I've just found this mesage on another board it releates to this website noosphere.princeton.edu/ and is undertaken by princeton uni, here is the unedited post from the other board. Sorry sooooo busy I haven't even read it all or looked at the site.

In Latec Russell


CAN THIS BLACK BOX SEE INTO THE FUTURE?
RedNova
Friday, 11 February 2005

www.rednova.com/news/display/

Deep in the basement of a dusty university library in Edinburgh lies
a small
black box, roughly the size of two cigarette packets side by side,
that
churns out random numbers in an endless stream.

At first glance it is an unremarkable piece of equipment. Encased in
metal,
it contains at its heart a microchip no more complex than the ones
found in
modern pocket calculators.

But, according to a growing band of top scientists, this box has
quite
extraordinary powers. It is, they claim, the 'eye' of a machine that
appears
capable of peering into the future and predicting major world events.

The machine apparently sensed the September 11 attacks on the World
Trade
Centre four hours before they happened - but in the fevered mood of
conspiracy theories of the time, the claims were swiftly knocked
back by
sceptics. But last December, it also appeared to forewarn of the
Asian
tsunami just before the deep sea earthquake that precipitated the
epic
tragedy.

Now, even the doubters are acknowledging that here is a small box
with
apparently inexplicable powers.

'It's Earth-shattering stuff,' says Dr Roger Nelson, emeritus
researcher at
Princeton University in the United States, who is heading the
research
project behind the 'black box' phenomenon.

'We're very early on in the process of trying to figure out what's
going on
here. At the moment we're stabbing in the dark.' Dr Nelson's
investigations,
called the Global Consciousness Project, were originally hosted by
Princeton
University and are centred on one of the most extraordinary
experiments of
all time. Its aim is to detect whether all of humanity shares a
single
subconscious mind that we can all tap into without realising.

And machines like the Edinburgh black box have thrown up a
tantalising
possibility: that scientists may have unwittingly discovered a way of
predicting the future.

Although many would consider the project's aims to be little more
than
fools' gold, it has still attracted a roster of 75 respected
scientists from
41 different nations. Researchers from Princeton - where Einstein
spent much
of his career - work alongside scientists from universities in
Britain, the
Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany. The project is also the most
rigorous
and longest-running investigation ever into the potential powers of
the
paranormal.

'Very often paranormal phenomena evaporate if you study them for long
enough,' says physicist Dick Bierman of the University of
Amsterdam. 'But
this is not happening with the Global Consciousness Project. The
effect is
real. The only dispute is about what it means.' The project has its
roots in
the extraordinary work of Professor Robert Jahn of Princeton
University
during the late 1970s. He was one of the first modern scientists to
take
paranormal phenomena seriously. Intrigued by such things as
telepathy,
telekinesis - the supposed psychic power to move objects without the
use of
physical force - and extrasensory perception, he was determined to
study the
phenomena using the most up-to-date technology available.

One of these new technologies was a humble-looking black box known
was a
Random Event Generator (REG). This used computer technology to
generate two
numbers - a one and a zero - in a totally random sequence, rather
like an
electronic coin-flipper.

The pattern of ones and noughts - 'heads' and 'tails' as it were -
could
then be printed out as a graph. The laws of chance dictate that the
generators should churn out equal numbers of ones and zeros - which
would be
represented by a nearly flat line on the graph. Any deviation from
this
equal number shows up as a gently rising curve.

During the late 1970s, Prof Jahn decided to investigate whether the
power of
human thought alone could interfere in some way with the machine's
usual
readings. He hauled strangers off the street and asked them to
concentrate
their minds on his number generator. In effect, he was asking them
to try to
make it flip more heads than tails.

It was a preposterous idea at the time. The results, however, were
stunning
and have never been satisfactorily explained.

Again and again, entirely ordinary people proved that their minds
could
influence the machine and produce significant fluctuations on the
graph,
'forcing it' to produce unequal numbers of 'heads' or 'tails'.

According to all of the known laws of science, this should not have
happened
- but it did. And it kept on happening.

Dr Nelson, also working at Princeton University, then extended Prof
Jahn's
work by taking random number machines to group meditations, which
were very
popular in America at the time. Again, the results were eyepopping.
The
groups were collectively able to cause dramatic shifts in the
patterns of
numbers.

From then on, Dr Nelson was hooked.

Using the internet, he connected up 40 random event generators from
all over
the world to his laboratory computer in Princeton. These ran
constantly, day
in day out, generating millions of different pieces of data. Most of
the
time, the resulting graph on his computer looked more or less like a
flat
line.

But then on September 6, 1997, something quite extraordinary
happened: the
graph shot upwards, recording a sudden and massive shift in the
number
sequence as his machines around the world started reporting huge
deviations
from the norm. The day was of historic importance for another
reason, too.

For it was the same day that an estimated one billion people around
the
world watched the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales at Westminster
Abbey.

Dr Nelson was convinced that the two events must be related in some
way.

Could he have detected a totally new phenomena? Could the
concentrated
emotional outpouring of millions of people be able to influence the
output
of his REGs. If so, how?

Dr Nelson was at a loss to explain it.

So, in 1998, he gathered together scientists from all over the world
to
analyse his findings. They, too, were stumped and resolved to extend
and
deepen the work of Prof Jahn and Dr Nelson. The Global Consciousness
Project
was born.

Since then, the project has expanded massively. A total of 65 Eggs
(as the
generators have been named) in 41 countries have now been recruited
to act
as the 'eyes' of the project.

And the results have been startling and inexplicable in equal
measure.

For during the course of the experiment, the Eggs have 'sensed' a
whole
series of major world events as they were happening, from the Nato
bombing
of Yugoslavia to the Kursk submarine tragedy to America's hung
election of
2000.

The Eggs also regularly detect huge global celebrations, such as New
Year's
Eve.

But the project threw up its greatest enigma on September 11, 2001.

As the world stood still and watched the horror of the terrorist
attacks
unfold across New York, something strange was happening to the Eggs.

Not only had they registered the attacks as they actually happened,
but the
characteristic shift in the pattern of numbers had begun four hours
before
the two planes even hit the Twin Towers.

They had, it appeared, detected that an event of historic importance
was
about to take place before the terrorists had even boarded their
fateful
flights. The implications, not least for the West's security
services who
constantly monitor electronic 'chatter', are clearly enormous.

'I knew then that we had a great deal of work ahead of us,' says Dr
Nelson.

What could be happening? Was it a freak occurrence, perhaps?

Apparently not. For in the closing weeks of December last year, the
machines
went wild once more.

Twenty-four hours later, an earthquake deep beneath the Indian Ocean
triggered the tsunami which devastated South-East Asia, and claimed
the
lives of an estimated quarter of a million people.

So could the Global Consciousness Project really be forecasting the
future?

Cynics will quite rightly point out that there is always some global
event
that could be used to 'explain' the times when the Egg machines
behaved
erratically. After all, our world is full of wars, disasters and
terrorist
outrages, as well as the occasional global celebration. Are the
scientists
simply trying too hard to detect patterns in their raw data?

The team behind the project insist not. They claim that by using
rigorous
scientific techniques and powerful mathematics it is possible to
exclude any
such random connections.

'We're perfectly willing to discover that we've made mistakes,' says
Dr
Nelson. 'But we haven't been able to find any, and neither has
anyone else.

Our data shows clearly that the chances of getting these results by
fluke
are one million to one against.

That's hugely significant.' But many remain sceptical.

Professor Chris French, a psychologist and noted sceptic at
Goldsmiths
College in London, says: 'The Global Consciousness Project has
generated
some very intriguing results that cannot be readily dismissed. I'm
involved
in similar work to see if we get the same results. We haven't
managed to do
so yet but it's only an early experiment. The jury's still out.'
Strange as
it may seem, though, there's nothing in the laws of physics that
precludes
the possibility of foreseeing the future.

It is possible - in theory - that time may not just move forwards but
backwards, too. And if time ebbs and flows like the tides in the
sea, it
might just be possible to foretell major world events. We would, in
effect,
be 'remembering' things that had taken place in our future.

'There's plenty of evidence that time may run backwards,' says Prof
Bierman
at the University of Amsterdam.

'And if it's possible for it to happen in physics, then it can
happen in our
minds, too.' In other words, Prof Bierman believes that we are all
capable
of looking into the future, if only we could tap into the hidden
power of
our minds. And there is a tantalising body of evidence to support
this
theory.

Dr John Hartwell, working at the University of Utrecht in the
Netherlands,
was the first to uncover evidence that people could sense the
future. In the
mid-1970s he hooked people up to hospital scanning machines so that
he could
study their brainwave patterns.

He began by showing them a sequence of provocative cartoon drawings.

When the pictures were shown, the machines registered the subject's
brainwaves as they reacted strongly to the images before them. This
was to
be expected.

Far less easy to explain was the fact that in many cases, these
dramatic
patterns began to register a few seconds before each of the pictures
were
even flashed up.

It was as though Dr Hartwell's case studies were somehow seeing into
the
future, and detecting when the next shocking image would be shown
next.

It was extraordinary - and seemingly inexplicable.

But it was to be another 15 years before anyone else took Dr
Hartwell's work
further when Dean Radin, a researcher working in America, connected
people
up to a machine that measured their skin's resistance to
electricity. This
is known to fluctuate in tandem with our moods - indeed, it's this
principle
that underlies many lie detectors.

Radin repeated Dr Hartwell's 'image response' experiments while
measuring
skin resistance. Again, people began reacting a few seconds before
they were
shown the provocative pictures. This was clearly impossible, or so he
thought, so he kept on repeating the experiments. And he kept
getting the
same results.

'I didn't believe it either,' says Prof Bierman. 'So I also repeated
the
experiment myself and got the same results. I was shocked. After
this I
started to think more deeply about the nature of time.' To make
matters even
more intriguing, Prof Bierman says that other mainstream labs have
now
produced similar results but are yet to go public.

'They don't want to be ridiculed so they won't release their
findings,' he
says. 'So I'm trying to persuade all of them to release their
results at the
same time. That would at least spread the ridicule a little more
thinly!' If
Prof Bierman is right, though, then the experiments are no laughing
matter.

They might help provide a solid scientific grounding for such strange
phenomena as 'deja vu', intuition and a host of other curiosities
that we
have all experienced from time to time.

They may also open up a far more interesting possibility - that one
day we
might be able to enhance psychic powers using machines that
can 'tune in' to
our subconscious mind, machines like the little black box in
Edinburgh.

Just as we have built mechanical engines to replace muscle power,
could we
one day build a device to enhance and interpret our hidden psychic
abilities?

Dr Nelson is optimistic - but not for the short term. 'We may be
able to
predict that a major world event is going to happen. But we won't
know
exactly what will happen or where it's going to happen,' he says.

'Put it this way - we haven't yet got a machine we could sell to the
CIA.'

But for Dr Nelson, talk of such psychic machines - with the
potential to
detect global catastrophes or terrorist outrages - is of far less
importance
than the implications of his work in terms of the human race.

For what his experiments appear to demonstrate is that while we may
all
operate as individuals, we also appear to share something far, far
greater -
a global consciousness. Some might call it the mind of God.

'We're taught to be individualistic monsters,' he says. 'We're
driven by
society to separate ourselves from each other. That's not right.

We may be connected together far more intimately than we realise.'