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VE \N > MEASURING GLOBAL CONSCIOUSNESS Nelson's team claims that peri- ods of widespread attention or concentration correspond to notable fluctuations in the Egg network's data. For example, sig- nificant results were recorded after the Turkish earthquakes of August 1999, on millennium eve, the 2000 US presidential elec- tions, and September 11, 2001, when the GCP network respond- ed in a "powerful and evocative way". (Source: The Guardian, July 24, 2003) Awe that has influenced esoteric thought for centuries now forms the basis of a continu- ing, mind-boggling parapsychol- ogy experiment. Could our thoughts and intentions— before they become actions—alter the world? During an EEG = (an electroencephalogram), electrodes detect electrical signals transmitted between brain cells and record patterns of activity. This is not a measure of the mind itself, but of the electrical processes that somehow generate consciousness. Now, imagine the Earth as a brain; humans, perhaps all life, as brain cells; and a network of ran- dom event generators (REGs, like high-speed, electronic coin-tossers) as electrodes. This is the Global Consciousness Project, and it appears to be measuring, well, something. Begun in 1998, it now involves more than 75 networked computers, known as Eggs ("electrogaiagrams"), in about 30 countries including the USA, UK, Russia, Fiji, Cuba and Romania. The project grew from experiments by Dr Roger Nelson of Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research. For over 20 years, researchers at this leading parapsychology institute have been studying the effects of CHINESE HERB FIGHTS MALARIA PARASITE hitherto unknown but vital weakness in the malaria par- asite has been exposed by study- ing extracts from ancient Chinese anti-fever remedies. The discov- ery opens a new front in the fight against the parasite, which has become resistant in most parts of the world to the most com- mon anti-malarial drug, chloroquine. Derived from the Chinese herb qinghao, or sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua), the extracts have already helped millions of patients in Southeast Asia who would otherwise have suffered or died when con- ventional drugs failed against malaria (New Scientist, 13 July 1996, page 4). Now researchers have discovered how the drugs, called artemisinins, actually work, revealing a chink in the Plasmodium falciparum parasite's armour. The chink is one of the two enzymes that enable the parasite to pump the correct amount of calcium into its cell membranes. "Artemisinin hits one of those pumps irectly," says Sanjeev Krishna, head of the research team at St George's Hospital Medical School in London. Once the cal- cium pump has been disabled, the parasite ies within hours, although Krishna does not yet know the precise mechanism. (Source: New Scientist, vol. 179, issue 2409, 23 August 2003) human consciousness on REGs, demon- strating to their satisfaction that individual minds can subtly influence random mechanical processes and create deviations from expected chance results. Nelson examined what happened to a REG when several people focused on a single event, at a theatre or sports stadium. The results were impressive but, perplex- ingly, the generator's location was irrele- vant: the effects were present anywhere. REGs in America, for instance, were noticeably affected by Princess Diana's funeral in 1997. wah ues a ee Saddam Highymoxy) IDENTITY THEFT ON THE RISE survey conducted by the US Federal Trade Commission estimates that more than 27 million Americans have been victims of identity theft in the last five years, including nearly 10 million in the last year alone. According to the survey, businesses and financial institutions suffered losses of 6 = NEXUS www.nexusmagazine.com OCTOBER —- NOVEMBER 2003