A professor from Princeton claims he has found a relationship between significant global events and random computer-generated data. Has he discovered a global consciousness?

For the last decade, a network of 65 computers has been sending a steady stream of random numbers from their locations around the globe to a server in Princeton, N.J. There, Dr. Roger Nelson, an experimental cognitive psychologist with a background in physics and statistical methods, analyzes the data, looking for patterns in the randomness. He claims the computers are like thermometers, and that they are taking the temperature of the planet’s global consciousness.
Along with approximately 100 volunteer researchers and analysts, Nelson will celebrate the ten-year anniversary of the Global Consciousness Project (GCP) this August. Though Nelson worked with the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) lab from 1980 to 2002, when he retired from the school, this project remains independent of any university affiliation.
Nelson claims that significant moments, whether they be natural disasters or cultural milestones, can be traced in the data he receives. During these key events—like the death of Princess Diana, the 9/11 terrorist attacks or even the Democratic nomination of Sen. Barack Obama—the random numbers generated by the network become noticeably more aligned. On 9/11, the data even showed these effects early, some four to five hours before the first plane hit the North Tower. And it’s not just computers near the event that are affected: this alignment occurs around the globe.

A Planetary Thermometer: Our interactive graphic shows you what the raw data looks like by comparing a “normal” day to a few days (like 9/11) when significant events occurred.

The actual math required to understand the analysis remains far too complicated for most. But for mathematicians like Nelson, the results are definitive. What he doesn’t know is why it happens.
“We know no more about global consciousness than your neurons know about your thoughts,” Nelson says. “But we have determined that there exist small but reliable effects around significant events. There are only speculations as to why.”
The preconception most people hold about the term “global consciousness” is one of the sources of confusion about the project. Contrary to most assumptions, Nelson says the term doesn’t describe any kind of planetary mind that is awake and aware. Rather, he argues, it references a clear pattern in unconscious global mental activity.
Skeptics criticize the GCP for selecting its “significant” events based upon the result they seek. Nelson says that simply isn’t the case.

See a few images—some of which are updated in real time on our page—from Brain Paint, a husband-and-wife team that translates the GCP data into stunning visuals.

As an example, he points out that of the approximately 700 earthquakes measuring 6.0 or higher on the Richter scale every year, only the 10 percent that occur on land are registered as patterns in the GCP data. Those that happen in the ocean—and therefore don’t impact people—don’t register at all.
Perhaps the most compelling product of this research is the variety of ways the data has been interpreted aesthetically. The GCP produces tapestries, graphs, global brain paintings and even musical compositions that are derived from the order that emerges out of the millions of random numbers.
Ultimately, Nelson insists that the Project provides a hypothesis to be tested, not answers. But there is room for speculation.
“When we think, we reach out to touch the future and the past, as well as other parts of the universe,” Nelson says. “And that affects and alters things. My preferred speculation is that there is a global consciousness or a global mind. But, really, you’re asking about something we don’t yet know.”

Watch and listen to various artistic interpretations of the GCP data, from Philip Wood’s videos to Jim Burton’s musical compositions.