Gathering Global Awareness
Are we seeing a Consciousness Field?
Yellow dots are nodes in the network
http://noosphere.princeton.edu
Roger Nelson rdnelson@princeton.edu
The EGG Project
(aka the Global Consciousness Project)
International collaboration
75 Scientists, Artists, Friends, …
Network of host sites world wide
The tools: REG technology, Field application
Make an EEG for the earth, an ElectroGaiaGram
Identify engaging moments of global events
The question: Can we capture a
Glimmering of Global Consciousness?
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
The technology is only now available
Electronics, Computers, Networking
REG/RNG devices run continuously
Synchronized computers and software
Internet transfer of data to central server
Automatic archiving, public access
Formal analyses and explorations
Background, methods, poetic history
A Random Event Generator
(REG or RNG)
Mindsong REG
Orion RNG
How it works: Here’s 1000 Trials
Each trial is the sum of 200 bits
Like flipping 200 coins and counting heads
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”)
A General Case
GCP Standard Analysis
Laboratory Experiments, PEAR:
Intention to change the REG behavior
High and Low both depart from expectation
HI
BL
LO
Field REG Experiments: No Intentions
We simply collect data in the situation
We find departures from expectation
Queens Grand Kings
Chamber Gallery Chamber
Departures from expectation correlate with
Coherent or Resonant group consciousness
Deeply engaging ideas and emotions
The next step: A prototype collaboration
Colleagues in Europe and the US
Collected 12 independent data streams
How About a Global Network?
Might we see Effects of Engaging Events?
Natural disasters
Terrible accidents
The beginning of war
The Pope’s pilgrimage
Grand celebrations
Political excitement
Astrological hot spots
World-wide meditations
A network of “eggs” around the world:
A computer, special software, an REG/RNG
Internet transfer of data to Princeton
Here we see the combined data
For a whole day, from 48 eggs
We can see better what’s happening by
Plotting the cumulative deviations (c2 - df)
Correlation Tilts … Variance Spreads
Combine all eggs and plot cumulative deviation
May show a trend if there is a common
Influence or correlation among the eggs
(c2 - df)
When we make a composite across eggs,
the cumulative deviation may show a trend
Maybe a trend in the cumulative
Deviation is Meaningful?
So far, sporting events seem
Not to produce big deviations
The Pope’s 6-day pilgrimage to the middle east
An occasion of hope for resolution of differences
Political events, even big ones, are not
necessarily of interest to the EGG
Clinton Impeachment Acquittal
We’ll try anything once. Significant correlations
with astrologically determined “hot” times
Tearing the Social Fabric
Terrorists Attack Civilians and Diplomats
Nato Bombs Kosovo to End Ethnic Cleansing
Taliban Destroy Ancient Buddhist Treasure
September 11 Enters History of the Earth
Major disasters that engage us powerfully
Often correlate with big deviations
Context explorations: Six hours of data
Around the beginning of bombing in Kosovo
Cumulative deviation of Zs2 or c2
The Buddhas of Bamiyan
Before March 12 2001
After
The destruction of a world treasure
Approximate time, noon in Afghanistan
noon
The World
Trade Center
Fall, 2001
Carol M. Highsmith
Al Dove
The World
Trade Center
September 11
2001
Tamara Beckwith
The destruction of the World Trade Towers
Sept 11 2001
A 50-hour trend followed the attacks
Sept 11 prediction:
Inter-egg Variance will fluctuate
Red is real data, Green is Pseudorandom
Autocorrelation on Sept 11
Structure where there should be none
Calculations: Peter Bancel
What is there to say?
Repairing, Restoring
The Social Fabric
Healing
Meditations
Prayer Vigils
Ceremonies
Holidays
Chicago, Moment of Silence
September 14 2001
Three Minutes of Silence
September 14 2001
Focused Siddhi Meditations
September 23 to 27, 2001
Peak Day, Maximum Numbers
Synchronized Johrei Ceremonies
Around the World, April 1 2001
Four Million People Pilgrimage
For Ritual and Prayer
A Substantial Agreement on Getting
Our Ecological Act Together
Natural Disasters
And Accidents
Earthquakes, Floods
Planes, Trains, Ships
The Great Earthquake in Turkey
August 17 1999
Standard Analysis
US vs Europe, Bierman
Variance Analysis, Bierman
Volcano in Nairobi
January 17 2002
Typhoon in Orissa, India
October 29 1999
The Concorde Crash
July 25 2000
The Kursk Submarine Disaster
August 12 2000
Train Crash in India
August 2 2001
All Eggs, 4 hrs
Nearby Eggs, 1.5 hrs
The Lighter Side
Celebrations:
What better example than
New Years?
And again for last year. The pattern
is replicated for the third time.
Global Attention: Sharing New Year’s Eve
All over the world, people celebrate the change to a New
Year. Since 1998, we have recorded data from a network
of physical random event generators (called “eggs”). Here
we look at what happens at midnight around the world.
The scientific prediction is that there will be a pattern of
increased correlation among the eggs. We test for trends
away from the expected “random walk”. We have learned
to expect reductions in the variation across the eggs.
We predicted the same pattern
for the following year.
The figures on this page almost speak for themselves.
They are pictures of our engagement with each other.
Then, for the infamous
Y2K transition, we looked
at a measure of the
variability among the eggs
and predicted it would
decrease as we all focused
on midnight.
Variance Drop, Midnight, 1999-2000
In the first year, 1998-1999, we
looked for a change in the average
deviation, and compared Maxi- and
Mini-celebration time zones.
More at http://noosphere.princeton.edu
An obvious prediction: New Years celebrations
Concatenation across all (24) time zones
Cumulative excess deviation of means
Model Prediction
Weak Replication
Taking the Electrogaiagram metaphor to heart
Maxi-celebrating time zones, Signal averaging
Figure by Richard Broughton
Evoked Response in the Electrogaiagram:
Signal averaging: Mini-Celebrating time zones
Figure by Richard Broughton
Y2K New Year 1999-2000: Coherent engagement?
Radin makes an independent prediction
Reduction of Variance across eggs
Odds, GMT
New Years 2000-2001: Variance Reduction
Signal Average over 37 time zones
Normalized, Squared, Smoothed
New Years 2001-2002: Variance Reduction
Signal Average over 37 time zones
Normalized as Z-scores, Smoothed
5-Min Smoothing Window
New Years 2002-2003: Variance Reduction
Shows ambiguous response,
But Meanshift is significant again
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?
Columbia Explodes: Seven astronauts lost
But the eggs apparently do not respond
Why do we sometimes see no effect?
Perhaps we do,
But not in the form we expect
The Columbia Explosion:
Viewing through a different instrument
Note, however, about 1/3 of permutations
Have such an extreme deviation sometime in 24 hours
Categories: What seems to touch
The Global Consciousness?
Calculations, Dean Radin
Does the distance of the eggs
From the event make a difference?
Z-score
September 11 2001
Effect Size as a function of Distance
Calculations, Dean Radin
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
North
America
South
America
Europe
Australia
Increasing Distance
Asia
Does the distance of the eggs
From the event make a difference?
1.4
Effect vs Dist, Stouffer Z, Full Day, Sept 11
1.2
Effect Size (r)
1
0.8
0.6
0.4
0.2
0
-0.2
-0.4
US
Eastern
US
Middle
US
England, Western
Western Scandin Europe
Increasing Distance from NYC
Israel,
India,
Brazil
Africa,
Austral,
New Zeal
Current Result: Formal Database
132 global events over 4.5 years
Odds: about 100,000 to 1
What do we have in hand?
Where do we want to go with it?
Four years of data
55 eggs around the world
More than 130 formal studies
About 65% positive outcome
About 18% individually significant
Many analyses remain to be done
Bigger Picture: What is our aspiration?
Sharpen and focus our questions
Aim for theoretical understanding
Capture insight about creative mind
Consider evidence that we are one
Contribute to better future for culture
We think the world apart. What would it be like
to think the world together?
-- Parker Palmer, educator
http://noosphere.princeton.edu
Homepage
http://noosphere.princeton.edu
Berger: Web Design
Magic Buttons
Status
Day Sum
Results
Extract
Primary Links
Menu at Bottom
Barry Fenn 1950 – 2000
A memorial assessment
of GCP data
Perhaps the eggs
Respond to their hosts
A respectful, exploratory look at
the death of egg host Barry Fenn
All 28 eggs
Same time period, Barry’s egg only.
After he passes, a 20 hour falling trend
Symmetry in the data, maybe even meaning:
Barry’s egg and that of his friend, Sze Tan
A total solar eclipse was of
Special interest to people in the path
For most of the formal predictions
We specify a “Standard Analysis”
Normalized signed deviation of mean, zi = (mi-m)/s
Composite across eggs: Stouffer Zs = (Szi)/N1/2
Composite Z is squared for c2 distributed statistic
Large cumulative sum of Zs2 – 1 or c2 – df
Reflects inter-egg correlation, or
Consistent large deviations, or both
Global Emotion: Transfixed by Tragedy
On 9/11 the data showed
extraordinary moments
On September 11 2001, early in the morning, a network of
physical random event generators (called “eggs”) took on a
striking trend. By 8:45 the non-random behavior was
unmistakable. It peaked at about 10:30 with odds against
chance of a thousand to one. See the red trace below.
On 9/11 the data contained
unique sequential structure
Other measures also deviated from expectation on that day,
creating an unmistakable pattern where there should be
none. The eggs became linked across distance and time in
some subtle way that we do not yet know how to explain.
This is not a physical or electromagnetic effect. It’s not due
to extraordinary mobile phone use, or saturation TV.
It appears to be related to our profound engagement.
The jagged red line shows three days of a measure
(squared cumulative deviation of variance) that
represents the composite randomness of 37 eggs.
On 9/11 deviations began
that persisted for 2 days
More at http://noosphere.princeton.edu
am
On September 11, the data show clear structure
am
where there should be none.
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…….…………………. Normal range of variation
am
Squared Cumulative Variance, Sept 10 - 12
The departure begins nearly 4 hours before the first attack
Bottom Line Comparison:
Formal outcome sequence versus
Random draws from distribution