Correlations of Random Data with Human Intent

In 1997 the Journal of Scientific Exploration published an review of a 12-year program (PDF) from Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) called "Correlations of Random Binary Sequences with Pre-Stated Operator Intention". It was essentially a test to see if people can influence a random generator using nothing but their mind. The result was spectacular: yes, they can.

The experiments lasted 12 years. About 100 persons were tested in a total of about 1000 experiments. The researchers found small but significant effects. In general, some persons did have a clearly discernible effect and some did not. Females had an overall less effect on the random data then men did, however there were three females whose effect was higher than any of the males. If test persons were far away from the test machines they still had an effect. And even when they tried to influence the random data on other times than the test machines were recording they still had a measurable effect!

There was only one situation where test persons were not able to influence the test machines: when the researchers were using a fully deterministic pseudo random source to generate the random data. Anything that is deterministic cannot be influenced by human intent, so it seems. And anything that is true random can be influenced, if a human puts his mind, or rather, his intent to it.