Roger Nelson is Director of the IONS-sponsored
Global Consciousness
Project (GCP), an international collaboration of scientists, artists, and
citizens interested in the extraordinary aspects of human consciousness. He also
coordinates research in the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR)
laboratory at Princeton University. Nelson's professional training is in
experimental psychology and psychophysiology, supplemented by a background in
physics, statistical methods, engineering, sculpture, electronic music, and
multi-media production. He is a student of "alternate psychologies" which
represent a wide range of transpersonal and non-western approaches to the
understanding of consciousness. He feels that an inclusive and
multi-disciplinary approach combining scientific, aesthetic, and spiritual
perspectives is essential if we are to come to terms with consciousness as it
exists and operates in the physical world.
In 1980, Dr. Nelson moved to Princeton from northern Vermont, where he was
professor of psychology at Johnson State College, to join the PEAR team. Over
the past two decades he has worked with the creative, interdisciplinary group in
the PEAR lab to develop technologies and experimental applications to study
direct manifestations of consciousness and intention. The main experiments look
at anomalous information transfer (Remote Perception) and anomalous interactions
of mind and machine, using sensitive physical systems such as electronic random
event generators (REGs). More recently, Nelson has extended the experimental
laboratory research to real-world situations, to examine group consciousness
effects and related applications such as nonlocal healing. The implications of
the research are that consciousness plays a subtle but important constructive
role in the physical world.
Nelson has been a member since 1993 of the Esalen Institute's Center for
Theory and Research working groups on Healing Interactions and Subtle Energies.
He was a participant in the formative meetings for the Office of Alternative
Medicine (now NCCAM) of the NIH and contributed "Meditation and Medicine" to the
published report of the NIH Mind/Body working group. He serves on the Advisory
Board of Alternative Therapies in Health and Medicine, and is a councillor for
the Society of Scientific Exploration.
In the past decade Nelson has focused progressively more on "FieldREG"
studies, in which the technology used to study anomalous effects of intention in
the laboratory is taken into field situations to examine the effects of various
types of group consciousness. The results suggest something like a
"consciousness field," generated by resonant or coherent interactions of groups
during special moments. Drawing on this background, Dr. Nelson established the
Global Consciousness Project in 1998, expanding the concepts of consciousness
field research to global dimensions. The GCP's researchers have created a
world-spanning network of detectors to record effects of major "global events"
on a hypothesized global consciousness. There are currently about 40 detectors
in all parts of the world, which take data continuously and send it over the
internet to a server in Princeton.
The goal of the project is to capture indications of the first glimmerings of
a "noosphere" of intelligence for the globe, in the sense of Teilhard de
Chardin's vision of human evolution and purpose. Three years of accumulated data
show a persistent pattern: when we are collectively engaged by powerful events,
the network of REG detectors responds with a tiny correlation. The odds are
about a million to one that the overall result is not a chance outcome, but an
indication of something like a global consciousness field, a noosphere that we
are beginning to perceive.
At least that is one viable "story" that may help to interpret the remarkable
results. Beyond the formal studies, the GCP analyses include many explorations
that tap into the direct perception of meaning through structure, symmetry, and
beauty. The complementary combination of scientific and aesthetic perspectives
is a fundamental aspect of Dr. Nelson's work, leading to an ongoing search for
the story that underlies and supports rigorous research, and may be essential
for its interpretation. Our scientific models and theories are only skeletal
approximations of the complexities that characterize consciousness, so that an
enrichment of scientific research by the beauty of creative insight and the
wisdom of spiritual disciplines is required, ultimately, for deeper
understanding.
We are at a critical time in history, facing the necessity to transform our
civilization into one that can survive by taking responsibility for our ominous
potential to destroy the world we love -- but which we take for granted. I
believe the GCP has a role to play by focusing an illuminating technological
perspective on our deep interconnections to each other and to the earth. It is
one of a thousand thought-provoking trickles that may coalesce into streams that
converge into rivers of understanding of who we really are and how we may become
conscious stewards of our destiny. When these rivulets reach the ocean we will
have it made.
The Global Consciousness Project maintains a website with detailed
descriptions and access to the data and the results at
http://noosphere.princeton.edu.
Selected Publications:
Articles:
Nelson, R. D., Jahn, R. G. & Dunne, B. J. (1986). Operator-Related Anomalies in
Physical Systems and Information Processes, Journal of the Society for Psychical
Research, Vol. 53, No. 803, April, pp. 261-285.
Jahn, R. G., Dunne, B. J., and Nelson R. D. (1987). "Engineering Anomalies
Research" Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 21-50.
Radin, D. I. and Nelson, R. D. (1987). "When Immovable Objection Meets
Irresistible Evidence: A Case of Selective Reporting." Behavioral and Brain
Sciences, Vol. 10, No. 4.
Dunne, B. J., Nelson, R. D., and Jahn, R. G. (1988). "Operator Related
Anomalies in a Random Mechanical Cascade Experiment." Journal of Scientific
Exploration, Vol. 2, No. 2.
Radin, D. I. and Nelson R. D. (1989). "Evidence for Consciousness-related
Anomalies in Random Physical Systems." Foundations of Physics, Vol. 19, No. 12.
Nelson R. D. (in press). "Anzeichen fuer geistesabhaengige Anomalitaeten in
physikalischen Zufallssystemen," (Evidence for Consciousness-related Anomalies
in Random Physical Systems), Zeitschrift f"ur Parapsychologie und Grenzgebiete
der Psychologie.
Dobyns, Y. H., Dunne, B. J., Jahn, R. G., and Nelson, R. D. (1992). "Response
to Hansen, Utts, and Markwick: Statistical and Methodological Problems of the
PEAR Remote Viewing (sic) Experiments." Journal of Parapsychology, 56, 2,
115-146.
Dunne, B. J., Dobyns, Y. H., Jahn, R. G., and Nelson, R. D. (1994). "Series
Position Effects in Random Event Generator Experiments, with Appendix by Angela
Thompson." Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 197-216.
Nelson, R. D., and Bradish, G. J., Dunne, B. J., and Jahn, R. G. (1994). "A
Linear Pendulum Experiment: Effect of Operator Intention on Damping Rate"
Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol 8, No 4, pp. 471-489.
Nelson, R. D., Bradish, G. J., Dobyns, Y. H., Dunne, B. J., Jahn, R. G.
(1996). FieldREG Anomalies in Group Situations. Journal of Scientific
Exploration, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 111-141.
Nelson, R. D., Dunne, B. J., Dobyns, Y. H., Jahn, R. G. (1996). Precognitive
Remote Perception: Replication of Remote Viewing. Journal of Scientific
Exploration, Vol. 10, No. 1, pp. 109-110.
Nelson, R. D. (1997). Wishing for Good Weather: A Natural Experiment in Group
Consciousness. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 11, No. 1, pp. 47-58.
Nelson, R. D. (1997). Multiple Field REG/RNG Recordings During a Global
Event, Part I and II. The Electronic Journal for Anomalous Phenomena, 97.2
Nelson, R. D., Boesch, H., Boller, E., Dobyns, Y. H., Houtkooper, J.,
Lettieri, A., Radin, D. I., Russek, L., Schwartz, G., Wesch, J. (1998). Global
Resonance of Consciousness: Princess Diana and Mother Teresa. The Electronic
Journal for Anomalous Phenomena, 98.1
Jahn, R. G. Dunne, B. J., Nelson, R. D., Dobyns, Y. H., and Bradish, G. J.
(1996). Correlations of Random Binary Sequences with Pre-Stated Operator
Intentions. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 11 No. 3, pp. 345-367.
Dobyns, Y. H. and Nelson, R. D. (1997). Empirical Evidence Against Decision
Augmentation Theory. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 12, No. 2, pp. 231-58.
Nelson, R. D., Jahn, R. G. Dunne, B. J., Dobyns, Y. H., Bradish, G. J.
(1997). FieldREG II: Consciousness Field Effects, Replications and Explorations.
Journal of Scientific Exploration, 12, No. 3, pp. 407-54.
Atmanspacher, H. A., Boesch, H., Boller, E., Nelson, R. D., and Scheingraber,
H. (1998). Deviations from Physical Randomness Due to Human Agent Intention.
Chaos, Solitons, & Fractals 10 No. 6, pp. 935-952.
Nelson, R. D., Jahn, R. G., Dobyns, Y. H., and Dunne, B. J. (2000).
Contributions to Variance in REG Experiments: ANOVA Models and Specialized
Subsidiary Analyses. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 14, 1, pp. 73-89.
Jahn, R. J., Dunne, B. J., Dobyns, Y. H., Nelson, R. D., and Bradish, G. J.
(2000). ArtREG: A random event experiment utilizing picture-preference feedback.
Journal of Scientific Exploration, 14, 3, pp. 383-409.
Jahn, R., Mischo, J., Vaitl, D., et al. (2000). Mind/Machine Interaction
Consortium: PortREG Replication Experiments. Journal of Scientific Exploration,
14, 4, pp. 499-556
Books/Chapters:
Nelson R. D., Editor, Research in Parapsychology 1986, (with D. Weiner),
Scarecrow Press, Metuchen, NJ, 1987.
Nelson, R. D. (in press). The Physical Basis of Intentional Healing Systems.
Chapter in: Textbook of Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Wayne B. Jonas
and Jeffrey S. Levin, Eds. Baltimore: WIlliams and Wilkins.
Nelson, R. D. (2000). Gathering of Global Mind. Chapter prepared for Subtle
Energies and the Uncharted Realms of Mind, George Leonard, Ed. In Press. We thanks the Parapsychological Association Board (www.parapsych.org) for the permission to publish the above material.
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