When human consciousness becomes coherent, the behavior of random systems may change. Random number generators (RNGs) based on quantum tunneling produce completely unpredictable sequences of zeroes and ones. But when a great event synchronizes the feelings of millions of people, our network of RNGs becomes subtly structured. The Global Consciousness Project calculate one in a trillion odds that the effect is due to chance. The evidence suggests an emerging noosphere or the unifying field of consciousness described by sages in all cultures.
The Global Consciousness Project is an international, multidisciplinary collaboration of scientists and engineers that collect data continuously from a global network of physical random number generators located in up to 70 host sites around the world at any given time. The data are transmitted to a central archive which now contains more than 15 years of random data in parallel sequences of synchronized 200-bit trials generated every second.
Real-time GCP Status – The Global Consciousness Project collects random numbers from around the world. This website downloads those numbers once a minute and performs sophisticated analysis to see how coherent they are. The theory is that the global consciousness of all beings of the planet affect these random numbers.
What it means
 | Significantly small network variance. Suggestive of deeply shared, internally motivated group focus. The index is above 95% |
 | Small network variance. Probably chance fluctuation. The index is between 90% and 95% |
 | Normally random network variance. This is average or expected behavior. The index is between 40% and 90% |
 | Slightly increased network variance. Probably chance fluctuation. The index is between 10% and 40% |
 | Strongly increased network variance. May be chance fluctuation, with the index between 5% and 10% |
 | Significantly large network variance. Suggests broadly shared coherence of thought and emotion. The index is less than 5% |
* Colours can fade between each other so it’s possible to have, for example, yellow-orange-ish and green-yellow-ish colours. Please don’t strongly interpret the dot!
The purpose is to examine subtle correlations that may reflect the presence and activity of consciousness in the world. We hypothesize that there will be structure in what should be random data, associated with major global events that engage our minds and hearts.
Subtle but real effects of consciousness are important scientifically, but their real power is more immediate. They encourage us to make essential, healthy changes in the great systems that dominate to the world. Large scale group consciousness has effects in the physical world. Knowing this, we can intentionally work toward a brighter, more conscious future.
The Global Consciousness Project, created originally in the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab at Princeton University, is directed by Roger Nelson from his home office in Princeton. The Institute of Noetic Sciences provides a logistical home for the GCP.
The history of controlled laboratory research on interactions of human consciousness with physical random systems tracks the development of microelectronics and computers. The first large database experiments were conducted by Helmut Schmidt, at Boeing Laboratories, in the late ’60s and early ’70s. The number of experiments and investigators grew over the next decade, and in 1979, Robert Jahn, at Princeton University, established the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) laboratory to focus on an engineering approach to the question whether sensitive electronic devices including random components might be affected by special states of consciousness, including strong emotions and directed intention.
REG Experiments
At the PEAR lab, the primary experiment used a custom designed Random Event Generator (REG or RNG) incorporating a well-developed commercial source of electronic white noise. This bench-top experiment provided control over parameters such as the speed and size of the samples drawn from the random sequence of bits. For example, it might be set to collect a 200 bit sample at a rate of 1000 bits per second, and to register a trial each second consisting of the sum of the 200 bits. The equipment displayed the current output trial value and a running mean as feedback to the operator. The experiment used a tripolar protocol, with instructions to maintain an intention to achieve either a high or a low mean, or to let the machine generate baseline data. Over more than a decade this basic experiment yielded an enormous database, with a bottom line indicating a small but significant effect of human intention on random data sequences. A paper describing 12 years of research at PEAR, using several different mind-machine interaction experiments, is available.
Establishing the EGG Project
In November 1997, at a meeting of professional researchers in parapsychology and psychophysiology, the various component ideas for what ultimately became the Global Consciousnes Project (GCP) coalesced into a practical form. The technology was becoming available to create an Internet-based array of continuously recording REG nodes placed around the world. This would metaphorically resemble the placement of electrodes on a human head for Electroencephalogram or EEG recordings, though of course the data would not be fluctuating voltages, but randomly varying numbers. The resemblance led Greg Nelson, one of our sophisticated programmers, to suggest the network could be envisioned as an Electrogaiagram, and we began to call it the EGG Project. We later adopted the formal name Global Consciousness Project but continue to use an efficient terminology based on the EGG acronym and associations.
Purpose
In the most general sense, the purpose of the project was and is to create and document a consistent database of parallel streams of random numbers generated by high-quality physical sources. The goal is to determine whether any correlations might be detectable of statistics from these data with independent long-term physical or sociological variables. In the original experimental design we asked the more limited question whether there is a detectable correlation of deviations from randomness with the occurrence of major events in the world.
Hypothesis
Periods of collective attention or emotion in widely distributed populations will correlate with deviations from expectation in a global network of physical random number generators.
The formal hypothesis of the original event-based experiment is very broad. It posits that engaging global events will correlate with deviations in the data. We use operational definitions to establish unambigously what is done in the experiment. The identification of events and the times at which they occur are specified case by case, as are the statistical recipes. The approach explicitly preserves some latitude of choice, as is appropriate for an experiment exploring new territory. Accepting loose criteria for event identification allows exploration of a variety of categories, while the specification of a rigorous, simple hypothesis test for each event in the formal series assures valid statistics. These are combined to yield a confidence level for the composite of all formal trials. This bottom line constitutes a general test of the broadly defined formal hypothesis, and characterizes a well-understood database for further analysis.
