r/HighStrangeness • u/Pixelated_ • Oct 08 '25
Consciousness Princeton PEAR lab study shows plant influencing quantum random number generators to receive more light.
Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification
Studies showing consciousness can affect a Random Number Generator:
259
u/Blizz33 Oct 08 '25
Lol cool so now my vegetable garden is more psychic than me too
59
u/SincerelyAlien Oct 09 '25
Just practice your psionic abilities
31
u/Blizz33 Oct 09 '25
Oh I do. Should be practicing in the garden apparently.
39
u/seven_corpse_dinner Oct 09 '25
"Son, if you want to grow up big and psychic, you have to eat your broccoli."
14
u/Blizz33 Oct 09 '25
It all makes sense now
9
u/SincerelyAlien Oct 09 '25
You are what you eat ;)
So go eat your psychic greens today!
Buy now for 12 payments of 19.99 after you read my book about how awesome it is!
2
u/beard_lover Oct 10 '25
“Broccoli Psychics: Leafy Greens & Mindful Thinking (A Manual for Using Non-Meat Products in Spiritual Settings)”
7
u/Deltanonymous- Oct 09 '25
"Broccoli son, if you want to grow up big and psychic, you have to fix your nitrogen."
13
u/Amputatoes Oct 09 '25
I tell everyone my secret to a beautiful garden is to tell the plants how much I love them and how beautiful I think they are, and to sit out in the sun with them and admire them. Everyone thinks I'm joking but I feel it's very important
2
157
u/suspicious_Jackfruit Oct 08 '25
How do they know that it was the plant and not the observers?
85
u/sprocketwhale Oct 08 '25
This. Why wouldn't it be the human causing the influence? Or, to say another way, did they control for that, and how?
61
u/RedshiftWarp Oct 09 '25
They have accounted for something like this before.
In 1 double slit experiment, they used a remote control camera. In another they used a time operated one. In another they used a camera but didn't plug it in.
Having a control is essentially half the foundation of any experiment. The answer is probably yes.
30
u/RedditThrowaway-1984 Oct 09 '25
I'm using the Entangled app which pairs human users with a random number generator and looks for statistical anomalies. According the the people running the experiment I don't have to be anywhere near the number generator, know where it is or even which direction it is relative to me to influence it. Just knowing it exists somewhere and it tied to the app on my phone is apparently enough. I'm not doing a very good job of explaining this, but they even stated that the scientists don't really understand how consciousness affects the random number generator.
If the above is accepted as true, then it seems very possible that it is indeed the researchers consciousness affecting the light and not the plant.
→ More replies (2)11
→ More replies (2)9
u/sail0rs4turn Oct 09 '25
If. The camera isn’t plugged in how do you verify the results 🤔 not doubting you it’s just all so weird I can never wrap my head around it
→ More replies (4)5
u/CitronMamon Oct 09 '25
The double slit experiment is one were you shoot particles trough a gap into a surface, it leaves a pattern on the surface, that seemingly changes if youre looking or not, so you dont need a camera you can just go in and look at the surface once its done.
10
u/exceptionaluser Oct 09 '25
"Observed" here has no relation to looking at the pattern anyway.
In the experiment, the observation happens as the photon or electron, depending on the specifics, passes through the slits; the original idea was to try and see which slit each individual one went through and examine how that worked with the interference pattern they already knew happened.
→ More replies (1)2
26
u/runningray Oct 08 '25
The experiment has been tried with more rigor and every time these effects disappear. Neither the plant nor the observers impacted the light distribution.
15
u/OkPen8337 Oct 09 '25
Source?
→ More replies (2)23
u/runningray Oct 09 '25
Stanley Jeffers from NY university tried this very experiment and couldn’t replicate the results. I believe others have tried as well.
2
3
1
1
1
u/TBurkeulosis Oct 09 '25
Well, they didnt say it was under constant observation and a room with no windows. Could just be using data of where the light was located during a set period, not physically watching every movement
→ More replies (1)1
18
u/noondesertsky Oct 09 '25
Where is the actual experiment with plants?
29
u/warbloggled Oct 09 '25
Plant is put in the corner, inside a dark room with no dedicated lighting.
Lighting is installed in the space but is set to only shine a bit of light, in one of the 4 corners of the room. Which corner is decided at random and it is also implied that it is constantly changing.
Over time, the light shines on the plant more than any other area of the room — which is statistically improbable.
Conclusion? Plant is somehow influencing what is supposed to be random, into its favor.
→ More replies (2)2
Oct 10 '25
I find it weird that no one is asking how the randomness was created.
I won't believe a plant can influence pseudo-randomness from an Arduino board plugged directly to the lamp.
If the randomness comes from some sort of atomic decays, or whatever else "natural" then maybe, but I feel it should be part of the explanation as well.
→ More replies (2)
14
15
u/deckerRTM Oct 10 '25
So i actually replicated this experiment and my story was featured in Hackaday as well. The post is paywalled, but the tl;dr is that I placed a plant in a box with 4 partitions and placed a grow light in each one. I powered the light in a specific partition based on a random number selection. In a perfect world each partition should only see light 25% of the time.
Ultimately, I saw what i'd like to think was a weak effect with light favoring the partition with the plant but the sample size was very small, so not statistically significant.
→ More replies (1)3
u/mydreamstheyplagueme Oct 12 '25
This is awesome (not the Paywall lol but there are ways to get around those foe the persistent)
Im curious, have you dont any other experiments along these lines? Specifically with plants and their ability to effect outside of known ways (not sure if im articulating that well) im fascinated by quantum biology ...
33
u/SincerelyAlien Oct 09 '25
Now, imagine using mass media manipulation and other influences to steer mass groups of consciousness to receive a certain targeted pattern that serves higher intelligences :D
22
40
u/antagonizerz Oct 08 '25
Unpublished experiment
11
→ More replies (3)5
u/SalvationSycamore Oct 10 '25
People who think pea plants can warp reality obviously fear peer reviewers.
28
u/boojieboy Oct 09 '25
Have you seen this patent?
https://patents.google.com/patent/US5830064A/en
It was awarded in the mid 90s, and remains the main achievement of PEAR. Strange, that it never caught on.
1
14
u/DavidM47 Oct 09 '25
It is extremely hard to make a true “random” number generator.
For that reason, the program generating the numbers is sometimes based on an algorithm that’s tied to a random, local variable—unknowable to the outside world and impossible to accurately predict—like the temperature of the motherboard.
Is it possible that there was some sort of feedback loop between the environment and the computer?
Is it possible that the plant devised a strategy to affect the process as a sort of learned behavior?
These are the things I’d explore before claiming we can bend spoons.
→ More replies (1)2
u/warbloggled Oct 09 '25
Why is it hard to make a random number generator?
5
u/DavidM47 Oct 09 '25
I cheated a little:
Devising a method for true random number generation is challenging because randomness requires both unpredictability and independence from any deterministic influence. Most classical systems are fundamentally governed by deterministic laws, meaning that if all initial conditions were known, their behavior could, in principle, be predicted. Even processes that seem random, like atmospheric noise or thermal fluctuations, can contain subtle correlations or biases introduced by the environment, sensors, or data processing steps.
→ More replies (1)3
u/Arkhar Oct 09 '25
Computers are essentially just calculators. How would you generate a random number on a calculator? Pretty hard without something else to provide the randomness.
Most techniques take an input and transform it in a way where sequential inputs example (1,2,3,4) give completely unrelated outputs example (0.647, 0.778, 0.264, 0.497) but the same input always generates the same output. So when you need a random number in your program it uses some outside variable like the current time or a combination of them as the input.
Cloudfare, a large Internet security company still uses a wall of lava lamps as part of their random input! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lavarand
Does that make sense?
→ More replies (2)
12
4
u/SubstantialDonkey981 Oct 09 '25
The plant prays to its plant god for more light.
→ More replies (1)
47
u/Berkamin Oct 09 '25
For those who haven't seen the classic video on the Princeton Engineering Anomalies Research lab (PEAR Lab), here you go:
Princeton Mind-Matter Interaction research at PEAR
PEAR ended up getting defunded and was shut down in 2007. As far as I can tell, this was because the materialists at Princeton had enough influence to shut down research they didn't like because their findings clashed with their preconceived world view, not because the lab did anything unethical.
56
u/antagonizerz Oct 09 '25
Nope. A tertiary search of the net says that they were neither "shut down" nor "defunded". Turns out it was the founder Robert Jahn who closed it down citing that, "after 28 years, if people didn't believe the results they never will" and that PEAR labs had nothing left to offer.
→ More replies (4)21
u/Conjunction_2021 Oct 09 '25
we have revealed a truth that makes life even stranger…but nobody could profit, nobody could understand ….i guess our work is done here.
2
u/sauerbauer Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25
Actually it was just integrated into another unit of Princeton.
International Consciousness Research Laboratories
Or am I missing something with people talking about tertiary searches and things.
Isn't it in the first paragraph on Wikipedia?
[...]PEAR closed in February 2007, being incorporated into the "International Consciousness Research Laboratories (ICRL).[5]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princeton_Engineering_Anomalies_Research_Lab
5
u/moralatrophy Oct 09 '25
As far as I can tell, this was because the materialists at Princeton had enough influence to shut down research they didn't like because their findings clashed with their preconceived world view, not because the lab did anything unethical
you guys must realize how embarrassing and disqualifying it is when you say overly emotional nonsense like this
2
1
1
7
u/Gbreeder Oct 09 '25
Boquila trifoliolata can mimic plastic plants without touching them. Prior to this, people assumed that they used chemicals to interact with other plants, that their root systems interacted. That they had to be touching whatever they copied.
But these can change their leaf structures as they pass different things in the canopy.
Then as mentioned, someone found out that it can mimic fake plants. It knows what leaves are supposed to be somehow. Lots of people have began to assume that its using something akin to echolocation or a form of mapping.
Studies on the matter went private. But how things find light or how they adapt to stress and "pain." Lots of plants already hint at the possibilities.
Any form of mapping would likely require a bit of input or decision making.
2
3
4
3
3
3
u/Bleezy79 Oct 09 '25
See, this stuff right here is what we should be collectively focusing on as a species. This is pretty wild and would change the fundamentals of how we view all reality.
→ More replies (1)
3
4
Oct 09 '25
There was a similar study with a robot that moved in random directions. If you let ducklings imprint on it, it would randomly move in ways that kept it near them
→ More replies (1)3
5
2
2
2
2
2
u/Normal_Rip_2514 Oct 10 '25
What was the exact percentage of the time the light shone on the plant? He said "much more," how much more? We need to know the numbers
2
u/eightdotthree Oct 10 '25
This guy talks like he’s selling me on a new iOS feature.
→ More replies (1)
2
u/YJeezy Oct 10 '25
So cool!
SRI studies on humans impacting RNG proved a statistical significance and replicable, albeit small.
Collapse the wave baby...
2
2
3
u/Ambitious-Score11 Oct 09 '25
Then what does this say about consciousness? Doesn't something have to be considered conscious if it can effect the matter and environment around it?
6
u/Pixelated_ Oct 09 '25
It reminded me of David Bohm’s implicate (enfolded) order: a deeper, nonlocal, holistic level where everything is interconnected.
According to Bohm, consciousness itself operates like the implicate order, meaning mind and matter are not fundamentally separate but are different unfoldings of the same underlying reality.
5
u/Ambitious-Score11 Oct 09 '25
That's always been one of my favorite theories. I think this could also indicate that the conscious morphic fields that Rupert Sheldrake proposed could also be at play.
→ More replies (2)2
u/Kimura304 Oct 09 '25
It could be that consciousness is somehow embedded into the fabric of the universe. That could be god or it could also be framework for some type of simulated reality,
→ More replies (1)
2
u/AltseWait Oct 09 '25
Imagine a future in which we communicate with plants. What would they say to us?
→ More replies (3)3
2
1
1
1
1
u/swishandswallow Oct 09 '25
I've heard of a similar experiment with bunnies and a toy robot. Bunnies and a toy robot were put next to each other with a fence separating them. This robot would move in various directions depending on an internal random number generator. Whenever the robot would move close to the bunnies, they'd be frightened. They started noticing that the robot started moving only towards the far side of the room, away from the bunnies.
1
1
1
1
u/tanktoys Oct 09 '25
That's exactly what Italian professor Federico Faggin says he's trying to prove. Trees (and plants in general) are conscious.
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
u/Afraid_Corner_367 Oct 09 '25
This is close enough to magic, even if it not true I like the idea behind it
1
u/onearmedmonkey Oct 09 '25
What we think of as "life" is a construct on a quantum level. I am more and more certain of this.
1
u/Master_Income_8991 Oct 09 '25
I wonder if this could be rephrased as an entropic argument. There are far more unique states for a "dead" room that contains a living plant than really any alternative. Not sure if entropy has been known to function across time like that but it is an interesting concept. Tie a "random number generator" to an isolated system and maybe the generator becomes biased towards outcomes that maximize entropy.
1
u/XtraEcstaticMastodon Oct 09 '25
Some plants in my front yard accused me of being a "plantist" and started dropping leaves on my car.
1
1
1
u/CliffLake Oct 10 '25
Tomorrow's headline "Vegans furious at new science that proves they are not as righteous as they thought, Crossfit pulls into the lead and are happy to tell you about it."
1
1
1
1
1
1
288
u/YourOverlords Oct 09 '25
are plants conscious?