Princeton PEAR Lab: experimental design and results

A true random event generator producing binary sequences at a rate of one trial per second, where each trial was the sum of 200 bits. True random sources, unlike algorithmic pseudorandom sequences, have future states that are in principle changeable because they depend on quantum-level physical processes.

An operator sat before the device and concentrated on shifting its output in a pre-stated direction: high (above theoretical mean), low (below theoretical mean), or baseline (no influence attempted). No physical interaction with the device was possible. The operator's intention was the only variable.

Composite probability against chance for the resonant subset (operator and device co-located): p = 2.2 x 10 to the negative sixth power.

Composite probability for the mundane subset (control condition): p = 0.91.

The control condition producing p = 0.91 confirmed the device was behaving as expected in the absence of intentional influence. The p = 2.2 x 10^-6 for the intentional trials represents a deviation from chance with a probability of occurring randomly of approximately one in 450,000.

A separate protocol tested whether individuals could acquire information about distant physical locations. A sender traveled to a randomly selected target location. A receiver, in a different location with no contact with the sender, attempted to describe the target location. Independent judges evaluated the descriptions against the actual locations. Results across the formal series were above chance at a statistically significant level.

This protocol is structurally identical to the remote viewing sessions in the CIA's classified STARGATE program. Both were running simultaneously during the 1980s and 1990s. PEAR published its results. STARGATE classified them.

PEAR opened: June 1979. CIA STARGATE program initiated: 1972. Both programs ran through the 1980s and into the 1990s. STARGATE ended: 1995. PEAR closed: 2007.

During the entire operational history of the PEAR Lab, the CIA and DIA were funding classified versions of the same basic research protocols at Stanford Research Institute and later other facilities. The CIA's photon detection experiment, CIA-RDP96-00789R003800470001-9, specifically tested whether psychic sessions produced anomalous readings in light-sensitive equipment, a more targeted version of the same consciousness-physical-systems question PEAR was investigating with random event generators.

While PEAR was operating, the DIA's 1972 assessment of Soviet biocommunications research was classified and informing American research priorities. The Soviets were estimated to be spending $21 million annually on research into whether consciousness could affect physical systems, under KGB oversight. That assessment drove classified American investment in the same research area. PEAR was the open, academic face of a question multiple governments were treating as a national security matter.