Most engineers would scoff at the notion of combining spirituality and scientific rigor. Their very own department, however, is sponsoring the largest worldwide study consciousness through the Global Consciousness Project (GCP), which uses random number generators to measure levels of global consciousness.
University researcher Roger Nelson of the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research program (PEAR) was drawn by the prospect of uniting the domain of science with that of spirituality to found GCP in 1998. Intrigued by suggestions that news events of considerable importance could influence global thought patterns, Nelson decided to investigate despite the nature of the topic.
"I wish we'd get out of the habit of putting things in one box instead of the other," he said. "Spirituality doesn't damage science."
He hopes to prove humans can achieve a state of global consciousness, by means of an out-of-body "non-local field" linking all living things to each other and the world around them in an all encompassing blanket of the thought, emotion and energy that define consciousness.
To investigate potential mechanisms of this global consciousness, Nelson and his colleagues have set up an international network of 38 Random Number Generators (RNGs). Nelson playfully likens them to electronic coin flippers. These "eggs" generate, analyze and record random patterns in binary code that are then sent to the University for data analysis.
While egg data results are usually clustered around a mean, extreme deviations occasionally occur. The most unusual RNG readings consistently surround high profile and usually tragic media events such as the death of Princess Diana.
The events of Sept. 11 also generated "enormous deviation data for a long period of time," confirming what the GCP team has long suspected — that egg readings are "correlated with how much news there is in the world," he explained.
The explanation of this correlation remains unknown. "Nobody quite knows quite how it works," concedes Nelson.
Nelson's University colleagues are supportive of his project.
PEAR communications director Arnold Lettieri said in an e-mail, "All of the members of the PEAR staff are strongly supportive of the GCP, gratified by its success."
Thomas Breidenthal, Dean of Religious Life, concurred with Nelson's assertion that science and spirituality should unite. "Science and the church are not at odds. Religion is about the search for truth, it's about what's real."
Breidenthal also noted similarities between the phenomenon that the GCP is investigating and the perceived benefits of group prayer. The notion of fellowship in prayer important because "the idea of community is central to Christianity," according to Breidenthal.
For now, Nelson is proud of what the GCP has accomplished, and is optimistic about its future.
"I have a vision of this project as a rivulet joining others to make a stream and then a river flowing toward a better grasp of what it means to be human in an interconnected world."
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