Wired News reports on the controversial Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research program (PEAR), a 26-year-old effort to scientifically measure whether human consciousness can affect machines like digital random number generators. (Link to previous post about the Princeton-based effort.) From the Wired News article:
The first REG (Random Event Generator) that researchers used produced high-frequency random noise. Researchers attached circuitry to the device to translate the noise into ones and zeroes. Each participant, following a prerecorded protocol, developed an intention in her or his mind to have the generator alternately spew out more ones, then more zeroes, and then do nothing at all.The effects were small, but measurable. Since then, the same results have occurred with other experiments, such as one involving a pendulum connected to a computer-controlled mechanism. When the machine releases the pendulum to swing from a set position, participants focus on changing the rate at which the pendulum slows to a stop…
What does all of this mean?
No one knows. Both (institute of Noetic Sciences researcher Dean) Radin and (Princeton professor emeritus Robert) Jahn say that just because there is a correlation between the intent of the participant and the machine's actions doesn't mean one causes the other.
"There is an inference (that the two are related) but no direct evidence," Radin said.
Radin said the phenomenon could be similar to quantum entanglement — what Einstein referred to as "spooky action at a distance" — in which two particles separated from each other appear to connect without any apparent form of communication.
UPDATE: BB reader Tom Radcliffe points to several early 1990s papers written by now-retired University of Texas professor William H. Jefferys, critiquing some of the PEAR results. Search the page for "Random Event Generator Data" and follow the links to the PDF or Postscript files. Link
