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Volume 8: Number 4: Article 2
A Linear Pendulum Experiment: Effects of Operator Intention on Damping Rate
R. D. Nelson, G. J. Bradish, R. G. Jahn, and B. J. Dunne, Princeton
Engineering Anomalies Research, C-131, Princeton University, Princeton,
NJ 08544-5263
An attractive pendulum consisting of a two-inch crystal ball suspended
on a fused silica rod is the focus of an experiment to measure possible
effects of conscious intention on an analog physical system. The pendulum
is enclosed in a clear acrylic box, and provided with a computer controlled
mechanical system to release it from the same starting height in repeated
runs. A high speed binary counter registers interruptions of photodiode
beams, to measure velocities at the nadir of the pendulum arc with microsecond
accuracy. In runs of 100 swings, taking about three minutes, operators
attempt to keep swings high, i.e. to decrease the damping rate (HI);
to reduce swing amplitude, i.e. to increase the damping rate (LO); or
to take an undisturbed baseline (BL).
Over a total of 1545 sets, generated by 42 operators, the HI – LO difference
is significant in the direction of intention for five individuals, and
the difference between intention and baseline runs is significant and
positive for five other operators. The overall HI – LO difference is
reduced to non-significance by strong negative performances from several
operators, four of whom have comparably large scores in the direction
opposite to intention. Analysis of variance reveals significant internal
structure in the database (main effects F (4, 189) = 2.845, p =.025).
Subset comparisons indicate that male operators tend to score higher
than females, and that randomly instructed trials tend toward higher
scores than volitional trials, especially for male operators. Trials
generated with the operator in a remote location have a larger effect
size than the local trials.
While direct comparisons are not straightforward, it appears that effects
of operator intention on the pendulum damping rate may be similar in
magnitude and style to those in other human/machine interaction experiments.
Although this result fails to support an experimental hypothesis that
the analog nature of the pendulum experiment would engender larger effect
sizes, it does confirm a basic similarity of consciousness effects across
experiments using fundamentally different physical systems.
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