I came across this article of all places, on the Team X-Box website.

Black Boxes predict the future.

DEEP in the basement of a dusty university library in Edinburgh lies a small black box, roughly the size of two cigarette packets side by side, that churns out random numbers in an endless stream.

At first glance it is an unremarkable piece of equipment. Encased in metal, it contains at its heart a microchip no more complex than the ones found in modern pocket calculators.

But, according to a growing band of top scientists, this box has quite extraordinary powers. It is, they claim, the 'eye' of a machine that appears capable of peering into the future and predicting major world events.

The machine apparently sensed the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre four hours before they happened - but in the fevered mood of conspiracy theories of the time, the claims were swiftly knocked back by sceptics. But last December, it also appeared to forewarn of the Asian tsunami just before the deep sea earthquake that precipitated the epic tragedy.

Now, even the doubters are acknowledging that here is a small box with apparently inexplicable powers.

'It's Earth-shattering stuff,' says Dr Roger Nelson, emeritus researcher at Princeton University in the United States, who is heading the research project behind the 'black box' phenomenon.

'We're very early on in the process of trying to figure out what's going on here. At the moment we're stabbing in the dark.' Dr Nelson's investigations, called the Global Consciousness Project, were originally hosted by Princeton University and are centred on one of the most extraordinary experiments of all time. Its aim is to detect whether all of humanity shares a single subconscious mind that we can all tap into without realising.

And machines like the Edinburgh black box have thrown up a tantalising possibility: that scientists may have unwittingly discovered a way of predicting the future.

Although many would consider the project's aims to be little more than fools' gold, it has still attracted a roster of 75 respected scientists from 41 different nations. Researchers from Princeton - where Einstein spent much of his career - work alongside scientists from universities in Britain, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany. The project is also the most rigorous and longest-running investigation ever into the potential powers of the paranormal.

'Very often paranormal phenomena evaporate if you study them for long enough,' says physicist Dick Bierman of the University of Amsterdam. 'But this is not happening with the Global Consciousness Project. The effect is real. The only dispute is about what it means.' The project has its roots in the extraordinary work of Professor Robert Jahn of Princeton University during the late 1970s. He was one of the first modern scientists to take paranormal phenomena seriously. Intrigued by such things as telepathy, telekinesis - the supposed psychic power to move objects without the use of physical force - and extrasensory perception, he was determined to study the phenomena using the most up-to-date technology available.

One of these new technologies was a humble-looking black box known was a Random Event Generator (REG). This used computer technology to generate two numbers - a one and a zero - in a totally random sequence, rather like an electronic coin-flipper.

The pattern of ones and noughts - 'heads' and 'tails' as it were - could then be printed out as a graph. The laws of chance dictate that the generators should churn out equal numbers of ones and zeros - which would be represented by a nearly flat line on the graph. Any deviation from this equal number shows up as a gently rising curve.

During the late 1970s, Prof Jahn decided to investigate whether the power of human thought alone could interfere in some way with the machine's usual readings. He hauled strangers off the street and asked them to concentrate their minds on his number generator. In effect, he was asking them to try to make it flip more heads than tails.

It was a preposterous idea at the time. The results, however, were stunning and have never been satisfactorily explained.

Again and again, entirely ordinary people proved that their minds could influence the machine and produce significant fluctuations on the graph, 'forcing it' to produce unequal numbers of 'heads' or 'tails'.

According to all of the known laws of science, this should not have happened - but it did. And it kept on happening.

Dr Nelson, also working at Princeton University, then extended Prof Jahn's work by taking random number machines to group meditations, which were very popular in America at the time. Again, the results were eyepopping. The groups were collectively able to cause dramatic shifts in the patterns of numbers.

From then on, Dr Nelson was hooked.

Using the internet, he connected up 40 random event generators from all over the world to his laboratory computer in Princeton. These ran constantly, day in day out, generating millions of different pieces of data. Most of the time, the resulting graph on his computer looked more or less like a flat line.

But then on September 6, 1997, something quite extraordinary happened: the graph shot upwards, recording a sudden and massive shift in the number sequence as his machines around the world started reporting huge deviations from the norm. The day was of historic importance for another reason, too.

For it was the same day that an estimated one billion people around the world watched the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales at Westminster Abbey.

Dr Nelson was convinced that the two events must be related in some way.

Could he have detected a totally new phenomena? Could the concentrated emotional outpouring of millions of people be able to influence the output of his REGs. If so, how?

Dr Nelson was at a loss to explain it.

So, in 1998, he gathered together scientists from all over the world to analyse his findings. They, too, were stumped and resolved to extend and deepen the work of Prof Jahn and Dr Nelson. The Global Consciousness Project was born.

Since then, the project has expanded massively. A total of 65 Eggs (as the generators have been named) in 41 countries have now been recruited to act as the 'eyes' of the project.

And the results have been startling and inexplicable in equal measure.

For during the course of the experiment, the Eggs have 'sensed' a whole series of major world events as they were happening, from the Nato bombing of Yugoslavia to the Kursk submarine tragedy to America's hung election of 2000.

The Eggs also regularly detect huge global celebrations, such as New Year's Eve.

But the project threw up its greatest enigma on September 11, 2001.

As the world stood still and watched the horror of the terrorist attacks unfold across New York, something strange was happening to the Eggs.

Not only had they registered the attacks as they actually happened, but the characteristic shift in the pattern of numbers had begun four hours before the two planes even hit the Twin Towers.

They had, it appeared, detected that an event of historic importance was about to take place before the terrorists had even boarded their fateful flights. The implications, not least for the West's security services who constantly monitor electronic 'chatter', are clearly enormous.

'I knew then that we had a great deal of work ahead of us,' says Dr Nelson.

What could be happening? Was it a freak occurrence, perhaps?

Apparently not. For in the closing weeks of December last year, the machines went wild once more.

Twenty-four hours later, an earthquake deep beneath the Indian Ocean triggered the tsunami which devastated South-East Asia, and claimed the lives of an estimated quarter of a million people.

So could the Global Consciousness Project really be forecasting the future?

Cynics will quite rightly point out that there is always some global event that could be used to 'explain' the times when the Egg machines behaved erratically. After all, our world is full of wars, disasters and terrorist outrages, as well as the occasional global celebration. Are the scientists simply trying too hard to detect patterns in their raw data?

The team behind the project insist not. They claim that by using rigorous scientific techniques and powerful mathematics it is possible to exclude any such random connections.

'We're perfectly willing to discover that we've made mistakes,' says Dr Nelson. 'But we haven't been able to find any, and neither has anyone else.

Our data shows clearly that the chances of getting these results by fluke are one million to one against.

That's hugely significant.' But many remain sceptical.

Professor Chris French, a psychologist and noted sceptic at Goldsmiths College in London, says: 'The Global Consciousness Project has generated some very intriguing results that cannot be readily dismissed. I'm involved in similar work to see if we get the same results. We haven't managed to do so yet but it's only an early experiment. The jury's still out.' Strange as it may seem, though, there's nothing in the laws of physics that precludes the possibility of foreseeing the future.

It is possible - in theory - that time may not just move forwards but backwards, too. And if time ebbs and flows like the tides in the sea, it might just be possible to foretell major world events. We would, in effect, be 'remembering' things that had taken place in our future.

'There's plenty of evidence that time may run backwards,' says Prof Bierman at the University of Amsterdam.

'And if it's possible for it to happen in physics, then it can happen in our minds, too.' In other words, Prof Bierman believes that we are all capable of looking into the future, if only we could tap into the hidden power of our minds. And there is a tantalising body of evidence to support this theory.

Dr John Hartwell, working at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands, was the first to uncover evidence that people could sense the future. In the mid-1970s he hooked people up to hospital scanning machines so that he could study their brainwave patterns.

He began by showing them a sequence of provocative cartoon drawings.

When the pictures were shown, the machines registered the subject's brainwaves as they reacted strongly to the images before them. This was to be expected.

Far less easy to explain was the fact that in many cases, these dramatic patterns began to register a few seconds before each of the pictures were even flashed up.

It was as though Dr Hartwell's case studies were somehow seeing into the future, and detecting when the next shocking image would be shown next.

It was extraordinary - and seemingly inexplicable.

But it was to be another 15 years before anyone else took Dr Hartwell's work further when Dean Radin, a researcher working in America, connected people up to a machine that measured their skin's resistance to electricity. This is known to fluctuate in tandem with our moods - indeed, it's this principle that underlies many lie detectors.

Radin repeated Dr Hartwell's 'image response' experiments while measuring skin resistance. Again, people began reacting a few seconds before they were shown the provocative pictures. This was clearly impossible, or so he thought, so he kept on repeating the experiments. And he kept getting the same results.

'I didn't believe it either,' says Prof Bierman. 'So I also repeated the experiment myself and got the same results. I was shocked. After this I started to think more deeply about the nature of time.' To make matters even more intriguing, Prof Bierman says that other mainstream labs have now produced similar results but are yet to go public.

'They don't want to be ridiculed so they won't release their findings,' he says. 'So I'm trying to persuade all of them to release their results at the same time. That would at least spread the ridicule a little more thinly!' If Prof Bierman is right, though, then the experiments are no laughing matter.

They might help provide a solid scientific grounding for such strange phenomena as 'deja vu', intuition and a host of other curiosities that we have all experienced from time to time.

They may also open up a far more interesting possibility - that one day we might be able to enhance psychic powers using machines that can 'tune in' to our subconscious mind, machines like the little black box in Edinburgh.

Just as we have built mechanical engines to replace muscle power, could we one day build a device to enhance and interpret our hidden psychic abilities?

Dr Nelson is optimistic - but not for the short term. 'We may be able to predict that a major world event is going to happen. But we won't know exactly what will happen or where it's going to happen,' he says.

'Put it this way - we haven't yet got a machine we could sell to the CIA.'

But for Dr Nelson, talk of such psychic machines - with the potential to detect global catastrophes or terrorist outrages - is of far less importance than the implications of his work in terms of the human race.

For what his experiments appear to demonstrate is that while we may all operate as individuals, we also appear to share something far, far greater - a global consciousness. Some might call it the mind of God.

'We're taught to be individualistic monsters,' he says. 'We're driven by society to separate ourselves from each other. That's not right.

We may be connected together far more intimately than we realise.'

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What was the point of copying down the entire article and giving a link for it?

General politeness. Posting the article gives a person a chance to skim it and decide if it's something they're interested in reading about. If they decide they are interested then they can use the link and perhaps explore the site in greater detail. Also, some people refuse to click on links as they are leary, rightfully, of doing so.

Ah, good article though, fun read.

I'd like to see the scientific mechanisms behind their tests.

If the flash cards were 20% 'risque' and 80% 'normal', the reaction to the 20% risque ones could be seen as evidence, but if they are 100% risque, then wouldn't the -anticipation- of the viewing strike before the visual?

Dunno. I remain skeptical.

So, a black box is the next Nostradamus? Interesting to see scientist resort to the roles of diviners and give great enphasis to chance. I do believe that there is such collective subconscious, some believe it could be linked to Jung's collective unconscious, Akasha/Akashic records, the alchemist's quintessence. Heh, also if such thing were true, I'm sure that those double-aspect theorists would brandish such universal subconsious to be the root of their theory. In a way, this link could be explained as energy, I think, I mean I believe all of us consist of energy, don't we?

Though, on other hand, I think that such experiments should be further researched before jumping to conclusions and lastly divulging it to the public. Charlatants have always been abundant, especially this days. Anyone who enganges on such strange projects should try avoid having the public eye consider them as charlatans, or any "reality" on their projects can turn meaningless.

Don't mind me, I'm a "beliver".

The way I see it, the method of the random number generator is very important.

Besides, it doesn't predict events, it predicts "a change."

Heh I've read articles like this before and it always give me a chuckle. Science is discovering what occultists have known for a long long time.

Why do you say occultists?

Or the whole thing was made up, perhaps.

Fun read though, especially about the time. Reminds me of time's arrow, when I was reading A Brief History of Time.

And people think I'm uneducated!

You know what else it reminds me of?

*obi-wan clutches his head*

"...as if millions of voices suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced."

Rip-off artist! *shinkick*

A catch-all term for anyone who practices some form of magick/divination/etc. It's just easier than making a list that would go something like: Chaotes, Witches, Golden Dawn Initiates, Shamans, Neo Druids...etc.

I happened to hear about this right before the year 2000 new years. So I know that if its made up, its been made up for 5 years allready with details added.

I then heard about it again, in 2002.

I would say that Science is just now discovering what anybody of a certain faith has known all along.

There isn't any religion that I know of that doesn't have the basic teaching that we are all connected in a spiritual way.

I'm just wainting for String theory to finnally understand what Kabbalah has known forever. Mainly, 10 dimensions, with an illusion of 11. And the concepts of locality being an issue of likeness rather than space once you step outside our known dimensions. It explains Quatum non locality without even it being an issue.

This has always been a very intriguing "battle", many scientist try to nullify whatever esoteric beliefs hold as true. Though I believe it is important for science to do this and provide in the end with more "tangiable" evidence and try to prove if in fact such events are true.

Meh, in fact, some current sciences owe their spines to "occult" arts like alchemy.

What I find dissapointing about this black box thing, is that they try to hype it as something can be usefull on a pratical level.


I don't think it can be. As I said before, it doesn't actually predict anything, nor could it predict anything usefull. Is it helpfull for someone to say in 6 hours something nasty is going to happen somewhere in the world? no.

The answer to the explanation is not going to be anythign they can "test." If there is some extradimenional connection, it will remain in the realm of theory, and thus be a belief just like any other.

I think the Final Fantasy Spirits within movie, did a good job of showing what happens when science discovers ways to use extradimensional connections, or "souls"

Since I don't plan on ever seeing that movie, can someone PM me the parts of the plotline relevant to whatever Daganev's going on about?

EDIT: Okay, I got it, thanks.

What? The Final Fantasy Movie was just a steaming pile of crap. Nothing more.

Anyway, this looks like a load of **** to me. Telling the future? There's likely something going on with those things, and it's very interesting, but it looks to me like they're stretching it a bit much.

This "conciousness" theme (as the project is named after) sounds like 'Dust' in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman.

Its not really relevant if its a pile of . Its the only movie I know of that takes the idea of Soul and moves it into Technology.

EDIT: Watch the language. ~Shiri~

http://msgboard.snopes.com/message/ultimat...3/t/000841.html

Assuming this link works, here's another discussion about presumably the same topic. One person makes a good point: the World Trade Centre attacks were "predicted" 4 hours or whatever in advance. What if it was 5 hours? 6? 12? A few days? Is there an actual time bracket between "spike" and "event"? If a spike on said machine only means that sometime in the future, somewhere, an event of some significance will occur, it ain't really special in any way.

Eh. No, it's not USEFUL special, but it says some interesting things anyway, if it's true. Seems special enough to me.