The question: Can we capture a glimmering of
Global Consciousness?
A World Spanning Network
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 (c2 - df)
Correlation tilts … variance spreads
Average
cumulative
deviation
shown by
the black
dotted line
When we make a composite across eggs,
the cumulative deviation may show a trend
expected
With this global network we can
look for effects of engaging events
Natural disasters
Terrible accidents
Beginnings of war
Grand celebrations
Political excitement
Religious pilgrimage
Astrological hot spots
World-wide meditations
Major disasters that engage us powerfully
Often correlate with big deviations
This is the first GCP Event
Why? ... It
shredded
the social
contract of
diplomacy
We first identify major events
Then ask if there is a trend
In the cumulative deviation
this is
chance
expectation
Blacksburg, VA: Shock and tragedy
Close to home feels deeply meaningful.
Does the EGG network respond? Perhaps.
New Years Eve 1999-2008
(10 years  37 time zones)
Average Variance Decrease
The World
Trade Center
September 11
2001
Tamara Beckwith
September 11 2001
Destruction of the World Trade Towers
A 50-hour trend followed the attacks
Two days
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 began changing at 04:00
9/11 was unique
in 3 years of data
The autocorrelation says
this event was extraordinary
"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
Consciousness Fields?
Compassion may
be a primary
source
Major organized gatherings
For Meditation and Prayer
Four million people
bathe in Ganges
A million or more
via the Internet
The Pope’s 6-day pilgrimage to the middle east
An occasion of hope for resolution of differences
After terrorist bombings in Madrid
all of Spain came out in commiseration
Our task must be to free ourselves from
this prison [of separation] by widening
our circle of compassion to embrace all
living creatures and the whole of nature
in its beauty.
- - Albert Einstein
Current result: formal database, 9+ years
244 rigorously defined global events
Odds: Million to 1 against chance
Distribution of Event Z-scores in 2004
Roughly normal, shifted by 0.37 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)
NUMBER of people paying attention
has a substantial effect on the network
Significant but may be confounded
William James’ Four Basic Emotions
Derived from “Bodily Involvement”
LEVEL of emotion relatively easy
To assign -- a highly significant factor
VALENCE: Both positive and negative events
Have larger effects than neutral events
(But differences are not significant)
COMPASSION: Events that evoke or
Comprise compassion or love
Have larger effects
(Hypothesis proposed by Jaan Suurkula)
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
How could these trend
Correlations come about?
Might the EGGs reflect our long-term
Emotional state? We’re conscious it
Could be a better time in the world.
At some level we know
We have much to do.
Perhaps we begin.
We think the world apart. What would it be like
to think the world together?
-- Parker Palmer, educator
http://noosphere.princeton.edu
GCP Homepage
http://noosphere.princeton.edu
Special Link Buttons
Status
Day Sum
Results
Extract
Presentation
Split into two
Complementary
Perspectives
Frame-based Web Design
Rick Berger
Theory?
David Bohm, The Implicate Order
Active Information:
Virtual Field, Actualized at Need
e.g. Disease: Chaos, “need” for structure
Remote healing, prayer
e.g. GCP Eggs: Random, open for structure
Engaged attention, compassion
GCP/EGG Project
The people who make it go
International collaboration of about 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
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
Realtime Display of Data
By Dick Bierman, Jaroen Ruuward, Nishith Singh, Taylor Jackson
Click
Bell
Gong
Can the flap of a butterfly’s wings …
Now, if the cooperation of some
thousands of millions of cells in our
brain can produce our consciousness,
a true singularity, the idea becomes
vastly more plausible that the
cooperation of humanity, or some
sections of it, may determine what
Comte calls a Great Being.
- - J.B.S. Haldane
Through technology and sheer numbers,
people have become a geological force,
shaping the planet's future just as rivers
and earthquakes shaped its past.
Eventually, global society, guided by
science, may soften the human
environmental impact, and earth will
become a "noosphere," a planet of the
mind.
- - Vladimir I. Vernadsky, 1926
Consciousness is creative …
We take meaning from music, we know
our loved ones from afar, and we leap
in thought to the stars.
Sometimes we dissolve ourselves into
a group and become a larger whole.
And we always have prayed as if it
could make a difference.
- - Roger Nelson, noosphere.princeton.edu
Creative source is an effortless
state of being.
Desiring and resisting are efforts.
Accepting and appreciating are
effortless.
- - Harry Palmer, Living Deliberately
Each time a man stands up for an ideal,
or acts to improve the lot of others, or
strikes out against injustice, he sends
forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing
each other from a million different
centers of energy and daring, those
ripples build a current that can sweep
down the mightiest walls of oppression
and resistance.
- - Robert Kennedy, Capetown, 1966
And what about the Experimenter Effect?
Is this all a result of our wishful thinking?
Overall
Error bars show the levels don’t differ significantly
The answer is no …
It is one of several sources
Grouping into reasonable categories
Shows a substantial differentiation (2007)
Effects as a Function of Event Type
Statistically Significant
Effect > 1 Std Dev
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R2 = 0.9713
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Categories
All Earthquakes, Richter 6 or More
Cumulative Deviation of Covariance
Quakes on Land +/- 30 hours
Controls
Ocean Quakes +/- 30 hours
This constitutes convergent evidence against experimenter effect
New Years Eve  37 time zones  8 years
Use epoch averaging (signal averaging)
to reveal structure in low S/N ratio events
A very recent Global Event
Hurricane and flooding in Bangledesh
Persistent non-random trends
FieldREG Experiments:
Group resonance, charismatic engagement
“The presence of mind in the physical world”
Robert Jahn Talk
The next step: Multi-REG data recording:
A formal test of “Anomalous influence from a
‘Consciousness Field’ during a Global Event”
January 23, 1997
Compassion seems inherent
in efforts to build or restore
the social fabric
Meditations, Prayer Vigils, Ceremonies
Compassion implies Interaction,
Interdependence, Respect, Love
It is the substrate of shared consciousness
Positive intent and compassion
An organizing field of consciousness?
2004 analysis based on
Jaan Suurkula hypothesis
Questions outnumber answers
Great numbers contribute
Deep engagement is powerful
but
Does distance from the focus matter?
How about relevance to local people?
Is human consciousness necessary?
Are “experimenter effects” the source?
What kinds of events are “strongest”?
Is the effect repeatable and reliable?
What does direction of deviation mean?