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CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE SOURCE OF REALITY by Robert G. Jahn and Brenda J. Dunne. Princeton, NJ: ICRL Press, 2011. Pp. ix-xii + 398. $19.95 (paperback). ISBN 1-936033-03-8.
From 1979-2007, the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research (PEAR) lab produced the most comprehensive database of controlled laboratory studies of micro-PK on random event generators (REGs) and macro-PK on mechanical, optical, and acoustical physical processes ever assembled. In addition, the lab amassed one of the largest databases of remote viewing (or as the PEAR team prefers, "remote perception") trials, and developed new quantitative methods of evaluating correspondences between percipient-agent descriptions of target sites. Along the way, the lab established a multifaceted network of scientists, engineers, philosophers, artists, entrepreneurs, and generalists, all of whom have participated in PEAR's research activities (either as interns or human operators) and are linked by their common conviction that the statistical results of PEAR's research indicates that human consciousness can influence events in the physical world in ways that transcend the known sensory faculties, and the normally experienced boundaries of time and space. Consciousness and the Source of Reality is, according to Jahn and Dunne, intended as a sequel to their 1987 book Margins of Reality, and one that summarizes the complete history of PEAR's research findings, the theoretical models developed to try to account for these findings, and their current thoughts on the scientific, philosophical, and cultural implications of their findings.
The core of the book is oudined in five sections. Due to the breadth of experiments and theories discussed, and the spatial constraints of this review, I will outline the topics discussed in each section, and then select the topics that I found the most interesting to comment on. The first section, "Venues, Vistas, and Vectors," outlines five domains (or "vectors," as Jahn and Dunne prefer) that, according to Jahn and Dunne (hereafterJ&D) , have become progressively more important in the study of consciousness over the past two decades, and for which PEAR's findings seem to be applicable either directly or indirectly. Those domains are biology, medicine, creativity, spirituality, and information technology (IT).
While I found it interesting to see howJ&D argued for a connection between the PEAR findings and these domains, it was difficult to evaluate how valid some of dieir interpretations...