Work-in-progress

Measurement of Collective and social fields of consciousness

Attila Grandpierre

Konkoly Observatory, Budapest, H-1525 P. O. Box 67, Hungary

e-mail address: grandp@ogyalla.konkoly.hu

Abstract

It is possible to reveal and to examine the collective and social fields of consciousness experimentally. An account is given of planned experiments based on quantitative calculations, which indicate that the effects of individual and collective fields of consciousness on matter may elicit directly observable physical results. Moreover, it is shown that collective coherent consciousness fields may enhance the physical effects of consciousness at a significant rate. The predicted results have a significance in our picture of our consciousness, in self-assertion and dynamising of consciousness, the expansion of collective fields of consciousness, and thus the raising of the level of consciousness for humanity.

Keywords: consciousness field, experimental test, collective effects, macro-psychokinesis

Introduction

Modern science needs to focus attention on the research of collective fields of consciousness. The effects of an alienating society can only be kept under human control by the socialisation of subjective factors. Socialising subjective factors is possible in two ways: through groups and communities organised through personal relationships on the one hand, and through social organisations which are above the group level and cannot be analysed in terms of personal relationships on the other. In this paper it is shown that the significance of a collective consciousness field may be enhanced at a rate proportional to the square of the number of participants (N²-effect). This effect, if it will be validated, will point to a direct mechanism why human being are social beings, and showing that our social nature and the apparently higher level of consciousness of Homo are intimately related.

The relevance of research

The development of the consciousness and morality of humanity has been unable to keep pace with the technological development of the last three hundred years. A more profound, more thorough-going and more natural use of consciousness can be made attainable on a wider scale with the help of a scientific exploration of consciousness. The demonstration of the material effects of consciousness, evidencing the reality of its existence may be suitable to enhance our knowledge of consciousness and its characteristics such as creativity and communal nature. Materialism, with its view of consciousness as an epiphenomenon, if consequent, cannot lead to an other picture then a mere objectivity, in which subjectivity cannot have a material influence and so we cannot influence our own decisions and activity. In strict deterministic materialism there is no place to subjective factors that can not only exist but able also to initiate material actions and so give a basis for moral responsibility. Therefore, accepting the existence of moral responsibility, we should accept also the existence of material effects of consciousness within our organism. Now if consciousness can exert material influence in the organism, it seems hard to isolate this effect in all cases to the inside of the organism since perfect shielding may not be always available between the organism and its environment. Now if one could show by physical experiments that consciousness can direct the physical laws operating in the organism, perhaps by modifying the boundary conditions of these physical laws (as indicated by Bauer, 1935), this experiment could broaden our picture of matter and consciousness.

The existence of collective fields of consciousness calls our attention to the collective, moral and morally responsible dimensions of our lives. Collective fields play an increasingly extensive role in the personal life of every individual, as the extent of socialisation increases. The quality of society’s collective consciousness has enormously declined in our century. This is because the external conditions influencing society’s collective consciousness – the production of goods, finances, institutions, infrastructure etc. – should be “humanised” via the organisation of social collective consciousness as well as by a conscious control of the evolution of human society. Society’s impersonal, personally inaccessible levels should be submitted to the control of a unified social agreement. The factors that form social life need to become public, accessible for the survey, supervision and participation of communities. The functioning of society should be transparent and therefore society’s mass-communication has to be socialised, with the direct participation of communities and social organisations.

Theoretical foundations of the proposed experiment

The effect of consciousness on matter has been observed as marginal and hardly demonstrable. Special instruments seem to be suitable to be sensitive enough to demonstrate the material effects of consciousness (measurements with the energy wheel, Paulinyi et al., 1995-2000). However, the effects of consciousness may be amplified by collective factors (number of people, extent of concentration, and coherence). In this paper the main attempt is to point out that material effects of consciousness can be enhanced to reach the sensitivity level of our instruments by increasing the number and extent of concentration and coherence of the participants of the interaction.

If consciousness can affect matter at all, then the impulse it exerts on matter can be measured. The effects of collective consciousness are the easiest to show, because the coherent collective field’s ability to exert material impulses is in quadratic proportion to the number of interacting consciousnesses. A similar quadratic effect of coherent photons is well-known in optics, as well as the quadratically amplified effects of biophotons in biophysics (Popp, 1994).

Collective consciousness

Human consciousness has a basically collective nature (see e.g. Grandpierre, 1997). Communal effect is a basic phenomenon of consciousness (cf. Atkinson et al., 1993). Communities are able to carry biological organisation to a higher level of organisation via mutual facilitation. The consciousness of a community represents a more comprehensive system of consciousness and, precisely because of this, it can give a more detailed picture suitable to develop individual consciousness.

To make today’s consciousness more natural, we do not only have to change individually: we have to change the world that has alienated us from ourselves. This in turn can be achieved with the help of a collective field of consciousness. Collective fields of consciousness play a central role in our lives. To be able to eliminate the anti-social, artificial manipulations of society, we need independent thinking. Without sovereign thinking, we become the slave of unnatural external, economic effects. If we discover the natural way of thinking, and establish communities for its permanent development, then communities may again socialize people and re-establish society’s collective nature.

Social fields of consciousness

As early as the last century Ferdinand Tönnies called attention to the difference between “communities” based on personal connections, and “societies”, “social organisations”, which cannot keep up direct, personal connections, are above the group level and are more comprehensive. These meta-groups are formed by forces that affect society as a whole. Konrad Lorenz (1992) pointed out that meta-groups, “which are bigger than can be held together by personal acquaintance and friendship, owe their coherence always and exclusively to symbols created by cultural ritualization”. Originally, in a more comprehensible stage of society’s development, the organizing forces operating above the group level manifested themselves as a consciousness organized on a higher level than group consciousness -similarly to the way in which groups had made possible the organisation of a consciousness more comprehensive and more organized than individual consciousness. A century ago, society’s symbols were formed in an overall collective process that corresponded with the real system of values of society, a system based on mutual agreement and the personal view of life of individuals and their interaction. Since then, an enormous technological development surpassed personal views of life, and centred social life on the mechanisms that enforce the basic factors of economical interest. Thus telecommunication, which intrinsically influences social consciousness, began to follow narrow groups of interest, instead of that of the society. The social consciousness which is organized on a higher-than-group level can only represent the whole of society if society creates its own communities as well as its comprehensive, social-level organisations, the task of which is to determine, work out, and enforce developments discussed in public.

Scientific experiments

The measuring of the distance-dependency, direction-dependency and point to point change of fields of consciousness is experimentally feasible (Grandpierre, 1997). The calculations presented in the above-cited paper suggested a coupling of electromagnetic, gravitational, and quantum-vacuum fields. From these, the electromagnetic and gravitational fields change in inverse proportion to distance. Therefore, the bioenergetic effects of consciousness seem to be related to these fields, while the quantum-vacuum effects through the zero-point oscillations may be related to the psi-effect which is extremely subtle, as it does not seem to depend on distance. Radin (1997) measured with random number generators only the faraway effects of consciousness field, where it is already in the quantum range. Distance-independence sets in when the amplitude of signals is limited to that of quantum-fluctuations. The electromagnetic field of radio receivers can decrease up to a factor of ten billion: a transmitting station should be built where the level of signals decreases below quantum noise.

My proposal is that first we measure that what is easy: the short-range bioenergetic field of consciousness. After this, the point at which the asymptotically decreasing bioenergetic field reaches the distance-independent regime can be determined. From the energy value of the transition from the more energetic bioenergetic range to the subtle psi-phenomena we can conclude to the physical nature of the latter.

The role of cosmic fields in biological organisation

In a previous article, I have shown that the biological application of the law of indeterminacy of quantum mechanics to the QVI-model of Ervin Laszlo (1995) makes it possible to determine the size and timing of the biological brains that can occur in nature. Our bodies and brains are connected to the cosmos on different scales by different vacuum waves. Electromagnetic and electron waves are responsible for the connection between the external environment and our brains. Thinking on the level of neurons is based on information processing occurring with the help of vacuum, electromagnetic and electron waves. Theoretical arguments in favour of the necessity of brain activity faster than neural consciousness 10² bit/s; deep consciousness 10⁹ bit/s; and deeper levels of consciousness acting on shorter timescales are indicated (on the role of electrons in the organisation of consciousness Szent-Györgyi, 1960; on quantum processes in thinking and in biological organisation Schrödinger, 1948, Fröhlich, 1968, Mattuck, 1984, Nobili, 1985, Squires, 1990, Stapp, 1993, Penrose, 1994; on vacuum-processes in biology and in the cosmos: Ervin Laszlo, 1995; Grandpierre 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000).

Planned experiments

1. The most spectacular material effect of consciousness, if validated, would be psychokinesis, more exactly macro-PK, the moving of macroscopic objects by a change of our state of consciousness. Up to now only hidden, indirect and abstract psi-experiments have been conducted, which involve random number generators and remote perception (see e.g. Radin, 1996, Schlitz, 1996). However, the mere existence of the phenomenon of consciousness (and moral responsibility) argues for the existence of material effects. We can consider material effects in the microscopic range are possible through the energy exchange of consciousness fields with the quantum-vacuum field (Grandpierre, 1995, 1997). The quantum-vacuum interaction theory of Ervin Laszlo (1995) offers an indication of the veridical existence of micro-PK. It is clear that the micro-PK is by definition a marginal effect. Attempting to amplify it for macro-PK I suggest the combination of adequately sensitive equipment and the amplifying effect of collective consciousness fields. Therefore,

1. for the instrument measuring psi-phenomena I suggest an extremely sensitive torsion pendulum sealed in a transparent plastic box. The sensitivity of the instrument has to reach the energic level of micro-processes, 10^-26 erg. A torsion pendulum suspended in an electromagnetic field, in vacuum, can reach this sensitivity level. The threshold level of the effect can be estimated empirically; for example, forces necessary to set an energy wheel into rotation from a distance of 10 centimetres can be calculated, knowing the moment of inertia of the wheel, and assuming that the rotating effect decreases proportionately to the square of distance.

1. The strength of the material effect of consciousness can be increased, reinforced to an optimum with the deployment of several subjects with strong psi abilities. This may mean several thousand people, for example, at the end of a session of meditation. The basic social facilitation phenomenon of psychology, shows that individual psi-phenomena add up, moreover, rise to the second power, when occuring collectively and coherently. Collective psi-phenomenon is expected to be capable of generating macro-PK from micro-PK. The effect to be demonstrated can be increased to an even larger extent with the help of levers and transmissions, and can be amplified to throw dices or pull barrows merely with the aid of mechanical transmissions, pulley-blocks-and-falls and tackles and levers.

The initial participants of the experiment will be András Kapuvári, Hungarian Bioenergetic Society, Tamás Pauliny, Paradigma Pont Laboratories, Zoltan Vassy, physicist from the Eotvos Lorand University, and the present author. We plan to organize a meeting, where a large number of participants and a creative, intense, ready-to-act mood would enable collective consciousness to achieve macro-psychokinesis with a significant amplitude. The more than six years work of Tamás Paulinyi with the energy wheel by computerised methods at the Paradigma Point Laboratory, involving many hundreds of participants offers a way to implement a collective experiment with hundreds or thousands of active participants. It is necessary to work out the detailed methodology of the experiments, with the estimation as well as possible elimination or keeping at a constant level of the consciousness- or matter-originated factors which may influence the results of the measuring.

The prospective results of the experiment

According to the measurements conducted up to present, the effectiveness of consciousness is, contrary to general belief shown to be relatively low in the meditative, passive states of mind, and conversely, high in the dynamic, active, target-oriented states. This result is at variance with the present picture and therefore needs further confirmation. An important perspective of the suggested research could be that the knowledge of effectively creative mental states could enhance the mental strategies of the wide public and this may lead to a general increase of the effectiveness of consciousness, enhancing the collective consciousness of mankind.

Collective fields of consciousness may function as collective antennas if they reach a state of dynamism and expansion. Such an altered, elevated state of consciousness in which the individually prepared, trained, dynamized and activized minds reach a higher state of consciousness fuelled by the inspiring and mutually dynamizing collective force field. This higher state of consciousness is exceedingly favourable for the manifestation of spontaneous creative ability. Moreover, the restoration of collective festivities, attempting to enhance the mental coherency and creativity collective force in the self-organisation of collective fields of consciousness.

The crisis of humanity needs the conscious participation of communities to humanize social evolution, including a new kind of conscious attitude, the responsibility for the development and evolution of communities. Thus the evidence for fields of consciousness, and most of all for collective fields of consciousness, can bring a turning point in the cultural development of humanity.

Measuring individual consciousness fields offers a possibility to build a bridge between measured psychological variables and the related physical parameters of the measurements. Also, the exploration of psi-active mental states, which involve the most significant energic changes in consciousness field, would give a scientific support to emotive and psi-active mental states and their research. Measuring field characteristics of consciousness-field would make it possible to determine the distance characteristic of the separation of the aural effects and large-scale psi-effects. This value would be fundamental for physical theories of psi-effect and for deciding whether it is related to zero-point field fluctuations. Measuring the field characteristics of collective consciousness fields would make it possible to determine how individual consciousnesses add up to a collective field. The results will open the way to possible new results that would be highly significant in the creative co-operation of human collectives.

The determination of collective consciousness fields would be of high importance for group psychology, formation of communities, and human organisations in general. It could shed light on the possible collective effects on individual lives. If the experiment can prove that collective consciousness field can be detected by its related physical field, it would offer a possibility to develop collective consciousness in a controlled way through biofeedback mechanisms. One suggestion is to organise collective feasts with people who learned the optimal method to develop creative mental states when celebrating together with music, singing and dancing they could concentrate on strengthening their collective consciousness fields. These occasions would accelerate the evolution of individual consciousness as well as enhance the collective dimensions of our lives.

Acknowledgements:

The author wishes to express his thanks for the English translation to his friend, David Galantai, and Ervin Laszlo for his communications which led to a significant improvement of the original manuscript.

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