Roger Nelson

GCP blog

This page is the repository for the occasional updates I have been sending to the GCP mailing list every two or three months over the years. I’ve decided to make the actual note sent via email very short, just an announcement and a link to the current update for a smaller load on the web, and on everybody’s mail queue.

GCP/EGG Update December 20 2014

It is nearing year's end and I wish everyone a good holiday season and much good fortune in the New Year. Two of the best words I can think of are Compassion and Wellbeing. One is a way of interacting with the world; the other is an aspiration for the world. The general form translates in practice to compassion for someone or some being, and a wish for someone or perhaps everyone to be well, to have what each one needs, and a little left over for happiness.

Looking around, especially through the spyglass of the news, it appears there is much to be desired, and yet, there is also an apparent increase in consciousness. The statistics and historical calculations actually tell us that there is less war, or less death and destruction from war than there has been in the past. We just hear about much more of it. Maybe there is a kind of feedback loop, where hearing of it makes us will more strongly that it cease; where we learn from history and stop the destruction. Saying that is an exaggerated way of suggesting that our wishes and dreams of creativity replacing depravity may have a slow but real effect. I hope so. And if the evidence from experiments like the GCP and all its cousins testing the leading edges of consciousness are telling us the truth, then it is not an exaggeration to say that what we wish for is more likely to become what is. No guarantees, but yes promises: Do this. It will help. It is a small thing, but very important. Do this and inspire or lead others to join you. It will not do harm, and it can make the future we are creating for ourselves a wee bit brighter. And if we follow the logic, one of the best possible wishes is for more of us to take up the practice of envisioning and praying into existence that brighter future.

What's been happening in the GCP realm? We have some gains and losses. For example, the much loved DOT is again out of commission, but not permanently. It was for obscure reasons generating many errors, enough to degrade server performance. We will be working on it. On the other side of the ledger, we have learned of a new physical RNG device that has some qualities we very much need if we are to add new eggs to the network. It connects by USB, but presents as a serial port, so it simplifies the process of setting up. The calibrations look good, and we have placed the first of these in service in a new host site in Bangalore India. It turned out to be a bit complicated, but for a surprising reason. The new host has a high level of technical skills so all went smoothly -- except there was a blockage of one part of the bi-directional communication and hence no data flow. With help from Paul Bethke we progressively narrowed the range of possible barriers, concluding finally that ISP policies were blocking our data packets. Our host was able to make a special arrangement with his ISP and we began getting data yesterday. That's especially pleasing because we had lost our original Indian eggs.

There have been events and incidents in the world which should probably have made it to the GCP's formal event list, but the registry has been sparse for the last several weeks. It's due in part to my attention being focused on the house in White Hawk Ecovillage. It is now enclosed and the inside work is in full swing. In truth, the builder team is so good that I could just relax and wait, but there's an excitement that draws me in. White Hawk is 4 or 5 hours travel from here, so we can't be there frequently. Greg, my son, sends pictures occasionally, and I talk with Rob, the builder, every few days. Interesting process, and it is interesting as well to see how much difference it makes in something like the GCP activity to have multiple engaging matters absorbing attentional energy.

Now this is a different sort of blog entry. Mostly just talk, not many links or reports of analysis. Maybe I will think of some of those things to add later. I often do. In the meantime, let me just send my wishes for a wonderful holiday season, and a healthy and happy new year.

GCP/EGG Update September 7 2014

I have to admit some considerable distraction lately, with the result it has been a long time since I added a blog entry. But here we are. One of the things that has occupied me personally is building a house in an ecovillage near Ithaca NY, where our son and several other families have created the beginnings of a community with values we share. It is called White Hawk Ecovillage, and if you go to the website, be sure to look at the short video called White Hawk YouTube Video. That presents some of the attractions in a delightful way.

I am also occupied, but so far not as productively as I would like, by the idea that we need a well designed and organized collaboration between and among the many separate groups with a similar intent to do something to help make a brighter future. Many focus on meditation and seek to create the biggest global meditation yet. Others believe music and concerts can bring us all together and gather people from all walks of life to work for peace in the world. Many meetings and gatherings and festivals are designed to honor life and love and compassion. If you have not had invitations to join from one or another of these efforts, it would be very surprising. What I would like to see is a kind of clearing house, or rather, a facilitation process introducing all the separate centers of energy to each other. The idea of bringing synergy to joined campaigns seems not only ripe for implementation, but a kind of manifestation on a practical level of the global consciousness we believe is forming. It seems natural to join together since the goals are shared, and I think the only barriers are investment/ego issues — which must be minor — and the missing central organizing function. I’ve been thinking about this long enough to realize I am not personally the one we need to do the organizing, but I will help anyone who chooses to step up. Just needs a kind of easy access web presence, a forum, bulletins, and some functions we can imagine but haven’t yet seen, to create integration and the power of two heads and more working together.

One of the ways this can be extremely important is by attracting, slowly but necessarily, attention and contribution from people on the other side of the fence, especially people in positions of power and influence. One of the facts we must recognize is that there are many individuals and groups (I think of corporations) who presently believe their benefit lies with the status quo, where we have war and violence and careless greed that is eating our world alive. It must be clear that the status quo destroys resources and lives and wastes creative possibilities — for a return of low value compared to what is possible. Logic says the destruction can’t be as profitable as a constructive application of the same resources. So, here is a question that needs very many minds concentrated on achieving an answer: How can we redirect the aims of the people in power politically and economically so they strive for constructive ends, and seek an end to destruction?

Compassion works. It is probably the single most powerful antidote to the ills that we need to overcome. It should be possible to re-train ourselves and our leaders to choose compassion. (This makes me think of the GWBush claim to be a compassionate conservative. But that is practically an oxymoron — compassion doesn’t come in colors.)

Now to a bit of comment on the Project’s work. The past few months have seen so much turmoil in the world. Many of us think there must be a way for the Global Consciousness Project to observe it, but much of the time, the disturbances are long-term roiling of the waters rather than events. Our instrument works most effectively for short, sharply focused events because when we look at only a few hours, the chances for other, competing events is limited. On the other hand, when we wish to consider something like the ongoing tragedy of the Israeli-Palestine conflict, there will be any number of other things happening in the world — we can’t isolate effects that might be due to the middle east conflict alone. What we can do is identify moments of higher intensity, attracting attention from around the world which is more concentrated. We use probes that may give us a momentary sample of the ongoing effects. Though this may need to be informal (not included in the long-running formal replication series) it can provide useful information while also asking the GCP network about events which deeply affect us. An example is the apparent murder and retaliation of innocent young people from Israel and Palestine. Sadly, these tragic and horrifying events are not sufficient to change the course of the conflict. Sad indeed. We can hope for a better future. Send a prayer.

In just a few weeks, we will be traveling to Rome, Italy for a gathering of the Circle of Life. This is an example of the groups working for the positive. They bring people from around the world together in service of our commonalities in mind and spirit. The meeting will be held in Rome from friday 3rd to sunday 5th october 2014. More complete information is at The Circle of Life.

GCP/EGG Update April 24 2014

Update on the update: Jan 1 2015.

We have now transitioned all functions to the fast server. The active eggs are now sending data directly, and all the automatic functions and data processing are hosted there. The GCP website is accessible as global-mind.org or noosphere.princeton.edu (as well as teilhard.global-mind.org and www.global-mind.org).
Happy New Year!

Fast server and website: The GCP now has a much faster website to accompany the fast and felicitous redesign by Marjorie Simmons (see the Jan 1 blog entry). It is hosted on a VPS (virtual private server) supplied by a young company called hostus.us. The fast site URL is global-mind.org. Although there are a few items still in progress, the new site has almost all the functionality of the original, but instant response. If you have experienced long waits and frustration when the original server was heavily loaded, try global-mind.org. It is a pleasure to use. And please change any links you have to use global-mind.org or www.global-mind.org instead of noosphere.princeton.edu or teilhard.global-mind.org.

Addendum, Sept 21 2014: The new website at global-mind.org is fully functional now. It is nicer for browsing, and it is highly recommended if you want to download data.

A workshop: In early June immediately following the annual meeting of the SSE, I will be giving a workshop on RNG applications. Intended for anyone who would like a focused introduction to the use of REGs or RNGs in consciousness research, this is a day-long, hands-on opportunity. We will have Psyleron REGs to use (and some for sale as well), and some guest contributors including Dean Radin, Adam Curry, and Herb Mertz. For details, look at SSE Workshop or the SSE Meeting description.

SSE Meeting: The 2014 meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration will be in San Francisco, June 5-7, at the Hyat Regency San Francisco Airport. Always an interesting gathering, this is one of the best ways to learn what is happening in several areas of frontier science. Highly recommended. My wife and I both think of this conference as a kind of family reunion. This year I will be giving a workshop, described above. It’s a new venture, and I’m looking forward to it.

PA Meeting: In August, we have the annual meeting of the Parapsychological Association. By coincidence, the PA meeting is also in the San Francisco area, at the Hilton Hotel, Concord, California, August 14-17th, 2014. This is the meeting for professional psi researchers, and is the venue for presentation of the newest insights and findings of scientific parapsychology. It is a conference where the hallway conversations and late night discussions push the boundaries.

Circle of Life: In October, we will be traveling to Rome, Italy for a gathering of the Circle of Life. A wonderful group brings people from around the world together in service of our commonalities especially in the dimensions of mind and spirit. The meeting will be held in Rome from friday 3rd to sunday 5th october 2014. When I have more complete information, I’ll post it, but you can find out more about the organization by going to The Circle of Life website.

GCP/EGG Update January 1 2014

We have a new website design, courtesy of Marjorie Simmons. Only a few of the most accessed pages have been converted as of Jan 1, so stay tuned, and if you have some useful critiques, please let us know. It uses CSS and HTML5, so the GCP web presence is up to date and representative of the sophisticated research. The new website is being launched today, January 1st 2014, so it is a Happy New Year presentation. Some users with old browsers might have difficulty with the new design, and if so we encourage you to upgrade your browser. An alternative home page that is slightly more compatible with older browsers will be available for a limited time.