The Global Consciousness Project
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Plain English Summary
Imagine scattering 65 electronic coin-flippers across the globe and watching whether they start acting weird when big events grab the world's attention. That's essentially the Global Consciousness Project, running since 1998. Over 15 years and 450+ pre-planned tests, the network's random number generators showed tiny but consistent deviations from pure randomness during major world events -- to the tune of 7 sigma, meaning odds above a trillion to one against pure luck. That's a staggering number. About two-thirds of tested events nudged the data in the predicted direction, and the effect was strongest during huge, emotionally gripping events and during waking hours. Investigators ruled out mundane culprits like electromagnetic interference and cell phone signals. Whether this points to some kind of collective human influence on physical systems remains hotly debated.
Abstract
A long term, continuing experiment called the Global Consciousness Project (GCP) looks for non-random structure in synchronized random data streams generated during major events. A global network of random number generators (RNGs) records parallel sequences of random data at up to 65 sites around the world, and a rigorous experiment tests the hypothesis that the data will deviate from expectation during "global events" defined as transitory episodes of widespread mental and emotional response to great celebrations and tragedies. The ongoing replication experiment measures correlations across the network during the designated events, and the result from more than 450 formal hypothesis tests over the past 15 years departs substantially from expectation, with odds of more than a trillion to one against the null hypothesis. Controls exclude conventional physical explanations or experimental error, and the experimental design constrains interpretation. The results suggest that some aspect of human consciousness is involved as a source of the effects. The subtle structuring of random data indicates an effect of coherent human attention and emotion in the physical world.
Related Papers
Same Research Program
- Coherent Consciousness and Reduced Randomness: Correlations on September 11, 2001 — Nelson, Roger D (2002)
- Correlations of Continuous Random Data with Major World Events — Nelson, Roger D (2002)
- Effects of Mass Consciousness: Changes in Random Data During Global Events — Nelson, R.D (2011)
- Gathering of Global Mind — Nelson, Roger D (2001)
- FieldREG Anomalies in Group Situations — Nelson, Roger D (1996)
- FieldREG II: Consciousness Field Effects: Replications and Explorations — Nelson, Roger D (1998)
- The GCP Event Experiment: Design, Analytical Methods, Results — Bancel, Peter A (2008)
- Searching for Global Consciousness: A Seventeen Year Exploration — Bancel, Peter A (2017)
Cites
- Correlations of Continuous Random Data with Major World Events — Nelson, Roger D (2002)
- The GCP Event Experiment: Design, Analytical Methods, Results — Bancel, Peter A (2008)
- Effects of Mass Consciousness: Changes in Random Data During Global Events — Nelson, R.D (2011)
- FieldREG II: Consciousness Field Effects: Replications and Explorations — Nelson, Roger D (1998)
Critiqued By
Precursor
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📋 Cite this paper
Nelson, Roger D (2014). The Global Consciousness Project. Journal of International Society of Life Information Science.
@article{nelson_2014_gcp_invited,
title = {The Global Consciousness Project},
author = {Nelson, Roger D},
year = {2014},
journal = {Journal of International Society of Life Information Science},
}