Margins of Reality

Margins of Reality

By Robert J Jahn and Brenda J Dunne

 

This book is basically a doctoral thesis on the role the conscious mind plays in reality.  It’s at odds with today’s classic science that insists on taking the experimenter out of the experiment.  It takes a very academic/scientific two-step process.  Step one is to describe a theory in a way that can be scientifically tested in a lab or in the outside ‘real’ world.   Much of the material faces an obtuse scientific community as they tend to rebuff the notion that consciousness has a crucial effect on the real world, mental and physical. 

A primary challenge in putting any claim to the consciousness play on reality is the enormous amount of data required and then the statistical analysis methods that could make any sense around any final thesis.  Hence, the first one third of the book is ladened with statistics.  In the end the stats on their own fall short of a winning argument.  Which only spurs the team in PEAR Team at Princeton to delve into quantum concepts, and finally into consciousness particle waves.  I think the most fascinating areas discussed were Precognition and Parapsychology…ESP and telepathy.

 

Notes:

Page ix:  Western science and philosophy and exemplified by pragmatic materialism, the mind of man is relegated to a passive processor of experience imposed by a totally deterministic external world.

Page ix: In the opposite extreme, espoused by numerous ans enduring mystical traditions of many cultures and eras, all experience is presumed to be created by the consciousness

Page ix: we are both onlookers and actors in the great drama of existence.

Page 7: Throughout recorded history anecdotal instances of inexplainable consciousness-related phenomena have regularly been reported and variously interpreted in such divers e context as religion, philosophy anthropology, psychology, medicine, art, and even high technology.  Such events have been catalogued as miracles, magic, psychic phenomena, sorcery, inspirations, gremlins; but little has ever been established among them.

Page 13: Even in more modern eras, despite the passive growth of technologies, the ascendancy of materialistic philosophy and analytical logic, and continuous increase in intellectual sophistication, various ramifications of the same basic hunger for mystical participation in the metaphysical realms of experience continued to assert themselves in a slightly altered version of their ancestral formats.

Page 14: Although less publicly structured or condoned, the genre of supernatural power epitomized by McBeth’s witches has been practiced, sought and feared throughout history, and the same categories of anomalous phenomena have been featured therein.

Page 24: the systematic study of the interaction of consciousness with the physical world; the examination of the tangible ramifications of that interaction; and the use of metaphor in comprehending and representing the process.

Page 25: Newton reharded the ultimate mechanism of change in the universe to reside in the mystery by which the mind could control the universe.

Page 26: Those who have treated the sciences were either empirics or rationalists.  The empirics, like ants only lay up stores, and use them; the rationalists, like spiders spib webs out of themselves; but the bee takes the middle course gathering her matter from the flowers of the field and garden and preparing it by her native powers.

Page 29: Such monumental ancient tomes as the Pyramid Texts, the Sefer HaZohar, the Yoga Sutras, or the Avest comprise remarkable admixtures of pragmatic philosophy and spiritual insight whose timeless relevance has not yet to be full assimilated….

Page 31: Kant distinguished a perceived world of empirical sensations, or phenomena from an objective world of transcendental, unknowable things-in-themselves…and proposed that experience was the product of the mind….

Page 36: The historical scholarly is already un mistakable: far beyond its strictly intellectual capacities, consciousness possesses and utilizes mystical and metaphysical dimensions for its conceptualizations and interpretation of reality.

Page 48: When psi capacities transcend space and time ever so slightly of in frequently, they are revealing fundamental properties of the human mind as a whole.  This capacity to intersect with the physical world through ESP and PK is this a function of total personality, not of an abstracted isolated, momentary mental state.

 

Page 53: Artistic, musical, or literary composition, lofty philosophical thought, pragmatic ingenuity, or romantic courtship are not usually facilitated by rigid constraints or by the presence of a body of unsympathetic observers.   Favorable ambience and mood can be important facilitators of such efforts, and little creative achievement is likely to occur in overly sterile or hostile environments.

Page 54: Any such embargo stifles the most precious attribute of human consciousness., curiosity about the unknown that drives the mind and spirit of man to evolve, rather than merely replicate.

Page 59: Through their incursions extended the same dichotomy between reductionism and holistic reasoning that had pervasive the dialogues of Aristotle and Plato.

Page 60: Schrodinger, It is the same elements that go to compose my mind and its world, in spite of the unfathomable abundance of cross-references between them.  The world is given to me only once, not one existing and one perceived.  The subject and object are only one.

Page 61: Even in the most exact of all the natural sciences, in physics the need for margins of intimateness has repeatedly become apparent – a fact of which, it seems to us, is worthy of the attention of philosophers, since it may throw a new and illuminating light on the way in which the idealizations formed by our reason become adaptable to Reality. 1) Physical theory cannot be complete until consciousness is somehow acknowledged as an active element in the establishment of reality.

Page 64: …it could be unwise to dismiss categorically the possibility that human consciousness may be capable of more tha passive interaction with its micro-electrical aids. 

Page 65: In understanding experiments in this context, we are to some extent extending a trial of more conventional engineering research and development that has  variousaly been labeled human factors, cybernetics, ergonomics…

Page 87: The conceptual and strategic vectors outlined in Section I converge on a common need: a program of modern research that directly addresses he role of consciousness in the establishment of physical reality.

Page 93: (My note Man-v-Machine Margins is the/a basis against AI as we know it today.

Page 98: An REG experiment) In an actual experiment, the operator first decides all of the options listed on the table, records his choices in the logbook and on the computer, and sets the REG controls on the computer indices accordingly.  If the experiment is to volitional, he then decides his direction of effort and record that; if instructed, he activates the random instruction program and acknowledges the result.  The a few feet from the machine, he initiates its operation by remote switch and endeavors its influence its output to conform to his stated intention, by whatever strategy he feels effective.  Baseline runs are interspersed in some reasonable fashion in appropriate numbers to balance the PK trials.

Page 106: It is of course imperative whether other operators can achieve comparable effect and, if so, how consistently and with what individual character.

Page 107: In general, it is found that most operators’ cumulative deviation graphs take characteristically different forms that are relatively self-consistent over many consecutive series.

Page 111: Despite the occasional reversals and flat regions imposed by the less successful efforts, the overall mean shifts for both PK+ and PL- intentions nevertheless accumulate to significant departures from chance to theoretical mean.

Page 145: However, when the full set is examined, these apparent trends are seen to be transitory features that eventually revert to a substantial and protracted bias toward significant PK results, straddling a well behaved baseline.

               This in a study to measure if consciousness effects physical outcomes in reality

Page 148: In terms of our ‘two step’ analogy the experimental foot of science is here encountering an obstacle to its progress that its contemporary theoretical stance cannot surmount, and some reposturing is needed. …. The empirical case is already strong enough to warrant reexamination of the prevailing  position of science on the role of consciousness in the establishment of physical reality, with the goal of generalizing its theoretical concepts and formalisms to accommodate such consciousness-related as normal rather than phenomena. 

Page 181: they leave little doubt tha substantial pragmatic information has been obtained by many participants, using a variety of personal strategies, addressing a broad variety of targets.  We are thus justified in turning dependence of such phenomena on the controllable technical, physical, and personal parameters of the experiments.

Page 184; there is a substantial body of anecdotal evidence from our work and that of others that various forms of emotional or physiological bonds between the participants can facilitate the process.

Page 189: by its nature, the remote perception process is inherently impressionistic in character, yet to render is scientifically credible and pragmatically dependable, it must be reduced to analytical and quantitative terms.  Thus we find ourselves fishing in a metical sea with a scientific net far better matched to other purpose. Inevitably, much of the anomalous information we seek will slip through this net, leaving us only skeletal evidence to retrieve, but on that alone that we can base systematic analysis and scientific claim.

Page 191: Even in the most technological cultures, the utility of specific remote perception protocols and data-analysis techniques for anomalous acquisition of information is currently being explored.  … our central concern is the incorporation of controlled experimental findings into a comprehensive model of the role of consciousness.

Pahe 195: Our experimental expeditions into the realm of consciousness related phenomena have so far uncovered two species of anomalies that are starkly inconsistent with established physical theory.  In one case, the tangible output of a variety of information-processing devices has been shown to be correlated with the state intention of human operators in a statistically replicable and individually characteristic fashions.  In the other, substantive information about geographical targets in accessible by any know sensory channel has been acquired by remote perceptions with a degree of fidelity that appears to bs statistically insensitive to the intervening space or time.

Page 196: (on paranormal activity, there are four categories) 3) theories that postulate established physical mechanisms, such as electromagnetic waves or geophysical processes, to convey information of influences to or from human neurophysiology.

Page 201: All these concede a degree of paradox in human perception of physical processes suggest that physical theory is less a statement of abstract reality than ofour ability to acquire information about that reality

Page 203: Thus, consciousness and environment engage in the “I/NotI” dialogue of classical philosophy, but with the interface between the to regarded as subjective and situation specific. … It is a major hypothesis of the model of reality, encompassing all aspects of experience, expressions and behavior, is constituted only in the interface between consciousness and its environment…

Page 204: It is further presumed the sole currency of any reality is information into the environment as well as extracted from the environment.

Page 205:  It follows then, that the concepts formalisms, and imagery of physical theory may provide use metaphors for the representations of the nature and processes of consciousness itself…

Page 211: To some extent we can even force some coherence of these perspectives by composing “particle-like” “wave-like” or waves of particle probabilities …it is also consistent to attribute to consciousness itself the option of wave-like as well a particulate behavior, again perceived by the same consciousness…

Page 217: the evident ability of electromagnetic waves to propagate through a vacuum raises difficult questions about the properties of a total void that can the stresses of the alternating electric and magnetic fields.

Page 218: Natural science does not simply describe and explain nature; it is part of the interplay between nature and ourselves.

Page 220: Beyond the various departures from classical particle behavior implicit iy its wave-mechanical approach, the science of quantum physics imposes a number of other empirical postulates that appear to contradict traditional experience.

Page 225: For our purposes, this raises one more metaphorical precedent, namely, that human experience, as established by the interaction of consciousness with its environment, may also play by more elaborate probability rules…

Page 231: presume that the same clocks are relevant to all experiences of consciousness – should probably set aside in the face of obvious temporal distortions that occur in both emotional and cognitive personal experience.

Page 232: the conjugation patterns and syntax of most modern languages are so temporarily presumptive that any attempt to communicate without explicit or implicit time reference becomes chaotic. 

Page 232: Questions of internal or consciousness “clocks” and of subjective versus objective qualities of time have long attracted “thinking man”… when focusing on physical time… we need some generalization of the concept of physical time to the consciousness frame…in an intuitive fashion.

Page 232: In the same spirit, we now search for a consciousness oscillation or processing cycle by whose period all cognitive and emotional experience may be consistently timed.

Page 233: to express the rate of information assimilation in the consciousness domain, we form derivatives not with respect to physical time, but rather with respect to the prevailing consciousness time; that is, we specify units of information per processing scan of that consciousness

Page 235: The quantification and standardization of the degree of consciousness mass in terms of some evident unit proves even more elusive than for consciousness distance and time.  Nonetheless, presumption of some such index, related to the amount of information or energy required to displace the consciousness from a given position, is essential to metaphorical generalization of other physical concepts sand relationships.

Page 237:  we recognize that particular types of experience may induce in out psychies “positive” or :negative” reactions that can store energy for later release, either gradual or cataclysmic, constructive or destructive, when triggered by some subsequent event.

Page 238:  Here, we touch the egnimatic twofold nature of ego, namely that I am both: on the one hand a real individual which performs real physical acts, the dark, striving and erring human being that is cast into the world and its individual fate, on the other hand light which beholds itself, intuitive, vision, in whose consciousness pregnant with images endowed with meaning, the world opens up.  Only in this “meeting” of consciousness and being both exist, the world and I.

Page 239: From our foregoing definitions, consciousness “velocity” can therefore be defined as the rate of acquisition of information per unit  processing scan.

Page 240:  Thus, the higher the kinetic energy of consciousness operation, the greater the capacity to over come environmental barriers to influence other consciousnesses, or to change its own state

Page 243:  …eigenfunctions of experience are constantly being altered.  Nonetheless, at any point in this evolution they represent the tangible consequences of continuous/environment interaction, inasmuch the same spirit as the atomic eigenfunctions of physical theory represent the observable properties of those systems.  In other words, they define the consciousness atom.

244:  If any of the standing wave systems acquires sufficient energy to be elevated from cavity-bund to free-wave status, it may gain access to all consciousness space-time and interact with any other center in the configuration via that mode.

245: Given its wide utility in representing a vast range of human experience on all scales from subnuclear to the cosmological, its ubiquitous symbolism in all human times and cultures, and inherently centered nature of consciousness/environment model we are developing, spherical geometry would seem both analytically and intuitively appropriate as the frame of reference.

Page 249:  Whatever their psychological implications, these consciousness “energy” levels are subject to quantized change by mechanism analogues to those of their physical counterparts, for example by absorption or emission of information radiated from or to the environment, or by elastic collision with other such consciousness atoms.

Page 251:  In summary, then, we have posed a quantum wave-mechanical model of the rudimentary consciousness atom consisting of a array os spherical standing waves representing probability-od-experience patterns in a space defined by the intensity, attitude, and orientation of the consciousness in its interaction with its personal environment.

Page 253:  Simply stated, when the wave patterns of the bonding electrons of two parent atoms come into close interaction, the cannot be distinguished in any pragmatic sense.  This loss of identity, when properly acknowledged in quantum mechanical formalism, leads to an anomalous component in the bond.

Page 257:  Namely, since the magnitude of the exchange effects the manifest as anomalies depends on the wave mechanical resonance of the participating elements, stronger effect should occur among persons disposed toward sharing identity.

Page 261: However expressed or practiced, the salient point for design, implementation, and interpretation is that the blurring of individual identity in intimate sharing of experience should facilitate anomalous results.

Page 261: In the consciousness domain, where we have associated spin direction with the passive/assertivr or receptor/donor characteristics, the corresponding effect would be the tendency of bonds to form between two participants of this sort.  The most evident example is the ubiquitous female/male dyad, as acknowledged in numerous expressions: “every bird has a mate”, “It takes two to tango”…

Page 263 In out consciousness analogy, therefore we anticipate that anomalous wave functions have the same or larger scale than the dimensions of the environmental well or contexts in which they are immersed, and will revert to a normal pattern when the wavelengths are much smaller than those dimensions.

Page 264:  Consciousness that have not been conditioned in this anner, such as veery young children, primitive peoples, wild creatures, and those adults our society, for whatever reason, have resisted such training, do not automatically relate to their context with such precision, and indeed those groups seem more attuned to anomalous phenomena

The metaphor thus suggests a useful though vague criterion for facilitating the transition from ordinary to anomalous experience, namely that the consciousness involved becomes as freely ranging -that is, of as long a wavelength as possible, compared to the prevailing context of the task.

Page 267:  To us … the only acceptable point of view appears to be the one that recognizes both sides of reality – the quantitate and the qualitative, the physical and the psychical – as compatible with each other and embrace them simultaneously.

Page 269:  Beyond the limitation on precision of specification, the uncertainty principle may also define the most productive and fulfilling regimes of consciousness activity, namely where the doing and the being, or analyzing and the synthesizing, are in some balance of focus.

Page 271:  If, however, consciousness is also allowed a wave nature, metaphorically akin to that attributed to atomic scale physical systems, a variety of wave-mechanical processes become by which marginal broadening of options for realty can be achieved.

Page 275 Perhaps the single most critical aspect of these tuning processes, however, is the correlation of the spins of the operator and the device.  The quantum mechanical formalism predicts that only if these spins are the same, the interaction is repulsive and anomalous effects opposite to the intended direction may be expected.

Page 277: Whichever of these wave-mechanical options are applied, the model and experiments agree that under certain circumstances human consciousness can interact with physical systems to broaden their observable behavior beyond chance expectations.

Page 280: In some fashion, both time and space may, in effect, be redefined.  That is rather than forming its experiences in the “here and now”, consciousness may choose to sample the “there and then”.

Page 286 The intellectual life of man consists almost wholly in his substitution of a conceptual order in which his experience originally comes.

Page 290:  If we wish to give philosophical expression to the profound connection between thought and action in all fields of human endeavor, particularly in science, we shall undoubtedly have to seek its sources in the unfathomable depths of the human soul. Perhaps philosophers might call it: love” in a very general sense – that force which directs all our actions, which is the source of all our delights and all out pursuits.  Indissolubly linked with thought and with actions, love is their common mainspring and, hence, their common bond.  The engineers of the future have an essential part to play cementing this bond.

Page 293:  we ponder whether incontrovertible scientific demonstration of the ability of consciousness to influence its physical reality – if such can ever attain -would substantially alter individual collective perception of the human state.

Page 295: In essence, we have found that a variety of devices based on random or pseudorandom physical processes can display marginal aberrations in their output distributions that correlate with individual intention.

Page 297:  Nonetheless, the possibility that certain man/machine interactions may require generalization of traditional mechanistic models to include consciousness as an active, synergetic component of the overall system has legitimacy been raised.

Page 299: if reality is established only by the interpenetration of consciousness and it environment, then the sole expression of that reality – information – must be the child of both parents and hence reflect the influence of both.

Page 311:  In other words, statistics, like all other theoretical concepts, is subjective matrix imposed by consciousness to help to sort stimuli into information, and thus may be as reflective of the consciousness itself as of the effects it is sorting.

Page 311:  One hypothetical interpretation of these experimental results is tha consciousness imposes some form of anomalous segregation of the output of data during its acquisition.

Page 313: Namely each consciousness has its own private margin of reality to play with, consistent with its own innate statistical sense and information-processing style, and scaled by is ability to achieve a resonance with its environment

Page 317:  In interactions with physical atomic domains, the consciousnessmargins of reality may become comparable in scale with the  basic processes themselves, and thereby acquire much greater relative importance.  In fact they may just be the basic processes in toto, and the atomic reality may be established by these mechanism \themselves.

Page 319: And the products of this creation, the “quarks”, “anti-quarks”, “gluons” and all the rest now become labeled with suspiciously subjective qualities such as “color”,   “flavor”, “charm.”

Page 321:  May we not now reasonably ponder that if this powerful space- and time-bending property we call mass” ultimately traces down to “particles” that we can only experience rather than observe, that we must treat as events rather thanas substance, and that we can describe only as quasi-poetic.

Page 323:  Perspective of James Jeans … the physical theory of relativity has now shown that electric and magnetic forces are not real at all: they are merely mental construct of our own, resulting from our rather misguided efforts to understand the motions of particles.

329: Stated in terms of consciousness correspondence principle, there may be insufficient room in this short-wavelength society for the longer-wavelength components of human psyches to express themselves without distortion.

Page 332: The situation may be expressed by an image: Science without religion is lame religion without science is blind.

Page 333:  The message of this book is simply to confirm the efficacy resonance with a given system, process, or another consciousness, of human volition deployed in self-consciousness, in specific programmatic, and quantitive terms.  … this becomes a personal matter

Science, viewed from a mystical perspective, is cosmic questioning force seeking comprehension of itself through systematic generation, processing, and interpretation of information.

Page 335:  One of the most broadly useful concepts in thes fields (chaos & order) is a property called entropy, which is an index of the degree of disorder of any proliferate system, inversely related to the amount of information available about it.

Page 337: Mind filters out matter from the meaningless jumble of qualities, as the prism filters out the colors of the rainbow from the chaotic pulsations of white light.