Entrevistas MP

Interview with Dr. Roger Nelson
Made by MysteryPlanet: 04/12/2005

Date: 04/12/2005 .·. BACK TO MAIN

	Name: Roger D. Nelson.
	Country: United States.
	Profession and/or Occupation: Director, Global Consciousness Project.
	Publicated Books/Researches: For references, see the website.
	Web site: http://noosphere.princeton.edu
	Topics covered in the interview: Global Consciousness Project.

Question: First of all, Roger, what is the best definition for Individual and Collective Conscience?

Answer: We use “operational definitions” which means that we specify the operations and conditions that comprise our research. So, for example, we identify an event that appears to be engaging and interesting for many people, and its beginning and ending serve as the operational definition of the “consciousness” state that we hypothesize may be correlated with patterns in our GCP data.

Question: Could you explain to us what the Global Consciousness Project is about?

Answer: Personal experience is supported by a growing number of good experiments which show that consciousness and intention have subtle but important effects in the world. We know that groups of people sometimes experience a special resonance of feelings and ideas, and recent scientific evidence indicates that effects of coherent group consciousness can be detected with appropriate instruments. The Global Consciousness Project (GCP) is an international collaboration of researchers extending this research to global dimensions via the Internet. The project uses technology and methods designed to record effects of events that stimulate us to integrate as a world-wide consciousness. Examples include the funeral ceremonies of Princess Diana, the first hour of NATO bombing in Yugoslavia, and a few minutes around midnight on any New Years Eve. We predicted that the turn of the Millennium would have measurable effects on our interconnected, global human consciousness. The results show a strong “spike” for the Y2K moment in several different types of analysis.

The GCP works with a synchronized network of electronic devices (random event generators) which record data at dozens of sites around the world and report it via the Internet to central computers. The heart of the system is the server named “noosphere” after Teilhard de Chardin's idea of a global intelligence. Here, all the data are gathered, processed, and archived. Sophisticated programs create and maintain a growing database generated continuously at a rate of one trial per second at each of the nodes in the network. Analytical software and integrative algorithms are designed to assess the scientific question whether there is any evidence for a “global consciousness” that can affect our instruments. Displays of the data take various forms, and show current activity as well as a complete historical record beginning in August 1998. Regularly updated tables of statistical information as well as simple and easily understood graphical summaries of several kinds are available. For example, we can show a graph of the cumulative departure of data sequences from their expected values, as a composite across all the GCP sites around the world for the past hour or the past day -- or during a defined “Global Event”.

The Global Consciousness Project is an ongoing, long-term experiment, and the results from the instances that have been analyzed thus far show considerable evidence of a correlation between particular events and the data from our network of random event generators. A summary for nearly four years (to May, 2002) shows a highly significant result. It is tempting to draw the conclusion that a true global consciousness is creating the anomalous effects. Indeed, the probability that we are seeing just chance fluctuation is less than one in a million. We believe the data are correct and definitely show anomalous departures from expectation, but we can't claim to have proven the existence of a global consciousness. We must consider alternative interpretations such as anomalous effects created by the intentions and expectations of the people involved in the project. But thoughtful examination of the accumulated evidence shows something very remarkable, and the most parsimonious and elegant interpretation is that a global consciousness is at work. There are some further speculations that are worth thinking about.

The complete database is publically accessible from the GCP website via the Internet, and this ensures that all claims and conclusions can be independently verified, while providing an opportunity for a wide variety of exploratory analyses.

Question: How does the software and hardware which register this information work? How can the communication between mind and machine, between a random number generator mechanism and human thought be possible?

Answer: Nobody know how this happens. We only know from the research that there is a correlation between the state of mind and the output statistics of the random number generator.

Question: Have you seen “The Matrix” movie? Do you think that the existence of a kind of “Matrix” can be the responsible reason for that “Global Consciousness”?

Answer: I saw part of one of those movies, but I don't have any impression such as you suggest.

Question: In your web site appear the analisis of the obtained results in the PEAR lab (Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research) about princess Diana's death, 9/11 (11-S), and New Year's celebrations, among others. Which kind of results does the tragedy happened in the Asia's Tsunami at the end of december 2004 show? (It would be great if you could send us the graph with the analisis)

Answer: The PEAR lab is not responsible for any of that research you mention. The Global Consciousness Project (GCP) is also known as the EGG Project. It does not have a corporate office, and is a volunteer collaboration involving about 75 researchers, analysts, and egg hosts. Some of us work at universities or institutes in various parts of the world, but these institutions are not funding sponsors or responsible hosts of the project. In particular, this project is not sponsored by Princeton University nor any of its departments or programs. Our funding comes from private donations generously given by a number of contributors.

The Asia Tsunami was a large event that the GCP prediction is for strong deviations. The formal event designation is for an 8 hour period beginning half an hour before the main earthquake. This covers the time for the tidal wave to travel to the coastlines of the Indian ocean, and some of the time for the developing story to transmit across the world. In addition, we will do some explorations of the details around the quake itself and the longer context of time before and after.

The result for the formal segment, shown in the following figure, is a Chisquare of 28869 on 28800 df and p = 0.3863. There is a strong early trend, but it does not continue. Instead there is a wavelike oscillation that is all within chance expectation. The pattern is very similar to that seen in other quake events, notably to the happened one at 2003 year in Bam, Iran.

When we look in detail at the moment of the main temblor of the Richter 9.0 earthquake, the picture is of a sharp deviation beginning about 30 minutes before the quake and continuing with the same steady slope for some time after the shock. This is similar to the picture around the huge and deadly earthquake that killed 20,000 people in Turkey a few years ago.

Finally, if we take a different perspective on the data, calculating the cumulative deviation of the variance across the 62 eggs, there is a fairly striking shape to the curve, with a sharp drop just before the powerful tremor, changing to a sharp rise for several hours following the quake. This can't be interpreted as evidence that the EGG network was affected by the natural events, but the timing is suggestive.

There was an immediate surge of interest in the GCP following tsunami, as shown in daily usage statistics:

Many people have asked, given the magnitude of the destruction and the loss of life, why the EGG network did not show a commensurate reaction. Several propositions have been made, among them that our compassion was roused, but only over the course of days as the news penetrated to the outside world. The direct impact was itself a slowly spreading, albeit inexorable occurence in many locations and times. The real answer is that I don't know. But I do speculate, and the long development of the perception of horrendous disaster is very different from the sharply focused shock such as defined 9/11. Another aspect I think is pertinent is the source: Empirically, in the several years of data for different kinds of events, we have seen big hits on many human-caused tragedies but on relatively few natural disasters. Maybe the “global consciousnes” takes the latter more in stride.

Answer: For me, chance is just the name for a statistical or mathematical concept. It refers to the unpredictable outcomes of a choice or decision process when that process is unbiased or when there is no forcing function.

Question: Do you think the advance of your Project can contribute to the understanding of the paranormal phenomena? How?

Answer: Yes. It is a long-term project, conducting a rigorous scientific experiment. The database is huge, and it is consistent. These are important, useful factors in efforts to understand the interaction of mind and environment, which is regarded by some people as “paranormal” research.

Question: It has been experimentally demonstrated that if a plant/flower is well taken care, for example, it is dealt with love and spoken affectionately, it will grow faster and stronger. This is one of the so many carried out experiments to demonstrate the influence of the mind and the thoughts on the matter.

Could this Global Consciousness exactly be the same but in a “collective way”? In that case, don't you think there could be some people interested in manipulating that conscience to have the dominion of that “plant/flower”? How much infuenciable are we collectively speaking?

Answer: It might be. I think the world is full of manipulative people, which explains why it is such a tragic situation, with greed creating excess for a few, and creating misery for many. My desire is that there be a huge collective vision that creates an influence toward a better future.

Question: What role does mass media play in the creation of that collective thought?

Answer: At the present time, mass media seek mainly to entertain the lowest common denominator. This appears to be motivated by the intention mainly to make profits, and to serve the interests of corporate owners and the politically powerful. As a result, the media are failing in their potential as a source of real education toward social responsibility.

Question: In your studies you talk about predictable and nonpredictable events. Could explain to us? Is it possible to know that “something big” is going to happen before it happens?

Answer: This is the operational definition again. Predictable events are the same as planned events. We know about them. Nonpredictable events are surprises, accidents. They are unknown until they happen.

Question: An ancient Yoga phrase says “the energy follows the thought”.The feng shui, a Chinese ancestral knowledge, also reveals us there are energies in our world which move by their own, and we can use them to our favor. Or even chi or ki, known very well by martial arts practising people, whose dominion can make you do amazing and superhuman feats like some tibet monks have demonstrated. What do you think about this ancient wisdom? Can our eyes only see what they can see?

Answer: Ancient wisdom has an appropriate name. When an idea or an understanding has been with us for thousands of years, it makes sense to pay respectful attention to it.

Question: We have a hypothetical situation where a million people (even more) are focusing their thoughts in only one direction, for example, in moving a rock of one ton. What would happen according to your researches? Would the rock move?

Question: Lastly, which are the next objectives of the Global Consciousness Project?

Answer: To study the unusual implications for physics and statistics of significant anomalous patterning of random data. To study and apply the philosophical, ethical, and educational implications of creative and interconnected consciousness. More specifically, we will develop models that account for the anomalies, and secondly, we will seek to educate people to understand that what we think actually matters in the world.

Question: Dr. Nelson, it has been a pleasure to interview you and we are thankful for having spent your time in it.