Research Library
Publication

Abstract

Consciousness is defined as 1) the state or quality of awareness; 2) of being aware of an external object or something within oneself; 3) or having a sense of selfhood. Materialists would claim that our consciousness is limited to our physical brain. However, there is some preliminary evidence that mental attention can influence physical systems in an instantaneous and non-local way. The evidence is seen as micro-psychokinesis or the observation through statistical means of minute influences on inanimate probabilistic systems. Random number generators (RNGs) are one tool used to evaluate micro-psychokinesis or our ability to affect the physical world with our consciousness. The Global Consciousness Project (GCP) is an international collaboration of researchers around the world and is the longest running experiment in the micro-psychokinesis field using RNG’s. Since the Global Consciousness Project’s completion, new studies and tools have been developed to evaluate collective consciousness. Such experiments include those conducted from 2012 through 2016 at the Burning Man festival in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert where the subjective experience is variously described as an "energetic shift" or as "electricity in the air" potentially evoked when tens of thousands of people coherently focus on the same event. The implications of these micro-psychokinesis results are that we are not in fact completely separate from our environment but have influence on it. Regardless of any definitive evidence of consciousness’ effect on the physical world, an increased subjective sense of interconnectedness is noted to support positive psychological states nurturing our relationships with ourselves and others. In a world filled with separation, divisiveness, prejudice and war, humanity would benefit from endorsing a worldview of interconnection. In the meantime, we can continue our scientific efforts to evaluate consciousness’ role in the physical world and characterize the relationship.