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 Dec 31 2015

This is the last update for 2015, and it comes late enough that I imagine most of you will be reading it in a very young 2016. It has been a long time since I wrote, and I hope to fill in some of the blanks in the near future. But to be sure this update happens, I will have to be brief even though a lot has been happening.

The most notable big item is also the latest. We have transitioned all operations to the "new" fast server at global-mind.org. Now the network of Eggs will be sending their data directly to the fast server, and all the automated analysis and data processing will also be done there. We have also successfully transitioned the older web addresses to point to global-mind.org, so that even the original noosphere.princeton.edu links will now connect there, and will be much faster than before.

There is a considerable backstory to these changes, but suffice it to say the fundamental cause and motivations come from changing technology. It was no longer possible to sustain a well-loved but outmoded Internet service connection.

Interestingly, the timing of these technical changes coincided with a pre-set conclusion of the original "Formal Series" of GCP events. We had decided that series would be complete with 500 events, and the date arrived with a nice coincidence. On December 12, 2015, two complementary historical moments coincided in the event we labeled:

You can read the details on the event page, but briefly, this last event was a very nice confirmation of our general hypothesis. Huge numbers of people were engaged in the culmination of the climate talks. At the same time, we believe many hundreds of thousands, possibly millions around the world, were synchronously sharing meditations for peace and a bright future. It is a coincidence that these two independent movements of mind toward interconnection happened at the same time. But after 500 controlled and rigorous tests of the hypothesis looking at specific events, I can say that neither the coincidence nor the positive outcome are surprising. Heartening is more like it.

Someone, I believe one of our Native American Indians, wisely said, "The longest journey is from the mind to the heart." This 500th event, like so many we have assessed, is suggestive evidence that that journey is well begun, even on the global level where it is so very important. Nothing we can envision is so necessary as that we do come together, that we become conscious of our interconnection, and foster it every way we can. Individuals have work to do, as do the many groups who have gathered around these principles. Events like the Paris talks, even while they were difficult, are moments of future building. And every time we gather to share in a meditation or a demonstration for peace and wellbeing, as so many did on December 12, we lay a cobblestone in the pavement we must walk for the sake of our children unto the seventh generation. And when we focus our attention and intentions on our earth's future, we add beauty and harmony as greater possibilities. The promise of the GCP data and the positive findings is that what we wish for matters, that envisioning and imagining that the elephants and lions will stay with us can help that be what becomes.

It is nearly 2016, and I want to wish everyone not only a Happy New Year, but wellness and wellbeing as our goal and our measure.

GCP/EGG Update May 25 2015

I am back from Japan where I participated in a remarkable Symposium and the ceremonies for the Fuji Declaration which is about "Awakening The Divine Spark In The Spirit Of Humanity For a Civilization of Oneness with Diversity on Planet Earth."

Here is a little flavor: A Signatories' Symposium on the 15th was heartening in its shared understandings and unanimous conviction that it is time; that we are the ones we have been waiting for. Our challenge is to maintain and spread the message of peace -- to bring the prayer, "May peace prevail on earth" to more people, and especially to those on the other side of the fence, who are not thinking about the challenges we face on our fragile planet.

We had a wonderful day of Aikido and Kado (and a fabulous lunch) on the 16th, and then it was time for the Declaration ceremonies on the 17th. The initiators spent the night at the Fuji Sanctuary and early in the morning joined with Transition World in Copenhagen to synchronize sunrise and sunset for the launch. Then at 10:00 at Mount Fuji the grand gathering for a Symphony of Peace Prayers began, with the formal introduction of the Fuji Declaration to 5 or 6 thousand people who had made the pilgrimage.

Exquisite, altogether. My wife and I spent some days after, experiencing Japanese culture and beauties. Now home, I have completed the analysis of data recorded during the time of the ceremonies If you wish you can see it at https://global-mind.org/events/fuji.declaration.html. The introduction (second figure) has a strong positive trend, and there are several large spikes of activity during the event (third figure). Though a small event in "global" terms, it is one of great meaning.

In two days I will be off to the Washington DC area to attend the 2015 annual meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration. I will be giving a talk, introducing and updating the Global Conscious Project, but with a different emphasis. I plan to explain briefly the best ideas on how it works, and what we can conclude from about 17 years of continuous data collection and almost as many years of analytic study. If you are anywhere near Rockville MD, consider attending the SSE. Not for the sake of my talk, but because this meeting always has some of the most intellectually stimulating talks on topics you won't find in Nature or Science -- for another decade or two.

Part of the reason I have been so quiet in this blog is a distracting but very interesting house-building project. My wife and I decided to make an opportunity to live in a conscious community where our son Greg built some years ago. It is called White Hawk EcoVillage and it's worthwhile to take a look at the website and at the Facebook page Both have pictures, but the FB page has lots of recent ones of the lambs and piglets, as well as the people (lots of kids) who live there. Our house is nearly finished, and while we won't move there for a while, we're looking forward to seeing how everything comes out.

I have been making some progress on a book with a comprehensive view of the GCP/EGG project. Looking for more time to relax with the last stages of that effort. I would love to get that done, and hope this will be the year. In concert with that, I have been thinking about retiring (again) but I love the flowing data and the rich, sometimes surprising results, so though I have tentative plans to end the formal series with a nice round number of 500 events, I have firm plans to keep the network running for an indefinite period. That will allow both informal explorations and even a "formal," statistically sound look at events that seem especially important. And I hope to write a bit more often in this venue. There are so many interesting issues that come up, not least the stuff I will be talking about at the SSE. Lots of unresolved questions, which will keep my attention for the foreseeable future.

GCP/EGG Update January 6 2015

The year ended with a flurry of activity making the GCP website(s) more accessible, and more complete. Marjorie Simmons, who is mindful of trends (a technology futurist, one might say) has been adjusting the website code to be kind to tablet and mobile users. The number of people looking for information from the web who use phones and other small mobile devices has hugely increased, so it behooves us to make the GCP website work for them.

The home page looks only a little different, but the detailed changes are numerous. The most important is the group of links in the right hand sidebar. Near the top, you will see a block that includes a server choice: "FAST" if you are on the old server (teilhard.global-mind.org) and "SLOW" if you are on the fast server (global-mind.org). There are links to blog entries about this and a small but important note: "Please update your links."

This is to encourage you to use and reference the new, fast server, which will help preserve bandwidth on the primary server. Perhaps more important, it will also provide you a much more satisfying experience. The new server has huge bandwidth, so browsing can be a pleasure ‐ no more long waits. Especially if you want to download data, or watch any of the videos or movies, use the FAST server. It's worth your while to ensure this; check the address bar and be sure you are seeing global-mind.org or www.global-mind.org. If you provide links in your own website, or in personal communications or social media, please use the URL for the fast server, either global-mind.org or www.global-mind.org.

More later.