- I think we have strong empirical evidence that
human consciousness interacts with physical reality
in a way that defies our conventional understanding.
In the most extreme case,
it might mean that our notion of what reality is
is just fundamentally wrong.
I'm John Valentino, and I'm a heretic
because I believe that consciousness
impacts the physical world
in a way that is not currently accounted for by science.
- Radicals, dissidents, rebels, and misfits.
You can call them whatever you like.
But, what if they're right?
- When I was 17, I started working
at the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research Lab,
where we studied the idea that human consciousness
can interact with the output of random physical systems.
The way the experiment worked was
that you take these things
that conventional physics says are
fundamentally random,
and we have a person come in—
they sit down in front of one of these devices.
Usually, they'll be using some kind of game
or software on the computer.
For example, there'll be a graph
where the line on the graph could go up
or the line on the graph could go down,
so they'll state an intention like,
"I want to see the line go up."
The experiment from the participant's standpoint
involves nothing other than that.
They're sitting there, they're stating an intention,
they're watching an output,
but from our standpoint,
we know exactly how the device should behave
according to classical and quantum physics,
and the output in that situation
should be fundamentally random.
What we find is that some participants
actually create fairly significant deviations
in a way that corresponds to their intention.
There's no reason whatsoever
in a conventional understanding of the world
why that should happen.
I think the most exciting thing about this
is it just suggests
that there's a much larger reality out there
than we're aware of.
If our findings are true,
I think there's an entire realm of ways
in which people's thoughts, intentions, and feelings
could have a very direct impact on their health.
There may be mechanisms out there
where your thoughts literally affect
the physical world around you,
literally affect your physical body,
literally affect what's possible for you,
and I think if people realize that or if they believe that
and they incorporate it
a little bit more into their day-to-day life,
they'd probably have a little bit more wonder in the world,
and maybe find
that they get more interesting and positive outcomes.
- So, the skeptic hat has to come on.
- Sure.
- Have you had any interactions
with skeptic organizations?
And how do they respond to this?
- The genuine skeptics often have questions
about the apparatus.
They want to know if the apparatus is truly random.
They wanna make sure
that there aren't other kinds of interference.
On the cynic side, I think a lot of people who just say,
"This can't be true.
It's not possible.
Clearly you cheated."
And you know, to that, what I like to ask people is like,
'What is the actual incentive
for the researchers to do this?'
The actual reality is that most of us
who have been involved in this field
have had to basically forego academic positions,
lose other grant funding,
basically give up a lot of things in order to do the work.
The standard scientific way of thinking
about the role of the mind in the physical world
is that a person is built up of cells,
which are built up from molecules,
which are built up from atoms,
and they are fundamentally removed and disconnected
from the physical environment
that's not in contact with them.
I think this kind of work
should lead people to question that possibility,
and that at a minimum, there might be some way
in which their mind can directly
interact with other minds
and with other physical substance
in a way that we don't yet understand.
I think that science, broadly defined,
is about finding truth in reality.
So if you're using a process of honest inquiry
to understand the physical world,
I think that's brilliant and perfect,
and I think that's what we should all be doing.
I think the thing that people miss
is that our scientific methodology
as it stands right now,
there is a lot of bias and sort of institutional pressure
that affects what kinds of questions people can answer,
what kind of research they can do,
you know, what's good for their career or not.
So there's sort of a human
sociological and socioeconomic
sort of corrupting force
that I think makes it harder to do true science.
I think every member of the public should
question the information they receive,
whether it's from news organizations, TV shows,
interviews, professors.
They should question it
and they should always develop
their own test and filter
to figure out what they think is true.
- Even you?
- Even me, absolutely.
Yes, they should absolutely question me.
I think everyone should question the received wisdom
and see what they can learn.