Margins of Reality: The Role of Consciousness in the Physical World

by Robert G. Jahn, Brenda J. Dunne

In a pioneering work, two researchers draw on a decade of experimentation by their Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research program to challenge the currently accepted rift between physics and metaphysics. Their provactive finding is that the interaction of human consciousness with physical devices, information-gathering processes, and technological systems can produce results significantly different from what would be expected on the basis of known scientific principles. The technical, personal, and social implications of this revolutionary work are staggering. Margins of Reality is nothing less than a fundamental reevaluation, based on hard experimental data, of the role of consciousness in the establishment of physical reality. It is an invitation to expand our way of thinking about the world, ourselves, and our interactions.

Genres: Philosophy, Science, Spirituality, Physics

432 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1987

About the author

Robert George Jahn (April 1, 1930 – November 15, 2017) was an American plasma physicist, Professor of Aerospace Science, and Dean of Engineering at Princeton University.

Jahn held a B.S.E. degree in Engineering Physics (1951), a M.A. Degree in Physics (1953), and a Ph.D. degree in Physics (1955), all from Princeton University, and held faculty positions in Physics Department at Lehigh University, at the California Institute of Technology, and, since 1962, at Princeton.

Reviews

[Stela Brinzeanu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved the book! Wish I was more versed in science though to fully appreciate it!

[Robert Bagnall · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hmmm… Not sure if it’s fair to criticise this for reading like a dry academic text when it’s a dry academic text, but as I’ve never heard of any further experiments to verify the marginal but real psychic effects claimed I’ll file all the consciousness wave/particle stuff next to 1770’s Big Book of Phlogiston under ‘B’ for bollocks.

[Billy]

stupid physics is a little thick. specially when they try to tie it into metaphysics. but yeah, so far its lookin interestin....

[Jacqueline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written in the 1970s this is still an interesting book. How do you study something as ellusive as the effect of consciousness on physical reality.

[Jim Nail · Rating 3 out of 5]

To say that I read this whole book is to say that I looked at every single word. Here’s a sample sentence picked at random: “The lack of definitive progress toward comprehension of the phenomena should perhaps be qualified by the relatively minute integrated investment of resources in the field compared to many of the more favored areas of modern science, and by the very brief period over which sufficiently sophisticated equipment, data-processing techniques, and physical models have been applied to the task.”
347 pages of that kind of language can be a bit wearing. But what you get is some rock-solid science providing strong evidence of some basically metaphysical theorems on the role of consciousness in the establishment of physical reality. There are plenty of easy-to-read books trying to convince us of some pretty kooky ideas based on small and mostly flawed data sets claiming to be “science.” This is not one. The data assembled here is massive and the authors (who also conducted the experiments) couch their claims in modest language, but the implications are staggering.
I note that the copyright date is 1987 and make a note to myself to search the internet for more recent work on the subject. But my head hurts a little. Maybe I should try something a bit easier first. How about a little William Blake?